Overview
The Rustler 42 is Stephen Jones’s larger sibling to the Rustler 36, built by the same Falmouth, UK yard since 1999. Where the 36 carries a full keel and sloop rig, the 42 moves to a fin keel with a skeg-hung rudder and a cutter rig, a more contemporary underbody wrapped in the same traditional English styling and finish Rustler is known for. Wikipedia’s Rustler Yachts article says the 42 was launched in 1999 and was the first boat in a new direction for the yard. In 2007 Rustler introduced the Rustler 44, an elongated, taller version of the 42 with a raised deck saloon.
Design and Construction
At 42 ft on deck and 26,000 lb displacement, the Rustler 42 carries a notably high ballast ratio near 40 percent on a lead keel, giving her real stiffness for her size. The cutter rig splits sail area between a self-tacking-capable staysail and a working headsail, a configuration owner David Sketchley specifically chose for shorthanded reefing: “Sailing short-handed, I liked the idea of having a sail system that I can gradually reduce, bit by bit, without having to be on the foredeck.” Rustler’s yard is known for extensive per-hull customization, from carbon masts to reworked tankage and machinery layouts, so individual boats can vary meaningfully from the base specification.
Under Sail
Sketchley describes the boat’s motion as genuinely sea-kindly: “they have a sea-kindly motion that I really like… You can sail her for days on end and it’s not tiring.” He also credits the cutter rig and hull balance for easy heavy-weather handling: hove-to under a triple-reefed main and staysail, “she’ll just sit there.” A professional delivery company’s own account of multiple named hulls crossing the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic, in some cases in a single fast passage (43 hours across Biscay to Ushant for Asherah), corroborates that owner assessment with real offshore results rather than just marketing language.
Ocean Passages
Captains Lady finished the Atlantic leg of ARC+ 2025, from Mindelo in Cape Verde to Grenada.
Buyers Notes
As a yard known for heavy customization, confirm exactly what a specific used hull carries versus the base specification, particularly mast material, tankage, and machinery layout, since these vary hull to hull more than on a typical production boat. No independent magazine sea trial was found for this model in this research pass; cross-check handling claims against a personal sea trial or a broker’s detailed survey before relying on owner testimony alone.
