Luxury cruiser

Maybe Alan's 28-foot sport cruiser is a bit too small for you. No problem. Take a look at this Farr design built in Cape Town by Southern Wind Shipyard. This design is seventh in the series and the first to have the raised saloon configuration.

The hull is what you would expect from the Farr office. The canoe body profile shows that slight flattening of the rocker right around the keel root. There is enough overhang aft to give the boat an elegant look and I like the visual contrast the overhanging stern makes with the almost plumb bow. The D/L is 89.45 and the L/B is 4.5, indicating a light and narrow boat. The draft is 13 feet so you may want to reconsider some of those anchorages you could have visited in the Andrews 28. The construction must be fairly light and high-tech because this design has a ballast-to-displacement ratio of 37 percent. The plan view shows what, to my eye, has become the classic distribution of beam in modern designs.

Put on your ostrich-skinned topsiders, it's time to go below. You enter the saloon, amidships, from the forward cockpit. There is a dining area to port and a lounging area to starboard. Aft of the saloon are mirror-image staterooms, both with twin berths and heads with showers attached. Aft of this is the crew area with a huge galley to port, nav station and crew head to starboard and staterooms for the captain and two deck hands aft of the galley. The crew will eat at the table that comes off the galley counter. Forward of the main saloon are two staterooms with the owner's stateroom being all the way forward. There is a small office space adjacent to the guest stateroom. The owner's head forward includes a water closet and his and hers sinks. There is also a bidet in this head. I just knew there was something missing from that Andrews 28 interior.

The deck plan features two cockpits. There is the crew cockpit aft and open to the transom with twin steering stations, winches, mainsheet traveler and direct access to the crew's quarters aft. Forward of this, over a long bridgedeck, is the guest cockpit where you can sit and relax without being distracted by the pandemonium of a tack or a jibe. There are paid hands to take care of sail handling. You don't even have to put your drink down when some one yells "Jibe ho!" There is a transom door giving access to a gear garage aft. When down, this door also provides a boarding platform. Halyard winches are on deck at the base of the mast. There is a low bulwark for security.

When I look at the sailplan I see a very handsome design. The profile of the house is low and this accentuates the sweep of the sheer. The sheer is rather flat but the Farr office always gets the sheer right. The SA/D is 27.82. The headstay is set back of the stem leaving room to fly an asymmetrical chute without the need for a pole or sprit. The drawings show some kind of V-shaped or trough boom, or maybe it's a Park Avenue style. Either way you are not gong to be hand-furling this mainsail. This big, triple-spreader spar shows 19 degrees of sweep.

On the SW 100RS you will be very comfortable. You will get to your destination very quickly. You may not be able to anchor in the inner part of the harbor but I suspect that garage can hold a big, fast tender. If an Andrews 28 motors by on its way into the very inner part of the anchorage it might be your turn to be jealous.

---

LOA 99'1"; LWL 85'11"; Beam 22'; Draft 12'11"; Displacement 127,600 lbs.; Ballast 47,300 lbs.; Sail area 4,423 sq. ft.; SA/D 27.82; D/L 89.45; L/B 4.5; Auxiliary Cummins QSB 305-hp; Fuel 1,170 gals.;
Water 546 gals.

Southern Wind, Reen Avenue, Athlone Industria 1, 7780 Cape Town, South Africa, 27 21-637-80-43, www.sws-yachts.com.

---

OBE: $7.9 million
Our Best Estimate of the sailaway price