Seriously Capable – The Seaward 42, BOUNDER

The saying “right tool for the job” is particularly apt for our pastime of putting to sea in boats. We trust in our chosen steed to carry us and our crew safely home, especially around our coasts, where we are “blessed” with a particularly changeable climate. Capability when the chips are down is key to being able to enjoy your hard-earned leisure time on the water.

It is at this part of the story where the Seaward 42, BOUNDER steps in…

Watch the movie –

Commercial craft have to operate successfully in all conditions, protecting their crew under way, providing best reliability, promoting comfort and combating fatigue, to enable day-in/day-out routine, without downtime. Seaward Boats have provided this reassurance to commercial operators for over 40 years, and, having moved from their original base in Guernsey to the Isle of Wight in 2002, have built patrol boats, pilot launches and working craft, which are in service all over the globe. They are one of the rare cohort of selected builders of the Nelson hull – the chosen soft-riding, semi-displacement hull for the tricky job of delivering local navigational pilots from their stations to larger vessels; assisting the Master in safely passaging up rivers, through harbours, and onto berths.

Flying alongside a modern tanker, or liner, can only be undertaken by a skilled skipper using the correct tool. The pilot boat needs to be a fast, robust and well-mannered craft, even in poor weather – and the commercial Seaward 42 transfers pilots in arenas as diverse as Tenerife’s Atlantic swells, and Fredericia in Denmark. Using the offshoot of a hull first proved in 1967, the Seaward Nelson 42 shares the deep, fine-entry bows, hollowed mid profile and flat run aft of her forebears. A substantial keel not only creates exceptionally precise steering, affords protection to her vital stern-gear, but also allows tanks to be dropped low and long, maintaining a low centre of gravity, and freeing up useful space within the hull. These rounded underwater sections grant her crew ride comfort upwind that is hard to define unless you have experienced it, so when BOUNDER’s first owners were looking to upgrade from their smaller Seaward, the Seaward 42 was the only choice. This build was commissioned from Seaward, paying exacting attention to practicality, quality and reliability, and she was handed over in October 2016.

This is a single-minded boat. She is not a palatial loft, but offers beautifully built and finished accommodation for a couple, with occasional friends or family. She is a rugged, all-weather offshore motor-yacht for short-handed extended cruising – so particular emphasis was placed on storage, fuel capacity, noise reduction and vibration attenuation. You will find nine layers of insulation between your feet on the wheelhouse carpet, and the twin Cummins QSB’s driving you forward. A pair of Python-Drive constant-velocity thrust bearings protects the gearboxes, and at a cruising RPM of 2400 RPM, the saloon is undeniably quiet, with progress over the waves being stately, especially from the cushioned embrace of the leather-bound helm and navigators seats.

Should you wish to rest your legs en-route to Norway (a passage undertaken by BOUNDER’s first owners), then both helm and navigator have a smart hydraulic footrest, and the helm has a height-adjustable wheel. In comparison with the older toggle-switched panels of previous 42s, on board power control is digitally switched from a touch-screen panel at the helm, alongside a digital panel for the Humphree Interceptor and trim package. Usefully there are on board settings that select all lighting and house circuits, and then an underway setting that switches on engine fans and other equipment required for putting to sea.

Beneath her two large multifunction screens is the broad screen displaying all Cummins engine and fuel data, in a digital graphic – so you can instantly check on tanks, transfer fuel, with real-time fuel burn and all ancillary data clearly on view. Talking of fuel, she is fitted with extra wing tanks above the standard specification, with remote valves to allow transfer to the maintain keel tanks – and with a capacity of near 3,000 litres, she technically would have range at 6 knots to make the Atlantic! In normal use, 18 knots is delivering back a combined burn of c. 100 litres per hour. The hull is very composed at this speed, with the engines well within themselves, and a beautifully flat running gait as that knifed stem does its work. She is a truly business-like performer that will look after her crew, no matter the weather, and looks absolutely smashing doing it.

Please do call us on 01590 679222 for an appointment to view this exceptional semi-custom Seaward 42 – she is a truly special yacht.

Sales Particulars: https://www.berthoninternational.com/yacht-sales-brokerage/yachts-for-sale/seaward-42-bounder/

Contact hugh.rayner@berthon.co.uk.

About Hugh Rayner | Meet the Berthon Sales Group