For those who haven't been following the progress of Steve and Linda Dashew's latest fast trawler project you may be interested in looking at http://www.setsail.com/dashew/Opua_Suva_Fiji_Recap.html Also look at the Sea Trials and Voyage posts. I think the performance of the craft is quite impressive. My thought is that we all know that long and skinny is best for passagemaking, but because of more practical concerns we compromise and do otherwise. I think the cost of this first boat was said to be $3.5 million. John Crowley 46' Steel Passagemaker (under construction) http://home.comcast.net/~ALweld/wsb/index.html