42' and 50' Cruising Sailboat Designs

I laid out the hull at 42 ft. (42.08 ft), 13. 5 ft beam and 5 foot draft and gave it a semi-flush deck. This is about the ideal size for a comfortable blue-water cruiser. Five feet of draft is a good draft for gunk holing and provides for better stability in very bad weather and the beam comes in very handy for live-a-boards and provides more stability in all conditions. Deep-draft keels are easier overturned by the rotary motion of powerful waves. I designed this hull around the best size and qualities of an all-round cruising hull. And if a boat has to be a sailboat that makes sense, it must be a cruising boat. Not much out there can compete with the grace, handling and comfort of this ketch or sloop-rigged cruising boat.

I provided a, decked, 7 ft long bow sprit, and an optional flying seat at the stern, making the overall usable deck space about 47 ft. The flying, 3 - 4 persons, seat, and the expanded metal deck of the bow sprit are fun, bringing a person well over the water for viewing and give extra space and seating at parties.

I designed her along the traditional, graceful lines of yachts before nutty, international racing rules destroyed freedom of yacht design, leaving us with hundred thousands of drab/boring look-alike hulls for sloops only. I have pictures of marinas in Europe and in the US and they show row upon row of moored, look-alike sort-of race sail boats in many sizes. Racing in big boats is fun for the rich, but near useless for the ordinary man, because racing hulls are ornery to handle, uncomfortable, and very difficult to maintain in optimum racing condition. Due to their near flat bottoms, they either need a high deck house or one is cramped for space and standing room.

Peak hydro-dynamic performance of racing hulls is always impaired if they are moored for the season or the year, because antifouling paint destroys the hydro-dynamic smoothness of the hull and keel, which smoothness for race sailboats must come close to a mirror finish, leaving a skipper with a cramped, poorly performing and poorly handling, cruising hull.

If one wants to race, one should keep a dingy-racer on a trailer or buy a power-stacked motor boat. Cruise sailing must be an experience of peace and joyful voyaging, whether for the day on the bay or for weeks on an ocean crossing. I agree that having a boat under sail, one would want it to go as fast as one can make it go, but that should be a matter between the skipper's skill and prevailing weather conditions. It involves seamanship and boat handling experience and it keeps one pleasantly occupied.

This boat allows you to do that and, under certain conditions, will leave the racing boats in its wake through certain, revolutionary systems incorporated into the hull. The semi-flush deck gives over six feet of headroom in the cabin and allows for hinge-down lockers suspended from deck beams near the sides of the hull, that give the boat much extra storage – so much needed for living aboard, cruising and for having loads of passengers on a day or weekend cruise. It also provides a huge deck space for parties of considerable size and for deck storage of large items such as a scooter, a dingy, a surf sailor, scuba gear, etc. while cruising.

The designed, waterline length is 31.25 ft. but the scantling specifications are calculated for a waterline/displacement 3" inches deeper (32.17 ft) because cruising folk very often have much extra gear, fuel and water on board. These waterline lengths do not mean much when sailing as the waterline length increases when she heels. It is only relevant under motor power.

She has four times the diesel power needed to bring her up to hull speed in smooth waters, but will keep much of this speed going to weather in strong winds and high waves. She is equipped with a large (19” diameter), three-bladed, feathering prop of highest quality German design, leaving an almost invisible-to-water-flow profile when feathered and which pushes her along over 7 knots under power when deployed. The propeller is as efficient in forward as it is in reverse. The engine and the prop provide irresistible driving force in emergency situations, getting one out of bad weather or any other dangerous situations easily and quickly. Some of the ICD hull designs will out-maneuver almost every boat at any speed - much needed in tight harbors.

This category of boat is among the safest, smooth handling, designs produced in decades. She is a looker, and will satisfy every item on anyone’s shopping list of looked-for qualities in an all-round, high- quality ocean cruiser. She is double-planked. The inner hull of mahogany is hermetically sealed from the elements, leaving it always in pristine condition. The outer hull of mahogany or Georgian pine, securely fastened and bonded to the inner hull and to the frames, is also permanently sealed using a, flexible, tenacious bonding agent. The framing has been configured for a displacement having a 3” deeper draft than the designed waterline draft for the 42 feet hull and 5” deeper for the 50.5 feet hull, so that there is ample reserve-strength to carry extra loads in bad weather.

The lines drawing dimensions can be varied according to the wishes of the individual buyer. She has been laid out on a computer CAD program and all her vital dimensions can be scaled up or down, with prudent consideration, in any one or more axis. I have designed the 42 feet yacht described here and, also, a somewhat sleeker scaled–up boat of 50.5 ft length. This is the range in which any good cruiser should fall. Larger hulls become cumbersome to handle for a crew of two and smaller ones demand that one must compromise important qualities essential in cruising/live-on-board yachts.

Considering the cost, and the need to preserve fossil fuels nationally, there can be no comparison either. The only boat that makes sense in larger sizes is the cruising sailing yacht and if it is not graceful and comfortable – if it is not an ICD- it simply has not met its duties and its classification as yacht. No kind of bliss comes even close to owning a well-designed cruising sailboat.

This is also an invitation for bid to boat yards specializing in the building of wooden boats on these hull designs.