Sailing Magazine

Maestro 40
Performance cruiser

This month we have the opportunity to study different approaches to yacht styling. While the four boats to be reviewed are similar in intent of use they represent dramatic differences in their approach to overall aesthetic styling. Styling does not need to have an effect on performance but of course taken to extremes it could. In these cases I don’t think the styling has enough of an effect on performance for that to be a factor so we will ignore that element and concentrate on each individual designer’s effort to design what he thinks is a good-looking boat.

The Maestro 40 is built in Finland as one of a series of boats including the Jonmeri line from the Maestro company. The new Maestro 40 was designed by Eivind Still. As far as I know this is my first chance to review a design from Mr. Still. To my eye the new 40 represents the epitome of today’s fairly typical approach to an all-purpose family cruiser-racer. The design is obviously intended to combine performance with comfort and sleek looks.

This boat combines the features that seem to dominate the market today. The freeboard is high. The ends are short and the stern is very broad. There are a variety of drafts available and the rig is fractional. The look is clean and trim but not in any way distinctive to my eye. It’s a safe look but it must be what the market wants. My intent here is to use the Maestro 40 as sort of an aesthetic “baseline” this month.

The Maestro 40 has a nicely shaped hull with a fine entry, max rocker depth right under the mast and plenty of beam at the transom. The D/L is on the low side for a fully fitted-out cruiser at 154.6 and the L/B is moderately beamy at 3.28. You can choose from three keels, including a “telescopic” keel that draws 5 feet, 5 inches retracted and 7 feet, 1 inch extended. There is a fixed shoal keel that draws 6 feet, 3 inches and a fixed deep keel drawing 7 feet, 3 inches. This hull shape works well for boat speed and interior volume. I might be a bit concerned that the D/L is a bit low for this type of boat but I trust the designer has done his homework with the weight study.

As is typical of this type, the Maestro has been laid out below for either two or three couples. Both layouts have a single head. If you go with the three-stateroom layout the head is smaller and you give up the starboard lazarette volume. The two-stateroom layout also features a chart table facing forward with a dedicated seat for the navigator. With navigation so tied into laptop computers these days I think the old navigation “station” may be a thing of the past soon but I still like it, and face it, having a nav station with its own seat is more desirable. In the three-stateroom layout the navigator faces aft and sits on the end of the starboard settee. The galley is good and the berths are all large. It’s unfortunate that the mast comes right through the middle of the saloon but there are some elements of the design that cannot be moved.

Looking at the sailplan you can see the clean and simple lines of this deck and cabintrunk. The cabintrunk is a bit boxy to my eye but it’s functional and far from being ugly. The rig is nice and tall with an SA/D of 22.6. The fractional rig has swept spreaders, as usual, with 20 degrees of sweep. The boat is designed to carry an asymmetrical chute flown from just above the jib hounds. There is no provision for a bowsprit and the chute is shown tacked to the stem.

The Maestro 40 is built with a resin-infused, Divinycell-cored hull. Carbon fiber is used to reinforce the keel floor area.