A pretty awesome design... Territoire

One of the reasons we have kept our "only temporary" CAL 34 for so long has a lot to do with the fact that it is pretty close to perfect boat for a couple cruising... Albeit just a kiss small for a filmmaker and boatbuilder who feels he needs to travel with the tools of his trade.

Of course, for a lot of cruisers who don't feel the need to travel with their tools of the trade and simply go off cruising, the CAL or even something a bit smaller would be no bad choice. With some of the modern designs going a kiss smaller is not really going to be giving up anything as these days boats are a bit beamier and with added beam you can pick up a lot of interior space in a hurry!

Here is a good example... Territoire, designed by Eric Henseval at nine meters (just under 30 feet) and with a beam of 3.33 meters (just under 11 feet) has, if anything, a kiss more interior volume than our CAL 34 "So It Goes" in a very livable envelope.

Now the CAL has that old school interior which has both advantages and disadvantages... but when all is said and done, the interiors of both boats are equally livable. Though just a personal opinion, I do prefer the booth style dinette of the CAL...

Territoire, like the CAL 34, would be no slouch on performance as it has a lot in common with the Mini class and its heritage shows.

To say I like Territoire would be something of an understatement and from what I have seen, it would go together in a hurry the flat panel construction in 12MM and 15MM ply being both an easy and smart way to put a boat together... Then again, no boat is ever perfect, and if I were to build this I'd think long and hard about adding a hard dodger and in the process extend a lip from the coach roof to give just that little bit of space to hide from weather and suchlike.

One of the really nice things I find looking at designs coming from the board of Eric Henseval is that they strongly remind me of the work of the late Philip Harle who remains my favorite French designer of cruising boats. Harle always got the balance between livability and performance right which is no easy thing. Eric, from what I hear, is currently working up an 11 meter design which I have high hopes for... But more about that another day!