Cruiser

About half the specs for this design have after them in italics "approx" so we are going to have to take some of our ratios with a grain of sea salt. I don't fault the builder for this. Actually most builders should publish their specs the same way.

The length on deck of this design is 48 feet, 11 inches so I would estimate the DWL to be 45 feet, 3 inches. This gives us a D/L of 154. The boat is beamy with an L/B of 3.1 and the beam is pulled well out into the ends. There is no sense in trying to maximize accommodations if you don't maximize beam.

The brochure calls this bow a "dolphin nose" bow. Clearly this molded effect is intended to get the ground tackle away from the nearly plumb bow without resorting to an expensive welded bowsprit. On the other hand, maybe an additional 24 inches of LOA and more bow overhang could have accomplished the same thing with a touch more elegance. Draft is 6 feet, which would qualify as shoal draft in a boat of this size.

The brochure shows two layouts with five staterooms and one with four. The problem with these layouts is that the only way you can access the forward stateroom is by going through the master stateroom in the four-stateroom layout or one of the other guest staterooms in the five-stateroom layout. Perhaps this forward stateroom is intended as a stateroom for paid crew who will access their space through a deck hatch.

Looking at the dinette I estimate that seven can sit comfortably for a meal. The galley is minimal for a boat this size with very little counter space. If you use the reefer lid for counter space you will have to move the food when you want to access the reefer. Why should I care, anyway? I'm on an all-tofu diet.

The aft staterooms have big double berths. I've got an idea. We need to come up with a name for the maneuver you have to do in the middle of the night to get out of a berth without waking your partner. It's impossible for me to do so with any kind of panache given my general inflexibility, and it usually results in my crashing to the cabin sole with a charley horse in my thigh.

There are five heads on this boat if you choose the five-stateroom layout. Apparently there is a three-cabin layout on the drawing board.

The simple rig is masthead and short. The mainsheet is a midboom type, which frees up the large cockpit. There are two wheels, and of course, the photo in the brochure shows at least half the crew trying to crowd around the wheels. I don't know about you, but I have a problem with people who insist on sitting as far aft as possible.

There is a fixed table with an icebox in the middle of the cockpit. This cockpit is so big it needs something like this to break it up so you can't fall all the way to the leeward seat.

I can see this boat's virtues if you want to go cruising with a large group of friends. My guess is that charter companies will gobble this one up.