Racer-cruiser

Here is a new design from my old pal Tim Kernan, prepared for Santa Cruz Yachts. Santa Cruz Yachts was originally started by Bill Lee to build his breakthrough ULDB designs. The boats were good and they were fast. But eventually Bill lost control of the yard and it passed through a couple of owners before being revitalized with this new series by Tim. It's a good-looking boat and I would hope that it helps bring the Santa Cruz yard back to full health.

This is an unusual hull. I have a set of hull lines. The sheer on the drawings is a straight line, but Tim said he looked at the plug and decided to add some spring to both ends. The sections forward are deep and show deadrise. These fair out to a midsection that shows some deadrise, slack bilges and a hard turn to the topsides at about 8 inches above the DWL. This hard turn almost becomes a chine as it goes aft. The transom is flat. Max beam is well aft-72.47 percent of the LOA aft of the stem. The transom beam to max beam ratio is 89 percent. This is a very wedgelike hull form. Wetted surface is absolute minimal for the displacement of 8,514 pounds, with a D/L of 91.55. The L/B is 3.47, right in the middle of "moderate." Two keels are offered with 7 feet, 6 inches, and 6 feet of draft.

If you just go by the hull shape you would see this boat as an all-out racing yacht. But the interior has all the features of a modern cruising yacht. There is a nicely designed galley aft with a big icebox. There is a double quarterberth to starboard and a sit-down nav station forward of that. Too bad they could not have fit in a big wet locker aft. Apparently it never rains in California. The main settees are 6 feet, 2 inches long. I'm 6 feet, 3 inches, so they won't work at all for me. I consider 6 feet, 6 inches to be the minimum length of any berth and often I try for 6 feet, 9 inches. The forward cabin closes off at the mast and you can access the head through the main cabin or the forward cabin. This is a fine layout for cruising as long as the weather is nice and you are less than 6 feet, 2 inches.

As long as we seem to have styling as a theme this month lets take a look at the Santa Cruz styling. I like it a lot. It's nicely sculpted without being overdone. The house is low and the wide cockpit coamings cut into the house sides in an interesting way rather than just meld in. I like the way the housetop appears to roll over, in profile, as it goes aft.

The rig is a typical, swept double spreader, fractional rig. The mast and retractable prod are carbon. The boom is aluminum. There is a 15-inch carbon fiber piece that adapts the prod so it can be used to tack a masthead genoa. The SA/D is 27.28.

The construction of this new 37 features a vacuum-bagged E-glass hull and deck with foam coring. The primary frame structure to carry the keel and rig loads will be resin infused to achieve a high strength-to-weight ratio. Carbon fiber will be used to reinforce this frame structure. The keel fin is cast iron coated in E-glass cloth and epoxy. There will be an option of a lifting keel arrangement to reduce draft for shipping.

This boat, with its unusual hull form, will be worth watching on the race course.