Chris Morejohn: Presto ! And Hogfish Maximus

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Presto ! And Hogfish Maximus

The yacht designer Rodger Martin and his wife Patty have stopped by our place in the Bahamas a couple of times on their way south and going north. They trailer the Presto down from New Port RI and launch her in Florida were they start their winter cruise .The Presto is a magnificent sailing machine. She sails like a dream and is very comfortable to be on. I thought she would be very jumpy because of the light weight of her concept. She does move about for her weight but is still very pleasent to be on at anchor. Under sail she is fast and fun.

This boat is perfect for short term cruising with minimal stuff aboard. By this I mean a few months and to not bring your hard back book collection , and every tool for every occasion with you. Add weight ,loose speed. To make this boat go as fast as she does she has to be built very strong and light. To do this Rodger has engineered a very high tech light weight hull and spars. This boat is not cheap to build.

$185,000.00 and upwards are what they go for. To build in strip plank with aluminum spars and a simpler interior going lower tech will still cost to build by an amature at around $80,000.00 plus at best for materials. I was asked to build 2 similar boats and did the cost analysis .

The wood boats will not be as fast as the cored boats with the god awfull expensive carbon masts.

I would love to race a Presto in the Carribean regattas for a season with a bunch of heavy mates for rail meat. This boat would kick butt.

Here we are rafted together behind our place.

Notice the size of Prestos spars, very small. Aluminum ones would be twice a big around. Also look at the freeboard of both boats. Hogfish Maximuses cabin top- deck is almost as low as Prestos. The spars and booms built by Hall Spars cost as much as what I built the HFM for originally.