Looking for a boat that fuses long-range potency with leisure boating luxuries? The imposing new Archipelago 47 should be firmly on your radar...
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Archipelago’s 47 is a prototype in the most traditional sense of the word. It has been built as a test platform by a fledgling company to help refine the designs of subsequent production models. But as we arrive at Ocean Village, the potency of the boat’s posturing makes it hard to believe this is anything but the finished article. With its low roofline, wide beam, slender forward hulls and raised bridge deck, its squat muscularity feels deeply satisfying. And it’s made all the more so by the reverse screen, tinted windows, elevated side decks and gunmetal naked aluminium. This is not a boat that tries to conceal its multihull underpinnings or to mimic the style of a monohull with clever tapers, faux panels or pretty mouldings. This is a tough long-distance power cat that is happy to be known as such, and, as the fleet’s most uncompromising offshore adventure boat, it’s all the better for it.
EXTERNAL LAYOUT
Designed by Hamble-based commercial specialist, Chartwell Marine, and built on the Isle of Wight, the deck layout of the 47 is extremely simple. An open aft cockpit can be tweaked however you like thanks to the inherent custom friendliness of the aluminium build process. You can have furniture built into the aft end of the pilothouse or the central part of the deck, but in either case, the precipitous back end of this boat is due to be re-engineered with a short swim platform and a set of steps on either side. The idea behind that is to provide much better access from pontoon to cockpit, as well as easier access from the water – and that’s a very sage move because as things stand, there’s no obvious way to achieve that.
What we get back here on Boat Number 1 though is a full-height wet locker to port that does a great job of swallowing your foulies, watersports gear and wetsuits. Beneath the steep steps that lead you up onto those elevated side decks, there is also plenty of storage for lines, canvases and fenders. There are a couple of side gates here too but they’re not yet finished, and even when they are, the deck height will necessitate a set of steps to get down to the pontoon.
