Coast 250

Producing a boat that planes under power and sails like a thorough bred has been an elusive quest for decades. Has Swallow Yachts’ Coast 250 succeeded where others have failed?

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Sailing yachts are designed to sail and motorboats to motor, right? And never the twain shall interbreed – at least not successfully? This hasn’t stopped people trying. Motor-sailers have always been around. More recently we have also seen the planing power-sailer, as epitomised by the phenomenally successful MacGregor 26. Some might argue that power-sailers, like motor sailers, have been compromises that neither motor nor sail particularly well. But whatever your views, the fact is that now, nearly 25 years after the power-sailing version of the MacGregor (the MacGregor 26X) appeared, we have a British-built boat of similar size that will motor efficiently and comfortably at 15 knots without compromise to its sailing ability. So how has this been achieved, and what lessons have been learned from the attempts of earlier builders? Well, all previous power-sailers that have sold in any number have had certain characteristics in common. One is lacklustre sailing performance, even though I have met MacGregor owners who defend them to the hilt. After MacGregor’s 26X came the 26M. It sailed slightly better but was still heavily compromised, as was the Polish-built Odin 26 (later reincarnated as the Imexus 27) and Legend’s Edge 27. The best performer under sail was the Tide 28, which made the headlines when a 14-year-old Michael Perham sailed Cheeky Monkey across the Atlantic in 2007. The challenge with designing a power-sailer is that sailing yachts and planing powerboats tend to have very different hull forms for good reason, even before you consider fundamentals like the sailing yacht’s need for ballast, a rig, and foils that generate lift.