Overview
The Sceptre 43 is Hein Driehuyzen’s rework of his Sceptre 41, built by Sceptre Yachts in Richmond, British Columbia: two feet were added to the stern to lengthen the waterline and add a sugar-scoop transom. Cruising World found the 41’s sailing qualities carried over, calling the 43 balanced, powerful and responsive.
Design and Construction
The hull is solid glass with a balsa-cored deck. The keel is a long fin, 6 ft 1 in deep or 5 ft 9 in shoal, and the skeg-hung rudder has three bearings. Many boats have an inside steering station, either a second wheel or an electronic station in the saloon, without a raised pilothouse. Cruising World describes the rig as a custom two-spreader, keel-stepped mast with cutter capability, fore and aft lowers and fixed running backs. The chainplates are secured mechanically to four-inch aluminum pipe running fore and aft on each side of the hull, carried by large fiberglass knees. The entry is fine and the hull sections fairly deep, which gives good payload capacity and a bilge deep enough to take milk crates.
Under Sail
In 12 knots of true wind the test boat made 6 to 7 knots to windward and stayed nimble on the helm. Displacement is 21,500 lb with 8,700 lb of ballast. On a broad reach the test boat carried an asymmetrical spinnaker flown from a conventional pole that stows vertically on the mast. At the time of the review Sceptre was run by Heather Rouse and her husband Jeff, a shipwright who had worked on construction since hull 14 of the original 41.
Buyers Notes
Systems are installed for access and redundancy. Check which steering arrangement and keel a boat has.
