Blue Water Cruiser - Walkabout yacht

[a.suardi]

Goodmorning everyone,
my name is Alessandro Suardi and I work in Walkabout Yacht (www.walkabout.it) as a product manager.

This post is to ask you which are the best qualities required to a boat to be a bestseller blue water criuser.

Reading posts around it’s clear that a blue water cruiser has to be sturdy, reliable, easy to sail even windward and as comfortable as possible both sailing and at anchor. Obviously a yacht like this has to compete on market with US, France and Germany mass production boats.
Stated the above, I think that only composite (pvc or wood/epoxy) or aluminum are suitable for the purpose: they allow a one-off, highly customized building in an easy and cheap way.

The Walkabout Serie goes straight in this way, with the possibility to obtain a sturdy composite with carbon inserts in the “crucial” zones. This guarantee a lighter final weight compared to aluminum that allow, given the final displacement, to add lead in the bulb that means more righting moment available for better windward sailing.
A composite hull can be also repaired everywhere in the world also without electrical tooling: some spare glass cloth and some epoxy can easily replace almost every detail both structural or aesthetic. It’s also electrically and thermally insulated ad does not corrode.
Furthemore hull-deck and hull-keel joint are structural and built like this they restore the integrity of the solid hull, making the boat more safe, more rigid and more dry. Obviously it’s possible to have, optional, both variable depth keel and water ballast.

About hull design, David Reard draw a planing hull with a single chine that guarantees elevated average speed. That will reduce long passages time even by days and allows to run before the sea even under storm jib.
Watertight bulkheads located in the bow and just after aft berths guarantee high resistance to collisions. Bilge space from keel to the bow is watertight too, giving other collision protection.
Rudder stocks are well over rest waterline and however located the stern watertight zone, enhancing security.
Internal accomodation are roomy and highly customizable, to meet both couple and family needs.

What are you ideas? Looking forward reading them!

Always trade winds!

Alessandro
alessandro@walkabout.it

[michael pierzga]

Well...looks like a speedy boat. Tender storage ? You just cant go cruising without a tender.

[Petros]

nice modern lines.

The open transom can be troublesome on a cruising yacht, in turbulent conditions crew and loose items (like your lunch) tend to get lost. Putting a cargo net type of gate across the open transom would solve this problem, allow it to drain, and can be easily removed and stowed when in port.

[a.suardi]

Dear Friends,
we love so much your apreciation to our project.
Tender storage is provided in our bigger design or you can hinge it at the rollbar.

For cockpit stern closure, we think it's possible to study a gangway that fits the transom, like in our 43 here in the picture.

Stay tuned!
Alessandro