Those were my feeling too Jeff. I ordered one last week. I agree somewhat with your comment on draft but this boat was also designed to be ICW friendly and 6 feet is pushing it already. I have sailed this boat and it is very close winded, more so than any production boat I have ever sailed. They will build a Grand Prix version with deeper draft and more sail but that doesn''t fit my mission. I''m curious about your resevations on the keel construction. The keel isn''t really encapsulated. The fin is molded integrally with the hull then filled with
epoxy and micro ballons. There is no balast in the fin. All of the ballast is in the bulb on the bottom. I would think that this is far stronger than a bolt on fin since the lever is not at the keel to hull mechanical joint.
I also don''t find the pullman berth ideal but was willing to compromise on this issue. I''ll let you know for sure after my wife climbs over me a few times. As to storage capacity it is really extensive. The entire area underneath the dinette and settee is open for storage. There is a 4''X 5'' pantry aft of the companionway for food storage in addition to the galley storage you see in the photos. There is also the aft garage though it''s not as big as it appears in the photo. There are also three cockpit lockers and good deck store forward in the huge
anchor lockers. All in all more than you can see from the layout or photos.
I had a athwartship nav station two boats ago and it is not ideal but workable. The biggest issue with that is when someone is seated there it makes it tough to pass by the nav station. The builder is working on a fore and aft arrangement that will nip a bit of space from the aft head and storage from the aft cabin. We''ll see what it costs before I decide on that.
Dingy storage will be on the fordeck for passaging and towed or hoisted on a modified
radar arch/davit arrangement we are working on for sheltered sailing. Entering and exiting a dingy from an open transom is very nice. The hard dodger/pilot house was a particularly important feature for me. It is a really nice place to stand watch. Many of the navigation chores will be moved from the nav station to the pilothouse. The nav station becomes more of an office and comms shack.
We were really torn between a high performance cruiser and a dock condo(you can guess which way my wife wanted to go)but I was so impressed by the sailing ability and ease of handling during the sea trial that the performance boat won out. Now I just gota wait eight months
If you want the complete info package I can email it to you. It contains VPP''s and a lot more detailed info. You might find it interesting.