Performance cruiserr

This hull is obviously based on race-boat proportions. The ends are short. Beam is pulled aft, and rocker is moderate. The D/L is 163, and the L/B is 3.5. It's a pretty normal-looking hull. The hull lines show sections that go flat amidships. The keel is a deep, 9-foot, 4-inch, bulbed fin, and there is a shoal keel available. There are extended leading and trailing edge root fillets shown on the keel. Note the curved leading edge to this fin.

This is a sexy-looking boat with a wedgelike cabintrunk and enough opening ports to provide good ventilation below. There are wheels port and starboard to open up access to the transom swim step. Of course you will have to step over the traveler on your way aft, but considering the rest of this deck design, there is no other place for it to go. It will work better aft anyway.

Look at that big, wraparound coaming forward of the companionway. This coaming houses the dodger in its retracted position. This has been used on other X-Boats and is a nice feature.

Note the fixed cockpit table forward of the traveler. My only concern with this cockpit is that, although it looks long in profile, in plan view there is minimal seating forward of the traveler. What would normally be seat area has been taken up by the extension of the cabintrunk into the cockpit area to provide headroom in the quarter cabins. I prefer big cockpits.

You have your choice of three interior layouts with this boat: A2, B1 and A3. All three layouts have three heads and a fo'c'sle big enough for pipe berths. The main difference in layouts is in the number of staterooms. Layout A3 has four staterooms with upper and lower berths in the additional small forward stateroom. A2 and B1 differ in the forward owner's stateroom layout. You can have your double berth off to the starboard side with fixed Streisand chairs to port, or you can have the centerline, symmetrical berth layout flanked by small settees. Symmetry is comforting so I like the centerline double-berth arrangement.

In the saloon you can have the Streisands to port with a small table between or the more practical settee berth. This boat is beamy enough to accommodate extra chairs around the dining table. I guess this is good, but to my eye it detracts from the "boatness" of the interior. Maybe loss of boatness is the price you pay when the LOA exceeds 50 feet.

With an SA/D of 21.91 this rig is big for a cruising boat and small for a racing boat. That seems to fit right into the overall character of this hybrid design. The triple spreaders are very slightly swept, and there are running backstays and a babystay. The masthead configuration was probably chosen over the fractional type because it may require less critical tuning. It simplifies things when you offset the headstay loads with a standing backstay. Note that the backstay chainplate is on centerline at the end of the swim step area. The backstay will provide a convenient handhold when you are checking the wake.

The engine is a 100-horsepower Yanmar, and there is tankage for 227 gallons of fuel and 272 gallons of water in two tanks. There is a total of 864 amp hours of battery power, all under the cabin sole. I like all the X-Boats. They seem to be well designed and offer the cruising sailor good performance along with very handsome looks.