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Cabo Rico 42 Pilot

2006 April 6
By Robert H. Perry

Bluewater cruiserr

The brochure for the Cabo Rico 42 Pilot is not so glossy but it's packed full of nice drawings from Chuck Paine's office and some good photos with descriptive captions. This is a "semi-custom" boat and I assume that means that while the hull and deck come out of a mold you can feel free, within reason, to play with the details of the interior layout. I find this a good-looking boat that blends the demands of the pilothouse proportions with the hull nicely. The house does not look out of scale as is common with pilothouse boats. Of course, as is always the case, there is a price for that and we will get to that later.

Chuck has been doing Cabo Rico's for the last few years and he has come up with hull and appendage style that bridges the full keel and fin keel types. I'm not sure what you would call it. If you cut the keel off along the vertical line of the aft deadwood and hung a spade rudder aft it would be a low aspect ratio fin keeler. Chuck just attaches the heel fitting for the big rudder to an extended section of the keel. I'm not sure why but I suspect the client is still holding onto the theory that having the rudder attached to the keel, regardless of how tenuous that attachment appears to be, is something desirable. I'll admit it does take care of lobster pots and it does allow some amount of balance to the rudder. The long keel also allows tankage to be located really low. The D/L is 360 and that tells me that there is a lot of volume in that big keel. L/B is 3.35. Draft is minimal at 5 feet, 3 inches.

I have a problem with modern trends in cruising boat sailplans and I'm probably partly to blame. It's clear that almost everyone wants an easier way to sail. But what's not clear is how to go about making it easier. I hated in-the-mast furling. I like in-the-boom furling. That's a step forward. Now what to do with headsails? In a perfect world, one nice, big genoa that you could roll up and use from 4 to 30 knots would be wonderful but that's asking too much of one sail. How about two headsails on roller furling? Great. Now try beating with a big, fat sausage 10 inches in front of the leading edge of your genoa. Now add a staysail, also on roller furling, for those days when the wind gets above 25 knots. The Cabo Rico drawings show three headsails on roller furling. That's a lot of windage.

I did a 50-footer like this once and in a 40-knot blow the owner was afraid to enter the marina because of the windage from his rig. I don't have solutions to this problem that will work for everyone. My personal solution for my boat involves an inventory of hanked-on headsails but I know most of you are addicted to roller furling and I can understand that. It has to come down with balancing efficiency against convenience and what appears convenient may not be so convenient all the time. The SA/D of the 42 is 16.88 and that's about right for a motorsailer.

Remember me saying the proportions of the pilothouse are nice? That's because it's short and nicely styled. But this shortness means that there is only room in that pilothouse for a steering station, quasi-chart table and a settee with a dining table that I can't bring myself to call a "dinette" because the athwartships legs on the ends are really not long enough for someone to sit on comfortably. I figure 24 inches of seat width for most adults and I don't see it in either leg. The table is about as big as a large skateboard and I would doubt that more than two adults could eat here comfortably. Despite that there are two staterooms with a potential third to port of the galley, which they call the "den" area. What happens when six people want to dine together? I also don't see any place on this boat where six people could sit and enjoy some sea stories together. But, this is a semi-custom design so if you see the problems in this layout I see but you like the boat then you can have your interior anyway you like, just so long as it fits within the molded GRP shell of hull and deck.

I like to pick on Chuck. I think Chuck is about as good as they get when it comes to designing cruising boats. Doing this review gave me the excuse to call old Chuckles up and gam on until his wife reminded him that it was time to get back to drawing. I should call him more often.