A freshly serviced, low-hour Leopard 53 PowerCat steps out of Moorings charter life and into private-owner territory.
Ted Reshetiloff of BVI Yacht Sales walks us aboard M/Y Caribbean Dream II, a 2021 Leopard 53 PowerCat tied up at The Moorings base in Tortola. She’s just wrapped her phase-out program — a rigorous sequence of in-water and out-of-water surveys, mechanical inspections, and service on every major system — leaving her in what Ted describes as essentially like-new condition. For anyone shopping this size and layout, that’s the headline: a boat that has been methodically brought back to standard by the fleet operator who ran her.
Aft Deck and Salon
Stepping aboard, you’re greeted by a large panoramic aft deck — a shady breakfast spot in the Eastern Caribbean mornings and a natural evening lounge. There’s a teak table with four chairs (which can migrate inside for dining), and a hydraulic dinghy platform aft that doubles as a swim platform when the tender is in the water.
Inside, the galley sits amidships, keeping the cook connected to guests whether they’re at the interior dining seating or spread out on the aft deck. Counter space is generous, and the equipment list reads like a real kitchen: four-burner stove, microwave, dishwasher, a second bar on the port side, and a household-size refrigerator/freezer — an upgrade Ted notes is specific to this configuration of the 53.
Helm and Systems
The inside helm is refreshingly uncluttered. A Raymarine chart plotter integrates navigation with full vessel monitoring — fuel and water tanks, engine and house batteries, waste tanks, bilge pumps — and even controls water pumps, interior and exterior lighting, and flybridge functions. Autopilot, Raymarine VHF, and Fusion stereo round it out. It’s the kind of clean, single-screen approach that pays dividends in bad weather, when visibility over the rest of the boat matters.
Upstairs, the flybridge is fully shaded and enclosed, with an expansive seating area, aft sun lounge, grill, second fridge and sink. The primary helm forward offers strong bow visibility, dual Raymarine screens with stern cameras, engine controls, and a bow thruster.
Accommodations
Below, four roughly equal-sized cabins each feature a queen berth, electrical outlets and USB charging, hanging storage, drawers, and a private en-suite head with separate shower. Two crew cabins forward (with a head) share the air conditioning provided by the chiller. As Ted puts it, on a 53-footer with this much volume, “you might not even see your friends for a week.”
Engine Rooms
Each hull carries a Yanmar 8LV, just over 2,000 hours, both freshly through their Yanmar-recommended 1,000-hour service performed by The Moorings. The starboard space also houses engine and AGM house-service batteries, with Victron inverter/chargers and solar charge regulators just around the corner. Fireboy automatic fire suppression is fitted in both rooms. The port engine room additionally holds the chiller system feeding the salon, four guest cabins, and crew quarters, plus a Northern Lights 9 kW generator aft. Ted highlights how clean the bilges and engines look — evidence, he says, of a thorough phase-out.
A COVID-Era Charter Résumé
One quiet advantage worth noting: because she entered The Moorings program in 2021, her early charter life coincided with the COVID period, meaning fewer charters and correspondingly lower engine and generator hours than a typical phase-out boat of her vintage.
Market Snapshot
For context on where the Leopard 53 PowerCat sits today:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Recent solds (24 mo) | 4 |
| Median sold price | $1,505,000 |
| Median days to sell | ~146 |
| Active listings | 1 |
| Current asking (median) | $1,265,000 |
| Current active asking (median) | $1,265,000 | |||
| Recent sold (median, 24 mo) | $1,505,000 |