Offshore cruiserr

I saved the dessert till last this month. Philippe Briand has been dominant in French design for years. His work includes everything from America's Cup boats to Admiral's Cup boats to multihulls. This month we get to look at something fun from Briand, the Classic 62. This, too, is a semicustom project, so you can have your with or without Grey Poupon.

This is an exciting design important designer, but I wish he had studied the sheer of the Hinckley before he drew the sheer on the Classic 62. I'm a

The cabintrunk forward appears blocky and blind and may be drawing your eye to that area. My taste aside, I think this will be an outstanding-looking boat.

nut on sheerlines. They are so important n the overall look of any boat. The sheer of the Classic is awkwardly flat aft to my eye. It almost appears to droop as it nears the transom. Contrast this to the perky uplifting spring that the Hinckley shows aft. As the sheer of the Classic goes forward, it again goes too flat around stations three and four. This may be exaggerated by the lack of portlights in the cabintrunk forward, which appears blocky and blind and may be drawing your eye to that area. My taste aside, I think this will be an outstanding-looking boat.

Students of design should note how Briand just drew straight parallel lines for his bootstripes, while the Hinckley designers drew tape red stripes with their own spring echoing that of the sheerline. I prefer to see sheer drawn on bootstripes. However, on the actual boat where the hull shape comes into play, you can usually get away with straight lines.

The underwater profile of this design reminds me of some of Bruce King's old work. The keel will shed kelp nicely. The top of the keel is a deep, molded sump and well filletted into hollow garboards. This should provide a very strong and trouble-free keel attachment while providing a deep sump area for any bilge water. This configuration also gets the VCG of the lead low. The rudder is a relatively small, partially balanced spade hung behind an extended skeglet.

The deck design begins aft with an elliptical helm cockpit. There is a fixed dining table in the forward cockpit that wraps around the mizzen mast. There will be a teak-surfaced section of cabintop running almost full length, about 4-feet wide. This should have been a tapered shape getting narrower as it goes forward. Of course, that would have meant more labor, but it would be fitting on a boat that costs in excess of a million dollars.

This rig is a ketch, with the mizzen stayed independently of the main. Note the forward lower shroud on the mizzen and how far forward it is taken to act like a forestay for the mizzen. The long jumper strut will keep the mizzen masthead from going aft a sheet loads are applied. There is an option of a sloop rig. I think the ketch rig would be more photogenic, but the sloop rig would allow you to get the mizzen mast out of the middle of the cockpit. Considering that this design is really driven be aesthetics, I would go with the more picturesque ketch rig.

There is little I could do to improve this interior. It has double berths for three couples with a snug crew berth in the fo'c'sle, I see this basic layout frequently these days. I would like to see more counter space inboard of the sinks. Note the centerline counter island. This is the engine box. Looking at the owner's stateroom forward, with its Pullman-style double, I wonder why there is so little hanging locker space. There is plenty of desk space, but what appears to be only about 20-inches of hanging locker space. On the other hand, there is a wonderfully spacious wet locker directly outboard of the companionway.

What a nice boat this is. Think what it would be like to slide into the harbor in this beauty. I think the other assembled sailors would scratch their heads wondering if this was an old boat. It is refreshing to see a boat like this.