Looks like Ted Fontaine is going over to the dark side, a Picnic Boat with a mast... Hate to say it, but this is the first boat I've ever seen from Fontaine that falls well short of being stunningly beautiful, and perfectly proportioned... And, once you slap a pair of davits on the back for a tender, that thing is gonna start getting ugly, quick...

Interesting, to say the least... Think MacGregor, crafted by Hinckley, or Lyman Morse... (grin) "Pushbutton sail handling", of course...

With this Surfari 53, therefore, he aims to create ‘a new genre of yachting.’ Fontaine sees his striking new design appealing to experienced performance yacht owners who no longer want to race with full crews, and he is trying to capture an audience that has tended to migrate to power, or ‘picnic boats’, for speed and comfort.

The appeal of the Surfari is in her mix of performance in sail and power, allowing her to reach remote places comfortably and quickly, and provide owners and their families with a platform for social activities...

Twin 78hp engines provide power and speeds more associated with semi-displacement motorboats (11 knots plus), the difference being that the Surfari is designed to perform just as well under sail...

Push button sail-handling promises to make her easy to sail short-handed and the 53 will be rigged with a fully battened fat-head main that furls into the boom, as well as a fixed bowsprit to take furling asymmetrical sails. Fontaine’s polars show the Surfari is expected to hit double figures reaching in 15 knots – not bad when you can also motor home at nearly twice the speed of other slower cruising boats when the wind dies.

http://www.fontainedesigngroup.com/news/yachting-world/

Unfortunately, at $2.2 million, just as far out of reach for me, as an 86' Merritt... (grin)