A few weeks ago we met up with our friends Michael and Martina on their beautifully designed and built custom Hutting 54 Polaris. They were kind enough to give me, camera in hand, a tour and to patiently answer my many questions.
While few of us will ever have the resources to custom build a boat like Polaris, we can all learn from the choices these two very experienced sailors made when having their once-in-a-lifetime dream boat designed and built.
The 54-foot Hutting (Dutch) built custom cutter “Polaris” shows her power on a blustery day. Courtesy of Michael HaferkampThe two reels hold over 300-feet each of high tech floating line for putting in shore-fasts. The dinghy davits can be and are removed for tougher ocean passages. “Polaris” has no generator so the towed water generator on the starboard quarter is important for providing amps at sea, particularly for the ever hungry auto-pilot.A close-up of the line reels.Michael, skipper and owner of “Polaris”. With many northern high latitude trips under their belts in their last boat (a Hallberg-Rassy), Michael and Martina knew exactly what they wanted when they had “Polaris” designed and built. Note the emergency tiller that is always mounted and ready to go.Michael with the always mounted emergency tiller. Note the immediately available pull out extension; now that’s smart attention to detail.A view from forward of the hard dodger. Note the mounting plate under the block in the foreground. On “Polaris”, like “Morgan’s Cloud”, the deck fittings are mounted on threaded plates that are welded to the deck so the fastenings do not penetrate through to the underside and there is no possibility of leaks.Now that’s a cleat! Also, because the bollard is above the toe rail, no fairlead is required and so there is no possibility of chafe.“Polaris” sports a massively strong three spreader rig by Selden that has proved reliable. Note the jumper struts (diamonds) that transfer the load from the staysail stay to the permanent backstays thereby obviating the need for running backstays, except in very heavy weather. However, Michael and Martina, like Phyllis and I, tend to keep the weather running backstay set up while at sea, as a backup.A closer view of the Selden rig.The whole forward end of the boat is given over to a massive storage locker that can swallow up dinghy, outboard, spare anchors, two large line reels and just about everything else required for aggressive high latitude cruising. Michael and Martina believe, as we do, that the deck should be completely cleared before going to sea. For that reason “Polaris”, like “Morgan’s Cloud”, does not have a rigid bottom dinghy since that would preclude stowing it below.A closer view of the port forward locker. The webbing on the reel forward is a spare anchor rode.The sheltered and easy to work in cockpit. A huge locker to starboard swallows two full-sized mountain bikes and two Klepper folding Kayaks. I think that if Phyllis and I were building such a boat we would have gone for a fully enclosed wheel house, but that would have made the cockpit more cramped and impinged on the raised salon. As Michael said repeatedly during my tour, “Compromises, compromises, all boats are compromises”.“Polaris” has a huge open and airy raised salon, but note that the layout is carefully designed so there are no dangerous wide open areas to be thrown across at sea; something so common on production boats. The master cabin is forward and a tiny guest cabin with bunk beds to starboard. (Michael and Martina agree with Phyllis and I that guest cabins should never be too comfortable; that way guests don’t stay too long!) This is a boat intelligently designed for two with occasional guests; no rabbit warren of three cabins and eight-plus berths that a production boat of this size would be cursed with. The single head is aft where it is easily accessible from the cockpit.
Hi John, I am having my aluminium 48 foot one off yacht being built by Hutting as well ! It will be ready in 8 months. A quick question. I notice Polaris has the same grey non slip patches as Morgan’s Cloud. How effective are they and do you know if they are suitable for the tropics ?
The material is Treadmaster. You can find a lot more about it by putting “Treadmaster” without the inverted commas into the search box at the top of the post.
Rich Morrow
January 3, 2025 5:49 pm
Hi John,
The Hutting 46 may have come to your attention already. If not, I think you will find it of interest.
We all enjoy a little “bias confirmation”, or perhaps, no surprise, enjoy finding that people we respect have views that overlap with our own.
That was certainly my reaction when I came across the YouTube and web site description of the Hutting 46. I had a good close look at a Hutting 40 when tied up beside her at the Marina Gaviota,Holguin, Cuba some years ago. And, was already an admirer of the line from their website and designer Dick Koopmans’ website, so was very curious as to their recent thinking.
The Hutting 46, fairly new to the Hutting line up, has traditional good looks, a nice sheer, substantial beam with moderate overhangs. Maybe for marketing reasons, a bit of a re-fresh, who knows, Hutting went to a different designer, Van Oossanen Naval Architects rather than their old stand by, Koopmans. Van Oossanen shows off an incredible portfolio of sophisticated projects and if their website is any indication, is staffed to the rafters with young engineers, designers and technical people. (https://oossanen.nl)
And in the text they describe their mandate in terms I definitely relate to:
“The Hutting 46 Explorer is an ideal ocean going, long distance sailing yacht designed for ultimate performance. The main design aspects are high performance sailing characteristics and very comfortable and safe sailing behaviour.
To optimise the performance of the design, state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations were employed. To ensure the highest level of safety and comfort in rough sea conditions, the foreship is kept slightly deeper underwater than is typically used in the design of modern racing vessels.
The transom of the hull is kept relatively narrow, which also enhances its behaviour in waves. The height of the transom above the water was chosen so that the entire length of the hull is optimally utilised to enhance its sailing performance, allowing the transom wave to leave the hull at an ideal angle.”
I think they arrived at a design that Bodie Rhodes would have agreed with, and without the slightest deference to Box Rule “design cues”.
Cheers, wishing you and Phyllis all the best in 2025,
Rich Morrow
Hi John, I am having my aluminium 48 foot one off yacht being built by Hutting as well ! It will be ready in 8 months. A quick question. I notice Polaris has the same grey non slip patches as Morgan’s Cloud. How effective are they and do you know if they are suitable for the tropics ?
Hi Tim,
The material is Treadmaster. You can find a lot more about it by putting “Treadmaster” without the inverted commas into the search box at the top of the post.
Hi John,
The Hutting 46 may have come to your attention already. If not, I think you will find it of interest.
We all enjoy a little “bias confirmation”, or perhaps, no surprise, enjoy finding that people we respect have views that overlap with our own.
That was certainly my reaction when I came across the YouTube and web site description of the Hutting 46. I had a good close look at a Hutting 40 when tied up beside her at the Marina Gaviota,Holguin, Cuba some years ago. And, was already an admirer of the line from their website and designer Dick Koopmans’ website, so was very curious as to their recent thinking.
The Hutting 46, fairly new to the Hutting line up, has traditional good looks, a nice sheer, substantial beam with moderate overhangs. Maybe for marketing reasons, a bit of a re-fresh, who knows, Hutting went to a different designer, Van Oossanen Naval Architects rather than their old stand by, Koopmans. Van Oossanen shows off an incredible portfolio of sophisticated projects and if their website is any indication, is staffed to the rafters with young engineers, designers and technical people. (https://oossanen.nl)
The YouTube video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-Q3hP3RHzM really lays out their intentions and the resources they brought to bear on the 46.
And in the text they describe their mandate in terms I definitely relate to:
“The Hutting 46 Explorer is an ideal ocean going, long distance sailing yacht designed for ultimate performance. The main design aspects are high performance sailing characteristics and very comfortable and safe sailing behaviour.
To optimise the performance of the design, state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations were employed. To ensure the highest level of safety and comfort in rough sea conditions, the foreship is kept slightly deeper underwater than is typically used in the design of modern racing vessels.
The transom of the hull is kept relatively narrow, which also enhances its behaviour in waves. The height of the transom above the water was chosen so that the entire length of the hull is optimally utilised to enhance its sailing performance, allowing the transom wave to leave the hull at an ideal angle.”
I think they arrived at a design that Bodie Rhodes would have agreed with, and without the slightest deference to Box Rule “design cues”.
Cheers, wishing you and Phyllis all the best in 2025,
Rich Morrow
Hi Rich,
I will put the boat on my list of things to research, thanks for the heads up.