When yacht designer Jim Taylor and the crew at Brooklin Boat Yard get together they usually turn out a show-stopper. Previously, the combination produced Dreadnought, a handsome 49-foot, Spirit of Tradition cruiser-racer. Three Years later the yard launched Blackfish, a boat that Taylor describes as a “variation” on his earlier design.

Like the older boat, Blackfish measures 49 feet overall with a 35-foot waterline and 11.6-foot beam, but draws 8.3 feet, 6 inches more than her predecessor. There are a few more subtle differences, but by any measure, she’s a beauty. Brooklin Boat Yard built Blackfish for an owner who has plans for a serious international racing campaign — around Nantucket, the boat’s homeport, then in the Caribbean and, as well as the Mediterranean. That aggressive circuit accounts for the most significant differences between the two boats.

In order to suit that “racier” focus, Taylor said, the cabin house and interior on Blackfish are 2 feet shorter than on Dreadnought and her cockpit is shifted forward that same 2 feet.

The shorter cabin means no shower on board, but otherwise the accommodations below are spacious, comfortable and elegant. The cabin sole is built with English Black Oak sawn from a diseased tree that gives the wood a “unique grain,” according to BBY owner Steve White. That grain complements the quarter-sawn oak used for the furniture and trim in the Herreshoff-style white paint and varnished trim interior.

According to Taylor, because Blackfish will rarely sail offshore or on extended cruises, her interior design “focused on comfortable and attractive social spaces rather than on the cargo capacity required for passage making.”

Wherever it sails, the new Taylor 49 should be fast. The boat is light — 16,750 pounds — with a sleek underbody and what Taylor describes as deep, high aspect ratio appendages (fin keel with bulb and rudder) with an “ample profile area to provide a user friendly groove” even at low speeds or in sloppy sea conditions.