X55

2006 March 1
By Robert H. Perry

Performance Cruiser

You could hardly find a boat with more contrast to Goshawk than this new X-55. Designed by the company's in-house design team, this design is also very good looking to my eye. It has 7.6 feet of combined overhangs. So while the short ends give the boat a more masculine look I still think it's handsome if not classically beautiful. From a designer's viewpoint its fun to see how all the proportions can be pushed and pulled to create a successful design.

The first thing I notice when I look at the hull profile of the X-55 is how far aft the deepest part of the canoe body is. It could be another of those wacky advertising illustrator anomalies but to my eye this hull is deepest about four feet aft of the keel. If this is not correct, as I suspect it is not, then why don't they send me accurate drawings? The D/L is 154 based upon the displacement listed as "displacement std. empty approx." They might as well have added, "We think." The L/B is 3.67.

You can choose from three draft options: 10 feet, 6 inches, 9 feet, 2 inches and 7 feet, 10 inches. I would expect any design to come out of the X-Yachts office to be a fast and able performer given the company's track record, but I don't have sufficient drawings to comment on the overall hull shape here other than it looks very fine forward and very beamy aft.

There are several interior options available for this design. There is one layout with four staterooms but you have to walk through one "stateroom" to get to the forward stateroom. In this case there are stacked single berths in a passageway so it's not fair for me to call it a stateroom. The other layouts are three stateroom layouts with variations on the owner's stateroom forward and a saloon option for a straight settee to starboard or chairs. Forward you can have a centerline double berth or V-berths. There are three heads and the starboard aft head has a shower stall. Whichever way you go with layout options you will be very comfortable aboard the X-55.

When I look at the sailplan the short house jumps out at me. I like short houses but I also like headroom. I suspect you step down as you go forward in this design in order to preserve headroom. Although the drawings do not indicate a step and I don't have an inboard profile to check. It's hard to imagine that with the level of comfort designed into this boat they would have less than 6 feet, 3 inches of headroom forward. Regardless, the short house gives a huge, uncluttered foredeck with recessed anchor locker, mooring cleats that fold down into the deck and flush hatches. The decks are teak covered and the teak extends up a recess in the top of the house to provide good nonskid when working at the mast.
The cockpit is big and has twin wheels well outboard. The long cockpit seats have backrests but the backrests stop before they reach the wheel position. This is good as it allows the helmsman to sit outboard comfortably. The transom is completely open so no swimstep is needed. The drawings or "artist's renderings" show what looks like flush lazarette hatches aft of the wheels and forward of the wheels in the cockpit sole. There is the X-Yachts' perfected recessed dodger housing directly forward of the companionway.

The sailplan shows a triple spreader rig with swept spreaders. Mainsail sheeting is at the end of the boom down to a single point on the cockpit sole so there is no traveler. I've done this a couple of times and it does work. However, you do lose some control over your leech. You need an awful lot of vang tension to make up for the lack of a traveler. But it sure does clean up the cockpit. The mainsheet is rigged double-ended "German" style and led back under the deck to the secondary winches. All other halyards are led aft under the teak to winches flanking the companionway hatch. The drawing shows seven-rope clutches on each side. A 110-horsepower Volvo diesel should give you blistering light air speed.

X-Yachts are always very well thought out and represent a good blend of speed
and comfort.