Here are a couple of shots of the mould of the new boat. To get a perfect finish the mould has to be meticulously checked over and carefully polished.
Note the orange stripe lines. These are to show the layup crew where to put the waterline. Coloured gelcoat is applied to the mould using the orange as a guide to become the waterline on the finished hull. Some manufacturers use tape for the bootstripe lines but Northshore use gelcoat since it will be much longer wearing. It is the area that needs a frequent scrubbing since it is right near the water.

Observant viewers will note the caprail is moulded into the hull on this boat. (see the overhanging lip at the top of the mould. The deck sits on this and is joined there rather than being joined on the caprail. This means we have a solid glass caprail instead of a decorative teak one as on the 42. The join is covered by the teak decking. So the new boat has no decorative teak outside. We do have the lovely teak decks and teak cockpit floors/seats but no other teak. I do very much like the great footing of teak decks but don't like maintaining decorative teak (either with varnish Cetol or whatever). The teak cockpit floors/seats on our 42 have been great and only require a scrub every month or two.

Now here's a picture to inspire .... as we are cruising the Bahamas and working on the 6th season of the Distant Shores TV series. This is a wonderful place if you have a shallow draft like the Southerly. (note the new boat still draws less then 3 feet despite being 6 feet longer!). We will be here for a few more weeks then jumping of to the Chesapeake Bay.


So we can still beach her like this. We do get to meet lots of people who come to see if we are all right ;-)

Here are a few images of the first 48 in the factory in build...

We will be getting hull number 2 of this boat so of course we are looking closely at all the images to see exactly how things will be set up. Although we have poured over the plans to get a good picture of the boat, photos will help even more.

From the side you can see she is quite similar to the 42. Raised Saloon which we love! Aft cockpit. Long waterline.

Looking at the dimensions shows a different emphasis in the design.
LOA increases from 42.2 feet to 48.5 - an increase of 15%
and waterline length has a similar increase... but...
Beam increases from 13.2 to 13.7 - just 6 more inches or just 4%
Keel/Ballast weight is up from 8,091 to 11,530 lbs - a 42% increase

This should mean a much more powerful and faster hull...

Looking at the keel, draft increases from 8.9 feet to 10.2 (thats over 3 meters!!!)
but raising the keel still has the draft less than 3 feet - just 2 foot 10 versus 2 foot nine.

So basically the new boat is a sleeker version of the 42. More than 6 feet longer and with a much deeper keel but only 6 inches wider.


Although bigger than the 42 and much of that length is in the bow section. She is a very sleek boat and should be very fast (not that the 42 wasn't quite fast - the 48 will be FASTER)


Note the teak side decks with the genoa track mounted on them. The 48 is designed with our favourite double headsail rig as a standard feature (it was an option on the 42). The decks are wider and the teak will be nice to give good footing when you go forward at sea.

Well that's it for now, more updates soon!