Stephens Waring Design combines classic style and modern performance in 68-foot Cirrus

Maine-based Stephens Waring Design is celebrating the delivery of a beautiful new 68-foot ocean cruiser, custom designed for an experienced American client. Showing refined, classic lines above the waterline, Cirrus nevertheless produces thoroughly modern performance and bristles with comforts below. She is the quintessence of a Spirit of Tradition sailing yacht.

Cirrus emerged from a conversation with the owner back in 2017, her design evolving dramatically over time. At first, the brief to Stephens Waring was for a broad-beamed, low-profile Mediterranean style yacht. Performance and comfort were to be the key characteristics, with an all-carbon build. But after absorbing the spectacle of classic-styled yachts passing his waterside home in Rockport, Maine, the owner’s requirements began to change.

“Having observed so many spirit-of-tradition yachts, the owner began gravitating towards that look,” said Bob Stephens, partner and co-founder of Stephens Waring Design. “Taking the fully developed and modern layout we’d already worked up, we wrapped it in a much more classic hull form. The client really liked that.

“There were also some clear functional advantages to this approach. For example, the extra stern length allowed us to vastly improve the tender garage under the cockpit, served by a wonderful drop-down swim platform. And we were able to use the counter space for longitudinal storage.”

Spirit of Tradition

Cirrus is a simply a gem to look at, harking back to the golden years of offshore cruising in the 1950s and 60s, when Cruising Club of America (CCA) designs ruled the roost. She eschews the fashions of the moment in favor of a classic spoon-shaped bow, and a modest counter stern, with a hint of tumblehome. She has a low-profile coach roof and a rigid dodger that protects half of the large cockpit. A large central wheel aft drives a spade rudder.

And therein lies part of the beauty of the Spirit of Tradition design. Modern hull design and underwater appendages, including the rudder and a fine bulb keel, make the boat fast and weatherly. She performs well in low winds and is capable of big daily totals on passage between the U.S. east coast and the Caribbean, where she will spend her winters.

“The underwater lines are modern but moderate,” explained Stephens. “We tuned the displacement/length ratio to offer high performance with comfort at sea, and the hull lines incorporate more deadrise than many modern boats to reduce pounding in a head sea. The bulb keel is deep and moderately narrow for minimal wetted surface while providing a forgiving section to provide a wide “groove”. And the large spade rudder is resistant to overloading and stalling for good manners upwind and downwind.”

The same modern design thinking has been applied to the rig, which uses a carbon fiber mast (keel stepped), ECthree stays and modern laminate sails to maximize power. With fractional rig and swept-back spreaders to eliminate the need for running backstays, Cirrus has been designed for short-handed sailing. Push-button sail controls further ease maneuvers, and Cyclops load cells give a constant readout on rig tension for fine-tuning.

No Compromise Comfort

Employing the boatbuilding talents of Jim Betts in Anacortes, Washington, the hull and deck of the boat are vacuum-infused in carbon with foam core for the ultimate stiffness to weight ratio. This has allowed Stephens Waring to add weight back in below in pursuit of an extremely high degree of comfort. Stand-out features include powerful air-conditioning, a 20-bottle wine locker and a large rising TV. The galley also sports a large stand-up fridge/freezer, as well as a separate deep-freeze to keep supplies fresh for longer crossings.

Accommodation is for six guests and two crew, with two large queen-size cabins aft that convert to twins, and the master stateroom forward on the port side. This layout devotes a lot of extra space to the owner’s area, including a sofa, copious storage space for clothes and a large shower and heads. Both the guest cabins are also ensuite.

But the beating heart of the yacht is the magnificent dining and lounging space in the saloon amidships. A very fine solid teak table can seat eight people with fantastic sightlines through the hull lights on either side. A row of skylights overhead provides an excellent view of the sails and floods the saloon with natural light. There’s also a masterly chart table here with full access to the boat’s systems.

“The accommodation on Cirrus is in another league,” said Bob Stephens. “Working in a palette of warm teak and white paneling with dark wenge soles, we have created a real sense of timeless luxury. The saloon is open plan, with a very well-equipped galley and the chart table all connected to the same social space. One of my favorite features is the line of central hatches in the coach roof that provides a continuous bar of light down the center of the spacious saloon.”