Motorsailer

The design is dominated by a hard dodger that almost entirely closes in the cockpit. The best I can gauge is that the opening to get out of the cockpit is about 30 inches long. I do like this design. It's a very good-looking boat. But I wonder if I wouldn't feel a little too closed in with that hard dodger.

The wheel is forward and mounted on the bulkhead, powerboat style. This gets the wheel out of the way in the cockpit but also greatly limits the way you can sit at the wheel. This wheel placement feature really gives this boat the feel of a motorsailer. There are fold-up seats on both sides of the cockpit to give you an unobstructed view forward. Seat backs appear to be quite high. You can add a canvas extension to the hard dodger to fully enclose the cockpit or just use the top for a bimini.

The hull shape is very moderate in its proportions with an L/B of 3.19 and a D/L of 278. The forefoot is deep enough for a bow thruster. The fin keel is well forward on the boat, and with this in mind I would favor the optional bowsprit to help keep the boat well balanced. The rudder is a semibalanced spade on a partial skeg. The prop shaft is contained within a nacelle, so no strut is needed. The attractive sheer of this design is accented by a colored wale stripe (not shown in the drawings) and the rubrail.

It's sure hard to do an aesthetically acceptable center-cockpit boat under 40 feet, but I think the Vilm is a good-looking boat. The secret here is that the designer has made no attempt to connect the forward accommodations with the aft accommodations. You access the aft stateroom with its two single berths from the cockpit. There is no head aft, but I suppose you could nestle a head between the two berths if you really needed it. I wouldn't. There is a pull-out table aft with chart stowage. This is the way center-cockpit boats were in the past. I mean the "real" past, i.e., the '50s and '60s. You just didn't try to walk through a passageway from the forward accommodations to the aft cabin. Add that connecting passageway and you have an entirely different design problem. I like this layout with the isolation of the aft cabin, and I bet your kids would love it too.

The forward accommodations feature a head to port and a very good U-shaped galley to starboard. The settee berths are generous, and there are two hanging lockers in the V-berth stateroom. This is an amazing layout when you consider the 39-foot LOA of this design. The photos in the brochure show beautiful joinerwork detailing in mahogany. The Vilm has the look of a hand-built yacht.

The rig is modest in size with slightly swept double spreaders. The standard rig has the headsail tack about 8 inches aft of the stem. As I mentioned earlier, you can add a short bowsprit to get the tack forward. I would recommend that option. The drawings show a rather ungainly looking profile with awkward window selections. But the photos show that the boat as built with a far nicer look. The odd-looking large cabintrunk windows have been replaced with smaller, more standard shapes that improve the look immensely. The overall detailing to the deck and deck strictures is excellent. With a low bulwark capped in teak and teak decks this is a very handsome boat.

The more I studied this design the more I liked it.