World Cruising: New Zealand’s Unknown Isle. Discovering rugged yet laid-back Stewart Island by Katie Thomsen. Sailing Smart – Atoll Cruising 101: The Tuamotus. How to safely negotiate atolls of the South Pacific by Nadine Slavinski. Classic Passage: Bermuda to Newport – The Long, Fast Way. An end run was the best route home for Waianiwa and her crew by George Day. Safety at Sea Special Section: Safety Electronics for Offshore Sailing What features make the newest safety gear right for you? by Daniel Collins. Night Moves: Crew tips for completing safe passages at night by Andrew Cross. Crew Overboard: A sailor’s guide to new overboard gear by Andrew Cross. Your Cruising Medical Kit: Well stocked first aid and medical kits are essential for safe, healthy cruising by Denny Emory. Boatswain’s Locker: A Sole with Soul. Fitting a new cabin sole takes time and careful planning by Pete Dubler. Weather Routing Software: The good, the bad and the ugly truth of it all by Bill Biewenga. eBooks Onboard: Love them now, or love them later by David Burch.

APRIL 2013 ISSUE OF BLUE WATER SAILING.

World Cruising; Bountiful Bonaire. Spend hurricane season soaking in Bonaire’s laid back beauty by Diane Gorch. Classic Passage; Newport to Annapolis. Traversing the inside route between two great sailing cities by Skip Pond. Cruising Life; Searching for Birds. Circumnavigators savor the pleasures of birding on the Chesapeake Bay by Ellen Massey Leonard. SPECIAL Fitting Out; Lessons Learned After 160,000 Miles by John Neal. Mast Hysteria by Andrew Cross. Live It, Learn It by Andrew Cross.  Marlinspike Madness by Andrew Cross. Bottom Paint. Blue Water Boats; S&S 30. This Olin Stephens design from 1935, updated by the S&S team, is one of the sweetest little cruisers ever built. From Here to There and Home Again. Having a compass onboard by Bill Biewenga. Spring Cleaning for Your Electronics by Daniel CollinsFront.

What didn’t get enough press after the Games is the fact that the U.S. did in fact win a silver medal in sailing—at the 2012 Paralympics, also held in England. Jennifer French and Jean-Paul Creignou competed in the doublehanded SKUD-18 class and finished second. Not bad for a woman who is a quadriplegic and a guy who is legally blind; Jen was the skipper and eyes of the boat while J.P. handled lines and sheets.

But the story is even better than that. Jen French was a high-tech professional and an active snowboarder, runner and outdoorswoman. The motto she shared with her soon-to-be husband Tim was “work hard, play hard.” The play hard part came to a sudden end one winter night when Jen and some friends went for a moonlight snowboard at a New England ski resort. Although an expert rider, the unthinkable happened—Jen missed a turn in the trail and sailed into the woods at high speed. The result was a seriously compromised spinal cord and paralysis from her shoulders down.

But if Jen is anything, she is determined and smart enough to find solutions where others find barriers. She found a research program in Cleveland that was pioneering functioning electronic stimulation by using implanted electrodes to stimulate otherwise paralyzed muscles. It had never been tried on a woman, but Jen would not be deterred, and after several applications she was finally accepted into the program. She became something of a lab rat with a single mission: to stand on her own.

Over the next year, Jen had electrodes implanted in her abdomen, hips and legs. The electrodes are controlled by a magic box worn around her stomach—if she wants to sit up straight or even stand, she can press a button on the box and her abdominal and leg muscles will be jolted into action. After progressing from near total paralysis to the bionic woman, Jen was able to dance with Tim at their wedding.

And then what? To demonstrate that the breakthrough technology worked in the real world, Jen embarked on a quest to sail in the Paralympics even though she had done very little sailboat racing. The determination and smarts that got her standing on her own feet also got her and J.P. through the U.S. Olympic trials and onto England. And there, after a rocky start, they improved over the course of 11 races, securing a podium place on the final day. The silver was theirs. And ours.

Jennifer French has written a book called On My Feet Again that concludes at the 2012 Olympics. You can order it on Amazon. Read it. It will change you.

Tartan Fantail 26 •  The new daysailer-weekender from Tartan Yachts packs a lot of performance in a compact package.

We had our first look at the new Tartan Fantail 26 at the Annapolis sailboat show last fall, and we must admit—of all the boats we planned to test after the show, the little 26-footer was one we really looked forward to sailing.

Tartan hasn’t built boats under 30 feet in many years, so this new Tim Jackett design is an interesting development. The company started life in the 60s with the Tartan 27 and later came out with the racing Tartan 26. But since then, the trend has been to build larger, more luxurious cruisers and racer-cruisers.

With the crew from Tartan aboard, we set off from the docks under power. This is a big part of the Fantail story—the boat was conceived to be “green” and is powered by a Torqeedo electric outboard. The engine is mounted inside the lazarette and can kick up out of the water when under sail. Under power in the down position, the little engine pushes the Fantail along at a good clip. Torqeedo engines have a lot of torque, so you feel the acceleration as soon as you push the throttle forward.

Technically, the Torqeedo is a very interesting propulsion system for a small sailboat. The throttle and gear shifter is linked to a GPS and has a small LED readout that gives you course, speed and remaining powering range. The electric motor is powered by two 4D AGM batteries and a third Group 27 battery is used to power onboard systems such as running lights, reading lights and electronics. With a full charge, the motor will drive the boat at half speed or about 4 knots for 16 hours before the batteries need to be charged again. Tartan provides a shore-power battery charging system and, for those who will keep their boats on moorings, they offer wind and solar charging systems as options.

Once we motored down Back Creek and into the bay, we hoisted the big mainsail and shut down the Torqeedo and tilted it out of the water. Under mainsail alone, the Fantail slipped along nicely; with the addition of the small, self-tacking jib, the boat really put her shoulder down and started to move.

The late afternoon breeze was fairly light but steady at about 8 knots. This was a perfect wind for the Fantail. Sailing upwind, she tacked at about 40 degrees from the true wind and was able to maintain about 5 knots. Tacking the Fantail involves nothing more than steering the boat through the eye of the wind and settling onto the new angle.

We tacked up the Severn River next to the U.S. Naval Academy and then turned to run back out into the Chesapeake Bay. With the wind behind us, we rolled up the jib, deployed the retractable bowsprit and hoisted a big asymmetrical chute. The response was immediate as the 26-footer took off like a rocket.

THE DESIGN
The design of the Fantail is a pleasing mixture of traditional good looks with a modern fin keel, spade rudder configuration under the water. The keel is fitted with a lead ballast bulb that lowers the boat’s center of gravity and improves stiffness so it will stand up to a blow and sail at low heeling angles.

The boat’s bow is nearly plumb and the sprit is housed in a tube built into the bow on the centerline, not to one side. This complicates the build a bit but is the better way to go and looks just right with the sprit all the way in or out. Control lines for the sprit run under the deck to line clutches in the cockpit.

The boat has a traditional counter and stern that looks handsome and provides the locker space aft of the cockpit to house the Torqeedo. The daysailer and weekender versions of the boat come with handsome teak toe rails, cockpit trim and companionway trim. On the boat we sailed, the teak had been left natural. For those wanting true yacht style, a few coats of varnish on the teak trim would add some flair.

The cockpit is nine feet long, so four adults can fit comfortably and still manage the sheets and control lines without getting in each other’s way. The self-tacking jib certainly reduces sheet clutter in the cockpit. The main sheet is all the way aft, where it is handy to the helm.

The design of the hull and the height of the topsides are configured to allow you to sit in the boat securely instead of being perched on deck and to sit on the bunks below decks without bumping your head. The cockpit seatbacks are contoured to provide support and comfort. Tartan offers cockpit canvas as an option. With a dodger fitted over the companionway, you will feel very secure in the cockpit and will be able to get out of the wind and spray.

DOWN BELOW
We sailed the daysailer version, which has a low cabin and a small interior. Down below there was a V-berth all the way forward that would be fine for an overnight with sleeping bags—camping style. There is space for a 48-quart, 12-volt cooler, a porta-potty, and gear and equipment. The spinnaker lives in the V-berth when not in use.

The weekender version of the Fantail has a larger cabintop, more headroom below, and a finer level of finish and trim detailing. Plus, it can have a proper marine head with a holding tank and pump-out deck fitting. For weekend cruising, you can add a small galley unit that has an alcohol stove.

With the big chute drawing nicely, we sailed the Fantail right out into the middle of the Chesapeake Bay, making a steady 6 knots and getting over 7 in the puffs. The helm was light to the touch, but because the sail we were using was a tad on the large side, we had to pay attention to avoid rounding up in the stronger puffs, as you would on any small boat with a high aspect spade rudder under a press of sail. By keeping the sailing angle quite low, we were able to get her going as if on rails.

We have something of a soft spot for smaller Tartan designs since we grew up sailing a Tartan 27—parents and three large sons—all over New England as we cruised to PHRF regattas, raced over weekends and then sailed home again. The new Fantail updates the concept by a country mile. The Fantail 26 is less of a cruising boat than a fine daysailer and weekender, which suits today’s sailing styles. Yet, you could take the weekender off for a week at a time and have a very pleasant small boat cruising experience.

By the time we got the Fantail back to the dock, we had enjoyed an excellent sail aboard a sweet little boat that exceeded our expectations. For 2012, the Fantail is one of the finest new boats to come on the scene.

Tartan Fantail 26
LOA 26’0”
LWL 22’2”
Beam 8’5”
Draft 4’6”
Displacement 3,050 lbs.
Ballast 1,200 lbs.
Ballast/Displ .39
Displ/LWL 125.6

Tartan Yachts
www.tartantachts.com
440-392-2628

January 2013 Issue of Blue Water Sailing.

BWS Interview: Multihull Master: Gino Morrelli. World Cruising: A Feast for the Senses A leisurely cruise in Fiordland, New Zealand by Katie Thomsen. Practical Passagemaker: In Mosquito Country Learning about malaria’s lesser known cousins, Ross River virus and dengue fever by Russ Worrall and Abby Young. Cruising Life: Pet Pampering Onboard Simple massage techniques to improve health and circulation in your favorite fourlegged crewmembers by Kathy Silver. Blue Water Boats: Beneteau Sense 46 Fall head over heels for the stability and performance of Beneteau’s latest offering by Andrew Cross.  Captain’s Log: Experience matters by George Day.

This was never more evident than at the start of this year’s Salty Dawg Rally, which sails from Hampton, VA to the Bitter End Yacht Club in the BVI—a distance of some 1,300 blue water miles. A total of 59 boats showed up for the early November start of this free, all-volunteer event. More than 250 sailors attended the send-off party, and many thousands more have been following the fleet via email and satellite tracking. As a lead sponsor of the event, BWS is happy to say that our readers are out there doing it.

This year, BWS supplied the fleet with goody bags, lined up the services of Chris Parker, who delivers excellent weather and routing to the fleet, and offered each Salty Dawg a free one-year digital subscription to BWS through Zinio. If you haven’t yet seen our digital version, check it out at www.zinio.com/bluewatersailing.

For us, being involved with the Salty Dawgs is simply good fun and good citizenship. The sailors who take part are the kind of people who write for us and give the magazine the authority you expect on a wide range of topics—from seamanship and sailing skills to provisioning, electronics and more. Experience does matter.

That’s why we bring you the most experienced lineup of editors and writers with offshore experience in the sailing world. On staff, we have people who have sailed more than a quarter million offshore miles. And our stable of regular contributors is unmatched. Longtime columnist Bill Biewenga told us when asked that he had stopped counting at 400,000 offshore miles. Regular contributors John Neal and Amanda Swan Neal, whose seminars BWS has sponsored for the last decade, have cumulatively sailed 583,000 miles across the blue water. And columnist David Burch has logged more than 70,000 miles at sea.

So when you pick up your copy of BWS at the newsstand or retrieve it from the mailbox, you know that the articles, how-to pieces and reviews that lie between its covers are guided by voices of experience that you can trust. Whether you are sailing along the coasts or voyaging across oceans, you need information that will keep you safe, techniques to build your skills and real stories to inspire you to do more. And that’s exactly what we bring you every month.

We are happy to have you sailing with us. Look for our collector’s edition 200th issue in March!

Beneteau Sense 46 •

As I stepped out of the car, clouds hurried across the sky, giving way to sunshine and what promised to be a picture-perfect day to sail the new Beneteau Sense 46 in Annapolis, MD. With hard chines, a generous beam and large cockpit, it was easy to spot the Sense 46 from the parking lot. Up close, the boat looked as though it could sail well and carry all of my friends, family and co-workers at the same time.

The Sense 46, which rounds out a fleet that includes the 43, 50 and 55, had debuted just days earlier at the United States Sailboat Show. I was happy to climb aboard for the first time, as I had failed at several prior attempts during the show due to a constant crowd.

Glistening as the sun worked to dry off the morning dew, I walked the deck while we motored out and could not help but feel seduced by the boat’s clean and functional layout of running and standing rigging. The mainsheet is out of the way, conveniently located on an arch above the companionway, and halyards and control lines are led aft under the deck to well-placed clutches and winches that make for easy sail handling when shorthanded.

After picking up a few extra crew members, we rolled the sails out and were soon slaloming our way through anchored boats in Annapolis Harbor. The breeze was at a consistent 15 knots and we smoothly reached downwind away from the waterfront. With five of us in the cockpit, there was plenty of room to spread out and we tucked in a few jibes before turning upwind to see what this beamy broad could do close-hauled.

The 46’s beautifully cut radial mainsail and slightly overlapping genoa efficiently devoured every bit of wind coming at us. The boat we sailed had a roller furling main and genoa, though there are several sail plan options including a full-batten main with lazy jacks and a lazy bag, a code zero, an asymmetric spinnaker with sock, and an inner forestay with a self-tacking staysail.

With just a slight heel, we turned 15 knots of true wind into an effortless 6 to 7 knots of boat speed. Taking every wind shift that came off the Naval Academy in stride, the 46 easily tacked between 90 degrees and I was astounded at how quickly this 14.5-foot wide, 26,000-pound boat accelerated each time the jib was trimmed on our new course. This immense stability and responsiveness were part of the strategy laid out by Berret Racoupeau Yacht Design when they sat down to design the Sense fleet. With an LWL of 42’5’’, a wide beam and hard chines, the designers clearly meant for this to be a fast and stable boat. In creating the Sense series they are really trying to attract boat buyers who might be looking towards a catamaran, and in my mind, they’ve come about as close as you can in matching the stability of a multihull.

Not only was I thoroughly impressed by the Sense’s stability and performance, but I marveled at how easy she was to steer. I positioned myself to leeward so I could get a clear view of the telltales, and with just a few fingers on the helm, I steered the boat upwind. I couldn’t help but think I wasn’t doing much as it seemed the Sense was driving itself—I was merely there as a guide. I wondered aloud if the boat had twin rudders and was told it does, which made sense as steering seemed almost too easy.

Though I didn’t want the ride to end, we sailed back for the channel, fired up the 75-horsepower Yanmar and made quick work of putting the sails to bed. In the flat water of Back Creek I gave the 46 some power and we easily jumped up to 7 knots of boat speed. Fitted with Beneteau’s joystick “dock and go” system, sail drive and bow thruster, the boat was incredibly easy to maneuver under power in a tight space. I was charged with the task of backing into a slip that the Sense’s beam made look very narrow, but even with a stiff crosswind she handled easily in reverse and I only needed one slight touch on the bow thruster to keep us in line.

The Sense 46 was a fun and easy boat to sail. I have sailed a lot of newer boats in this size range and the 46 clearly has a uniquely stable design. I was impressed with her upwind and downwind performance and ease of handling under power. I can definitely see this boat doing as well as her fleetmates.

LIVING ABOARD
Space is not at a premium on the Sense 46. Starting with a huge open cockpit, it just gets better as you go forward. Keeping with the desire to lure potential catamaran and powerboat buyers, the designer of the Sense series split the boat into three distinct living spaces—a patio-esqe after deck, a communal living room and galley amidships, and two private sleeping cabins and heads forward.

Because the beam is carried so far aft, the cockpit becomes a spacious area not only for sailing the boat, but for entertaining as well. I can easily imagine this boat parked in a far-flung anchorage with a dozen dinghies attached to the stern and a party of people enjoying a sunset.

Not only is the cockpit a great place for entertaining, but it is also functional. The winches and lines are placed in easy to get to (and trim from) locations, and the helmsman has multiple steering options, including port and starboard two-height adjustable steering seats. The stern access for swimming and getting in and out of a dinghy is one of the best I have seen on boats in this size range. Also, because the boat does not have starboard and port aft cabins, there is abundant storage space on deck, including a locker to store gas, a liferaft storage compartment, and space for a generator (which we had).

Moving forward into the saloon and galley, you take a couple easy steps down and are instantly dazzled by the top-notch interior design done by Nauta Design. The lighting is soft and comfortable, with LEDs used throughout and large windows and hatches that let in an abundance of fresh air and sunlight. The Fruitwood Alpi joinery adds to the light and airy feel and perfectly compliments the cutting edge Euro styling. The interior headroom ranges from 6’1” to 6’7”, and handholds are well placed for moving around the cabin while underway or in a rolling anchorage.

To port is an inline galley with a substantial amount of counter space, top-loading fridge, two-basin sink and plenty of storage. The rest of the saloon is well laid out, with a large, U-shaped settee, functional nav station with a 15-degree tilting seat to compensate for heel, and a center island perfect for leaning against while cooking at sea or holding onto as you pass forward. Plus, it has more storage space and can be fitted with a flatscreen TV that pops up from the inside.

Forward of the saloon are two staterooms and heads. The guest cabin is to port with a queen-size berth and an en suite shower room and sink. Across to starboard are the head and another sink—easily accessible for visitors. The forward cabin is clearly the owner’s suite and features an island berth and an en suite head and shower. Large windows to port and starboard, coupled with a hatch above the bed, give the cabin a nice open feel. Hanging lockers, cubbyholes and cupboards are well placed in each cabin and offer enough space to store clothing for a week or a year.

BWS THOUGHTS
Beneteau clearly has something good on their hands with the Sense 46. The boat exceeded my expectations in terms of sailing ability, and the open aspects of its design—both inside and out—really caught my eye. I envision this boat as an excellent family cruiser, and every owner will want to invite friends out for afternoons and weekends of smooth sailing.

The Sense series is certainly unique, and discerning buyers who take a good look at its features and design will fall in love. And when they do, I hope they invite me along for a sail!Andrew Cross is a USCG licensed captain and US Sailing certified sailing and navigation instructor. After putting thousands of miles under his keel on the East Coast and in the Caribbean, he and his wife Jill now reside in Seattle on their Grand Soleil 39, Yahtzee. Catch more of Andrew’s expertise in each week’s edition of www.cruisingcompass.com.

Beneteau Sense 46
LOA46’4’’
LWL45’4’’
Beam14’6’’
Draft6’9”
Draft (shoal)5’9”
Displ.26,007 lbs
Sail area1072 sq. ft.
Fuel 106 gals.
Water182 gals.
Engine 75 hp

Beneteau USA
1313 West Hwy 76
Marion, SC 29571
843-629-5300
www.beneteauusa.com

December 2012 Issue of Blue Water Sailing.

Seamanship: Unleashing Women’s Potential. Thinking beyond “pink and blue” boundaries leads to smoother sailing by Teresa L. Carey. Destinations: Feliz Navidad! Celebrating a colorful Christmas in Z-town by Emily Fagan. Practical Passagemaker: Surefire Survey Strategies. Getting the most out of every type of boat evaluation by Nadine Slavinski.  Boatswain’s Locker: Bottoms Up! Employing Coppercoat in the quest for the perfect bottom job by Pete Dubler. Blue Water Boats: Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 41DS. The new deck saloon design embraces simple cruising elegance while offering innovative sailing systems. In December’s Captain’s Log, George discusses great gifts for cruisers this holiday season.

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 41DS •

The October afternoon we set off from the docks in Back Creek near Annapolis, we had aboard Jeanneau America president Paul Fenn and national sales manager Jeff Jorgenson plus BWS’s new online editor Andrew Cross. Good sailing hands all around. Andy took the helm as we dropped the mooring lines and expertly backed the 41DS out of the marina and into the channel, then spun it around and put the throttle down as we headed down creek and into the Chesapeake Bay.

Under power, the 41DS handles easily and well. With a sail drive powered by the standard 40hp diesel, the prop is well positioned to keep water pressure on the rudder, thus even at slow speeds the boat turns with assurance. Straight ahead, the boat will motor at 6.5 knots at a conservative 2000 rpms, yet will climb to her theoretical hull speed of 8.04 knots without much bother at 2800 rpms—just short of the maximum we noted given the fixed three bladed prop.

Out in the bay we rolled out the mainsail and then headed off to roll out the jib. As we did this we made use of the electric winch on the cabintop to haul out the main’s clew and then trimmed the main with the cool new reversing sheet winches built by Harken. The mainsail has been set up with a double-ended main sheet that tails to sheet winches at both helms (the 41 has twin wheels). This arrangement allows the helmsman to trim the main from either wheel, and the reversing winch action allows him to do so with the push of a button—in or out.

With battenless mainsail drawing, we next rolled out the 106 jib and sheeted it in. There is a story about the small size of the jib that has a lot to do with the action of the reversing sheet winches. In the not too distant future, you will be able to instruct your autopilot to tack. The instruments will change the helm appropriately and then ease the working, leeward sheet while the windward winch grinds in the new sheet as the boat’s bow passes through the eye of the wind. What you have is a self-tacking sloop with a slightly overlapping jib. This is new technology that Harken and the major electronics companies are working on in order to make sailing simpler and easier.

With the sails drawing, we hardened up onto the wind and trimmed for close-hauled sailing. The main was fairly flat, so we could crank it in to an impressive degree. The jib, with tight sheeting angles to the genoa cars on tracks on top of the cabin house, was a handsome blade sail that trimmed up well and gave the boat a remarkably close sailing angle of 40 degrees true wind. In the 10 to 12 knots of breeze, we were able to eek out nearly 7 knots upwind.

As we fell off the wind we could feel the 41 make use of her highly efficient hull despite the lack of sail area in the headsail. For cruising, sailors would want to add a fairly flat cut reacher on a roller to give the 41 some sporty speed and deeper angles off the wind.

The 41DS showed itself to be a handy cruiser that motors well and maneuvers easily in tight quarters and a fine sailing design that is intended to make performance cruising easier than ever. This boat can certainly be handled by a couple and is also a cinch for those who sail alone.

THE DESIGN
Philippe Briand did the basic hull design work when he drew the lines for the Jeanneau 409. The 41DS uses the same hull, keel and rudder as the 409 but has been given an entirely different deck and interior. The 409 was one of the most successful new designs in Jeanneau’s line in recent years and has earned the reputation of being a quick and capable racer-cruiser.

The distinctive features of the hull are the nearly plumb bow, the forward-raking stern profile with a modest swim platform, and the hard chines in the after sections of the hull, which expand interior volume in the after cabins and add a touch of hull stability when power reaching.

On deck, the cockpit of the 41DS makes you feel like you are on a 45-footer, with twin wheels, a handsome teak table and long bench seats. The stern platform has a telescoping swim ladder, a locker for masks and snorkels, and a hand shower. The cockpit has a teak floor and inlaid teak in the seats. The helming positions from both sides are comfortable, secure and close to all sheets and winches.

The raised deck design creates a very secure cockpit as the coamings rise to meet the curved angle of the cabintop and form one simple arch profile. When you climb out to go forward, a well-placed teak step gets you to deck level. Going forward, the sidestays run to chainplates at the cabinside so they are not in your way. The foredeck is large enough to carry an eight-foot RIB upside down when on passage.

All in all, the cockpit and deck layouts are the result of extensive design experience that puts safety and sailing qualities on level footing with style and comfort.

The 41DS’s non-dimensional design numbers are right in the middle of production cruisers, with a displacement-to-length ratio of 166, a sail area-to-displacement ratio of 17.2 and length-to-beam ratio of 2.77.

LIVING ABOARD
The 41DS comes in only one version, with a master cabin aft featuring a huge double berth, a large en suite head and a separate shower. We tested the headroom of the berth since it is tucked under the cockpit sole, and yes—a six-foot human can sit up without banging his or her head.

The forward guest cabin is only slightly less elegant and commodious, with a double V-berth and a second large head and shower.

The saloon has an L-shaped galley to starboard at the foot of the companionway stairs; the galley has twin stainless steel sinks with a unique sink cover that folds back to offer a useful place to store cups and so forth in bouncy weather. The fridge is huge and the propane stove more than adequate for two couples living and eating aboard.

The dinette will seat six around the table with four on the fixed seats and two on a portable bench. Across from the dinette is a bench settee with the chart table at its after end.

The boat is illuminated during the day via a host of opening hatches and windows and at night by arrays of flush-mounted LEDs and LED lamps at the berths and chart tables. The interior spaces feel huge and bright and will make anyone comfortable, whether sailing offshore or moored to a marina.

The fit and finish of the new generation of Jeanneaus continues to impress with attention to detail and the depth of the seamanship that informs decisions about where to put things and how to build them—enough to make any owner proud.

BWS THOUGHTS
BWS was the first magazine in North America to test the new 41DS and the first to publish a review based on a test. And we feel honored to be the first to say that the new Jeanneau takes sound production building efficiencies and methods and uses them to create a new boat that can fulfill the sailing desires of almost any cruising couple.

The 41DS is easy and fun to sail and fast to boot. The cockpit is as comfortable as any you will find in this size range, and the sailing systems are innovative. Down below, the somewhat traditional interior (by modern Euro standards) will appeal to the American market, as will the overall quality of the craftsmanship that goes into the boat.

Like the 409 in the racer-cruiser slot of the market, the new 41DS promises to offer her owners a ton of great cruising at a price that is a very good value both today and in the future, when you may want to move up to a larger boat.

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 41DS
LOA40’6”
LWL36’0”
Beam13’0”
Draft6’9”
Draft (shoal)5’0”
Displ.17,330 lbs.
Sail area720 sq. ft.
Water50 gals.
Holding40 gals.
Fuel40 gals.
Engine400hp
SA/D17.2
DL166
LWL/Beam
2.77

Jeanneau America, Inc.
105 Eastern Ave. Suite 202
Annapolis, MD 21403
410-280-9400
www.jeanneau.com

November 2012 Issue of Blue Water Sailing.

Sail Tips: Avoid Boom Doom Rigging a preventer or boom brake by Andrew Cross. Destinations: Long Island, Bahamas Fast boats and tranquil diversity by Bill Kund. Cruising Life: Barracuda! A cruiser in Cuba experiences a close encounter of the predator kind by Tom Blancart. Practical Passagemaker: Quick, Easy and Good Convenience foods for the offshore sailor by Nadine Slavinski. Energy Afloat: Sail Off the Grid by Andrew Cross, All Charged Up, Battery Banter, Monitors, Smart Chargers and Inverters, How to Choose a Genset by Daniel Collins. Blue Water Boats: Dufour 36P, Blue Jacket 40. In November’s Captain’s Log, George discusses energy independence.

Today’s well-equipped cruising boat is something of a model for how civilization will be powered in the years ahead. We start with carbon, which is still the baseline source of energy ashore and afloat. Cruisers can’t afford to waste diesel, so we have employed advanced batteries and charging systems run by our motors that optimize the electrical energy created by burning diesel. With high output alternators and smart regulators in place, it is possible to run the entire boat’s electrical system for less than $5 a day in fuel.
But we don’t stop there. On the supply side, we have adopted innovative alternative energy sources that relieve the burden on the engine, reduce our carbon footprints, and save us money and trips to the fuel dock. A small array of solar panels will add a real boost to your battery bank every day. A large array in a sunny climate will run the whole boat and almost eliminate your carbon footprint altogether. Add a wind generator and even a water-driven generator for use while underway and you can maintain a large battery bank that is servicing a complex and energy-hungry home afloat complete with refrigeration, TV, microwave oven and computers. With all of the above energy generating systems in place, we are truly energy independent.

Still, there are more ways to improve our drive for independence by working at the demand side of the equation. Simply turning off unused lights (like shutting off a running water tap) is a habit every cruising boat should have. But we have also adopted new technology much faster than many people onshore. We have long used florescent bulbs to save energy and now we are rapidly installing LED bulbs wherever we can, from tri-color lights at the masthead to little lights in the engine room. The energy saved by doing away with incandescent bulbs is impressive.

The funny thing about highly motivated cruisers developing modern and innovative ways to be energy independent is that it did not necessarily occur because we were trying to save the planet. Rather, we were making capital investments in technology to live in a way that gives us the maximum independence to go where we like when we like without being tied to the fuel dock. In the context of the cruising life, reducing our carbon footprint as much as possible while making use of the energy that lies all around us is what sets us free. That this energy independence also helps reduce carbon emissions is an excellent net result. Hmmm…I wonder if there is a lesson in there somewhere?

Blue Jacket 40 •

The new Blue Jacket 40 that is scheduled for launch in December is a unique project among American builders and promises to be one of the most interesting new boats to come along in years. Tim Jackett, who was CEO and chief designer of Tartan and C&C Yachts for many years, went out on his own last year after building more than 2,500 boats to his own designs. When Island Packet’s founder, CEO and chief designer Bob Johnson, who has also built about 2,500 yachts, heard that his old friend was setting up his own design shop, he made a phone call that got the ball rolling on a new line of performance cruisers to be built in Island Packet’s facilities in Largo, Florida.

The brief for the new design, called the Blue Jacket 40, was to create a true performance cruiser that would provide exhilarating sailing performance and acquit itself ably around the buoys and in point-to-point events while maintaining a level of cruising comfort that modern sailors, racers and cruisers have come to expect. No small task.

The result is a stylish, modern, fin keel, spade rudder sloop that benefits from the vast design and building experience of two of America’s premier yacht designers and builders. The hull has sleek lines with a fairly plumb bow, a nicely squared off transom and just a hint of a curve in the sheerline. The hull carries maximum beam fairly far aft so the cockpit and after cabins are as spacious as possible.

The numbers tell the tale of the Blue Jacket 40’s performance pedigree. The standard design with the deep keel has a sail area-to-displacement ratio of 21.8, which means the rig has plenty of horsepower. The displacement-to-length ratio of 172 puts the boat in the “moderately light” category and indicates that the design will be quick but should also have a pleasant motion going through and over waves. The ballast-to-displacement ratio of 39 percent indicates that the 40 will stand up nicely to the breeze and should easily convert pressure into boat speed.

The 40 has a double headsail or Solent rig with the self-tacking jib on a carbon fiber Hoyt Jib Boom. Forward of the jib, a reacher is fitted with the tack mounted on the small prod or sprit that has been built off the bow. For upwind sailing, the self-tacking jib will provide very close sheeting angles and effortless tacking. The reacher will be deployed when off the wind for maximum sail area and performance. Both sails are on Harken roller furling units and can be handled from the cockpit. The full battened mainsail is handled with a double-ended sheet from either side of the cockpit and furls neatly into a carbon fiber pocket-style boom.

The Blue Jacket 40 is being built by the craftsmen who build Island Packets, so we can expect to find very high quality and integrity in the boat. The hull and deck are vinylester-infused moldings with Divinycell foam cores. The hull is reinforced with a laminated grid and an interior molded unit stiffens the hull and anchors the bulkheads, tanks and chainplates. You will find a belt and suspenders approach throughout.

The new Blue Jacket 40 is a uniquely American sailing yacht that evokes the best in this country’s boat building traditions, and was drawn and is being built by two friends who between them have built more than 5,000 high quality, innovative, ocean sailing yachts. Look for a full review of the Blue Jacket 40 early in the New Year. For more information, contact Blue Jacket Yachts at 727-535-6431 or visit www.bluejacketyachts.com

Dufour 36P •

The summer afternoon we test-sailed the new Dufour 36 Performance was warm and clear and the promise of a sea breeze was turning steadily into a reality on the waters of Rhode Island’s Narragansett Bay.

With six of us aboard, including Olympic sailor and author Carol Cronin, we hoisted the big mainsail and rolled out the 114 percent working jib. The 36P, which displaces only 14,000 pounds, feels very nimble underfoot, and even though the breeze was still an hour away, the boat put her shoulder down as we sheeted in and accelerated very smartly.

With Carol at the helm, we threw the 36P through a series of tacks. We were pleased to see the new design tack through 33 degrees apparent wind while making 5.5 knots in 7 knots of true breeze. It’s always fun to do boat tests with a sailor like Carol aboard since she raises everyone’s game just by being there.

The twin wheels, which are mounted on diagonal pedestals, are fairly far outboard, so you have an excellent view ahead and of the headsail from both the leeward and windward sides. The fractional, slightly overlapping jib trims inside the sidestays, which allows for tight sheeting angles and very close-hauled sailing.

The cockpit has the main traveler running across the sole just forward of the wheels; the sheet is double-ended, which means you can trim from either side of the cockpit. The cockpit lockers are demountable so you can open up the cockpit when racing with a full crew or you can leave them installed when cruising. Aft, the low transom folds down to make a swim platform with a sturdy stainless steel ladder. A life raft can be stowed aft in a compartment under the cockpit sole.

It is not often that a builder supplies a spinnaker for sail trials, but the 36 Performance is designed to be a true dual-purpose boat, so we had a chute to fly. The big sail was in a snuffer, which made it simple to hoist and deploy. Tacked down to the retractable carbon bowsprit, the asymmetrical chute really pulled the 36P along sweetly. Sailing at about 150 degrees apparent, the boat sailed as if on rails and accelerated noticeably in the early puffs of the sea breeze.

All in all, the 36P was a true pleasure to sail. We did not get the chance to crank it up around a race course, but later in the summer the Dufour dealers at North Star Yachts and a crew took the 36P to the Buzzard’s Bay Regatta in Massachusetts and won the 22-mile distance race on the first day.

CRUISING ACCOMMODATIONS
The 36P has simple yet elegant accommodations for living aboard. The forward cabin has a V-berth with storage underneath and lockers for clothes. The after cabin has a large double berth and plenty of locker space; ventilation is via a large vertical hatch in the cockpit well.

The galley is surprisingly large for a 36-footer, with a Corian counter, double stainless steel sinks, a large fridge and a two-burner propane stove. Across from it is a large head compartment with an integral shower. The head is spacious enough to be a good wet locker for foul weather gear when racing or sailing in heavy weather.

The bench settees to port and starboard are long enough to be extra berths. Between them is a centerline table with drop leaves and a top-loading wine locker. The whole atmosphere below decks is bright and modern without being too Euro-trendy. The fixed ports in the hull and the cabin sides are long and narrow but let in a lot of light and provide a limited outside view when seated. Overhead white panels highlighted with wood battens provide a pleasant traditional yacht finish to the cabin.

Two couples will be very comfortable cruising aboard the 36P. For regattas, you can fit six with two sleeping forward separated by a bundling board, two in the saloon and two in the aft double. The boat can be raced with six, although you may want an extra body or two in windy conditions.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION
Designed by Italian Umberto Felci, the 36P has a distinctive look with a plumb bow, fairly plumb stern, very long waterline and flat sheer. The hull has a slight chine in the after sections that adds to hull volume aft and should add a bit of power when the boat is reaching.

Under the water the boat has a high aspect, cast iron fin keel with a standard depth of seven feet, two inches. A shoal draft keel is also available. The spade rudder has been designed with a semi-elliptical shape that gives it a good bite on the water and a great feel when sailing upwind in the groove.

The 9/10ths fractional rig, with two swept back spreaders, has an aluminum mast that is stepped on the top of the keel. The standing rigging is discontinuous stainless wire so you can tune the rig accurately. It comes with a rigid boom vang and a carbon sprit forward that fits neatly inside the starboard bow.

The hull is foam core above the waterline and solid composite below the waterline. Wide longitudinal stringers run the length of the hull on both sides just above the waterline, which adds to hull stiffness and strength. Inside the hull, the builders use a pan liner to add stiffness, which becomes the foundation for interior joinery and the engine mount, chain plates and keel bolts.

With a displacement of 14,000 pounds and a working sail area of 776 square feet, the 36P is fairly light and powerful. The sail area to displacement ratio is 21.6, which fits right into the racing end of the racer-cruiser fleet.

A solid, well built boat, the 36P benefits from Dufour’s long heritage building production boats and their more recent commitment to designing and building boats that sail better and faster than many production designs.

Dufour 36 Performance
LOA 36’0”
LWL 33’6”
Beam 11’10”
Draft 7’0”
Displ. 14,109 lbs.
Ballast 4,188
Sail area 776 sq. ft.
Mast height 57’8”
Engine 29 hp diesel
Water 53 gals.
Fuel 24 gals.
Holding 12 gals.

Dufour Yachts

Phone: 352-871-0362
eric.macklin@dufour-yachts.com

October 2012 Issue of Blue Water Sailing.

Classic Passages: Highlights of a Homeward Bound Voyage by Jessica Rice Johnson. Cruising Life: 30-Something Cruisers. Why wait for retirement? Put your cruising plans on fast forward and go now by Jen Williamson.  Seamanship: A Harrowing Journey Crossing the pirate-infested Indian Ocean can be a life-or-death guessing game by Desiree Trattles.  Boat Show Boats: Blue Water Sailing reviews the Morris 52 and the Jeanneau 509. In October’s Captain’s Log, George discusses monitoring the weather for offshore passages.

On a passage from Nassau in the Bahamas to Newport, RI last spring, we tried out the latest version of WeatherNet from OCENS, which runs on a laptop and gets weather data in digestible packets via an Iridium sat phone. There is so much weather information available through the OCENS portal that you have to be careful not to overdo it since you pay for each download.

We like the seven-day surface wind forecasts and we needed an up-to-date Gulf Stream map, so we downloaded these before we left Nassau. The wind maps were very accurate as were the Gulf Stream charts, although we did find several local anomalies south of Cape Hatteras. Unfortunately, we had an operator error with the sat phone that shut down the data feed and left us approaching the North Carolina coast with only a fuzzy, four-day-old forecast.

On to plan B. BWS is a sponsor of the new Salty Dawg Rally (see the update on page 26), and our contribution is to subsidize daily weather and routing for rally sailors provided by Chris Parker (www.caribwx.com). We were able to reach Chris by sat phone (voice was still working) and he very ably supplied us with forecasts for the rest of the trip home. Rounding Hatteras was the tricky part since a low was brewing just to the east of the famous cape. NOAA was predicting 25-knot easterlies, but Chris saw the low inching away and predicted calms for our rounding. He was right.

Both Chris and NOAA agreed that the low would generate strong northeasterlies when we got to the Delaware. Time for plan C. We tacked our way across the bay’s mouth in 30-knot headwinds and then beat a retreat into Cape May, NJ, where we hunkered down for 24 hours.

The next morning, NOAA was calling for the wind to abate within 24 hours. But we could see the barometer rising and Chris’s morning weather broadcast on SSB 4045 forecast the wind off New York to veer to the south that afternoon. That was our ride home. We set off from Cape May and were home in 36 hours.

NOAA does a great job and we are pleased that their forecasts always err on the side of caution. By using your own tools like Passageweather, PredictWind or the comprehensive, professional tools available through OCENS WeatherNet, you can increase your chances of sailing in favorable weather.

Working with a professional like Chris Parker or the gurus at Commanders’ Weather will take you to the next level and can really help you find those weather windows that make all the difference when blue water sailing. We count ourselves lucky to have access to so much quality weather information.

Morris M52 • A graceful Sparkman & Stephens design, the new M52 is a sailing craft of which dreams are made.

In an age when so many cruising boats are evolving toward hulls with large interior volumes, long waterlines and short rigs suitable for the Intracoastal Waterway, the new Morris M52 looks like a throwback to another simpler, more gilded age. With her long, sweeping sheer-line, graceful overhangs fore and aft, and low, squared-off cabin with a classic butterfly hatch, the 52 evokes the beautiful classics from the days of Herreshoff, Alden, Rhodes and Burgess. Even among all of the amazing sailing yachts that were in Newport, RI last summer when we sailed the new 52, the boat stands out as a true thoroughbred.

We joined the 52 at the Newport Shipyard and were happy, in this instance, to remove shoes before climbing aboard—not something I generally like to do. But the immaculate teak decks, the shining stainless stanchions, hardware and winches, and the varnished teak toe rail and trim together announced that this was a proper yacht that we did not want to scuff.

We fired up the engine and were pleasantly surprised at how quiet it was in the cockpit; the splash of the exhaust was louder than the engine itself. We dropped lines and motored carefully from the crowded marina into Narragansett Bay. The 52 has a high aspect spade rudder and a bulbed cruising fin keel. Under power it steers effortlessly and when we had to back the boat into her slip at the end of the day, it steered in reverse without griping or sideways prop walk.

The 52 is rigged with an 80-foot tall carbon spar, an in-boom roller furling mainsail and a self-tacking fractional jib. All of the running rigging leads belowdecks via conduits and aft to the control stations, i.e. huge electric winches and line clutches on either side of the helm. This keeps the decks free of clutter and enables one person at the helm to manage all aspects of sail trim with the push of a button or two.

In-boom furling mainsails can be tricky to furl and unfurl without getting overrides on the boom’s mandrel since the boom itself has to be set up when furling at an 89.5 degree angle to the mast. The 52, however, was equipped with the new Holmatro boom vang, which has a preset adjustment that positions the boom exactly with the press of a button. The main unfurled and hoisted and later rolled up without any snags or overrides. This detail says a lot about how the 52 has been set up for simple but precise sail handling.

The 52 was equipped with beautiful sails and the rig itself was tall by modern standards, so we had a lot of mainsail to control. We rolled out the jib on its Harken electric furler and trimmed for close-hauled sailing out of the mouth of the bay. The first sensation when she puts her shoulder down and accelerates is the sense of raw power in the rig; then you notice how close you are sailing to the wind. Being long and narrow and with tight sheeting angles, the 52 claws to windward like a 12 meter, and once in the groove she stays balanced and straight as an arrow. In light airs, she is a rocketship to windward.

We tacked out to sea for a while and then flopped over and broad-reached our way homeward, jibing from reaching angle to reaching angle as we went. With the small self-tacking jib, you can’t run dead downwind efficiently, so tacking downwind is the way to go. Off the wind, the 52 slipped along gracefully and had a remarkably good turn of speed.

Like her little M-Yacht sisters, the 52 is a fun and fast boat to sail. With all lines led aft to the helm, it is easy for one person to manage trim, and with the rig set up for multiple sail adjustments it is easy to perfect sail shape to the breezes and angles you find when coastal sailing.

MORRIS STYLE
Below decks, the 52 offers a simple, elegant interior finished in the finest Maine-built fashion. With only 14 feet of beam to work with, the saloon feels narrow by modern standards, but has everything you need for comfortable living aboard and fine entertaining.

The master stateroom forward has a queen-size berth built on the centerline, a full height hanging locker, and plenty of storage space for clothes, shoes and linens. The master head compartment is well laid out with a separate shower stall.

The saloon has a U-shaped dinette to port and a bench settee to starboard with the chart table at its after end. The galley is compact but has ample counter space for preparing meals and washing up, and easy access to the fridge and storage compartments.

The 52 comes standard with a guest cabin aft and to port, with a day head just forward of it. The version we sailed had this good-size cabin plus a single pilot berth built into starboard aft of the galley so there was room aboard to sleep five comfortably.

With raised panels on the bulkheads and doors and the antique white and varnished cherry joinery, the 52 has a classic look that has endured aboard American yachts for generations and will no doubt endure for generations to come. Not opulent, but certainly very elegant, the 52 has the feel of a family heirloom.

BWS THOUGHTS
We have sailed and reviewed a lot of boats over the years and always enjoy the opportunity to sail a new Morris. Like his father Tom, Cuyler Morris understands that there will always be a market for craft that are built with passion to a very high standard. Throughout the boat, every detail has been thought through and then crafted by hand to be highly functional and amazingly attractive. Whether you are staring at your own reflection in the deep varnish of the saloon table or trimming the mainsail to the nth degree with well-positioned winches, clutches and buttons, you know that sailing an M52 is a very special and unique experience.

Morris M-52
LOA 52’11”
LWL 38’02”
Beam 14’00”
Draft, standard 6’8”
Draft, shoal 5’8”
Displacement 34,064 lbs
Ballast 11,391 lbs
Ballast, shoal 11,947 lbs
Sail area 1,414 sq ft
Air draft 80’
Water 100 gals
Fuel 80 gals
Holding 40 gals

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 509 •

The trade winds were huffing and puffing the afternoon we got out on Miami’s Biscayne Bay to test sail the new Jeanneau 509, which made for fun and sometimes exciting sailing. The big Philippe Briand design was certainly up to every bit of it.

I had come aboard on the fly from another much smaller cruiser and was immediately taken with the stability and poise of the 509. As I took the helm, the crew aboard tightened the sheets so we could head up to close-hauled. With a flat cut in-mast furling mainsail and a 125 percent genoa, the 509 was not overpowered even as the breeze gusted to 18 knots or so. And because of her generous beam she sailed very flat and transformed wind energy almost directly into boat speed until we were sailing along happily at 8.5 knots upwind.

We threw the 509 through a few tacks to see how she behaved and can report that she carried her moderate displacement through the tacks well and maintained boat speed as we trimmed and then accelerated up to 8+ knots again in a few boat lengths. Philippe Briand certainly knows how to design slippery boats.

Cracking off to a broad reach we felt the 509’s real power. We were at 9 knots more often than not, which is getting close to hull speed in about 13 knots of apparent wind.

For the fun of it, we sailed the 509 back up the narrow channel to Miamarina and, having got our signals crossed, parked her for a moment on a sand bank. With the mainsail aback and the engine in full reverse we got her off again without fuss and discovered that the boat handles very well under power and in close quarters.

The 509 is a fine sailing boat that has a good turn of speed. She is easy to handle, and with roller furling sails can be got underway in a heartbeat and put to bed just as quickly.

COMFORT ABOARD
In the 1990s, Jeanneau came up with a design concept for their boats that has evolved ever since, but is still very much true to the philosophy that the boats, particularly the larger models, should be comfortable to live aboard, have excellent sailing characteristics and be convenient for the crew.

It starts with an open transom and swim platform aft, which makes a good boarding platform from the dinghy as well as a swim platform and an outdoor shower. In the current models such as the 509, the old sugar scoop design has given way to a square stern profile with a central panel that folds down to make a huge aft platform.

The helm is divided into two wheels, so the helmsman always has a good view forward and there is a clear passageway to the aft platform. This idea really developed when the boats grew a lot of beam aft, and in the 509—with a chine in the aft sections—the cockpit is wider than ever. This makes for more room in the cabins below and adds to the volume and comfort of the cockpit, where the crew will spend most of its time in summer weather. The cockpit table, with the chartplotter mounted neatly in its aft end, will seat eight for dinner and the whole cockpit area will be comfortable for 12 or more for sundowners.

Down below, the new 509 has four optional interiors—three with an in-line galley on the starboard side and one with an aft galley. And, you can have it with four double cabins or three double cabins. You can also add or subtract heads as your cruising style and family requires. The owner’s version has a large double cabin forward with an en suite head and shower stall. The two guest cabins are aft in the stern quarters, yet they are very spacious and comfortable because of the extra hull volume in the aft sections. The saloon has a U-shaped dinette with two freestanding chairs to complete the seating. Across from it is a bench settee that can convert into a shorter bench with a table at one end. The chart table is just aft of the dinette and faces aft.

Jeanneau has always finished its interiors with fine marine-grade woods, whether teak or other types. The new boats use a synthetic wood called Alpi that has a uniform color and grain and will not delaminate. The interior of the boat we sailed was a very warm honey-colored veneer offset by white overhead panels and attractive off-white overheads and hull liners. The net effect is of a boat with very good ventilation and tons of natural light in all of the living spaces.

Over the years, Jeanneau has built many boats with variations of this layout that have proven to be excellent cruising homes for couples and families. And, in our experience, the larger Jeanneaus are excellent sea boats with long legs for quick passage-making and reliable systems and rigging setups for safety and performance. Whether coastal cruising with nightly anchorages and easy daysails or passage-making, the overall design and execution of the new 509 will get you home better rested than when you left. And that makes for happy and safe cruising.

BWS THOUGHTS
As part of the enormous Groupe Beneteau, and now as a market leader in North America, Jeanneau has the ability to build boats that maximize the group’s economies of scale while keeping pricing at reasonable levels. This combination has made it hard for others to compete. In the end, sailors will benefit from this evolution.

It is now possible to buy a 50-foot cruising boat such as the 509 at a relatively fair price and know that you are getting a high quality, durable and safe boat that combines the latest in modern construction technology with the design brilliance of Philippe Briand and the in-house Jeanneau engineering team. Rest assured that with the 509, you can sail anywhere you want in comfort and style.

Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 509
LOA 50’5”
LWL 45’8”
Beam 15’8”
Draft (std.) 7’5”
Draft (shoal) 5’8”
Displ. 30,644 lbs.
Water 163 gals
Fuel 63 gals
Sail area 1,227 q. ft.
www.jeanneau.com

Sail Tips: Adding Reef Points by Heather Hamilton. Destinations: Into the Wild, The perils and rewards of South Georgia Island by Peter Smith. Practical Passagemaker: Shake Down South, A cruising family gets reacquanted with the live-aboard lifestyle on an East Coast run by Nadine Slavinski. Classic Passage: Sail Fish, Sailing from Argentina to Virginia on a catamaran by Shaun Sullivan. Seamanship: Overtaken, A sudden storm dampens a passage from Grays Harbor to San Francisco by Craig Lukin.  Boat Show Preview: 33 New Boats to Love. Blue Water Boats: Bavaria Vision 46.  Design Review: Pacific Seacraft 61.

Sail Tips: Sheet Lead by Connie McBride. Destinations: Finding Refuge, A tale of two approaches to an enchanted Australian cove by Anthony Baxter. World Cruising Adventures. The Best Destinations for Long Weekend Charters. Island-Hopping in the Abacos by Shayne Benowitz. Back to School! by Andrew Cross

Cover shot: Mahina Tiare III, a Hallberg-Rassy 46
sailing past the entrance to Opunohu Bay, Moorea.

The trip north was really two passages—the fast Gulf Stream run from the Florida Straits to Cape Hatteras and the slower final leg northward to Newport. The first half was hot with regular squalls and a fine following breeze. Hatteras, that famous graveyard, was a millpond. The run northward presented our first headwinds and the option to spend a night in Cape May, NJ to let a cold front blow through. Then we had a quick run homeward with the wind behind us.

Along the way we saw every type of spring weather, from tropical squalls to mid-Atlantic thunder boomers to crisp northerlies, with mostly fair breezes in between. We saw whales, dolphin and a few seabirds and caught a delicious Spanish mackerel. It took us seven sailing days to get home. Thanks, Lime’n, for such a fine passage.

We carried a SPOT tracking device with us that allowed friends, family and our wives, who couldn’t make the trip (they had to stay home to work, of course) to follow our progress. And we carried a SatPhone (rented from OCENS) so we could call in now and then and also speak to our weather guru Chris Parker about routing. We didn’t think too much about the SPOT. We just left it in the cockpit, where it updated our position to the SPOT website every few minutes.

So we were in for a bit of a surprise when we called home from Cape May only to be greeted with the joking question from Rosie, “What have you boys been up to? The SPOT had you wandering all over Cape May!” Apparently, Tony had it in his pocket on our trek to West Marine.

And then the night before we got to Newport, Tony’s cell phone suddenly rang…not something that happens often at sea. It was his son Jeff calling from San Francisco, asking us why we just jibed. Tony replied, “To sail around a squall, of course.” They had their eyes on us the whole way, and when we got home the friends and family who followed us reported that they enjoyed their vicarious voyage north and were never seasick once.

Which I appreciated all the more the following week when our two sons Si and Tim set off to race aboard the Class 40 Toothface in the classic Newport-Bermuda Race. I had the race tracker open in a box on my laptop’s screen for the three days it took them to complete the race so I could follow their every jibe and tack. The race was a fast, wet and exhausting sprint. The boys arrived safely, and I haven’t enjoyed a race so much in years—dry and warm in my own home all the way.

As Jack Aubrey would say, “Fascinating modern world we live in.”

As we publish our annual feature on small cruisers, weekenders and daysailers, it is good to remember that there have been many notable voyages made by intrepid sailors in boats even smaller that Matt’s Vega.

In the 50s, twenty-something John Guzzwell built a lovely 20-foot sloop and then sailed little Trekka around the world on a very safe and seamanlike voyage. His book, Trekka Around the World, is a classic that illustrates just how inexpensively and simply you can cruise.

In the 60s (and for the next 30 years), Tim and Pauline Carr roamed the world aboard their 1905-built, 28-foot gaff-headed cutter Curlew. Their adventures often took them to the high latitudes, including Antarctica, the Falklands and the South Georgia Islands. Their book Antarctic Oasis tells of their adventures in the Great Southern Oceans.

In the 70s and 80s, Lin and Larry Pardey made a leisurely and very solid eastabout circumnavigation aboard their 24-foot Lyle Hess cutter Seraffyn. Their famous phrase “Go Small, Go Now” is the best advice ever given to cruisers on a budget. They now cruise aboard their 29-foot cutter Taleisin. They have written many books, including Cruising in Seraffyn, which has sold more than 50,000 copies.

In the 70s, regular BWS contributor Patrick Childress sailed his Catalina 27 around the world, much to everyone’s surprise and delight. It was a classic westward voyage and was completed without incident. Patrick and his wife Rebecca are out cruising again, this time aboard their vintage Valiant 40 Brickhouse—a veritable ship compared to the 27-footer.

In the 80s, 18-year-old Tania Aebi spent two years sailing around the world aboard her Contessa 26 Varuna and returned to New York City an inspiration to many young sailors, particularly young women. Her book Maiden Voyage is a great story filled with the adventure and romance of a young woman’s sail around the world.

So, it has been done and can be done. In this issue, we highlight 77 small cruisers, weekenders and daysailers, several of which would make fine boats for extended cruising. It’s not the size of the boat that matters most, but the size of the dream in the skipper’s heart.

Sail Tips: Heaving-To, The ocean is your
parking lot by Andrew Cross. Destinations:
Great Heights, Exploring St. Pierre, Martinique
from the ground up by Connie McBride
Boatswain’s Locker: Fenders for Tenders,
Strategies for extending the life of your smallest vessel
by Patrick Childress. Pocket Cruisers: From Meek to Mighty by Captain John King, No Small Feat by Paul J. Bartels, Small is Beautiful by George Day, Models We Like. Blue Water Boats: Catalina 315

Cover shot: BWS publisher George Day takes the
helm of a Catalina 315 off Miami, Florida

June

In Boat Rat’s Tip: Fresh From the Oven, Jeffrey Stander writes  about  baking the best bread at sea. In Destinations, Elizabeth Brouse explores the clean green and serene of  Terrific Tobago. In The Maine Attraction: A Sailor’s Mecca, Nadine Slavinski writes “Maine’s slogan is right, this is the way life should be”.  In Blue Water Boats, we first take a look at the new Hanse 495, and then the Bill Dixon-designed pilothouse cruiser Moody 45 DS, and finally, in Captain’s Log George writes about going Cold iTurkey with our web habit when cruising.

That said, we were equally amazed at the proliferation of mega motor yachts in the shallow waters of the Exumas, where the depth is rarely more than 20 feet on the banks and anchorages often have fewer than eight feet of water at low tide. The mega yachts come with a stable of smaller play boats, so we were harassed regularly by high speed jet skis and 40 knot inflatables. Oh well. Natural selection tends to take care of the worst offenders.

These behemoths tend to congregate near communities that have phone and email service that is spotty at best. There are Batelco towers here and there, but the signal range for these is line-of-sight—if you can’t see the tower, you can’t make a call. And Internet service is even sketchier. There are a few fee-based hot spots, but you need a Wi-Fi booster antenna to get service.

Due to the press of mega yachts near communications facilities, we spent our time exploring the remoter regions of the Exuma Cays Land and Sea Park, which meant we were without phone or Internet service for most of two weeks. This should not have been a problem since we are old enough to have lived most of our lives without cell phones and the Internet, and we have also lived aboard for years at a time with no communication beyond SSB radio.

But it was. For me. Not for Rosa. I had no idea how addicted I had become to the Internet and smartphone service. Without a connection, I started suffering from IT DTs. No wonder the mega yachts were so festooned with huge satellite communications domes and anchored near the phone towers! I get it. Being unplugged hurts.

I knew it was wrong to be so bummed out about being disconnected in one of the world’s finest cruising grounds, far from the madding “cloud.” Rosie kept urging me to relax. Trouble is, having moved so many regular life functions onto the web and being accustomed to staying in touch with friends, family, the BWS staff and vendors on a regular basis whether in the office or away, I was definitely cut off. I started to feel the effect of going Cold iTurkey.

After 10 days, we found our way to the north anchorage at Warderick Wells, where the park offers Wi-Fi for $10 per day (if you can receive it). With some anticipation, we fired up the laptop and logged in. What a disappointment. There were no urgent messages, no calls to action, no bleats for help from the office—not even messages from the kids. But there were 778 new emails in my inbox, 700 of which were the standard flurry of press releases, vendor newsletters, bank statements, travel advisories and the like. Plus consumer spam from around the planet. This is what I had been missing?

After half an hour, I shut down the laptop and put it away. As usual, Rosie was right. And it was a whole lot easier going Cold iTurkey the second week—life without the Internet is indeed very relaxing.

Moody DS 45 Magic •

We sailed the Moody DS 45 in Newport, RI on one of those clear, warm fall days that make me realize how lucky I am to go sailing as part of my job. I was out with my old friend Alan Baines, who is the dealer for Moody in the Northeast and an accomplished sailor in his own right.

The Moody was lying to a mooring off the Jamestown Boat Yard, so we hitched a ride from a boatyard hand—the launch service had ended for the season—and climbed aboard just as the breeze began to build. There was still a little warmth in the sunlight, and across Narragansett Bay several classic 12 meters under charter were tacking easily seaward.

From your first look at the Moody DS 45, you know you are not dealing with a Moody from the old days. Hanse Yachts purchased the Moody brand some years ago and immediately set out in a completely new direction. And the new deck saloon design is certainly something different.

We opened up the boat, got the engine going and dropped the mooring so we could motor away from the mooring field before rolling out the main. The 45 has in-mast furling on the main and roller furling on the 100 percent self-tacking jib. I have to say that pilothouse designs make me think of motorsailers, which in turn dampens any expectation that the boat will sail nimbly or quickly. But the 45 is different. Designed by Bill Dixon, the boat is a sailboat first and a deck saloon cruiser second.

We rolled out the mainsail and jib, then fell off onto a close reach to get the boat going. And go she did. The long waterline, big mainsail and jib got to work, and soon we were sailing upwind at 5, then 6 knots in 10 knots of true breeze. And because the headsail sheets at a very close angle, the 45 was able to sail very close to the wind, higher in fact than the 12 meters with the big overlapping genoas ahead of us on the bay.

The cockpit layout makes it a little tricky to see forward while sailing. If you are steering from the leeward side, you can look down the decks to keep the jib’s telltales in sight and you can see through the saloon windows as you look forward. From the windward side you have to stand up to see forward clearly.

Alan had to take a phone call, so I put the 45 through a series of tacks—with a turn of the wheel—and then eased sheets to reach off.

The boat slipped through the water very sweetly and maintained good momentum through the tacks. Off the wind, the long waterline provided a good turn of speed. I have to say, I was surprised by the 45’s sailing characteristics, ease of handling and speed, not to mention the proper sailing feel of the helm. This is indeed a sailboat first.

ON DECK
The brief that Hanse handed Dixon when the project began must have simply said, “And now for something completely different,” because that is exactly what they got. Once upon a time there was a deck saloon charter boat called the Jeanneau Atoll that was sort of like the Moody…but not really. And back in 2001, Dixon created a custom 44-foot deck saloon design called Silver Phantom that may have had a tad of influence on the 45.

But the new design goes much farther in its innovations. The more recent Nor’east 400 and Bruckmann 50 by Mark Ellis are examples of traditional visions of the pilothouse motorsailer, but the DS 45 is a more modern iteration. The hull has high slab sides, a plumb bow, and a square stern with the hint of a chine in the quarters. The stern folds down to make a swim platform and an in-hull dinghy dock for a small inflatable. The cockpit and saloon are on one level, so when you have the large sliding doors to the saloon open, the two spaces merge into one indoor-outdoor living room.

Over the cockpit, there is a hard bimini top with a retracting center panel that opens to the sky so you can have as much sun or rain protection as you desire. There are twin wheels and large comfortable seats behind each. The sailing instruments are mounted in pods on the after end of the bimini top.

Going forward, the decks are surrounded by quite high bulwarks that keep water off the deck and provide a real sense of security for those going forward—almost like on a large powerboat. Instead of lifelines, there are solid stainless steel rails on top of the bulwarks from bow to stern. The anchor locker and anchoring system are truly innovative. The foredeck and bow are clear and uncluttered with the anchoring system, until you open the anchor locker’s lid.

Beneath it, you will find the anchor upside down on its roller, the windlass and chain locker. With a flick of the wrist, you can deploy the whole anchor roller and anchor so it is securely in position over the bow and ready to drop. Then, with the push of a button, the anchor and chain run out with the anchor well away from the gelcoat on the bow.

The 45’s decks are clean and well laid out, with all halyards and control lines led aft to the cockpit winches via conduits in the cabintop and cockpit seat backs. The mainsheet runs from a fixed point on the cabin top—no traveler, thank you—up the boom to the mast and then aft. The leach of the sail is controlled with the vang, which can also be adjusted from the cockpit. The whole feel of the 45 on deck is of space well used, of comfort carefully planned for, and of sailing made fun, convenient and effortless.

YACHT STYLE LIVING
I don’t use the word “yacht” very often in reviews. It evokes, in my mind, large and expensive vessels with crew and too much of everything that a couple or family doesn’t need, or even want. But yacht style is a definite quality that you find in certain traditional brands such as Hinckley and Morris, or in high-end luxury custom boats from the likes of Lyman Morse, Oyster and others. You know it when you see it. And you definitely see it in the Moody DS 45.

The cockpit offers it first, with the inlaid teak of the helm seats, the fine teak decking, and the handsome cockpit table between bench seats that are softened with proper cushions, backs and bolsters. The sliding saloon doors are of the bulletproof variety for seagoing integrity, but they look stylish and modern with bright stainless steel trim and hardware.

The boat I sailed had a varnished mahogany and white interior that is the old Herreshoff signature that became classic American yacht style. A lighter-colored maple finish is also available. The deck saloon on the 45 is not large, but manages to offer a dinette to starboard that will seat six, a full galley with all of the normal appliances, and a forward-facing pilot and nav station where you can sit and run the boat. I like sitting in this seat, autopilot in hand, as the rain pelts down on the cabintop.

As in large yachts, the sleeping and head compartments are completely separate from the open living spaces and down three steps going forward. The master stateroom with a centerline double berth, vanity or desk, and storage lockers lies all the way forward. There is a large deck hatch over the bunk for ventilation and light.

The master head, with a separate shower, is just aft and to port. The guest or day head is across from the master head and accessible from the corridor. In the standard layout, two guest cabins lie aft on both sides of the corridor. The starboard cabin has twin singles with a nice leg space between them and ample storage. The port cabin has a double berth that you mount from the forward end; this can be awkward for large or older people, so it may make sense to offer twins in this cabin as well. The port cabin can be redesigned as an office with a large desk for those who want to mix business and cruising.

The concept of creating truly separate living and private spaces in a boat of this size mirrors what can be achieved in cruising catamarans, plus in the 45 you get the same 360° view. It is, in a way, a “monomaran” that seems like a hybrid of the two types of boats. And it is a concept that others are gradually imitating. The Moody DS 45 is an altogether innovative cruising boat for a couple or a family.

Being able to sail or motor from the warmth and comfort of the deck saloon is a huge benefit. Also, indoor-outdoor living on one level in the saloon and the large cockpit is just what most cruising folks are looking for. Having the private spaces be truly private will appeal to most of the family members and guests you bring aboard, while the huge master suite will feel like the best home away from home you can imagine in a 45-footer.

This is a boat that has a whole lot going for it, all wrapped up in a very stylish package that will set it apart as a design for real cruising folk.

Moody DS 45

LOA 45’00”
LWL 42’42”
Beam 14’12”
Draft 6’34”
Displacement 30,864
Ballast 9,479 lbs.
Engine 106 hp.
Fresh water 200 gals.
Fuel tank 150 gals.
Mast height 78’
Sail area 1,300 sq; ft.
Design Dixon Yacht Design

www.moodyboats.com

In The Well Dressed Cruiser, Shayne Benowitz writes about layering for comfort and safety from head to toe.  In Classic Passages: Pit Stop in Paradise, Todd Duff explores Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador. In Fitting out: Remasting in the Pacific Part 2, Patrick Childress writes “From Rust Rises Endurance”.
In Blue Water Boats, we take a close look at the new 56-foot Frers design from Hylas Yachts, and finally, in Captain’s Log George reflects on pitfalls of a rigid cruising schedule.

This happened to Rosie and me in a big way when we first set off, years ago, with our two sons to sail our 43-foot ketch Clover to New Zealand from our home in Newport, RI. The plan that fall was to leave Newport in October, sail to Bermuda with my brother Steve and good buddy Herb as crew, then head to the BVI for Thanksgiving. From there we would cruise south through the Eastern Caribbean with the expectation of having Christmas in Grenada before heading for Panama and the Pacific Ocean.

On the basis of this plan, we encouraged our parents and siblings to join us in Grenada for the holidays. It all sounded sensible, but wasn’t—in no small part because we were cruising with two small children and had vowed to avoid storms at sea if at all possible.

On our first day out on the passage to Bermuda, we decided to turn back for Newport when we got the forecast “storm warnings” in the Gulf Stream. No fun, we thought. So we slunk back into Newport under cover of darkness. With days to wait, we lost our crew. No crew, no passage to Bermuda. After some deliberation we went to Plan B, which was to cruise south to the Chesapeake and then head straight to the BVI from Norfolk. Since our family had all bought plane tickets to Grenada, we really wanted to be there, too. It was our idea, after all.

But the fall weather didn’t cooperate. We waited in Norfolk for a weather window to open so we could get across the Gulf Stream in less than gale conditions, but we were stymied and decided to move on to Plan C: Cruise down the Intracoastal Waterway to Beaufort, NC, then head off to the islands. Once again, events intervened. A week of boat work and another week of horrendous weather kept us in Beaufort and saw the last flickers of Plan C fade into the night.

Next, we decided to head south on the ICW to Charleston, and from there try to catch a northwest clearing breeze to ride eastward offshore so we could make the islands without an upwind slog. But by the time we got to Charleston, Thanksgiving had come and gone, we were enjoying the ICW, and we knew we needed to stop somewhere for a week or two to prep the boat for the Pacific. On to Plan D, which was a hard decision because it X-ed out the Eastern Caribbean and Christmas in Grenada, and led us instead to the Bahamas, Windward Passage and a straight shot south to Panama.

And that’s how it played out. We had Christmas in St. Simons Island, GA, not in Grenada where our family was lounging in the sun; celebrated New Year’s in St. Augustine, FL; and spent January and February cruising south through the Bahamas and Caribbean to Panama. Plan D. As Kurt Vonnegut would say, “So it goes.”

But that’s the cruising life. And cruising schedules are made to be broken and broken again until you get there…or somewhere else.

Hylas Yachts makes a luxurious world cruiser for a couple or family •

So when Dick and Kyle Jachney, owners of Hylas Yachts, decided to add a new boat to their line in the mid-50-foot range, they had the interesting challenge of taking what was best in the 54 and melding it with the latest thinking in cruising boat design and construction. The result is the new Hylas 56, which bears a strong family resemblance to the 54 but is also a confident step forward.

I got to sail the new 56 last fall after the Annapolis sailboat show. The weather had turned decidedly fall-like, with an easterly wind blowing sheets of rain descending on the Chesapeake Bay. It was a good big boat day when we could really see how the new boat sails and handles the square waves that were building.

As we motored out Back Creek, we put the 56 through its paces in forward, reverse and turning. The boat is driven by a 150 hp Yanmar diesel, which is a good size for a hull that displaces 50,200 pounds. Going from a dead stop to full speed took just under a minute, and the boat stopped when thrown into reverse in under three boat lengths. With the large rudder mounted on a half skeg, the boat circled on itself in about a boat length and half. All of this indicated that the 56 is handy under power, and—with the bow thruster engaged—simple to moor and unmoor, even in the gusty breeze we had that day.

Out in the bay we rolled out about two-thirds of the mainsail and set the roller furling staysail instead of the genoa. This reduced sail plan was perfect for the wind conditions, and the 56 was quickly close-reaching at 8.5 knots. As we trimmed and brought her close to the wind, the angle of the waves sent lots of spray onto the foredeck, but we did not get wet in the cockpit behind the dodger, and deck wash drained quickly aft. She settled down at about 48 degrees true off the wind and maintained 8 knots while heeling at about 15 degrees. Sighting aft, we appeared to be making very little leeway despite the waves and the strong breeze. And, the ride was remarkably stable and comfortable.

By the time we had thrown the 56 through a series of tacks, we were out in the middle of the bay and had a good angle for reaching back toward Back Creek. We rolled up the staysail and rolled out the genoa; with the added horsepower and the broad reach sailing angle, we started to fly. The speedo jumped to 10 knots, and occasionally we’d see 11 in the stronger puffs. The helm felt positive but light and the boat tracked well even though we had square waves rolling under the broad transom.

Off Back Creek, we rolled up the genoa and then turned into the wind to roll up the mainsail. With electric winches and furling systems, handling the big sails in the strong breeze was no problem at all. The 56 proved to be a very able boat under sail and power. She is stable, solid and inspires confidence while still turning out good speeds at all angles of sail. The design has a limit of positive stability of 125 degrees. For passagemaking, the new design will provide fast and comfortable passages anywhere in the world and will look after you when it gets bouncy out there.

DETAILS, DETAILS
The Jachneys have been building cruising boats for a long time, listening to their customers every step of the way. It is interesting to note that they seem to have tapped into the young CEO market of sailors who are looking for a luxury cruising boat with offshore capabilities at a competitive price. These guys do their homework, and when they compare a Hylas 56 to other boats in that size range, they have a hard time beating the combination of traditional styling, solid construction, seakeeping qualities and value.

Value is an interesting word that can connote low price or a lot for the money. In the case of the Hylas family of boats, which are built in Taiwan, the value lies in getting a lot for what you pay. And you will find it in the 56’s details.

The Frers-designed hulls are engineered for strength and durability instead of lightness. They are laminated of hand-laid glass fiber with alternating layers of Twaron, a carbon aramid fiber, in vinylester resin. The gel coat is an isophthalic resin for ultimate blister resistance. Below the water, two barrier coats of epoxy resin are applied as insurance against blisters.

The hull has two watertight bulkheads. The aft bulkhead seals off the rudderpost, so even with the rudder and post missing, the boat will still float. Forward, a collision bulkhead ensures that even a direct hit on a submerged container won’t violate the main hull.

Instead of using a balanced spade rudder, all of the Hylases designed by Frers have skegs that are integral with the hull laminate. This prevents flotsam damage underway and prevents rudder damage during a grounding. If you are venturing far afield, this extra level of rudder strength and protection is a real boon. The lead keel is a modified cruising fin with a small bulb that helps lower the center of gravity. For those who can’t work with the standard seven feet, four inches of draft, a keel-centerboard that draws only six feet, four inches with the board up has been designed.

The rig has been set up for long haul sailing with a minimum number of crew. Both the mainsail and the genoa have primary and backup halyards. Instead of using the single lowers made popular by masts with aft swept spreads, the 56 has fore and aft lowers that add extra support to the middle of the mast—particularly important when battling headwinds under a reefed main and staysail. The mast has discontinuous Hasselfors standing rigging with mechanical Sta-Lok end fittings, thus ruling out the dangers of going to sea with a cracked swage fitting.

The anchor locker is divided for two complete anchor rodes and there are two permanent anchor rollers at the stem head. The 56 is meant to be cruised far from the marina, so it needs to be securely and easily anchored by a couple.

A lot of thought has gone into the 56’s basic engineering and systems. The 150 hp Yanmar diesel is fitted with an easily used manual crankcase oil pump, so changing the engine oil every 100 hours is not a chore. That means you will actually do it, adding thousands of hours of life to your engine. Plus, the fuel system has two Racor filters that can be linked together or set up so one bypasses the other during maintenance. Finally, the engine compartment is fitted with a complete set of sensors and alarms, so any malfunction will be made known almost instantly.

You can tell a displacement cruising boat by its tanks. Not going anywhere? Small tanks. Exploring the world? Big tanks. The 56 has tanks for 280 gallons of fuel and 275 gallons of water—enough for four people, who conserve fresh water, for a month. And, it will power at low revs at about 6 knots for close to 1,000 miles.

One final detail: The 56 comes standard with four AGM 8Ds, which provide 840 amp hours of house battery storage and separate starting and bow thruster batteries. Such an ample reserve will mean you can run all of your systems with confidence.

LIVING ABOARD
The 56 was conceived as a passagemaking cruising boat for a family of adventurers. The saloon is open with ample headroom and will easily accommodate a party of 12 for cocktails and a family of eight for dinner at the dinette to port. The settee to starboard is a great place to lounge and will make a good sea berth.

The galley has been placed in the long passageway from the saloon to the master stateroom aft. The stove, fridges and several storage cupboards are mounted below the counter outboard, while the sinks are mounted above the engine compartment on the centerline, where they will drain on both tacks.

The master suite aft has a raised centerline double berth that will be easy to make up and comfortable to climb in and out of from both sides. There is ample storage space and hanging lockers for a couple living aboard in a variety of climes, and with opening ports on both sides and a large hatch overhead, ventilation will be great in the tropics. The master head is huge, with lots of lockers and a true separate shower stall.

Forward of the saloon, there is a snug upper and lower cabin to port that will work well for crew or children. Across from it lies the forward head, which also has a separate shower stall. The large guest cabin forward is virtually a second master cabin since it has a double centerline berth, a large hanging locker, and plenty of drawer and cabinet space.

One of the design touches we like aboard the 56 is the command center just aft and down a step from the dinette to port in the saloon. Here, you have a wraparound desk or chart table where you can install a full computer, run your laptops, operate the SSB, talk on the Iridium and navigate with your side-by-side multifunction displays. Or, if you are not headed to sea, you can run your company virtually from this executive suite of a nav station.

The new 56, like the recent Hylas models, is fitted out with teak panels, solid wood doors, teak or bamboo floors, and off-white overhead panels. The large wraparound windows in the saloon provide plenty of light without too much heat.

Furniture is built with traditional care. You will find louvered doors, solid door panels, fitted solid wood corner posts, and nicely handcrafted laminate pieces in the heads. Underfoot, you can have a traditional teak and holly sole or opt for more modern-looking bamboo floor panels. It is worth noting that all floor pieces have positive latches, so they won’t move or get loose when things get bumpy at sea.

A thoroughly warm and inviting interior is much prized by families living aboard for any length of time. The cabins offer great private spaces, while the saloon and large center cockpit provide plenty of room for socializing.

The new Hylas 56 is a lovely evolution from the 54. And, like the earlier design, this 56-footer has the legs to take you anywhere you might want to sail.

Hylas 56 specs
LOA 56’4”
LWL 50’5”
Beam 15’10”
Draft (deep) 7’4”
Draft (shoal keel/cb) 6’4”/10’
Displacement 50,200 lbs.
Ballast 20,200 lbs.
Sail Area 1821 sq. ft.
Water 275 gals.
Fuel 280 gals.
Mast height 73’0”

Hylas Yachts
Marblehead, MA
800-875-5114
www.hylasyachtsusa.com