The idea of gunkholing around the Bahamian Out Islands is appealing to the Hansons. Setzer Design’s challenge was to develop a boat with requirements that naval architects commonly consider to be at odds: a hull with superior seakeeping characteristics and a good turn-of-speed while being shallow enough to use among the shoals and banks for which the Bahamas are notorious.

First, deep-draft, full-displacement hulls are used to ensure proper seakeeping and comfort offshore. But to navigate among the thousands of reefs and gently sloping shelves of the Bahamas, shoal-draft vessels are preferred. Such boats, however, tend to be less comfortable offshore and, in certain conditions, less safe, especially if paired with a tall superstructure.

The second issue is speed. Determining the hull speed of a displacement vessel is a simple calculation that identifies the point beyond which the hull becomes inefficient. Yet the Hansons’ design brief specified a displacement yacht that exceeded its hull speed.

To solve this conundrum, Setzer’s lines incorporate a pronounced knuckle in the aft section that replaces the more common hard chine found on planing boats and the soft chine common on most displacement and semi-displacement designs. Because the boat is also capable of relatively high speeds for her waterline length, a sprayrail was designed into the forward section to keep the boat dry in choppy conditions. The bow is raked in a traditional sweeping line, and the forefoot combines reserve buoyancy along with a fine entry at the waterline, all yielding an easily driven hullform. Finally, to assist in reducing the draft as much as possible, long, shallow pockets were employed to protect the running gear. The result is impressive: an innovative design that can serve double duty, near- or offshore, while providing equal measures of comfort and performance.