2018 Minorca 42 Islander

The Minorca 42 Islander may look familiar, a profile to go with a name you feel you know, but maybe you just can’t quite put your finger on it. You may have seen this shape before in your travels, since this boat isn’t completely new, but it is new to the United States. The Minorca 42 Islander is sold in Europe as the Minorcino line from Sasga Yachts, and Minorca, as you certainly know, is in Spain’s Balearic Islands, one of the premier getaway spots in the Mediterranean.

Her shape is reminiscent of Down East-inspired cruisers that seem to be everywhere now, but she’s actually inspired less by lobster than a traditional European workboat design called a llaüt. “A llaüt is a double-ended Mediterranean fishing boat,” said Paul Flannery, director of East Coast sales for SYS Yacht Sales. “This builder modified it for pleasure boating, much like our own New England builders modified lobster boats for non-commercial use. Initially, they built boats starting around 24 feet and got as big as 60 feet over the years.” After some ownership transitions, the founding family ended up with the company. The founder’s son José Luis Sastri went to Iñigo Toledo, a naval architect at Barracuda Yacht Design in Madrid, whose work includes a lot of high-end yachts. Sastri wanted to adhere to the tradition of the Mediterranean llaüt, but saw the need to modernize that design. The 42 Islander was introduced in 2009, and now Minorca yachts are coming to the United States.

The Minorca 42 Islander comes in both express and flying bridge models, and both configurations pay attention to onboard living in many ways that are reminiscent of today’s refined Down East designs, with an aft bulkhead that folds fully out of the way to integrate the cockpit and saloon. The 42 Islander is available with both two- and three-stateroom layouts, each with two heads. The en suite master is in the forepeak, and the guest stateroom has a private entrance to a head that also serves as a dayhead. The level of accommodation is a pleasant surprise on a boat of this size, considering that many 40-footers hardly muster two staterooms.

Flannery predicted the three-stateroom, galley-up version will be popular, with the galley along the port side of the saloon opposite the dining area, yet also convenient to a cockpit table. The understated flying bridge has a dinette and a large sunpad aft.

But enough of sunpads. This boat stays true to her commercial forebears. “She has full keel protection,” Flannery says. “She’ll have 355-horsepower Cummins QSBs and I expect her to cruise in the 19-knot range. Minorca boats are all built to CE category A Ocean standards, which means the vessel is designed for extended voyages where conditions may exceed Force 8 winds on the Beaufort scale and significant wave heights of 12 feet and up. The boat also has two watertight bulkheads—it’s a very substantial build. These are very seaworthy boats.” And that familiarity in your gut may also point to a comfort level offshore that comes from another tradition a little farther east.

LOA: 43’4”
BEAM: 13’6”
DRAFT: 3’7”
DISPL.: 22,520 lb.
FUEL: 317 gal.
WATER: 132 gal.

POWER: 2/355-hp Cummins QSB diesel
CRUISE SPEED: 19 knots
TOP SPEED: 25 knots
BASE PRICE: $503,000, plus options, freight, and commissioning