Brian Trautman, his wife Karin Syrén, their 5-year-old daughter Sierra, and Brian’s brother Brady are the core crew of Delos. They have made several long ocean crossings totaling over 85,000 nautical miles, touched 45 countries and become accomplished video bloggers with their own YouTube channel, Sailing SV Delos. The channel includes over 300 videos for its 846,000 followers.
Delos is a 53-foot Amel Super Maramu, an all-ocean, bluewater-rated fiberglass cruiser with a 15-foot beam, a draft just shy of 7 feet, and a displacement of about 35,000 pounds. First built in La Rochelle, France, in 2000, the boat is rigged as a ketch and has accommodations to comfortably sleep 6 people. Appropriately, for a vessel that has spent weeks and months at sea, the boat has been outfitted for independence. “Delos is able to turn saltwater into fresh water, sun into energy, provide food and shelter, travel for months on end without visiting a dock and best of all, be the place we have called home,” said Brian Trautman.
And yet, having taken stock of all the lessons learned in 15 years of cruising, Trautman and his crew began to think about the next chapter. Surprisingly, their thoughts turned to cruising catamarans, which was not a radical swing from their experiences in monohull sailboats. Rather, it was a thoughtful solution for a crew that wants to cruise comfortably and safely aboard a strong, capacious vessel. This thinking eventually led Trautman and company to the Delos Explorer 53, a welded aluminum
DeVilliers catamaran that is currently being built in Australia. The vessel measures 52-feet, 6-inches in length, has a whopping 25-foot 7-inch beam, and a moderate draft just shy of 4 feet. Trautman’s research also led him to explore highly efficient, environmentally friendly propulsion for this family’s new ride, which is why the Delos Explorer 53 will carry a hybrid system. A Nanni N4.80 diesel (shown below) with an in-line Combi 25-kW electric motor will rest in the port hull and a single Combi 25-kW will be in the starboard hull. The Nanni is a turbocharged and intercooled 80-hp, 4-cylinder, 4-stroke diesel with a closed cooling system. It’s based on a marinized engine from Kubota in Illinois, which maintains a sales and service network in 90 countries. The Combi electric motors will provide not only propulsion, but also recharging capabilities for the batteries.
After 18 months of discussion with DeVilliers, Trautman had a new platform design that satisfied his family’s needs for their next-generation cruising home. Below the waterline, four strong fixed keels will provide a stable platform and protect the running gear in shoal areas or in case of collisions with unseen submerged objects. On deck forward, there’s an expansive sail-handling cockpit ahead of the deckhouse that’s accessed through a watertight door. The aft deck has an extended deckhouse roof with space for solar panels as well as dinghy storage. The roof will also provide optimal protection from the sun as well as water catchment. As you might imagine, a broad diving platform is found across the stern.
Known for their precision welding, Stradbroke Yachts in Brisbane, Australia, was selected by Trautman as the builder. The boat will be constructed with Aluminum 5083 aluminum plate, in both H321 and H116 variants. This plating is well-known for its precision weldability; it’s also reputable for its mechanical properties and anti-flaking corrosion performance.
The crew often refers to the boat as Delos 2.0, which is probably an inside joke since Trautman was a Microsoft engineer ages ago. The Delos 53 Explorer is about 18 to 24 months away from completion. According to Trautman, she has been designed, powered and manufactured as the culmination of their vision for a go-almost-anywhere cruising home.
January 2025
