October 2011 Issue No. 197 - Navigator Publishing

highest standard. That is, until Isobel.Martha Coolidge was employedfor a little of the exterior styling andall of the interior design and decoration.Isobelcombines the ratherunusual mix of American maple andEnglish brown oak for joiner work.No surprise, the layout of theaccommodations is unconventional.The biggest sleeping cabin is rightforward. There are two heads in theplan, but neither of them is en suite.The main head and shower is huge,with the most commodious showerstall I’ve seen. The two remainingsleeping cabins are very small andcozy. One has upper and lower berthsand the other, amidships to port, is acrewmember’s nook.Raised saloon pilothouseThe sanctum-sanctorum of thisdesign has to be the raised saloon. It’sa stunner, made all the more stunningby the fact that you can sit therebehind nearly bulletproof glass andtake in the surroundings at sea andashore, with an unencumbered viewof the elongated fields of TeakdeckingSystems, making for sure-footing,fore and aft.I’ve raced and sailed with theowner of Isobel on three of his previoussailboats, all designed by Stephens,Waring and White. Thus Iknow, from him, that Isobel is intendedmore for alongshore cruising thanocean racing. Yet the racing potentialof this boat is impossible to ignore.Nor in fact can one dismiss the possibilitiesof such a yacht in ocean crossing.Something would have to goseriously amiss in the trade winds forIsobel to fall short of 300-mile days.I believe beauty is everything inyacht design. When first I saw thehull that was to be Isobel I had somequalms about it. Was it too narrow?Did the bow properly match andcomplement the stern? Now thatI have seen this most-unusual boatperform, I judge her uniquely beautiful.There isn’t a higher complementI could pay Isobel, her involved ownerand her designers and builders.Art Paine is a writer, delivery captainand sailor based in Bernard, Maine.www.oceannavigator.comOCTOBER 2011 OCEAN NAVIGATOR 33