Tashiba 40

Tashiba 40 built in 1986 by the Ta Shing Boatyard in Taiwan is now exclusively for sale with DBY Boat Sales.

The Tashiba 40, sometimes referred to as a Baba 40 is in the lineup of boats involving developer Bob Berg, designer Bob Perry, and the Ta Shing boatyard. One can arguably consider the Tashiba 40 as a full keel reincarnation of the Valiant 40, the boat that put the word performance next to cruiser. It's not surprising to find the Tashiba 40 inherits a good turn of speed - some owners even sail around-the-buoys racing victories in these serious blue water cruisers.

They are beautifully balanced with a wonderful feel at the helm, and what's more, they have some of the best interiors to be seen in production cruising yachts.

Below decks the quality of workmanship is superb, many Taiwanese man-hours were used in detailing the interiors with the close guidance of Berg who was known for his ability to squeeze function into every square inch of a boat. Perry also considered it one of his best, noting that it feels right with perfect detailing and a layout with no apparent compromise.

On the starboard quarter, there's a cabin with a double seagoing quarter-berth. To port there's a well laid out U-shaped galley. In the saloon, a two-settee berth layout with pilot berth to port to provide extra sea-going berths. In the forward cabin, there's a double berth offset to port. Headroom is a generous 6ft 5 inches throughout most of the boat.

The boat has a wonderful feel at the helm and is a fun to sail, especially as the breeze picks up. Some owners have even raced their Tashiba 40s against modern fin keel competitors successfully.

A bit of history...In 1979 the boat builder Ta Shing moved to a new purpose-built factory. It was around this time that Berg commissioned Perry to design a new 40-foot model to fill out the line. Perry was not happy with merely evolving his earlier Baba 35 design, which in itself was a stretched version of the 30. Instead, in search of more boat speed, Perry dusted off the lines of his famous Valiant 40 with its radical fin keel and separate skeg-hung rudder had defined the performance cruiser category only five years earlier.

From the Valiant 40 hull form he derived an all-new full keel design which was to be the Tashiba 40. It proved to be a huge step forward over earlier models with an entirely different stability personality. It was stiffer, beautifully balanced and much faster. The lines of the Tashiba 40 follows its ancestry back to traditional Scandinavian double-enders.

Under the waterline is a full keel with a cutaway forefoot and as with many of the Perry full keel designs, the keel meets the bilge of the hull without the traditional wine glass section blend. Both features reduce wetted area. The hull shape is relatively beamy offering good interior volume. A cutter rig plus bowsprit combo is employed.

Owners often describe their Tahiba's to have a feel of solidity. In heavy weather conditions the boat has the capacity to keep sailing when many other boats are heaving-to or getting tossed around.

The Tashiba 40 is a rare and sought after bluewater cruising yacht that presents in stunning condition and will not disappoint any serious buyers.