Family cruiserr

Clearly we find ourselves in an era where "character boats" are out, and the focus is on Euro-styling with a general high-tech design look. This is okay, but it gets a little boring after a while. Obviously if you use a modern hull form, i.e. plumb stem, broad stern, high freeboard and highly raked transom for a swim step, it will be difficult to create a traditional-looking boat. In fact, the Euro/wedge-deck style is your only reasonable option.

With that as a given, the designer must draw a sleek-looking cabintrunk that will provide headroom throughout the boat while at the same time presenting the look of a voluminous interior. You do not need a wide cabintrunk for headroom since headroom is only crucial directly over the cabin sole. Making the trunk wider, however, creates the illusion of more useable interior volume, although at a cost of less side deck area and more windage. Teak accents this nicely sculpted deck.

Now with the cabintrunk defined the designer will need to wrap some coamings around the cockpit. Low coamings will look great and provide excellent sheet leads to the winches. But if you get the coaming any lower than 10 inches above the seat level, it will dig into your kidneys and provide little security or overall comfort.

The Bavaria shows a good way of dealing with high coamings. They are stepped down as they go aft and this breaks up the overall bulk. With emphasis on cockpit size, the coamings on the Bavaria are carried all the way to the transom but are scooped out to make them lower as they go across the top of the transom. This cockpit opens directly to the swim step. I should mention that there are numerous discrepancies between the details as drawn and as shown on the photos. There's no problem with this other than the fact that they make reviewing the boat difficult.

You can choose between two layouts. One has the head forward and two double quarter berths aft, and the other has the head aft and one bigger quarter double berth. In the head-forward model, the V-berth is truncated on the port side making it, to my eye, less than a full-sized double berth. The galley is tiny. You have to stand your Vegemite sandwich on end in this galley. I think a 35-foot, 5-inch boat should offer a better galley. But it's all a matter of balancing priorities. You can call them compromises if you like. Certainly the big, opposing, straight settees are perfect for entertaining and dining, just don't expect a leg of lamb.

The hull and rig are so typical I think I'll combine my comments on them into one paragraph. The D/L is 207 and the SA/D is 18.98. The hull form is normal with a near plumb stem. There is a nice indented whale stripe in the topsides to accent the sheerline. The spreaders are swept and there are no runners. I think this boat will be a good performer if you avoid the shoal keel that draws only 4 feet, 5 inches.

This model fits the Mediterranean charterboat type well.