Meet Tickety Boo, Our Moody 346 Sailboat

Come meet Tickety Boo, our new-to-us 1987 Moody 346 sailboat! This is a picture from when we first bought her, so you'll see the name Moody Blue on the bow, which is what her former owners called her. But from now on, she'll be known as Tickety Boo, which is one of our favorite Kiwi expressions, meaning that it's all good.

Tickety Boo on the hard at Indiantown Marina, Florida

Scott has had his eye on Moody boats ever since he first started sailing when we lived in Scotland. They're British blue water cruisers and rarely come up on the North American market, so we were thrilled to find one that worked out for us. 

Moody 346s were first built in 1986 and continued to be produced until 1990 with 254 being built in total. They're an updated version of the Moody 34, the only difference being that the 346 has port lights and a sugar scoop (which is a huge plus in my opinion). They're considered to be good cruising boats both in terms of livability and performance.

After living and sailing on our last boat in New Zealand (a Raven 26), we learned a lot about what we were looking for in our next boat and made up a wish list (you can find links to it on our Boat Buying page). We knew that we would never find a boat that ticked all of the boxes, but the Moody 346 ticks many of them. 

Like having a center cockpit. Can't you just imagine sipping tropical drinks with umbrellas and fruit while sitting in the cockpit and watching the sun go down?

Our old boat had a tiller. It took me forever to learn to turn right when I wanted to go left and vice versa. Now, I have to unlearn all of that. With a wheel, right = right and left = left. Confusing.

The sugar scoop and swim platform was one of my requirements. Sadly, isn't actually made out of sugar, but it makes getting on and off the boat so much easier.

To get on and off of the boat using the sugar scoop, you need to lower the dinghy. Notice the new boat name and hailing port on the sugar scoop?

Love the aft cabin. This is going to be so much better to sleep in then being crammed in a tiny v-berth like on our last boat.

Seating area in aft cabin. Nice place to lounge and look at cruising guides.

There is a little vanity sink in the aft cabin. Useless in our opinion.

Yippee! We have a fridge in the galley. Yes, we survived happily without one on our last boat, but cold beer is a real plus. 

The former owners used the microwave as a bread box. I suspect we'll do the same thing. Not really something we can run unless we're connected to shore power.

And then there's the saloon. Wow, just look at all of this space! Our other home is a 13' Scamp travel trailer with 65 sq ft of living space. This boat is positively palatial in comparison. (Yes, we call it a saloon, not a salon like most Americans. Hangover from sailing in the UK and New Zealand. Landlubbers would call it a dining room/living room. That works too.)

One of the settees in the saloon. The previous owners took out their personal pictures from the frames on the wall. Some day we'll need to either put our own pictures in or change out the frames. Decoration isn't high on our priority list just now.

This is the other settee. In between the two settees is a folding table. We could probably cram eight people in for dinner. Underneath the settees is where our water tanks are.

Of course there is a head, which is fancy sailor talk for bathroom. Theoretically, you can shower in here too, but it would be a little cramped and the previous owners took out the pump. Maybe one day, we'll reinstall one. In the meantime, we'll stick with solar showers on deck.

I like the cute fish decorations.

The v-berth (or pointy cabin at the bow of the boat) is basically going to be our storage locker. Theoretically, we can sleep two people in there, but then where would we put all of our stuff?

If you come visit us on Tickety Boo, here's where you'll sleep.

For those of you who want all of the nitty-gritty details and specs, here you go. The rest of you can scroll back up to the top and look at the pretty pictures.  

The Nitty-Gritty Details & Specs

Tickety Boo being surveyed at Stuart Yacht Harbor

SPECIFICATIONS

• Designer - Bill Dixon of Angus Primrose Ltd
• Built - 1987 by Marine Projects (Plymouth) Ltd
• Length - 34.5 ft / 10.5 m
• Beam - 12 ft / 3.7 m
• Draft - 5 ft / 1.5 m [Note: We have the fin keel version, other Moody 346s have a bilge keel.]
• Tonnage - 9.15 regular tons / 8.3 metric tons
• Displacement - 11,200 lbs / 5,085 kgs
• Ballast - 4,500 lbs / 2,040 kgs
• Mast height - 40.66 ft / 12.4 m
• Height waterline to top of mast - 46.35 ft / 14.1 m
• Thornycroft T80 engine 35hp [Note: This is the original engine and is basically a marinized K4D Mitsubishi block. They aren't as easy to get parts and service for worldwide (unlike a Yanmar), so we're hoping we don't have too many issues. The transmission was replaced in 2013. The injectors, tips, glow-plugs were serviced and injector pump rebuilt in 2015.]
• Sloop rig (standing rigging replaced in 2011)
• Hull - solid fiberglass
• Decks - cored fiberglass
• Rudder - skeg hung 
• Steering - pull-pull 
• Prop - two-blade

SAILS

• Double reefed dacron mainsail with lazy jacks (replaced in 2015)
• 120 dacron furled headsail [Note: Serviceable, but will need to replaced at some point.]
• Spinaker with chute and halyard
• Furlex reefing system

TENDER

• Caribe RIB - 9 ft / 2.7 m
• Tohatsu 9.8 hp outboard

EQUIPMENT

• Autohelm 4000
• Garmin GPS echomap 50 (bought in 2015)
• Standard Horizon Explorer Series VHF radio, handheld receiver and RAM mic
• Navsounder depthsounder and knotmeter
• Shurflow Blaster wash-down pump and anchor wash
• Shurflow Aqua King water pump - 3.0 GPM (bought in 2008)
• Par 37202 and West Marine 12 volt bilge pumps
• Xintex C-2 propane control system
• Superstor water heater
• Micrologic Loran Navigator [Note: obsolete system]

ANCHORING

• Anchorlife Dolphin 1000 windlass with 6 pocket gypsy for G4 HT chain and controls at bow and helm (bought in 2010)
• Rocna anchor - 44 lbs / 20 kgs (bought in 2015) [Note: main anchor, 120 ft of galvanized G4 HT chain and rode]
• Danforth anchor - 26 lbs / 11.8 kgs (bought in 2015)
• CQR anchor - 35 lbs / 15.9 kgs

SAFETY 

• Kidde Mariner 10 fire extinguishers x 3 - located in companionway, lazarette and aft cabin (inspected in 2015)
• Emergency signaling - red handheld flares x4 and red meteor flares x4 (updated in 2015), 12 gauge flare gun, air horn
• PFDs x 4, tethers and jacklines
• Echomaster radar reflector

ENERGY

• Kyocera KC80 85 watt solar panels x3 (mounted on davits)
• Blue Sky Solar Booster 2000E charge controller
• Xantrex battery monitor [Note: not accurate, no longer used]
• House batteries - 6 volt x4 (two located in aft cabin, two located in engine room)

OTHER BITS & BOBS

• Davits
• Tankage - one 46 gallon diesel tank below port cockpit seat (replaced in 2009), two 25 gallon water tanks below settees in saloon, one 25 gallon black water tank in lazarette, one 5 gallon hot water heater tank
• Propane tanks x2
• Dodger, bimini and sail cover (updated in 2010)
• Ultrasuede upholstery in aft cabin and saloon (updated in 2010)
• Cockpit cushions (updated in 2015)
• Cold plate refrigeration (replaced in 2009)
• Galley - double sinks, microwave, Force 10 two burner stove and oven, salt water spray
• Magma grill (bought in 2015)
• Jabsco manual marine toilet
• Sony CD player/radio and 10-CD changer with saloon and cockpit speakers
• Paper and electronic charts from Great Lakes to Grenada 

Moody 346 layout. Source: Sailboat Data

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