Scott Smith, co-founder and CEO of Boston Boatworks, says it was an interesting moment when the team at his 27-year-old shipyard realized they could do whatever they darn well pleased. “When we were given the opportunity to build a boat for ourselves, we thought, okay, what do we want to do?” Smith says.
The Massachusetts yard got its start building custom grand prix racing sailboats, and went on to build more than 300 express cruisers that were sold with another brand name. Given that history, the team decided to create the Boston Boatworks 52 Offshore Express Cruiser: the first-ever model under the yard’s own name, designed with a laser focus on purpose.
“This is an offshore vessel,” Smith says. “There’s a helm door that gets you to a side deck with an 8-inch bulwark and a safety rail from bow to stern. You have access to all cleats from the side deck—you don’t have to climb over furniture in the cockpit to get there. All of these things are designed for an owner-operator who wants a boat first and an entertaining platform when they get there.”
Construction on the first hull is scheduled to begin later this year. Three BB52s have already been sold, Smith says, with delivery of the fourth hull expected in late 2024. Smith also says the yard is thinking about smaller and larger models.
The BB52’s exterior design is by Doug Zurn, a longtime collaborator with Boston Boatworks. Interiors are by Winch Design in London, a well-known firm in the superyacht world. The BB52 is the first American offshore cruiser in Winch’s portfolio.
“They did several different configurations, and they’ll work directly with an owner to come up with palettes and finishes,” Smith says. “The other thing that Winch did with us was to create an interior that flows from the pilothouse to the lower deck. The windscreen lands on the bulkhead forward of the galley, so there’s an atrium effect. It’s a lot of natural light, and it makes that interior space just flow and feel more like a split-level apartment than a lower deck and a pilothouse.”
Everything about the BB52 is intended to make boating easier and more comfortable, Smith says. The boat has side windows that lower electrically, as well as an after bulkhead that disappears, to keep everyone on board connected to the water. Pillars in the pilothouse hide ducts for the HVAC system, to distribute hot and cold air without the need for louvered vents. The windshield is a single pane with no mullions or other visual obstructions.
“The A pillars—the front corners of the pilothouse—are further away from the helm, which means they obstruct even less of the horizon,” Smith says. “So the sightlines from the helm give excellent visibility over the bow.”
All of those features, and others, are wrapped in a package that Boston Boatworks worked with Zurn to make classic yet contemporary—and to satisfy owners who regularly want to be at the helm. “It’s an owner-operator boat first,” Smith says. “Winch is presenting this to its superyacht customers as an owner-operator complement to the much more complex superyacht experience.” —Kim Kavin
This article was originally published in the June 2023 issue.
