Wauquiez 47PS
2006 January 7
Bluewater cruiserr
The hull shape shows a beamy boat with an L/B of 3.1. The stern is broad and the run is flat. The D/ L is 188. I like the sectional shape but I would have preferred to see some deadrise aft so the stern did not slap when the boat was tied up. With minimal aft overhang maybe this is not a problem.
The sections forward are unusual. The stem is dead straight and raked a bit but the designers have introduced hollow or concave sections just aft of the stem and extending aft to about station 3.5. Why? I don't know. They could have eliminated this concavity and gained some interior volume. Is the boat faster with this hollow in the topsides? Maybe if it helps reduce the half angle of entry, and considering how beamy this boat is it can't hurt to keep the pointy end as pointy as possible as long as possible. Then you flare the sections out to gain space on deck. Sometimes it's good enough for the designer to say I did it that way because I like the way it looks. You can chose from a 7-foot, 9-inch draft keel or a 5-foot, 11-inch shoal-draft.The key to this layout is that it offers all the advantages of a center-cockpit design while keeping the cockpit in the stern. Raised saloon, pilot saloon-the names are basically arbitrary and used to indicate the sole has been raised in the saloon area so you can get some big windows in the side of the house. Wauquiez offers the option of having a centerline double berth forward and a stacked berth stateroom to starboard or V-berths forward and a double to starboard. From studying the drawings it appears to me that if you choose the V-berths forward layout the only access you have to the V-berths is from the deck hatch, unless you want to walk through the double stateroom to starboard. "Don't mind me." If you go with the centerline double forward you have better privacy but that stacked berth stateroom is really cramped. There are two heads and each has a shower stall. The galley is OK but I don't like having the sinks up against the aft bulkhead. I like space on each side of the sink.
Let's talk about the styling on deck. The designers have used a sweeping curve to define the profile of the large house and they have extended this sweep aft until it becomes the cockpit coamings. This sweep is accentuated by some bold vertical lines, one defining the aft end of the large windows and the others in the arch for the mainsheet. It's almost an automatic to try and sweep everything, but clever use of vertical or near vertical lines can add the look of strength to shapes. In this case I like what I see. If you look closely you will notice a grillwork at the bottom of the large windows. This is a removable piece that goes right over the big windows and hides opening ports that are set right into the large windowpanes. Here again the designers have not shied away from strong orthogonal lines. There is a shallow bulwark with attractive stainless fairleads. There are two wheels in the cockpit giving free access to the large opening transom panel that transforms into a deep swim step.
The 47 is rigged as a cutter with both headsails on roller furling. Note how high the head of the staysail is. This makes for a very tall and narrow staysail but it should work well in a blow. It won't be much fun to tack the genoa through that narrow slot. The SA/D is 18.66 and that's enough horsepower to keep most performance-minded sailors
quite happy.
I enjoy looking at a boat that breaks from the "me too" trend.
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