Bluewater cruiser

Here is a very nice looking new design from the Tartan in-house design group headed by Tim Jackett. At 51 feet LOA I think this boat fits into the "ultimate family cruiser" category, if we set the maxi extremes aside for a while.

The hull shows moderate freeboard by today's standards. The ends are short with enough overhang forward to prevent the anchor from clanking up the stem. The D/L is a moderate 179, which I consider quite light for a fully found cruising boat. The L/B is 3.25, which we can consider textbook "middle" today. There is a fixed keel with a beavertail bulb drawing 6 feet, 6 inches, or you can get a centerboard version that draws 5 feet, 6 inches board up and 9 feet, 6 inches board down. My only comment on the draft issue is that if you offer a centerboard model for those who need shoal draft why not make the fixed-keel model 8 feet, 6 inches so you can get some real performance out of this nice design? The hull is very broad aft. The view of the transom will not be the 5100's best camera angle. Note the extremely long trailing edge fillet on the fixed keel. The centerboard version has 1,000 pounds more ballast than the fixed-keel version, bringing its overall displacement up to 33,0000 pounds.

The 5100 gives you the choice of two layouts. Essentially the boat is a three-stateroom boat with double-berth staterooms in the ends and a small, stacked-berth stateroom amidships. The choice you have is whether to have the galley forward or the galley in the raised saloon. I like the galley forward. This way the entire beam of the boat is open to the saloon layout and you get some comfortable Streisand chairs to starboard and a U-shaped dinette to port. I don't like dinettes like this. No one wants to be the first into the dinette as they will be trapped by the other people. Maybe I'm a bit claustrophobic, but I like to get up and down without disturbing other people.

Both of the staterooms in the ends are very spacious and each has its own head with shower stall. We are so clean these days. "Change to the No. 1 genoa and take a shower." There is access to the forward head from the passageway, also. Both galley configurations are big galleys. They look wonderful. They are big but tight enough in their keyhole configurations to prevent people from sticking their dirty fingers into the Whiskey sauce. "Take a shower!"

The sailplan shows a handsome vessel that reminds me of the designs that Chuck Paine did for Tom Morris. It's a good look with a nice, low cabintrunk forward and a shapely raised house aft. I really like the way the windows of the saloon are not divided equally. The forward window is longer than the aft window. This gives the design some amount of energy that symmetry would not have provided. Looking at the profile, I'm not sure how they get the headroom in the aft cabin but I assume it's through the use of extremely wide cockpit coamings, with the coaming height providing the headroom. The SA/D for this carbon masthead rig is 20.46.

This all-epoxy boat combines a good hull form with very comfortable layouts. The 105-horsepower Yanmar will scoot you along when the breeze fails.

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LOA 51'; LWL 43'1"; Beam 15'7"; Draft 6'6" (beavertail), 5'6"/9'6" (centerboard up/down); Displacement 32,000 lbs.; Ballast 11,200 lbs.; Sail area 1,291 sq. ft.; SA/D 20.46; D/L 179; L/B 3.25; Auxiliary Yanmar 105-hp; Fuel 100 gals.; Water 200 gals.

Tartan Yachts, 1920 Fairport Nursery Rd., Fairport Harbor, OH 44077, (440) 357-7777, www.tartanyachts.com.

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OBE: $1.2 million
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