Why we chose a Hallberg Rassy

The story starts many years ago at the Seattle boat show in 1996/1997, when browsing all of the boats we stepped on a HR 42, complete with arm chairs in the salon, it was exquisite. Later that year I read the "Log of the Mahina" about John Neal's first blue water cruise. The combination of these two items had us very convinced what our eventual cruising boat would be.

When we were living in Brazil, after a couple of chartering vacations and much research on alternative boat types (Pacific Seacraft, Swan, Morris, Island Packet, Beneteau) we decided on ordering a new HR 34, of which we took delivery of in Singapore in 2001. In summary, the reputation of HR is exceptional and we felt that the cost/value equation as compared to the other boats we considered highly favored the HR.

For a little over five years, we sailed our HR 34, Solace, as much as possible, nearly every weekend in Singapore (not much of a winter) and throughout each summer while we lived in Connecticut. During this period of time which include a little racing, some coastal cruising, a couple of very serious blows (50+ knot Sumatra in Singapore) two babies (Jake and Isabelle), Solace taught us to sail, forgave all mistakes (too much sail for the conditions, going aground) and never suffered a major or minor break down. As we sailed with other boaters, we began to deeply appreciate the fineness of the HR both for the sailing as well as the execution of systems which were reliable and free of anything other than routine maintenance.

So there was no question for us what boat make was going to take us cruising. We looked at a couple of used HR's but ultimately decided to order again from the yard. In terms of size we believe the 40 is a good compromise on storage/tankage and size (not so large as to need electric winches or be overly intimidating in a tight marina). I will go into the outfitting plan for our HR 40 in a later post, ordering new gave us the peace of mind that our requirements will be executed flawlessly by HR. All in all we expect that the HR 40 will make a good home, a strong and reliable sailing vessel and a great place to raise our family.