The Hallberg-Rassy
42 (E) was designed by Olle Enderlein and built between 1980 and 1991, with a
total of 255 hulls being built. Enderlein’s design was replaced in 1991 by
German Frers’ 42 (F). To me, her most noticeable difference when compared with
the more recent Frers design is her large expanse of flat deck. I find that
working (and relaxing) on a flat deck is much nicer than having to work around
the slippery sides of a coachroof.
Down below
in the saloon, they are light and spacious, with plenty of light coming through
the numerous deck hatches and opening hull ports. With these boats being 23+
years old, the interior mahogany bulkheads, cupboards and furniture frames have
darkened to a very beautiful deep red-brown.
I was
recently asked to travel out to Alicante in Spain to survey a very nice 42 (E),
built in 1982. Performing a pre-purchase survey of a 42’ ketch is physically
demanding at the best of times, but working down below & delving into the
bilges is more strenuous when the outside temperature is 30°C and the humidity is high. The
vessel’s skipper, who was a great help throughout the day, kept me supplied with
many litres of bottled water.
Not
surprisingly, this boat’s hull had suffered from blistering in the past. This
is incorrectly termed ‘osmosis’ in the UK and is called ‘boat pox’ in the
States. Of more concern were the skin fittings and attached valves. The
majority of these were the boat’s original hardware and were beginning to fail. I
say ‘beginning’ as it was only when the valves and attached spigots were
lightly struck with a hammer, did any of them fail.
Having
finished the majority of the survey, it was time to put the yacht back into the
water and take her back to her mooring, several miles up the coast. This gave
the skipper & I plenty of time to run a sea trial on the Yanmar 4 cylinder
main engine and also to enjoy a very pleasant sail. My only regret of the
survey was that I didn’t take a photo of her deck whilst I was at the top of
her main mast, checking over the mast cap and attached hardware.
