Moody 42

"The Moody 42 does give off a slight whiff of blue blazer, cufflinks and club tie... The good news is that the handsome interior has not been achieved by sacrificing seakindliness..."

There was a moment during our test sail of the Moody 42, when someone onboard said: "I wonder if anyone has ever done this before with one of these boats?" We were bashing into the teeth of a 20-25kt sou'wester, first reef tucked into the mainsail and water over the foredeck as we plunged through a nasty, steep chop off Port Melbourne.

"Don't they say gentlemen never sail to windward?" someone else quipped.

The Moody 42 does give off a slight whiff of blue blazer, cufflinks and club tie, reinforced by the interior rich with leather upholstery and cherrywood veneers. The good news is that the handsome interior has not been achieved by sacrificing seakindliness.

Indeed, I was pleasantly surprised by the yacht's performance during our test sail, and am sure that gentlemen could sail this yacht to windward even in nasty weather - if they should ever design to do so.

For me the Moody name has always been synonymous with cold climate cruising around the British Isles and across the English Channel. While that's certainly been a major part of the market for Moody Yachts (these days a partnership between two English companies, Moody Marketing & Development and Marine Projects, the UK's largest production boat builder), many of these centre cockpit craft can be found cruising in more tropical locations, across the Atlantic to the Caribbean, for example. Others have found their way into local waters in the hands of Australian buyers.

Melbourne businessman Chris Bishop became a representative for Moody Yachts in 1990 and says he has received a steady stream of local enquiries ever since, even though he decided to "put the company to sleep" during the '90s economic downturn.

Gauging the current economic climate as suitable to put the venture back into gear, Bishop has imported one of the first boats from the production line of Moody's new model 42, and is marketing the range through Vicsail Melbourne.

CRUISING PEDIGREE
The designer of the Moody cruisers is Bill Dixon, a well known and respected name in the cruising world and also the superyacht scene. The 42 is an extended version of his previous Moody 40 design, adding space in the aft cabin and the big lazarette area.

Construction is in hand-laid fibreglass, with balsa cored sandwich construction above the waterline and in the deck. The deck edge incorporates a raised bulwark with teak cap rail, something of a Moody signature.

The hull is stiffened by bonded-in frames and stringers, in conjunction with semi-structural internal mouldings.

CENTRE COCKPIT BENEFITS
Centre cockpit configurations cost more than aft cockpit models in terms of weight and overall price, but there are some big benefits, too.

On deck, the aft area is free of flailing sheets and other traps for guests, who can be seated out of harm's way on the individual seats thoughtfully provided in both corners of the pushpit.

While the cockpit is much smaller than you'd expect to find on a comparative-sized aft cockpit yacht, this has been turned to advantage for shorthanded sailing, as the steerer can easily reach the headsail sheets, mainsheet and traveller control lines.

Also, the centre cockpit is higher than a standard aft cockpit, so that crew are somewhat less exposed to spray coming over the deck. A sturdy dodger helps considerably in this regard.

But it's below decks that the biggest benefits of the centre cockpit configuration are to be found. The Moody 42's aft cabin is a wonderfully roomy, light and airy hideaway, with lots of headroom, storage space and seating around the large central double berth. There are some nice details to be found here, such as the padded storage area for personal items like jewellery in the vanity desk on the forward bulkhead, and the mirrors inside the portside lockers.

If, like me, you're used to aft cockpit yachts, it feels strange at first coming down the companionway into the midst of the main cabin instead of its aft end. But once again, this configuration has been turned to benefit.

The navigator gets his or her very own, very comfortable OEnavigatorium on the port side aft of the companionway, with a conventional nav desk with chart stowage under the lid, and plenty of space for instruments, electronics and electrical distribution panel on the adjacent wall panelling.

Aft of this area is a wet hanging locker; behind which is a passage cabin with a mid-level single pilot berth. A clever arrangement allows this berth to extend to full adult length, or to be shortened with the use of a drop-in panel, which converts the aft end into an extra hanging locker for the stateroom and converts the passage cabin into a dressing room.

On the opposite side of the companionway is the walk-through galley, which makes use of both the inboard and outboard areas very effectively. There are twin stainless steel sinks, hot and cold pressurised water supply via mixer tap, refrigerated icebox, gimballed two-burner stove with oven, grill and protective crash bar, granite-look benchtops and ample stowage space.

Aft of here, between the galley and the stateroom, is the en suite bathroom, which has a separate shower cubicle as well as the main compartment for the marine head, hand basin and vanity unit.

Access to the centreline mounted engine - a 50 hp Volvo Penta four-cylinder diesel driving though a saildrive leg - plus the 60amp alternator and two 12 volt batteries, is via removable panels on the sides of the engine compartment, running aft from the companionway under the cockpit.

CHERRY AND LEATHER
A striking feature of the saloon area is the dark green leather upholstery on the settees, either side of the dropleaf dining table. This looks beautiful amid the warm cherrywood veneers used throughout the interior, although it is quite slippery to sit on and time will judge its practicality as a boat furnishing.

Forward is another private double cabin, with a large V-berth and en suite bathroom. This is set up with a lifting seat, which fits over the manual Jabsco toilet for use when showering. A nice touch is the provision of lightweight shower curtains to prevent items in the storage lockers and the door-mounted toilet roll from getting drenched when the shower is in use.

Throughout the interior, the finish appears to be of a consistently high quality, with no unfinished edges in evidence even in dark corners of cupboards and all doors secured with positive locks.

RIGGED FOR CRUISING
Emphasising the focus on shorthanded cruising comfort is the fact the standard Moody 42 rig includes an in-mast mainsail furling system. The test yacht is set up with the alternative rig, which has untapered aluminium Selden spars with lazy jacks and slab reefing for the mainsail, controlled by Selden's rather nifty single line reefing system.

The mast is deck-stepped, apparently to make life easier for owners cruising along the canals of Europe. They can organise to have the mast lifted by crane and laid on the deck to negotiate low bridges and lochs, and later re-stepped, more easily than with a keel-stepped mast. The mast step is supported by a compression post under the deck.

Rigging consists of two sets of sweptback spreaders, SS fore and aft lower stays, intermediates and shrouds (with loads transferred through the deck into the hull via stainless steel tie-rods), and a split backstay which is not adjustable without using tools.

The headsail is set up on a Furlex 300S roller furler, and the boom is supported by a rigid Selden boom vang, as well as a topping lift. Deck hardware is a good quality mix of Lewmar and Rutgersen equipment, and the layout of halyards and sail control lines is fairly standard.

We found the boat rather under-winched for the big overlapping headsail, which was a real back-breaker using the Lewmar 48 self-tailing genoa winches. Also, the mainsheet sheeting system seemed underdone, with a very short traveller and small Lewmar 8 winches without self-tailers providing not much grunt.

The boarding platform is very practical, with two decent steps moulded in, a sturdy stainless steel boarding ladder which hinges up (but strangely lacks a locking mechanism to hold it out of the water when not in use) and two stainless steel handholds. There are two large storage areas at the stern, accessible via deck hatches which lock and unlock using an Allen key (try not to drop it overboard!).

There are substantial stainless steel mooring cleats forward, aft and amidships, and the anchor locker in the bow is set up with a reversible electric anchor windlass with handset control (this can be plugged in to a socket at the bow, and another one beside the engine controls at the steering station).

The Whitlock steering pedestal is set up with a binnacle compass, handhold and single-lever engine control. The stainless steel wheel is leather covered and can be locked when back at the mooring.

ON THE WATER
We ventured out into a fresh afternoon seabreeze and steep Port Phillip slop with a willing crew of five, keen to put the Moody 42 through its paces. Some element of trial and error was involved, as this was the yacht's first outing in a fresh breeze.

Unfortunately installation of the Brookes & Gatehouse log and wind instrumentation had not been completed, so we were unable to accurately gauge our speed and the prevailing wind strength. My guess would put the wind in the 20-25kt range; we were certainly on our ear with full main and genoa, but the yacht settled down quickly when one reef was tucked in, and from there on seemed to require minimal input from the steerer to pick a course through the seaway. Some weather helm was evident, and could be dealt with by a proper mast tune-up.

There was some hobbyhorsing motion evident as we sailed to windward, but not to an exaggerated degree, and the yacht tended to slide over waves rather than crash through. Our speed to windward may have been modest, probably in the 5-7kt range, but it was comfortable once we got a feel for the boat.

Downwind, still with the reef in and without the headsail poled out, the rolling motion from side to side was quite uncomfortable as the seaway threw us about. This was quickly sorted out by coming onto a broad reaching angle, which the Moody predictably preferred. She loped along at perhaps 8-9 kts, tracking straight and tending not to be sidetracked by all but the steepest beam seas.

All in all, the Moody 42's performance in these conditions was impressive, in spite of the fact that the rig was not yet fully tuned. My ssessment is that this is a very comfortable cruiser, both in terms of her seakindly performance, and the level of creature comforts offered in the standard specification.