The Shearwater 39 is a recent development of several designs from my office in the last 35 years.

Starting with the Skimmer and progressing with the Atlantic range, the Coronets and the Northern Comforts, is here the last word in lifting keel design.

We started with a thirty-eight with a stern hung rudder but this was aimed at the use of drying out in mud berthes, as often done in Brittish waters.

To stand upright on the beach, the support of the double rudder skegs is a usefull feature and so is a scoop.

More ever most people prefer wheel steering on a boat of this size.

All reasons to give our Shearwater 38 some more options to the choices we had already in mind from the start.

So we still plan to offer a cutter masthead rig and the interior shown on the preliminary plans.