Questeria is a 37' 1976 Irwin Mark III Center Console. We bought her in 2005, having virtually no boating experience or knowledge. We weren't ready to buy a boat, especially a 37' sailboat, but we had just returned from visiting Fran's uncle George and his wife Nancy, who were living on Questeria. They made an offer on a bigger sailboat and one of the contingencies was that they had 45 days to sell Questeria. We just couldn't let her go to someone else.
Questeria is an auxiliary sloop with molded fiberglass hull. She has an LOD of 37 feet, an LOA of 41 feet, including a teak swim platform and bow sprit. She has a beam of 11 and a half feet and her draft is 4 and a half feet with the center board up and 8 feet with it down.
She has a single diesel Perkins 4-108, 50 HP engine with a cruising speed of about 6 knots.
The forward cabin has 7 foot V-berths with a water tank and stowage underneath, a bureau with three drawers and storage bin. There is a teak hanging locker and starboard locker. The guest head was converted to a laundry room with a washer and dryer. The main salon has port and starboard settees with storage underneath and a fold down dinette table. The L-shaped galley is aft and to starboard. It has propane stove, microwave, refrigerator, toaster and coffee maker. The owner's stateroom is aft and has a double berth with storage underneath, bureau with drawers, single settee with storage underneath and teak hanging locker. The head has an electric toilet, vanity with sink and shower.
Here is a scan of a 1975 magazine ad for the Irwin MK III that I bought off of ebay.
We have made a lot of improvements since we first got her. We replaced all the standing and running rigging, installed a new Harken roller furler, and a new mainsail. Later we replaced the original bow sprit with a custom-made stainless steel bow sprit, which includes two universal bow rollers. We added a Mack Pack (sail cover), lazy jacks, and a reefing system.
We removed the old generator and bought a Honda 2000 portable generator. We upgraded to three 150W solar panels with a Xantrex MPPT-60 controller. We added more battery power, 660 amp-hours, for house batteries and a separate bank for starting. We also rewired the 1500W inverter directly to the battery so we can run a coffee maker, toaster, or microwave oven on it.
We added a Garmin 4208 chartplotter with integrated sounder and AIS transceiver, an Icom-M802 SSB transceiver, a Ray Marine under-the-deck auto-pilot and a Spectra Ventura 200T watermaker. We also replaced our old anchor windlass with a new Lemar windlass that can drop or raise the anchor right from the cockpit. While we were at it we added an anchor wash-down system, upgraded to a 45 lb CQR and 100 feet of chain.
We had a new bimini top made, with a complete enclosure and custom made cockpit cushions. In addition, we made several canvas covers to give us additional shade. We also added a rope clutch and self-tailing winch, and ran the main halyard and reefing line to the cockpit.
We put a teak and holly sole in the main salon and replaced the worn-out parquet floors with Allure vinyl plank flooring. We replaced all water-damaged teak with new veneer and patched a number of holes in the walls, while we were at it. We replaced the water-damaged plywood walls with teak tongue-and-groove planks. We had custom cushions and covers made throughout the interior. We added lights and fans, and replaced existing lights with LED bulbs. We added peek-a-boo window treatments throughout. We replaced the TV with a new HD flat screen, replaced the stereo and speakers with a new stereo and Bose speakers.
The aft-head has been completely re-done with FRP paneled walls, new sink, shower and Raritan Marine Elegance fresh water toilet.
In the galley, we replaced the faucet and added a hand-pump for filtered water. And we replaced the old butcher block laminate with granite laminate. We replaced the Sears dorm fridge with an Isotherm refrigerator which runs on either 12v DC or 120v AC. We added insulation to the existing 120v AC freezer so when cruising, we can keep frozen food, by running our Honda generator twice a day.
When we first purchased the boat, the propane tank was not in a sealed locker, so we installed a propane locker in the lazerette, with a continuous propane line to the stove in the galley. Also, the only way to empty the holding tank was to pump it out with the macerator pump, so we installed a deck fitting for pump-outs.