Whisper is a Hallberg-Rassy 42 (HR42) sloop. She was manufactured in Ellös, Sweden in 1999 (hull #139, year 2000). This HR42 is a world cruising sloop designed by German Frers. The entire process of how we selected this boat over hundreds of others is described in Our selection process: Why an HR42?

Hallberg-Rassy no longer builds the Frers HR42. It has been replaced by a new Frers designed HR43. More information on both models and the manufacturing process can be found on the Hallberg-Rassy website.

Our HR42 Whisper displaces 28000 lbs and is 43.5 feet length overall, with a 6.5 ft draft and a 13 ft beam. Based on her weigh-in in PuertoVallarta just prior to leaving Mexico, she nears 40,000 lbs. The waterline has subsequently been moved up to accommodate the fully loaded weight.

Whisper has a Selden manual "in-mast" furling main, a Selden boom, Rodkicker vang and jib roller furling system. Her rig is deck stepped and backed by a significant compression post. Her auxiliary engine is a turbo-charged 76 HP Volvo marine diesel engine, which drives an 18" 3-bladed Max-Prop. Additional systems and details are described in Boat Systems.

Robin and I visited the yard in Ellös in September of 1999 to tour the boat yard and hull plant. We were able to observe three days of construction progress on our own boat when it was about 2/3 of the way toward completion. We were also allowed to poke around several other HR's (36ft to 62ft, as well as 2 other 42's) in various stages of completion.

This was an awesome Scandinavian trip, which included car and rail touring in Denmark and Norway, as well as Sweden. We visited both the Yard and Marinplast (fiberglass hull/deck plant) for about 4 days, then spent an additional 10+ days touring Copenhagen, Stockholm, Bergen, Oslo, and Gothenberg.