For sale

We know how rare a boat like Ashanti is so we’ve had her surveyed and have attached the Ashanti survey report. We are currently seeking expressions of interest from buyers.

Going About

Feel the wind in your hair and taste the salt on your lips as you sail on board your own private yacht. Escape to pristine island waters and anchor in sheltered and secluded bays. Share a unique sailing experience with friends and family or join the discerning sailing fraternity.

Ashanti can accommodate up to seven people. With a gaff rigged schooner you can sail solo or get your guests to help sail the vessel; throw a fishing line, swim, snorkel, wander ashore on secluded beaches, or simply relax on the deck and soak up the sun.

Built with the tradition of a past age, Ashanti is from the drawing board of the American designer VB Crockett, an elegant Nimble gaff schooner of traditional lines. Redrawn by Bruce Roberts as a Roberts 32, Ashanti has been built with modern materials and methods. Launched in December 2010, she was hand built over six years using the Gougeon Brothers West System strip planking fibreglass and epoxie by Colin Aburrow.  The embedded video shows Colin’s workmanship.

Colin’s dream was to sail Ashanti from Mandurah in Western Australia to the Friendly Islands in Papua New Guinea. She was built with distant cruising in mind and as such was fitted out for this purpose with the KISS principle uppermost in thought. An idealist, Colin turned his hand to craft almost every aspect of her build, from strip planking the hull to splicing the galvanised wire rigging. The fitout of the living quarters was influenced by world circumnavigating sailors and their observations of what worked best in their opinions. His vision was to create a beautiful, sustainable, robust and simple vessel he could sail single handed and which required little in the way of high maintenance electronics.

We were fortunate enough to acquire Ashanti in May 2015. Since that time we’ve come to appreciate the extraordinary craftsmanship and the beautiful simplicity of her design. Penned at Fremantle Sailing Club most weekends see  Ashanti sailing to Rottnest, Carnac or Garden Islands including the occasional over night voyage to Mandurah. For a month or two she was briefly my home and, as with a fine musical instrument, during this time I learned the subtlety of her chords.

This website charts Ashanti’s history, from the inspiration for her design, the build, her features and our experiences.

Specifications

Ashanti’s length on deck is 32 ft and she has a full length keel. The bowsprit can be raised which enables using a 10 metre pen rather than a 12. The rigging is galvanised wire parcelled in Denzo Tape served with Marlin to provide longer life. Instead of nicopress sleeves, the ends are spliced eyes with leathering at the hounds. History has shown rigging like this far outlasts stainless steel wire and does not work harden.

The cockpit has a solid bimini canopy with four, hundred watt, solar panels and drop down clears and shades, making for comfortable all weather sailing. The 25hp Thoosa/Lemco 48v electric motor drives a three blade prop  powered by a 330 Amp Hour battery bank. The batteries are charged via a 30 Amp charger from shore power or using a small generator and solar during extended motoring. Capacity of the eight AGM 6v batteries is tracked with a Zantrax battery monitor.

She has a Delta plough anchor, a fishermans anchor and a 24 volt anchor windlass with separate chain and rope gypsy. There is an electric bilge pump and two manual bilge pumps to the main bilge, one operated from the cockpit the other from the cabin, and a further bilge pump to the forward bilge, also used to drain the shower water. The head is an American Cricket manual toilet plumbed to a holding tank, and there is also a sea water tap, a hand basin and shower provision.

With ample storage, Ashanti’s water tanks hold 52 gallons with gravity fed water to the sink.  The high gloss drop leaf wooden table, large icebox, 3 burner Smev gas stove and oven, provide excellent food preparation and entertaining options from the galley. Ashanti can sleep up to 5, both the forward cabin births and pilot birth can be converted to double births, and each sea birth is fitted with a lee cloth. Cabin lighting is LED as are the navigation lights. There are three fire extinguishers placed strategically, an EPIRB and a VHF Icom Radio with DSC, a Norcross sounder and Navman Chartplotter.
ashanti diemensions_Page_1storage

Photos

Building the Hull
  • framing the hull
Building the interior
Heading out
Creating and fitting the mast and rigging
Interior fitout

Exterior fittings
Home Waters