Overview
The Van de Stadt 44 is design number 393 from E. G. van de Stadt’s Dutch naval architecture practice, one of the most prolific design houses in postwar offshore sailing (Van de Stadt’s other credits include Pen Duick III and the early Rustler line). Drawn in 1983, it was built to order by professional shipyards in either steel or aluminum, a round-bilge hull the design house itself describes as carrying “the same sturdy appearance” as its earlier Seal design. Unlike some of this catalog’s other plan-built metal boats, the design explicitly assumes shipyard construction rather than amateur home building.
Design and Construction
At roughly 32,000 lb in aluminum (about 37,000 lb in the heavier steel version) with a 49 percent ballast ratio, the 44 is a substantial, heavily built cruiser. The fin keel with skeg-hung rudder came in two draft options: a standard 7.08 ft and a shoal 6.25 ft, both bolted-lead ballast per sailboatdata.com’s record. The centre-cockpit layout puts the owner’s cabin aft, with its own head and shower, a configuration the design house notes could be adapted to different interior priorities.
Under Sail
The design was offered as either a sloop/cutter rig or, as an alternate configuration, a ketch, with the ketch losing a small amount of sail area (113 versus 114 square meters) in exchange for shorter, more manageable spars. Other Van de Stadt designs (the 49, the Caribbean 12, the steel Tasman 48) have circumnavigations on record, but none of them is this boat.
Ocean Racing Record
Trumpcard (Blake Boulton) finished the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race in 2018.
Buyers Notes
Because this design was built to plan by more than one yard, and in two different hull materials, a pre-purchase survey needs to establish which yard built a specific hull and in what material before drawing any conclusions about build quality. Aluminum examples need the usual scrutiny of anodes, bonding, and any dissimilar-metal contact; steel examples need a full corrosion and coating survey. The two draft options are also worth confirming directly, since the difference between them is enough to matter for a shoal-water itinerary.
