What can you say about a yacht that can motorsail at 9 knots in wind strengths ranging from zero to 30 knots and any wind direction? And one on which, if the engine should fail, you can still slowly but reliably sail to a safe port? Craig Stephens, a former member of the John Alden design firm, answered these questions with a “Why not?” Lacking the time to actually draw the yacht himself, he commissioned the Chuck Paine office to finalize his vision of the ideal ocean voyager. His 58-footer is being built in aluminum at the Lyman Morse yard in Thomaston, Maine.

Optimized for motorsailing, the Paine Steadysailor, as it is being called, will consistently travel at, say, 9 knots no matter what the wind speed. Steady speed, rather than a steadying sail, inspired the name.

The hull has a hard chine and a long, shallow keel for cruising the Bahamas and the French canals. However, the NACA airfoil keel is wide enough for the engine to fit into it. With the engine placed low like this it can also serve as ballast. The nearly horizontal prop shaft allows for standing headroom in the engine room. Tankage for 1,000 gallons of fuel is also located in the keel, ahead of and behind the engine space. To dampen rolling motion at sea, hydrodynamic stabilizers will be hung from A-frame-type poles, which will also serve as sheeting points for the jib. Sailing downwind, the two-ply jib can be separated and sheeted outboard to the end of the two poles, doubling potential sail area.

Paine has given the yacht enough stability to ensure a comfortable roll period even when stopped in a seaway. In most wind strengths the yacht will not heel more than 10 degrees and will be able to recover from a 120-degree knockdown. That’s far above the 70-to-90-degree recovery angles of many motoryachts.

C.W. Paine Yacht Design, Box 763, Camden, ME 04843; 207-236-2166; www.chuckpaine.com