Bluewater cruiserr

The design work on a big boat like this is a collaboration of several teams. This design team included Reichel/Pugh of San Diego, R & J Design and Design Unlimited, which worked on the interior and deck styling.

The hull shows that flattened canoe-body profile we see so often today. Note how the rocker seems to flatten around the keel. There could be several reasons for this, but I think it's done to push more volume toward the end of the boat to increase potential surfing speeds. In a boat of this size I can't imagine it's any rule-induced feature.

The D/L of this boat is 58. The L/B is 4.9. Compare this to the 2.54 of the little Shoalsailer. This is a skinny boat.

There is a lifting keel that provides 21 feet, 9 inches of draft in the down position. "Keel-up" draft is 13 feet, 1 inch. It takes a little mental adjustment, but the specs list the ballast at 97,000 pounds and that's probably shared between the stainless steel fin and the lead bulb.

Clearly this will be a very fast boat. I'm sure it will give the Wally boats a run for their money at the maxi-yacht regattas.

I think a yacht of this size should be spectacular, and not simply as a function of its size. I can't think of any reason why huge yachts should not be the most beautiful yachts. They are free of all the pragmatic considerations and restrictions that aesthetically challenge small boats. Freeboard is obviously not an issue. LOA restrictions don't exist. Headroom doesn't require an invasive cabintrunk.

Given those aesthetic freedoms, I just don't see the "poetry" in this design. The sheer is boring. It's essentially flat and that may be what you want with this narrow hull shape, but I still like to see some statement in the sheerline.

The IMS snubbed-off bow treatment may give you the maximum sailing length for a given LOA but, hey, who are we kidding here.

There's no doubt that looking down on this monster from the dock it will be spectacular: Size alone dictates that. Still, I'd like to see an element of elegance that I feel is missing from this boat. Maybe the reason for this styling can be found in the owner's original requirement that the boat have the appearance of a lightweight racing yacht.

It's kind of funny when you read in the specs that this boat is designed for three couples in the owner's party. I can think of several 45-footers that could say the same, although these couples will have far larger staterooms. One stateroom is shown with twin berths rather than a double, but I'm sure that could be fixed. These will truly be at least queen-size berths, probably king-size.

The owner's stateroom is amidships. Unfortunately this puts the stateroom right below the center cockpit where it might be noisy. The forward staterooms are divided by the extensive lifting keel trunk. All staterooms have adjoining heads and showers.

The deck is designed with four cockpits: two for the guests who may want to steer the boat from time to time but don't care to tail a sheet (assuming this boat has winches that even need tailing), one for the twin wheels, and one for sailhandling with an arch overhead to carry the mainsheet traveler. There is a companionway leading down to the skipper's nav station in this last cockpit.

This hull will be built with Nomex honeycomb core and pre-preg carbon fiber. The auxiliary engine is a 700-horsepower diesel.

Next time I'm down scrubbing my boat, getting that grunge out that accumulates along the toerail, I'm going to be glad it's not 147 feet long.