The new Rangeboat 46, designed for liveaboards or cruisers who want to go faster than displacement speeds and burn less fuel then most trawlers, just arrived in Newport, Rhode Island. The company will have a booth at the Newport show, starting Sept. 14, but the boat will be in the harbor for showing.
Powered by a single 260-hp Yanmar, the Rangeboat 46 is efficient; it gets 3.5 miles per gallon at 10 knots. If you want to outrun a storm, or just get somewhere a bit faster, it tops out at about 18 knots.
The boat was designed by Nigel Irens, the British designer whose boats have set records for circumnavigations under power and sail. The Rangeboat 46 has a fine entry and a balanced hull; it’s lightweight, built with a vacuum-cored hull and deck and weighing in at just 16,000 pounds. It’s also slender, with just a 12’ 3” beam.
Phil Lambert, who’s developing the Rangeboat line, told me that he’s calling the existing boat “hull zero.” It was designed about 2010, and Nigel Irens is updating the design now. He said “I wanted a 10-knot boat that burns as little as possible, both for my wallet and for the environment.” The ride, he said, “is great – with even trim, cutting through the seas, not plowing through or bouncing on top. Running downwind she grabs a wave and surfs at 12 knots.”
Lambert and his wife live in Fort Lauderdale and head north in the summer. He said the Rangeboat 46 is perfect for snowbirds. “This boat will make the passage quick and green and has enough interior to spend the season on.”
The basic boat has a single queen-sized berth in the bow with an en suite head and shower, but the company can amend the layout to provide for two staterooms or a galley up other options for individual buyers. The boats will be made in Turkey; tooling will start in two weeks.
The profile is low; air height is just 10 feet, so the boat can slide under a lot of bridges. It also can be trucked from coast to coast or shipped to Europe for cruising the canals there.
Part of the Rangeboat philosophy is to eliminate features that are not really required for safe and comfortable cruising. Lithium batteries and solar panels, for example, will provide enough power to run the air conditioning and boat systems, eliminating the need for a generator. A watermaker eliminates the need to carry extra water.
Read more: http://rangeboat.com
