About the Hylas 49 Design

Nadagato is a 1993 Hylas 49. She is made by Hylas Yachts who combines uncompromising quality, performance and seaworthiness into a beautiful boats. The Hylas 49 is the evolution of the Stephens 47 which was regarded as one of the best cruising boats ever made. After looking at many boats we had narrowed the search field down to a few boats including the Stephens 47 when I found Nadagato. Nadagato is hull #3 off the Hylas line I believe.

Upon finding the boat I performed some numerical analysis on the design and much like the 47 the 49 seemed to be a well rounded boat. The specifications from the factor are included to the left, these are correct from the factory. Nadagato has been retrofitted with a 88hp Yanmar and draws 6'6" of water. Although she sits an extra few inches lower in the water her sailing performance seems to be unchanged. Mast height is an issue, designed at 63'6" I would guess we are closer to 65' or 66' by the time wind instruments and VHF antenna are included. I have not had a chance to measure this exactly but have been through many of the bridges in Ft. Lauderdale and have tried to estimate this number.

Layout

All thought I have heard of some custom boats coming off the line with Hylas all the 49s that I have been on are very similar to each other. The only major changes I have seen in any boat is in the wood work around drawers and lockers. In some boats it seems that the lockers and drawers were given less attention than others. The boats with less attention do not have a wooden cap around the outer edge of the drawer or the inner edge of the opening in the surface that the drawer or locker goes into.

Included here is a drawing that Hylas has on their website this is a combination of the sail plan of the boat and the internal plan of the boat. Quickly looking at this one can see that the major differences between this and the Stevens 47 are: stern boarding steps, galley and head / nav station are flip flopped side to side, more window area in the saloon, and a slightly higher free board.

As a side note to the information here I am 6'2" tall and can walk throughout this boat without stooping. I have to watch my head when passing through the major bulkhead doors and at the step up going to the saloon. All of these areas are natural movements to get through and I do not notice them at all now.

What is not evident are some other not so obvious changes that make the Hylas 49 such a nice boat. When the free board was raised so was the cabin top, this allowed an extra few inches to be added to the cockpit combing which makes the cockpit much safer. When the cabin top was raised the sole was also raised, this allows much more tankage when compared to the 47. This is nice and adds to safety and comfort. This addition in cabin top height and sole movement makes a step up necessary when moving from the galley to the saloon area or the nav station to saloon area.

For those of you who are having problems looking at the layout to the right and making any sense of it (yes I have got emails asking....) here is a short key: green surfaces are cushions or mattresses, white on green represent pillows on mattresses, brown represents the cabin sole, orange represents the navigation station, blue represents the galley, darker yellow represents the two heads, and light yellow represents storage. For more understanding of the layout please take a look at our photo gallery showing the interior of her.