Bob never ceases to amaze, the range and variety of the boats he's designed is remarkable... A recent client has come to him with a design brief that is unusual, to say the least. Probably one of the more intriguing set of parameters since the concept of the Container Yacht...

The guy has formerly owned a Cape George cutter, so you get an idea where he's coming from... Despite Bob trying to talk him into a more modern underbody, he insists on a full keel, and a transom hung rudder...

He also wants to build the boat in carbon fiber... Oh, and he also insists on TWIN ENGINES...

Finally, he wants to commission the building of FOUR of these boats, apparently for different members of his family, and/or to be staged at various locations around the world... Nice to be rich, eh? I'm guessing when all is said and done, this has got to be a million dollar build, or close to it...

I love the look of this boat, although I'll take mine with a more modern underbody, and a single engine... But I find the way that Bob has used that large aperture between the keel and rudder very interesting, has anyone ever seen anything like that before? By doing that, he manages to have a balanced rudder, and I imagine that design would be considerably more maneuverable and back down better, than a conventional full keel with an attached rudder...

There a couple of threads on other forums about this design, here's the one on SAILING ANARCHY:

http://forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=164154

BTW, for anyone interested in yacht design and boats, if you haven't read Bob's book, you really should... It's a fantastic read, very enjoyable and informative...