Hood 42 LM feels less yacht, more gentleman's club

Step aboard the new Hood 42 LM and the first impression isn't of a boat at all, it's of an exceptionally well-appointed gentleman's club, all warm mahogany, sculpted joinery and unhurried natural light.

Lyman-Morse, the Thomaston, Maine boatbuilder that has spent nearly five decades building custom yachts in the United States, has just unveiled Hull No. 1 of the model, the newest addition to its Hood Series collaboration with C.W. Hood Yacht Design. Designed by Chris Hood, the 42-footer carries the same New England profile that's defined the range, varnished mahogany house sides, a bronze bow rail, a graceful sheer, while hiding thoroughly modern engineering beneath it.

It's the third design the two companies have built together, following the Hood 57 LM flagship and the Hood 35 LM, of which two hulls have already launched. A fourth, the Hood 46 LM, is currently under construction at the Thomaston yard. Lyman-Morse's own listing for the boat says her look draws inspiration from the classic Wasque powerboats that have long worked the Maine coast, though her underwater lines and construction owe nothing to them.

The hull is cold-molded, layers of Douglas Fir and Western Red Cedar veneer bonded with advanced composite laminates, a process Lyman-Morse says produces a structure that's exceptionally strong, light and remarkably quiet underway. Power comes from twin Volvo Penta D6 440-horsepower engines with DPS drives, giving her a cruising speed in the mid-30-knot range. US Harbors, reviewing the boat separately, puts her top speed at 39 knots.

The finish work is where the club comparison earns its keep. US Harbors counted fifteen coats of Epifanes varnish over the mahogany, and Lyman-Morse's own account of Hull No. 1 runs to a hideaway electronics console at the lower helm, custom-forged bronze fittings shaped to secure fenders without breaking the boat's profile, and a carbon-fibre companionway door wrapped in varnished veneers with a counter-balanced drop window. Even the salon and aft windows lower and raise electrically, with screens that deploy on their own.

Below, Hull No. 1 carries a single-owner stateroom forward with an enclosed head, a separate shower stall and generous stowage. The main deck runs as one open, single-level space, helm to port, galley and salon flowing into the entertaining area, with wide windows pulling in natural light. Lyman-Morse says future owners of the series can vary the interior arrangement and choose between flybridge and sedan configurations.

"They're details that don't exist because they're easy," said Drew Lyman, president of Lyman-Morse. "They exist because someone cared enough to ask whether we could build them better." It's the kind of line a builder can only get away with once the boat backs it up, and on the 42, it mostly does.

It's a deliberately old-fashioned looking boat in a market currently chasing the opposite. US Harbors, reviewing the boat, noted that most new power cruisers have gone angular, with fold-down sides opening the cockpit straight to the water, and that the 42 goes the other way entirely. Wrapped in varnish and bronze instead, she's betting that in a crowded field of look-alike hulls, looking like nothing else on the water still counts for something.

The Hood 42 LM makes her public debut at the Newport International Boat Show, running September 17 to 20.

Find out more from Lyman-Morse.