Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 45.2

The Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 45.2 is exclusively for sale with DBY Boat Sales. This 1999 model was the leading selling design in her category for very good reasons. Voluminous in size, reliable and safe. She is described by the designer as a performance cruising yacht. Little Bird has been successfully cruised by a couple from Europe to Australia and just arrived.

She is fully imported and tax paid.

Her owners openly say when they bought her they had little experience. But a good boat will get you through and their voyage was very successful and a real inspiration for those looking for a dream blue water adventure.

Highlights to me of Little Bird are her setup for short handing with furling Main and Genoa with option for self tacking furling jib. Maneuvering is easy with her bow thuster.

Her fitout is extensive and current with everything needed for ongoing extensive long range cruising. She is truly a step on and turnkey ready to go proposition.

The story of Little Bird and her owners Leo and Ginny is set out below in their own words.

"Little Bird has been owned by Leo and Ginny since 2020. Leo had owned boats in Sydney and Seattle over the years and wanted since childhood to take a year off to explore the Pacific Ocean islands on a blue water cruiser.

Ginny fatefully signaled her interest in such a grand adventure on their first date, culminating in the purchase of Little Bird four years later in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic.

Little Bird was purchased in the Canary Islands off the West coast of Mauritania (Africa). Leo and Ginny became her fourth owners since new, she was never chartered and boasts a spacious owner’s layout with a queen size island bed with ensuite head with shower stall. This model unlike most others in its class features a deck-accessed forward locker sufficient to store a paddle board, dinghy, fenders, light-air sails, lines and stern anchor, allowing these frequently used items to be stowed away and easy to access instead of cluttering the living spaces. It also features a swim step with hot/cold deck shower (2023) allowing for a step-free entry to the boat from the dock, and easy boarding after a leisurely swim, from a dinghy or in an emergency situation.

Little Bird was extensively refitted with an emphasis on safety and sustainability for long-term independent cruising. Safety features include a spare main and headsail, added mast-head navigation lighting (2023), new EPRIB (2023), a rope cutter installed on the prop shaft (2021), 3 bilge pumps (auto, manual and backup high volume portable), a 6 person offshore life raft (inspected and re-certified 2023), extinguishers in all cabins (2023), cockpit and automatic fire suppression extinguisher in the engine compartment (2023), smoke detector (2023), gas detector (2023) with complete sets of flares and smoke bombs - all safety gear is fully up to date with servicing and inspections.

As Ginny had never sailed before, it was paramount for Little Bird to be suitably equipped for someone with minimal sailing experience making passages singlehanded. With in-mast furling and an electric winch, all sails can be handled and trimmed easily by one person without leaving the cockpit. A tunnel bow thruster makes handling tight spaces and docking a breeze.

Sustainability is important to Ginny and Leo, who wanted to minimize fuel consumption and the ambience destroying noise of running the engine as so many cruisers do - especially at a quiet anchorage! Solar was expanded to 450 watts (2023) to add to the 250w wind turbine. 

Four new 110Ah Victron batteries were installed for the house bank (2023) with charging upgraded to MPPT smart charging (2023 for all inputs). To save on electrical usage, efficient soft warm LED lighting was installed throughout the interior and energy efficient lighting was installed for all external lights.

Finally, thorough attention was paid to replacing all the little things that might be hard to find or fix in remote places. Complete sets of spare parts for major systems are included with the boat.

Having bought the boat with little experience of blue water sailing, and thinking that maybe it might be a good idea to not try to figure it out on the fly, Leo and Ginny did the ASA 101, 102 and 104 sailing courses in fair weather during a week-long course in Miami. The rest they’d have to pick up along the way, and happy to report that they did!

Ginny’s first night out on a sailboat ever was crossing the Atlantic in Dec 2020 under an unforgettable meteor shower. They arrived in Barbados 3 weeks later and without incident to the news that the entire country was in lockdown, so they were stranded for days waiting to clear in, agonizingly close to the beach after weeks at sea.

Little Bird spent the next season in the Caribbean, where she was hauled in Grenada in 2021 to have the standing rigging replaced and stored ashore for the cyclone season. Other upgrades while on the hard included a cosmetic overhaul with new canvass bimini, dodger and interior and exterior furnishings installed such as cushions, covers, and curtains.

New main and Genoa sails (2022) completed the refurbishment for long-range cruising.

In January 2023 Leo and Ginny quit their jobs in science and healthcare and moved from Seattle, USA to liveaboard Little Bird full time. They were on their way to resettle in Brisbane to be closer to Leo’s family by taking the year-long scenic route of palm fringed beaches and life without shoes in the South Seas, a welcome change from their years of living in “The Rainy City”!

This journey began by sailing from Curacao via Colombia to Panama, through the famed canal, and far south and west, into a stunning progression of idyllic anchorages, world-class snorkeling and diving. Over the year Little Bird was host to more than 20 friends and family in Little Bird’s two comfortable guest cabins.

Little Bird has encountered sustained 35kt winds and up to 3m breaking seas in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific, including running from a category 5 cyclone in Vanuatu, making for exciting high-speed sailing! Each time Little Bird has landed gracefully, unruffled and without breaking anything.

She’s also relatively fast. She will comfortably sit at 7+ kts pointing as high as 30 degrees off the wind. In light winds she can make an average of 5 kts in only 8 kts true wind under her beautiful gennaker sail. This performance in light-airs combined with a 130 liter auxiliary fuel tank allow for a greater range and predictability for sailing plans.

During 2023 Little Bird spent time in The Marquesas, Tuamotus, Tahiti, Bora Bora, The Cook Islands, Tonga, Fiji, and New Caledonia before arriving in Australia.

In preparation for her new owners, Little Bird was hauled in Dec 2023 to have her topsides, forward and anchor lockers repainted, and anti-foul applied (Micron 66) with 10 coats on leading edges, per manufacturing guidelines this should be effective for the next 2 years. The Yanmar engine, true to its reputation has experienced zero issues during the 3 years since her purchase and has been regularly serviced and logged in the boat’s maintenance record. A deep engine service was performed by a Yanmar professional in Dec 2023. In addition to regular service items, this engine service included forward-looking items such as heat exchanger flush and pump seal replacements to give her new owners confidence that she’s in great working order now, and to get ahead of future servicing needs.

Leo and Ginny will be stepping off the boat to re-establish themselves ashore with family in Brisbane, and Little Bird is awaiting her next owners as a proven and upgraded turn-key blue water adventure yacht or a spacious, comfortable and independent coastal cruiser."

For full inventory and to arrange an inspection call +61 2 9999 3311 or email sales@dbyboatsales.com.au