Celestial 48 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design and Construction

Bryce Fuhriman conceived the 48 from his own 46 footer, which itself borrowed a Brewer hull and added his own changes, and the result was put together by an international team of American ownership, Australian management, and Chinese craftsmen as a semi-custom bluewater boat aimed at North America. The hull is balsa cored to the waterline with solid glass reinforcement at the chainplates, rudder shaft, and propeller shaft, while the balsa is cut away and sealed with epoxy around through hulls and omitted entirely in the keel sides and on the centerline anchor. Substantial bulwarks give good offshore foot bracing, and strong hawse holes reduce chafe on the teak caprail. Most boats left the factory with teak decks screwed and glued in place, the teak itself fairly thick at up to 3/8 inch so sanding and re-caulking remains viable if no leaks are present.

Rig and Handling

The ketch rig splits the sail plan across a Kenyon keel stepped double spreader main mast 56 feet above the waterline and a deck stepped single spreader mizzen, with 990 square feet of total sail area. Because the split rig is easy to manage short handed, the boat suits a small crew, and on a beam reach she stays on her feet and does best under a jib and jigger with the mainsail furled. Jib sheets lead to tracks on the caprail, so sheeting angles are not particularly tight and she will point to about 45 degrees before stalling, especially in head seas. In light wind she moves like a luxury car, scooting at 5 knots in only 8 to 10 knots of breeze, and with all canvas up she makes 6 to 7 knots close reaching and 8 or more on a beam or broad reach in roughly 15 knots of true wind. Under power the large skeg hung rudder makes her very maneuverable, and with a 3 blade fixed or folding prop she turns in her own length by back and fill, powering to 8 knots depending on conditions.

Performance Under Sail and Body Form

The underbody carries very full and round bilges, which lowers form stability and leaves her initially a bit tender, so reefing is needed if the wind is forward of the beam and over 18 knots, and she should be reefed early in general. The 44 percent ballast to displacement ratio then kicks in and stiffens her up once heeled. Writing in boats.com, the reviewer described her as a strong boat with a sought-after layout, excellent storage and good sailing characteristics, and noted she is surprisingly agile for a 27,000 pound center cockpit cruiser anchor.

Accommodations

The layout is a modern fore and aft cabin plan with 6 foot 2 inch headroom in the saloon, galley, and aft stateroom, finished entirely in solid teak or teak veneer over a teak and holly sole. Forward is a traditional 6 foot 6 inch V berth, sometimes modified by owners to a Pullman with added cabinets. The saloon centers on a drop leaf table with an eight bottle wine rack, seating four comfortably or six tight, with an L settee to port and straight settee to starboard; early hulls narrowed those settees for storage while later ones widened them with angled backs. The U shaped galley to starboard suffers limited counter and drawer space but good food stowage, with a gimbaled stove and top loading reefer standard and centerline sinks near the companionway. A forward facing nav station sits to port across a wet locker, and the passageway door opens to a large crawl in engine room, well insulated and lit, with space for a watermaker to starboard, a small genset to port, and inverter or charger on the forward bulkhead. Aft, the owner suite centers on a king sized bunk, both heads are fiberglass pan with teak trim, and the aft head has a dedicated separate shower with seat but only an opening port, no overhead hatch. Storage is bluewater serious with 23 hand caned lockers plus space under and behind settees and bunks, and ventilation comes from fifteen opening ports and seven hatches.

Known Issues and Refits

Early hulls used only a block of wood covered in fiberglass for the main mast step, and if the glass shell was breached and water entered, the step could rot and destabilize the rig, so checking the step matters because construction varied hull to hull. Chainplate access is poor, and the original mainsheet led forward like an aft cockpit, leaving the helmsman without reach and some line friction, with no convenient winch location given the cockpit and ketch layout though some owners added a cascading purchase for end boom trim. Osmotic blistering shows usually as a few spots on hull and rudder, mostly under a quarter inch, helped by an epoxy barrier coat. Scuppers are poorly placed so water misses them and pools about eight feet from the transom, and a vinyl headliner though tidy blocks deck hardware access. Some owners replaced teak decks with glass nonskid or removed a poorly functioning passageway freezer for spares storage.

The Verdict

The Celestial 48 is a rare but thoughtfully laid out bluewater ketch with a huge dedicated engine room, serious stowage, and a light air gait that belies her 27,000 pounds. She is easy to handle short handed and stiffens via her ballast ratio once reefed, but buyers should respect the early mast step rot risk, awkward chainplate and mainsheet geometry, and deck drainage quirks.

Pros