12/21/2025 - The Cummins 600/1000 hour engine service has now been completed and the boat has been sea-trialed. The Generator has been fully serviced as well.
"Sunnycrest" is new to the market, having been owned for the last 18 years by a very caring owner, who only cruised her in the Chesapeake Bay and in New England. As far as we know, she has never spent a day in the Florida sun and salt. She has a beautiful and fairly recent Stars & Stripes Blue paint job that shines. The Teak deck aft is in excellent condition, and completely and easily removeable, should the need arise to replace an engine or generator. The Dettling 51 is a very intelligent design with excellent engineering, as well as fine detailing, joinerwork, and finishes.
The Dettling 51 was the created and built by Ed and Barrie Dettling, lifelong cruisers and residents of Maryland, when they got the idea to design a boat that could meet all of their needs. The first hull was produced by the Dettling Yacht Company in the early 1990s, and about 15 of these boats were built during it's production run, which ended in 2012. As it turns out, their vision for a large, safe and comfortable vessel that could be handled easily by a couple, produced what is arguably one of the best cruising yachts in its class.
The Deep-V hull is a C. Raymond Hunt design that offers efficient performance and range from twin 450-hp Cummins diesels with ZF V-Drive transmissions. With its 14-foot, 5-inch beam and 4-foot +/- draft, the boat delivers an easy 19 to 20-knot cruise and a top-end near 24 knots.
The Dettling 51's profile and sheer are timeless and distinctive, combining traditional good looks, unmatched sea-keeping ability and performance, with excellent cruising comfort. It's safety appointments, right down to the 15-inch-wide side decks with tall handrails, are still leading edge and precisely what a serious cruising couple would look for in a liveaboard vessel for coastal waters.
Inside the enclosed pilothouse, with a bench style helm that will easily seat 3 adults comfortably, the helm is to starboard and surrounded with large 1/4" thick laminated glass windows for great 360 degree visibility. There is a second compact command station to port that’s handy when approaching a dock on that side. Redundancy makes the vessel easy for a couple to handle, but the knockout punch is the opening skylight that lets you access a waterproof box on the roof, which contains another set of controls. Imagine how convenient this would be entering an anchorage in fog, or navigating Bahamian waters, where the colors of the sand bottom can guide you.
In the salon, headroom is 6 feet, 6 inches. Forward and down a few steps is a galley. While many boats in this size range try to fit in three staterooms, the Dettling 51 has two, for more comfort and privacy. The master stateroom is forward of the galley, call it midship, so no water slapping the hull, with 6 feet, 6 inches of headroom, and the ensuite head forward of that in the bow. The guest stateroom is aft of the salon with an ensuite head.
Dettling 51s are well-designed, and very well-built yachts for experienced boaters, and they perform every bit as well as they look. If you find one while walking the docks, talk to its owners. They’ll be happy to tell you how to enjoy it as much as they do.
