Last month we reviewed three very similar boats. This month we have three diverse designs to review. The first boat is the Hanse 445, designed by Judel/Vrolijk with an interior by the Hanse design group. Like the three boats last month, this is a modern style design aimed at hitting a broad cruising market.

If there is any spring to this sheerline I can't measure it at the small scale of the drawings. Consider it straight. With the high freeboard and truncated ends this is a boxy-looking hull. The transom beam is 84% of the width of the maximum beam, and transom camber is minimized, adding to the square look.

The D/L is 167 and L/B is 3.05. Consider this a beamy boat of moderate displacement. Apart from the high freeboard, the thing that jumps out at me when I look at this hull is the way the canoe body flattens through the middle of the boat then rises up dramatically right where the saildrive exits the hull. This is one way of getting a lot of area for cabin sole aft, and considering the ambitious interior options offered in this model, that would make sense. There are options for either 7-foot 4-inch draft or 5-foot 8-inch draft in T-keel configurations.

There are four interior layout models for this hull. Two of the options are just changes in the port side saloon seating. So we are really dealing with two layouts: one with three staterooms and one with four. The most common layout I think will be the three-stateroom model with its large centerline double berth in the forward cabin.

If you wanted a layout more suited to the charter trade you can split the V-berth with a centerline bulkhead and turn this into two staterooms. Both layouts have two heads with one double berth forward. There is room for a shower stall to starboard, separate and adjacent to the head.

There's not much attention given to the nav station in either layout, but the galley is fine and I think six could fit around the dinette to starboard. If you go with the two seats to port in the saloon version, the aft seat swivels around for the small chart table. The drawback to both of these layouts is that with the two aft cabins extending so far into the stern there is little volume left for a lazarette. However, on the bright side there is a big fo'c'sle. Rectangular ports dot the hull for light below.

The SA/D of the Hanse is a generous 19.42. The rig is conventional by today's standards. The mainsheet is almost dead midboom. The tack of the headstay is moved a bit aft to make room to tack an asymmetrical chute from the end of the anchor roller fitting. The spreaders sweep to 22 degrees.

The deck layout is very similar to what we are seeing on other new European models with lines buried coming aft to emerge at a bank of clutches forward of the cabintop winches port and starboard. The jib tracks are on top of the cabintrunk leaving the teak overlay side decks totally clear. The hatches are all flush to the deck. This is a very clean deck design. The cockpit is broad and twin wheels give wide-open access to the hinged swim platform. This deck layout will suit a small crew or singlehander.