Welcome aboard

Come aboard the Motor Vessel Boojum! She's 25 feet long, and can carry her crew of 4 over 3,000 nm on one tank of fuel. Designed by Michael Kasten, she was built in aluminum by Q-West Boatbuilders in Wanganui, New Zealand.

Our design goal was to be able to circumnavigate under power safely and comfortably, but also to be small enough to trailer without wide-load limitations, and to fit through the canals of Europe, especially the French canal system, which imposes severe restrictions on the air draft of the vessel. To these ends, Boojum has a rig that folds down simply, and stows on board without cluttering her decks.

She is powered by a Norwegian fishing boat engine built by Sabb Motor in Bergen. This engine has a maximum output of 30 hp at 1900 RPM, driving a controllable pitch propeller. This allows the engine to be well loaded even at low output levels. There is no reversing gear… the blades of the prop can be twisted, reducing the pitch until they are "flat", and then twisted even further until they are generating reverse thrust.

Boojum carries 350 US gallons of fuel, and burns about 0.5 gallons per hour at 5 knots. This gives about 700 hours of running for an all-out range of about 3500 nm in perfect conditions. The longest single passage required for circumnavigation is 2400 nm from the West Coast of the US to Hawaii - so even with less than perfect conditions, Boojum has plenty of range to make this trip.

Look around the site to learn more about the boat, it's design, and systems. And stay tuned for updates to the cruising log as we head north to the Canadian Gulf Islands this summer, and out into the North Pacific next spring.

If you have questions about Boojum, or information you'd like to see added to the site, please drop me an email.