When Yves-Marie, Chuck and I left Dick Carter’s tower in Nahant, Massachusetts, to try it on our own I don’t think either of us knew where the future would take us in the world of yacht design. We just wanted to design boats. 

Yves-Marie had spent his years at the tower drawing hull lines for exotic IOR boats and he produced magnificent lines drawings. When he went on his own, he did a few race boats and had some success at it. But over time  Yves-Marie’s work morphed into cruising boats for home boatbuilders and custom projects. Many of his designs are for steel or aluminum construction. In keeping with those materials, the look of Yves-Marie’s boats is more purposeful than beautiful. They are masculine looking boats with rugged appearances. This recent design of Yves-Marie is inspired by North Sea and Dutch fishing boats and trawlers. Two of this design were built in Turkey in steel using CNC cutting files.

LOA is 39 feet 5 inches to keep the boat under the 12-meter limit to avoid regulations for boats longer than 12 meters LOA. The hull form is a single radiused chine type using “conic development” to avoid compound curvature, which is tricky when you are building in steel. Deadrise is moderate at 10 degrees and the D/L is 247. The L/B is 3 and draft is 6 feet 3 inches with a moderate aspect ratio keel that is thick enough to house the ballast and tankage. The radiused chine gives a firm turn to the bilge and combined with the ballast and tanks in the fin this should make for a very stiff boat. 

I am pretty sure that good performance is a given with any boat Yves-Marie draws. In the early 1970s Yves-Marie drew the lines for YDRA, which was considered the fastest IOR One-Tonner in the world in its day. YDRA was the boat that convinced me to seek a position with Dick Carter.

This is a pretty conventional motorsailer layout. Why do I call it a motorsailer? I use that term to define boats that have both inside and outside steering stations. Simple as that. You could argue with me but I won’t listen. There is an elevated dinette in the pilothouse. I see an area labeled “aft cabin” to port just forward of the pilothouse. Not sure what’s going on there. Perhaps there is a double berth tucked in under that raised dinette. Adjacent to that to starboard is a head and forward of that large chart table with a swivel seat. 

The main cabin looks to be a nice place to relax with deep settees. There are V-berths forward of that. All in all, it’s a well designed layout. I like the galley.

With the mast placed well aft I’d consider this rig a true cutter. The mast appears to be deck stepped with single lower spreaders and jumper struts above that to support the top of the mast. It’s kind of an unusual way to stay the rig but knowing YMT I’m sure he could explain exactly why it’s designed that way. Maybe to make it easier to lower the rig for canal cruising. The SA/D is 16.29. Yves-Marie has done a good job of integrating the proportions of this design that while purposeful, is still a handsome boat.

Yves-Marie’s construction drawings are beautiful and very well detailed, a builder’s dream and required if you are doing CNC files. The builder will not need to make many decisions.

Hope you have enjoyed this look at where my two old friends have taken their careers these last 50 years. They certainly have taken different directions and each one has been successful with that choice of work.

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LOA 39’4”; LWL 37’10”; Beam 13’2”; Draft 6’3”; D/L 247; L/B 3; SA/D 16.29 www.tantonyachts.com