Her Story
The Seraph is a 1999 Hylas 54. Designed by German Frers and built by Queen Long, the Hylas is highly regarded as a blue-water cruising vessel.
She spent the first half of her life in the Pacific waters of California, after which she sailed through the Panama Canal into the Caribbean and then the Atlantic, bringing her to her new home in Charleston, South Carolina.
In 2025, she changed ownership, ushering in her new identity as the Seraph, serving a purpose beyond just private ownership.
She is based in Charleston, South Carolina, and collaborates closely with her sister company, Frontier Passages, bringing exciting adventure and offshore sailing to the intrepid and curious.
The Vessel
The Seraph is a 1999 Hylas 54 Raised Saloon. Designed by German Frers and built by Queen Long, a 25-year-old Taiwan boatbuilding company and one of the island nation's best-run yards, the boat is known to have an unsurpassed blue-water sailing pedigree.
The 54's hull is built with Twaron, a carbon aramid fiber incorporated into the solid fiberglass hull. This means the hull is bulletproof and is in some ways nearly as strong as a metal hull.
The deck is cored except in high-load areas, where it is solid fiberglass. A step-down sail locker is part of a watertight collision forward bulkhead. The hull and deck are joined on a wide flange. Interior bulkheads are tabbed on all sides. Massive floors create a rigid hull with plenty of athwartship support. The fin keel is solid lead and bolted to the hull with 35mm stainless steel bolts, which in turn are supported by an 8mm stainless steel backing plate.
As one well-known delivery skipper states: “I've logged nearly 40,000 miles aboard different Hylas models, enduring bouts with Hurricanes Bob, Grace, and Mitch, and I can attest to their solid construction and seaworthiness” (John Kretschmer, Hylas 54 RS review, Sailing Magazine, 7 October 2002).
Her overall length is 54’, with a beam of 16’ and a draft of 7’, and she displaces 52,000 pounds, including a ballast of 22,000 pounds. She carries a mast height of 73’.
Below deck, the Seraph has 6′ 11″ headroom in the saloon, due to the spacious Raised Saloon layout. The saloon features a solid teak table to port that can be dropped down to form a double bunk, with a wraparound settee and free-standing seat with storage inside. The starboard settee can be extended to form a decent sea berth.
A nav station is tucked away to port, with a large L-shaped desk that has an adjustable swivel chair. There is a dedicated computer desk with a slide-out shelf and plenty of room for electronics and instrument repeaters.
The galley is to starboard and consumes the outboard section of the walkthrough to the aft cabin. This arrangement works well at sea as the cook can find a secure position on either tack. More than 7 feet long, the galley has more counter space than most home kitchens. Two double stainless sinks are located to port beneath the cockpit well on the centerline for good drainage on either tack. It is equipped with a top-and-side loading refrigerator and freezer, as well as a stove and oven. There is a slide-out trash compartment, a dedicated microwave locker, and saltwater and freshwater foot pumps, just in case the pressure water system fails.
Her accommodations include 3 staterooms and 2 heads, with hanging lockers, cabinets, and drawers throughout.
Her Name
Seraph is taken from the biblical passage in Isaiah chapter 6, in which he sees the throne room of God.
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory!…. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar: And he touched my mouth with it and said: Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged. – Isaiah 6:1-7
In Isaiah’s vision, the Seraphim encircle God’s throne in continual worship. Their name means ‘burning ones’, and they carry great heat proportional to their light, and have an abundance of divine knowledge and holy love.
In this passage, special notice is taken of their wings because of the use they made of them. They each have six wings, only two of which are used for flying – with the two upper wings they covered their faces, and with the two lowest wings they covered their feet. This speaks of their great humility and reverence in their attendance upon God and His great holiness.
They sing in constant worship of the holiness of God and of all the earth being full of His glory.
Using a pair of tongs, one Seraph removed a hot coal from the altar and held it in his hand as he flew towards Isaiah. As the Seraph touched Isaiah’s lips with the hot coal, he said ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is purged.
This is Isaiah’s cleansing and purification for greater service to God. At that moment, the prophet knew his ‘lips’ had been purified, his ‘iniquity taken away’ and his ‘sin purged’. As noted above, the word Seraph means ‘burning one’. The act of one of them taking a burning coal off the altar and touching Isaiah with it was a symbolic gesture meant to show the complete removal of Isaiah’s unworthiness by burning it all away.
The Seraphim are the guardians of the Lord’s holiness and the beings that sanctify one’s passage into the holiest realm of God’s holy presence.
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