In April 2020, we sold Paradigm Shift to some neighbors from our Marina. After six years of fun cruising, we upgraded to a new boat.
Paradigm Shift is a 1997 Bayliner 3587. She’s a great mid-range Pacific Northwest cruiser, with plenty of fuel for multi-day cruises. She can go a week without stopping for a pump-out or fresh water. The diesel furnace makes for comfortable year-round cruising and the unique three-stateroom design offers plenty of room for our family of four.
In late 2019, Shifty and our family were featured in Passagemaker Magazine.
We also wrote an operators manual that is available here.
Shifty runs on two Cummins 250 Diesel engines with a total of 500 horsepower. She carries 214 gallons of fuel for a realistic range (with reserve) of about 320 miles at 7.5 kts (she burns about 3.4 gallons-per-hour across both engines at 1,250 rpm). That’s back-and-forth between Port Townsend and Seattle 10 times, leaving the tanks a third full. In practice, we fuel up 3-4 times per year. Her top speed is about 20 kts (at 2,500 rpm) and her top comfortable cruising speed is about 13 kts (at 2,200 rpm).
Shifty has three staterooms, each with a full-sized berth. The dinette also converts to a bunk. Heat is supplied by a Webasto diesel furnace as well as a forward heater in the stairs connected to the starboard engine coolant loop.
She has two heads with manual-flush toilets and two blackwater holding tanks, each of about 35-gallons. The forward shower is a “wet head” but there’s a full-size dedicated shower in the aft-cabin. The black-water system was completely replaced in 2017.
Shifty carries 70 gallons of fresh water with an in-galley under-sink water filter. There’s an 11-gallon hot water heater that works on shore power or the generator (but not on battery power). Fresh water is also heated by the engines when under way.
The electrical system was redesigned and rebuilt in 2015. Her house bank carries 1200 amp hours (600 useable) in six flooded lead-acid batteries. This provides about two days of power at anchor without running the generator (depending on your habits, of course). This bank also powers the starter on the port engine. There is also an 8D starter battery for the starboard engine (and as backup for the port engine via crossover) and a generator start battery. AC power is supplied by a Victron 2,000 watt inverter/Charger (installed new in 2019) and an Entec West 4.2 kW diesel generator. The generator was overhauled in 2015. Shore power is 30-amp.
The galley has a Vitra-Frigo fridge (new in 2014) and a Princess 3-burner propane stove.
The dingy is a Highfield Classic (new in 2018) with a Torqueedo travel 1003s with two batteries. It’s mounted on the swim step with a weaver davit.
There are two helm stations, one in the main cabin and one on the flybridge. She has a radar and a chart-plotter as well as two depth sounders. The Raymarine C-120 chart plotter can be mounted at either location. There are two VHF radios.
Ground tackle was replaced in 2015. She has a Vulcan 20 with 200’ of high-test 5/16” chain and 200’ of 1/2” triple strand nylon rode (new in 2015). There’s a lewmar windlass with foot switches on the bow (power switch is on the main panel). The old anchor (a 35# Danforth), chain, and rode are still aboard as backups.
