Cruising Compass has just published an article, The Rapido 40 is a 20-Knot Cruising Tri by George Day which was published on 24 May 2023.

Below is an edited extract of the original article which can be read in full by clicking here. Photo credit: Ludo Fruchaud.

If you feel the need for speed, a Rapido is the boat for you

Rapido has built an avid following amongst performance oriented cruisers…

I was able to see the first Rapido 40 at its US debut at the Miami show last winter and got to meet the builder Paul Koch. I had been eagerly looking forward to seeing this new Rapido… A cruising boat that can go 20 knots has a lot of appeal to me. Plus, the new 40 has folding amas so it will fit into a marina slip.

I was not disappointed…

The 40 is remarkably spacious and with the raised sole in the saloon, you feel fully engaged with the world around you… The huge windows and the amazing six-foot, seven-inches headroom really aid in this pleasing effect…

Paul Koch is a veteran high-tech yacht builder… Koch’s vision for the Rapido brand is simply “no compromises.” The hulls and decks are epoxy infused carbon fiber laminates that Koch says are the most advanced yacht structures being built anywhere in the world.

The stiffness and weight reduction of carbon laminates over fiberglass truly enhance the 40’s sail area-to-displacement ratio and thus the swiftness of the hulls. To make the most of modern C-foil technology, the 40 has C-shaped dagger boats that curve under the ama and provide quite a lot of lift as the boat moves rapidly through the water. This reduces wetted surface and increases speed. The dagger boards also provide lift when sailing hard to windward so the 40 will point as high as a modern racing monohull and will likely be faster, all without crew crowded on the windward rail.

But, Koch didn’t stop there. Every laminated part on the boat is ultralight cored carbon laminate, including drawers, doors, bulkheads and interior structural pieces. All up, the 40 weighs around 12,000 pounds or a fraction of the displacement of a 40-foot monohull or catamaran.

Removing the central center board in favor of the C-shaped daggerboards frees up a lot of space in the saloon and this, too, adds to the sense of spaciousness…

The new Rapido 40 is a very special new boat that offers maximum sailing performance in a package that is easy to sail, easy to move around and easy to live aboard and cruise…

Original and unabridged article

• To read the original and unabridged article in Cruising Compass, click here.