This design was commissioned by a couple who required a fast, easily handled yacht, with inside steering for cruising in the higher latitudes. Construction is of fibreglass sandwich using Airex foam for the hull and balsa core for the deck and cabin. The keel is of solid fibreglass with internal ballast supported by tension rods carried by an extensive grid of floors and girders. To minimize damage in the event of a collision there is a watertight bulkhead fitted at the bow plus an integral water tank under the foc’sle berths.

The hull is of moderate beam with fine lines and features a deep fine keel for good windward performance plus a skeg mounted rudder for optimum control and manoeuvrability. The keel is positioned to facilitate ‘drying out’ on a tidal grid or marine ways.

The deck layout features a generous cockpit with bridge deck and low profile deckhouse. The pilothouse is low to afford good visibility from the cockpit and yet gives the skipper good visibility when steering from the inside helm.

The interior layout is arranged with permanent berths for 4 persons and supplementary sleeping for additional people. The master stateroom is located aft, under the bridge deck and features lockers, a queen sized berth and, with some minor changes, a small head. Head room in the pilothouse and the main cabin is 6′-5″ and in the master stateroom 5′-10″.

The auxiliary engine is located under the pilothouse sole and hatches plus swing-out panels in the galley yield excellent access for servicing.

To achieve maximum efficiency the owner opted for a masthead cutter rig with roller furling on the headsails and remote slab reefing on the mainsail. He reports that this system has worked very well, even when short-handed. Performance has been fairly impressive with 8 knots achieved under power and over 9 knots achieved under sail. (on a reach across Georgia Strait they averaged over 10 knots.)