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Nigel Bartlett lives aboard his homemade aluminum sailboat, S/V "Justin", in the US Virgin Islands. Although not rich yet, his fame and fortune are sure to follow. He supports his adventurous life style via acrylic paintings depicting colorful tropical island life. I first met Nigel while anchored off Water Island in Elephant Bay. For those not familiar with the local waters, Elephant Bay is a popular local and cruiser's anchorage close to Charlette Amalie,the main town and cruise ship terminus on St. Thomas. Water Island is just southeast (map) of the St. Thomas Airport. Yes, the US Virgins and neighboring British Virgin Islands are a magnificent playground for the cruising sailor, as you can see from Nigel's painting. Some of the local shops in Charlotte Amalie sell mounted lithographic reproductions of Nigel's originals. His originals fetch a king's ransom, however the mounted prints are quite reasonable. When you are there, I hope you bump into some of his colorful works and enjoy them as much as I.

This special gift from Nigel conveys the mutual feelings cruising sailors share in their symbiotic relationships formed while at sea and carries the caption:

The Taswell series from Ta Shing represents the very best of technology enriched and refined through the shipwright's art. Ta Shing Yacht Building Co., Ltd. in Tainan, Taiwan builds some of the most respected sailing yachts in the industry, including the Tashiba, Mason, Tayana series, and Norseman 447 sailing yachts. Ta Shing turned to naval architect Bill Dixon and his team to design the Taswell series. The result is a truly exceptional yacht in performance, function and comfort.

This article is about one such Taswell 43, hull #053, that received perhaps the most number of design changes to date, some 130 in all. Why? What could possibly be gained from taking a well designed sailing yacht by a world reknowned naval architect and making it different? Well my friend, there is a lot especially if expense is not a deterrent. Yes, you can have the very best money can buy.

The owner of Hull #053 was well experienced in ocean voyaging and knew what he wanted. He was familiar with the line. And because he was an experienced blue water sailor he knew he wanted extra storage space. He knew he wanted increased sailing performance to windward. He knew he wanted a stiff boat that would heel less than any he had before. He knew what he needed both above and below the decks for safety, comfort, and ease of maintenance. He wanted to spend more of his time enjoying the cruising life and less time worrying about safety and maintenance. And he made it possible!

Lets examine the keel, mast and rig. He chose a custom Scheel keel and tall carbon fiber mast. The combination provides better righting moment and better upwind performance because the weight at the top of the mast is decreased and the center of gravity is lowered. Each modification by itself would increase righting moment, but employing both makes a very stiff boat that can carry more sail in a wider range of sailing conditions. He chose a cutter rig that easily converts to a masthead sloop for well rounded sail plan in all weather conditions. The addition of about 2' to the mast height accommodates a main sail with a slightly higher aspect ratio, and that combined with decreased keel set produce much better windward performance. Tarca track on the toe rail, and deck mounted track for jib and staysail also improve windward sail ability. these modifications are so much better that it could easily make the difference between sailing windward rather than motoring upwind. At today's cost of diesel, who wants to motor upwind when they don't have to?

Did I hear you ask about short handed sailing? All lines are led into the cockpit with easily accessible sheet stoppers and over size winches. Main sail has full length battens with Harken bat cars. It stows on the boom in its bag. The jib has Harken roller furling with cockpit control. There are extra jib, main, and spinnaker halyards which can also be led to the cockpit. Single handed sailing is as easy as can be with this layout.

How many cruising sailboats have 3 hanging lockers in the owner's stateroom? Well this one does due to the addition of two 24" wide cabinets, one on each side of the queen berth that easily convert to hanging lockers or storage cabinets with shelves. The third hanging cabinet measures 36" wide and 48" tall to accommodate even more clothes.

There is a separate wet hanging locker that drains to the bilge for hanging foul weather gear. But that is not all. All over this yacht from bow to stern there are more doors, lockers, drawers, bookcases and storage space than many twice her size! If you have ever cruised, you recognize the value of storage space and bookcases. And of course, it is all built with the Ta Shing quality in form and function.

The custom stainless steel arch on the transom provides a convenient place to mount radar, antennas, wind generators and anything else one might wish to get out of the way of the sails. On the transom are a convenient swim step, fold up ladder, transom shower, dinghy motor hoist and industrial strength Wind Pilot self-steering vane. None of this comes cheap, but price was not the object. And I have only touched on a few of the many upgraded features here. The list of upgrades includes over sized winches, a copper clad bottom, integrated HF radio grounding plane, sunken anchor locker on bow, custom lazarettes and more, much more. In all, this Taswell 43' was well thought out for world wide cruising. She has sailing performance, more than ample storage space, and has comfort and beauty only Ta Shing can deliver. It's no wonder she ranks 11 on my 1 to 10 scale for blue water cruising yachts. Well done sir!

If you desire more specifics on this Taswell 43, hull #053, visit her web page at http://taswell.isleofsail.org .