Rory Mhor is not the biggest, most expensive, or flashest yacht to go into the water this year.

Sea Spray's original feature about the boat, published in August, pretty well summed up this 56 footer's appeal, describing it as not fitting into the "all bells and whistles and damn the expense category."

Rory Mhors appeal puts it in a class of its own which makes it our choice for Yacht of the Year, 1989. Construction and fitting out of this no-nonsense cruising yacht has been kept as simple as possible, and yet it retains the performance and gear considered necessary for todays up market ocean cruiser.

Rory Mhor is a boat that will look more at home on passage towards Cape Horn than tied up to the dockside of the Med.
Launched in June, Rory Mhor - the name means "big red" -is from the board of Bob Salthouse and was built by steel yacht experts Johnson Yachts. The design was from a range of Salthouse designs which includes 36, 41, and 46 footers. She has a fair hull with attractive lines, medium displacement and over- hangs, and retains the longest waterline possible. The keel is shoal drafted, at 2 metres, with a flared bulb and wings to retain upwind performance. Rory Mhors basic dimensions are 17m (56ft) LOA, 14.5m (47ft 6in) LWL, 4.5m (14ft 7in) beam and 22.5 tons displacement. The hull construction is steel but to save weight, lighter materials are used for decks and for the cockpit dodger.

Builder Ray Johnson says that to build a surveyed boat in timber would be just as heavy as steel, more expensive and not as strong. Atop the steel hull are ply decks on a steel carlin and beams, and the decks are topped by 18mm of teak. The cabin sides are solid kauri, with a ply/foam sandwich top on laminated kauri beams. The cockpit is plywood and glass, light enough to be carried by two men. The cockpit is topped by a large pilothouse dodger built of alloy, extremely strong and yet weighing only 70 to 80 kg.

The deck gear is all good quality but simple, with a cockpit-activated anchor winch, sheeting and furling lines led aft and the mainsheet system operable from the cockpit.