Rascal was built by Brooklin Boat Yard and launched in July of 2020. She is a 50-foot, Jim Taylor-designed, racing/cruising sloop and draws her lineage directly from previous Taylor-designed/BBY-built 49-footers Dreadnought and Blackfish.

While changes and sailing focus of Blackfish were to make her more of a racer than her predecessor, Rascal’s evolutionary coin was flipped with a return to-and even more focus on-ease of sailing, comfort, and “cruisability.”

The biggest and most notable change is two inches more freeboard and an inch and a half higher trunk cabin. From the outside, these changes aren’t immediately evident because Rascal’s graceful lines, dark green hull, and varnished mahogany cabin sides, cockpit coamings, and toe rails keep the exterior appearance very similar to her older sisters.

Where these extra inches really come to the forefront is down below where the additional overall space, comfort, and headroom are much appreciated.

To make Rascal easy to handle, all sail control lines are close at hand, winches, and traveler are power driven, and she has a Bamar in-boom furling system for her mainsail. The spar and rig package is from Offshore Spars and the sail package is by North Sails.

Despite the pandemic, the work on Rascal went on at a blistering pace so she’d be ready for the annual Eggemoggin Reach Regatta in early August. It was a close call such that the crew and owner had only a scant three days after launching to get Rascal commissioned, sea-trialed, tuned, and race-ready.

Entered in the hotly-contested Spirit of Tradition Class. Rascal got a good start and proceeded to increase her lead from there. Viewers were treated to a great tacking duel between Rascal and the Brooklin Boat Yard-built 55-foot Outlier as they made their way toward the first mark. Everyone was impressed at how well Rascal held her own against the Botin Partners-designed racing machine.

At the end of the day, Rascal took first place in the Spirit of Tradition Class, saving her time on the rest of the ten-boat fleet-nine of which, incidentally, were built by Brooklin Boat Yard.