Orion 50

The Orion 50 is a 15.1-meter staysail ketch designed by Gary Mull and built by Ta Shing Yacht Building in Taiwan from 1983 to 1987. It features a fin keel with a rudder on a skeg, a 2.0-meter draft, and displaces 16,601 kg. Aboard *Distant Shores TV*, Paul and Sheryl Shard sailed their Orion 50 on a 450-mile passage from the British Virgin Islands to South Caicos, navigating the 50-mile Caicos Bank by retracting the keel for depths of 2–6 meters and using eyeball navigation to avoid coral heads.3:52 They used PredictWind and Starlink for real-time forecasts and avoided the unlit shallows of the Navidad and Silver Banks. The crew caught a blackfin tuna and made sushi at sea.8:10 The Orion 50, named *Distant Shores 4*, completed a 2,200-nautical-mile transatlantic crossing from Cape Verde to Antigua in 15 days, using a hybrid electric propulsion system with propeller regeneration and solar panels to maintain power despite engine and gearbox failures.watch The boat employed a twin-pole downwind rig with two jibs for 11 consecutive days.15:34 After a Combi hybrid electric system upgrade in Mackum, Netherlands, the boat's motor speed increased from 3 to 5.1 knots, and throttle response time decreased from 10 to 5 seconds.3:18 They navigated the Wadden Sea to the North Sea, timing tidal windows with chart-plotter current stations.5:10 The boat secured in Dover with triple midship lines and double stern lines during Storm Amy.10:33