Second only to Lisa as my favorite things cruising is Tumultuous Uproar. I don't mean to turn this into a love fest but I will explain why I believe we chose the perfect boat for us. Actually, we were lucky that this boat came on the market, in our area and at an affordable price. I met a cruiser in Dominica who was considering buying our boat about a month before we did. He took a tour and admitted regret for not pulling that trigger.

Uproar is a Beneteau First 42s7. The First series is Beneteau's performance line of sailboats. Some would call them racer/cruisers, boats primarily designed for racing but with cruising accommodations. I would call Uproar a performance cruiser. She has won a lot of races but racer/cruisers lean way more toward racing, totally unsuitable for live-aboard.

This particular series of First boats began as a design exercise between Pininfarina, Philippe Starck and Bruce Farr. Pininfarina is an Italian design firm famous for their automotive designs, particularly Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and others. We have owned about 20 Pininfarina Alfa Romeos and loved them all! Philippe Starck is a French industrial designer and Bruce Farr is a naval architect, world renown for his winning racing designs. Veloce, our previous boat was a Farr design. Farr designed the hull and rig, Pininfarina designed the deck and above the waterline shapes, Starck designed the interior with his unique style of curved surfaces. Beneteau production engineers must have had a cow when they saw all the curved wood surfaces they had to produce. I love the look and utility.

Our two requirements for a cruising boat were quite simple. It had to have a “back porch.” This was non-negotiable. A back porch is a swim platform or walk-out transom design. A back porch makes it easy to get on and off the dinghy. Other boats require climbing a vertical ladder on the side of the boat. This can be dangerous in rolly conditions, a risk we thought unnecessary. The back porch on Uproar is a fold-out design. It is larger than most and can be folded up while underway. We keep it open all the time. It has proven to be a great fish landing and cleaning platform. No blood in the cockpit!

The other requirement was good sailing performance. Bruce Farr guaranteed that. Sailing performance is a lot more than just speed. We wanted a boat that would beat to weather. Many cruising boats must motor when they try to sail into the wind. Uproar goes to weather like a racing boat. Other cruisers are in disbelief how well we beat. Being able to beat enables us to go places with ease other cruisers struggle to attain. A good example of this was our passage from the Bahamas to the Virgin Islands. There is a book written how to do this in steps along the Turks and Caicos, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and finally to the Virgins. The book states this can take several months. We sailed straight into the trade winds along this route in 5 days.

Uproar's specs are: length 42.7 feet, beam 13.5 feet, mast height 57 feet, draft 7.8 feet, weight 20,000 pounds, 771 sq ft sail area and 1500 sq ft spinnaker. Most boats her size weigh about 30,000 and are a lot slower. That nearly 8 foot keel gives us our ability to beat to weather. Other cruisers said, “You can't take that boat into the Bahamas or the Chesapeake. We did and we had a great time cruising these grounds. Sure, we had to watch where we went but rarely had a problem. In the Chesapeake we did drift out of the deep hole where we anchored onto a shallow spot. As we ate breakfast the tide receded and Uproar tipped over on her side. We left the boat to visit the St Michael's Museum for the day. When we returned Uproar was upright but still stuck hard. Fortunately Glyn and Laura were with us. We kedged out of the soft mud with anchors, a sweaty hour of hard work. Other than that, we are most pleased with our 8 foot keel.

Interior is the two cabin version. Our forward cabin has an unusual forward head that feels large to us. The berth is a queen size (at the head) pullman berth with a nice closet and under-berth drawers. It is a nice, owner's suite with lots of ventilation. The saloon is quite open and large with 6' 6” headroom. We can seat 8 easily at the dining table or drop it down to sleep 3 good friends. The galley has a freezer that is too large (we block part of it off) and a fridge with three shelves. Stove has three burners and a good oven. The aft cabin has a king size bed but not much headroom. Much of the bed is under the cockpit floor. There is a nice closet in there but it is full of gear. Our guests don't get much storage room. Most of them shove their bags to one side of the bed and still have plenty of room (we hope).

Storage is quite large for a boat this size. We have a “garage” on the starboard side. I can climb down in there and arrange two folding bikes, all of our fenders, spinnaker bag and lots of other goodies. Aft we also have two human-sized storage areas for 4 extra sails, fishing gear, lumber storage, etc. One always wishes for more storage on a boat but we feel fortunate to have more space than most cruisers our size. We sometimes go overboard shopping, especially in the French islands. Lisa makes the cargo disappear. I'm sure we have 100 bottles of French wine under the floorboards!

Speaking of size, Uproar is about the average size cruising boat in the Caribbean. On the Great Lakes, we are definitely one the larger boats but not in the tropics. Uproar is easily sailed by the two of us and meets our needs nicely.

What would I like different about Uproar? That's easy, I wish the benches in the cockpit were large enough to sleep on. We have a very large, 60” wheel. That wheel is great for sailing as the driver can sit in a variety of positions and watch the telltails on the Genoa. It is also easy to find a comfortable position behind the wheel in all conditions. But that wheel cuts the length of the cockpit seats toabout 5 feet. I still love to lay out and watch the stars but my feet have to find a spot on the wheel or over the cockpit side. Yes, I can fall asleep there and often do.

Everyone loves their boat and we are no exception. Taking a step back and looking at other cruising boats our size, I'm convinced we bought the right boat. Lisa sometimes has WENAB (we need a bigger boat) syndrome but I would be hard-pressed to find another I would prefer. Uproar has that intangible “feel” that makes me smile when sailing her.