Corey Silken
When Marblehead, Massachusetts, design firm C.W. Hood and Lyman-Morse Boatbuilding Company in Thomaston, Maine, collaborated on a new 42-foot Downeast-style flybridge yacht, the team had another partner to consider: the boat’s future owner.
That person prefers to remain anonymous, but C.W. Hood founder Chris Hood says that the client has a Buzzards Bay 25 sailboat that was designed by Nathanael G. Herreshoff. He wanted the new boat to have a similar, traditional appearance.
Sea Trial
During a trial run on Maine’s St. George River, the boat’s clever technological chops were revealed. The 42 LM’s custom electrical panel is on the port side of the companionway, and is engraved with a representation of a line drawing of the vessel’s profile, as well as inset LED indicator lights for each system. Four “mode” switches labeled “Running,” “Day,” “Night” and “Away” permit quick selections of multiple breakers for overall systems.
For example, instead of having to power up individual accessories every time the owner boards for a cruise, all he or a crewmember has to do is hit one switch. When it’s time to get underway, hit the “Running” switch to power up everything needed to operate the boat. “Day” mode is used when you’re going to be relaxing in the slip or at anchor, and “Away” turns off everything you don’t want left on. Behind the scenes, a CZone digital switching system manages all of the onboard equipment.
“It’s a complicated boat but it’s incredibly easy to run because of the way it’s set up,” says Adam Wolf, marine systems installation manager at Lyman-Morse. “With the different modes, it’s one switch and you can go to bed.”
Another owner requirement was to provide sufficient battery capacity to handle the overnight use of air conditioning and accessory loads without a generator. Integrel Solutions’ E-Power units charge the house battery banks. They’re basically souped-up alternators that mount to the boat’s twin Volvo Penta D6-480 diesels. They produce 160 amps at 48 volts to charge the boat’s twin 300-amp hour Victron battery packs in as little as two hours. Among the modern convenience accessories the batteries run are a Termodinamica air conditioning system and a Seakeeper 3 gyroscopic stabilizer.
“The cool stuff is the two battery banks that allow you to run the boat for multiple days without needing to turn on the engine to charge,” Wolf says.
Run Silent
To make the boat as quiet as possible, Lyman-Morse brought in noise and vibration experts from J&A Enterprises in Salem, Massachusetts. They bypassed the stock exhaust and installed large mufflers outboard of the engines, which are mated to Volvo Penta DPI DuoProp sterndrives via short drive shafts. They were chosen to give the boat the ability to go into shallower areas than shafts or pod drives. Additional noise and vibration mitigation included using heavy-duty rubber gaskets on the engine hatches, vibration-mitigating stiffeners on the outboard hull stringers, and sound-dampening tiles to reduce wave-slapping sounds and other structure-born vibrations.
During my sea trial, the twin Volvo Penta sterndrives pushed the 42-footer to a top speed of 37 mph at 3,600 rpm. It cruises at around 34 mph, according to C.W. Hood. When making S-turns around lobster-pot buoys, the boat responded with smooth agility, and in a sharp banking turn, she held her course, carving a clean, smooth arc.
The boat has traditional Downeast lines above the waterline and a modern running surface under it. The modified-V hull has hard chines and two lifting strakes per side with a sharp, 67-degree entry at the bow. The hull tapers back to 21 degrees amidships and is a little more than 18 degrees at the transom. Humphree Interceptors and the DPS drives allow the ride to be dialed in while running.
As with other C.W. Hood models built at Lyman-Morse, the 42 LM—named Lesselyn after a small town in Scotland—has a cold-molded hull with douglas fir and western red cedar vacuum bagged in West System epoxy. The outer skin is epoxy-infused E-glass. The boat’s classic look comes from an abundant use of mahogany finished in 15 coats of varnish.
“We like to have a strong hull structure. We’ll add some weight so we have a good-riding boat,” Hood says. “In other areas we’ll save weight with the choice of bulkheads, the deck material and equipment. We get the robust hull but we’re not [a heavy] boat.”
The hardtop over the flybridge is carbon fiber that’s been fared and painted to match the rest of the boat. Kudos to the Lyman-Morse fabrication shop for its work on the boat’s bronze rails. The welds are ultra smooth, and the greenish patina
contrasts the varnished pilothouse and trim. CNC-machined hatch latches and fender hanger hardware came from Seasmart in Pesaro, Italy. Engine-room exhaust cowls and flybridge windshield brackets were fabricated by New England Castings in Standish, Maine.
At the flybridge helm, a Garmin multifunction display is set at a comfortably viewed angle in a raised mahogany cabinet trimmed in bronze plates. The helm has twin digital Volvo Penta tachometers, a digital fuel gauge and a monitor for the fire-suppression system. A joystick on each side of the gauge and multifunction diaplay housing allows the captain to pull up to a dock from port or starboard. The bronze Edson steering wheel is centrally mounted below the console. Digital Volvo Penta shift and throttle controls are situated to starboard. The captain and a companion travel on a two-person bench seat. There are two jump-seats built into the hardtop rails in each aft corner.
“It’s old school but with new-school ergonomics,” Hood says. “So many times you see people pushing for retro, retro, retro. They can look retro but they feel retro, too. Nowadays, we pay attention to the seat heights and wheel placement. You need to be able to steer the boat standing up; you need to be able steer sitting down. You need to be comfortable.”
A removable, Sitka spruce ladder finished to match the radar mast makes it easy to climb down from the flybridge to the cockpit. The deck is finished in wide teak planks, and the cockpit has varnished spruce chairs and a table for entertaining.
Proof that the Hood 42 LM was designed and built by people who actually use boats, there are steps and handholds exactly where they should be to facilitate stepping up to the wide side decks from the cockpit. Mahogany handrails along the pilothouse provide convenient handholds when moving forward. On the bow, the boat has a custom roller assembly with a Muir windlass. Foot controls for lowering and raising the anchor are covered in bronze caps, and there are also windlass controls at both helms.
A 3-inch-thick mahogany door from the cockpit to the salon is overbuilt because it houses a counter-balanced glass window on the inside that can be lifted with a finger. Within the salon, all the windows can be lowered with the push of a button.
To starboard in the salon is a raised, L-shaped lounge. Lyman-Morse is finishing a bronze base for the lounge table that will be installed with a mechanism that allows it to slide fore and aft, as well as athwartships. The port-side galley has a brass sink, a maple countertop, drawer-style refrigerator/freezer, and a three-burner stove and range.
Forward, to port, the lower helm seat can be adjusted fore and aft, sliding on waxed-wood rails. When the boat is put away at the end of the day, the panel that holds the Garmin MFD and Volvo Penta tachometers can be lowered into the dash console and covered with a removable wood cap.
“The theme was to hide the technology throughout the boat,” says Lance Buchanan, who is
Lyman-Morse’s boatbuilding division manager.
Heading below, a stand-up shower is to port. A removable panel provides access to the fastidious helm rigging. Each wire, hose and cable is labeled to make troubleshooting system issues easy. There is a starboard head that has a brass sink, a marble counter and copious cabinetry. The owner’s berth is centrally positioned forward with hanging lockers on each side and storage drawers in the base.
The boat’s serviceability can be felt in the access to the mechanical space. A large in-sole hatch in the salon opens to the compartment that contains the battery banks, Seakeeper, Racor fuel filters, twin 80-gallon water tanks and the 200-gallon diesel fuel tank.
The battery chargers/monitors and inverter are easily checked at the front of the compartment. Two large hatches in the cockpit provide excellent access to the engines, and if necessary, the center rail for the hatches can be removed for more serious maintenance.
“One thing we all strive to do when building these boats together is to make it easier for the guy who has do to the work,” Hood says. “That way you know it’s going to get taken care of.”
The Hood 42 LM’s traditional design and lines are sure to turn heads while modern conveniences make running and living on her a cinch for the owner. This boat goes to show what is possible when a sensible owner, keen design eye and world-class yard work together as a team.
LOA: 42’
Beam: 13’
Draft: 3’4”
Displ.: 21,000 lbs.
Fuel: 200 gals.
Water: 80 gals.
Power: (2) 480-hp Volvo Penta
D6 diesels with DPI
DuoProp sterndrives
This article was originally published in the October 2026 issue.
