A sailor who has owned a few of our boats in the past recently asked us to sketch a concept for a performance yacht to campaign in classic yacht regattas here on the East Coast and down in the Caribbean. Performance and aesthetics were paramount priorities, but the owner was also keen to cruise as hard as he raced. Balancing these competing factors is where art meets science in yacht design – it is all too easy to make a 20-ton raceboat an impossible handful when cruising shorthanded, but a cruising yacht with all the amenities of home rarely turns heads on the racecourse (and also wouldn’t be 20 tons!). Fortunately, the owner was well-experienced with both sides of these tradeoffs so we were able to sidestep most of these compromises with a design that would be blazingly fast on the race course while still providing comfortable cruising for the owner and his wife with minimal crew.

Anyone who knows their Brooklin history will immediately see similarities between this yacht and Goshawk, a yacht of similar size designed in-house by Bob Stephens and launched here in 2005. The similarities are not by accident – the client was taken by the sleek and classic look of Goshawk’s profile and wanted to keep the aesthetics of the design in the same family. While Goshawk is undeniably quick, this design represents a significant step forward in boat speed and ease of handling. Similar to the leap from the old Eggemoggin 47s to the recent Eggemoggin 47+ series, we have kept the aesthetic while completely reimagining the rest of the design.

The balanced placement of the tall rig opens up the foretriangle enough to comfortably fit a J4 stay inside of the J1 stay while maintaining forgiving aspect ratios for both. This rig placement is a crucial part of her dual-purpose mission. In cruising mode, the J4 would be the working headsail. The cruising J1 would be a higher cut sail optimized for reaching. When racing, the J4 stay would be removed so full-size racing headsails could have a clean sweep from the J1 stay.

A pinhead mainsail will provide plenty of power in cruising mode, but when in race mode, this sail would be changed out for a square top. Switching to the square top has several benefits beyond the increase in sail area. Most importantly, it shifts the center of effort of the sailplan aft to not only balance the racing jibs but also to load up the rudder and maximize lift from the foils. The squaretop also gives a slight increase in handling speed reducing distance lost in a tack. Small advantages, sure, but over the course of a race- they add up! The downside is that runners would be necessary in race mode; although, with the 20-degree spreader sweep, they are mostly for tuning the rig rather than keeping it upright so the rig isn’t likely to come crashing down if timing is a little off!

The cockpit layout will look familiar to anyone who has sailed aboard an E47+ or the Taylor 49s, and that’s for good reason – the arrangement just works! A dropleaf table in the middle provides something solid to brace against when cruising and would be removed to open up the dancefloor when racing. The helm platform is raised at the center with wedges on both sides for comfortable helm position and visibility no matter the point of sail.

The refined interior incorporates the simple requirements the client laid out for us in a luxurious manner. He does not like to have guests stay aboard overnight, so there is plenty of space for entertaining but only a single stateroom and a second very private separate cabin for a captain. These spartan requirements allow for massive amounts of elbow room, including a full king-sized bed forward. While we could cram a lot more into the interior volume, the owner didn’t need anything more. The result? The interior has the luxury of open space rarely found on yachts of this low displacement. The beauty of custom boatbuilding!

As is often the case in custom yacht design, this concept is likely as far as this particular design will go. The owner decided that a larger cruising yacht might fit his needs better, so we went a different direction with subsequent concepts. Who knows, though – maybe she’ll catch someone’s eye and we’ll get the chance to build her someday!

To inquire about building or purchasing this design, email Will at wsturdy@brooklinboatyard.com