Performance cruiser

Tony Castro is the designer of this 58-foot cruising yacht being built in the United Kingdom by Gunfleet. The look is thoroughly modern with short ends, high freeboard with large orthogonal fixed hull ports and a very slick-looking deck design.

The 58 draws 5 feet 8 inches with the centerboard up and 11 feet 8 inches with it down. The keel has a long, bulb tip. The L/B is 3.5 indicating a moderately beamy boat and the beam is carried aft to a very broad transom. Big back ends are certainly not pretty but they offer a variety of advantages when you are trying to maximize comfort features below and on deck. You also gain stability with a broad stern. But still, they are a bit hard on my eyes when combined with copious freeboard. The D/L is 197.

Having twin rudders solves the rudder area problem that comes with relatively shoal draft. Twin rudders also solves the problem of getting the rudder stock out of the middle of the stern right where you would like to access a big garage for toys and gear.

The arrangement below is laid out with two double staterooms with the owner's deluxe stateroom aft. This is a big stateroom that capitalizes on all that beam aft. There are settees flanking the double berth and the head has a shower stall. I don't mind those big rectangular hull ports. They look interesting and they sure let a lot of light into the interior.

Going forward the galley is to port and there is an engine room in the middle. To starboard of the engine room is a snug cabin that may have a single berth, or maybe a stacked single. I can't tell from the drawing. I have "renderings," not precise designer's drawings. The aft cabin shower stall intrudes into that cabin space so it's pretty tight in there. The saloon is huge and I presume the shape I see on the inboard end of the dining table to port is part of the centerboard trunk. Hard to tell in my rendering.

There is a nice nav station to starboard with a big bank of bookshelves above the chart table and a row of three fixed hull ports. With the big windows in the cabintrunk and those two large hull ports this saloon will be a cheery place. Forward of the saloon there is another small stateroom with stacked single berths to port and a head to starboard. Forward of this there is another stateroom with a centerline double berth. The lazarette is huge and has an oversized flush deck hatch for access.

The deck design is beautifully contoured. Everything has been done to keep the decks clear of gear. The mainsheet traveler is aft of the twin helm stations and recessed into the deck. The mainsheet runs aft under the deck to winches adjacent to the helm stations. A notch has been cut into the raised cockpit coaming to make it easier to step over it to move forward. Note that the twin wheels are designed with the spokes forward of the pedestal making an arrangement where you do not have to reach or look through the spokes to access instrument controls. That's pretty nifty.

There is a short bowsprit for anchor rollers and a flush well in the foredeck for the windlass. You can also fly an asymmetrical chute from the short sprit. I see short jib tracks at the mast for the Solent staysail but I'm not sure how the sheet gets aft to the winches. There is another long track just outboard of the cabintrunk for the working genoa.
The standard rig includes in mast hydraulic furling and outhaul for the main and hydraulic furling for the genoa powered by the Lewmar Commander system. In-boom furling and carbon spars are available options. The SA/D if I use the area of the 130% genoa is 19.27 but if I use a 100% jib it drops to 16.92.

This is a very impressive and handsome design.