Sailing Magazine

Baraka
Performance cruiser

Now this boat is a cruising boat. But I am certain that when you study it you will see that it includes performance features that make it fit in this month’s group. This design is a product of the Reichel/Pugh office, which has been turning out some spectacular, big, fast yachts lately. This design is a custom design and it was built by Lyman Morse in Thamaston, Maine. Lyman Morse is about as good as they get when it comes to detailed design, so I’m sure this is a marvelous boat.

The first thing this design has going for it as far as boat speed is concerned is LOA. While the design is quite simple compared to the Farr 11s, this boat has a 56-foot DWL and a D/L of 119.89 at sailing load. The L/B is on the narrow side at 3.79 and the lifting keel draws 14 feet, 3 inches when it is down. Draft with the keel up is 8 feet, so you can sneak into those shoal anchorages. Put these numbers together and you have a big, powerful boat that will go to weather very quickly. I don’t see anything unusual about the hull shape. It’s beamy aft and the DWL/LOA is 90 percent, indicating short overhangs. There is a hint of rake to the bow so most of that overhang is aft. I have nothing in this design package to tell me anything about the hull’s sectional shapes. If it’s like the rest of today’s speedsters it’s fine to the point of hollow forward and pretty flat aft at the transom with a moderately narrow BWL. The freeboard is a bit high on this design but that is probably a concession to interior volume.

Down below this boat is pure cruiser. The stacked single quarterberths could easily be double quarterberths, but the upper and lower berths will work well for kids, most guests and a racing crew if that occasion presents itself. There is a head aft with access from the companionway area. Forward there is an owner’s cabin with a large head with a shower stall. This owner’s cabin extends aft to the main bulkhead and includes an office area to starboard. The centerline double berth is slightly raised and accessible from both sides. There is a huge fo’c’sle forward of the owner’s cabin to carry the sail inventory a boat like this requires. There is a nav station just aft of the galley. The galley is large and very nicely laid out to keep the cook protected and secure when cooking under sail. Of course the keel trunk cuts right through the saloon but it is snug up against the forward bulkhead and incorporated into the inboard end of the L-shaped dinette so it really is not much of an intrusion. I like this dinette. With the addition of the small, near centerline island seat this dinette can seat a real crowd.

I received an undetailed sailplan drawing for this boat. It does not even show the shrouds. I like my sailplans to bring the boat to life. Adding detail helps add life to the drawing and also gives anyone looking at it a far better idea of what is going on with the design. I do, however, have a lovely Steve Davis rendering of the sailplan. But I know Steve and I’ve worked with him many times. The rendering shows three spreaders, a fractional rig with extending bowsprit and a dished out carbon boom to catch the mainsail when it falls. The shrouds are swept 20 degrees and the chainplates are at the deck edge. When you only use non-overlapping or minimal overlap jibs there is no reason to bring the chainplates inboard. If you leave them as far outboard as possible you can reduce the loads on the mast and save weight and windage aloft. Note the clew of this jib comes exactly to the point where the chainplates are. The SA/D is 25.2 without counting the roach area of the mainsail. There is an inner forestay shown, if you look carefully, but I’m not sure if they intend a staysail to be flown off this stay.

The hull is carbon skins over Corecell foam, a styrene-acrylonitrile thermoplastic closed cell foam. The deck is carbon skins over Nomex Kevlar paper honeycomb. The keel fin is steel and the bulb lead.

I could go to sleep tonight thinking about cruising this boat. It’s good looking and it will whip any other cruising boat out there that’s within a few feet of its LOA. The rig is a bit big for short-handed sailing but maybe this owner intends to sail with a physically fit and active crew all the time. Either way, given the design and the Lyman Morse quality this is a dream boat.