JULY 2018
Leopard 50
A cruising cat that sails well and takes good
care of the crew By Chris Caswell
T
he Leopard 50 is replacing the popular Leopard 48, but this
constitutes an entirely new yacht, not just an upgrade of the
older boat. h e new 50 is 2t longer than the 48, and the beam
has been widened from 25t to 26t 5in. It is also available with
a l ybridge, and to minimize your suspense, it’s wonderful! Note that
Leopard makes a point of calling it a “lounge” rather than a l ybridge, and
the version with said lounge is therefore called the Leopard 50L. h ere’s
another version sans lounge called the 50P, for performance. Aside from
the lounge seating on the hardtop abat the helm, the only real dif erence
on the L version is that the boom has been raised a bit, so no unwary
guest gets whacked.
DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION
One thing that has always impressed me about Leopards is that they are
built tough. h e construction is aimed for the bareboat charter market,
where 50 skippers a year with varying abilities will inevitably put the boat
through the wringer because, well, it isn’t their boat.
h e starting point for the Leopard 50 is a vacuum-bagged and
isopthalic resin-infused E-glass hull with an end-grain balsa core. Ring
frames of carbon i ber add stif ness without weight gain, and the keels are
i lled with closed-cell poly foam to prevent water ingress.
People sometimes question the ability of a cruising cat like this in
of shore conditions, but many Leopards are delivered on their own
bottom from the Robertson & Caine yard in South Africa. We had the
delivery captain for this 50 aboard for our test sail, and he had spent 52
days crossing from South Africa to Brazil to Tortola to Florida. When the
wind was up and in the right direction, he said, he and his two-man crew
were banging of 17 knots on autopilot for days on end.
h at toughness extends to the interior as well, with the wood-grained
veneer having the pale look of whitewashed oak, as opposed to i nger-
print-prone varnish. Owners are going to revel in this bulletproof i nish,
with wipe-clean maintenance and no varnish cans in the locker.
ON DECK
My favorite spot on earlier Leopards was the forward cockpit, reached
through a door from the saloon. Introduced on the Leopard 44 in 2012, it’s
fun underway and ideal for a sundowner at anchor with a pleasant breeze.
h e at cockpit boasts an immense dinette with 9t settees that can hold
everyone in the anchorage for h anksgiving dinner or a roast pig. h e at
seatback also l ips forward to allow guests to contemplate the wake un-
derway, and a Kenyon grill is tucked into a console for charring burgers.
h e side decks are nice and wide and protected by double lifelines. I like
that the hatches are l ush with deep gutters for runof.
My new favorite spot aboard the Leopard 50L—which I’ll destroy all
nautical lingo in calling “h e Upstairs Lounge”—takes up most of the
i berglass hardtop. A settee wraps around on three sides with comfy
backrests on stainless posts and a i berglass table is equipped with com-
partments to corral your munchies in a breeze. h ere’s also an oversized
sunpad just forward next to the helm.
Speaking of the helm, this is a great oi ce for the skipper, who can
easily handle just about everything singlehanded. h e deck between
helm and mast looks like a Harken catalog, with every manner of turning
block, a trio of electric winches and a squadron of Spinlock stoppers for
halyards and sheets, the tails of which drop neatly into a canvas bin.
NEW BOATS
UPPER LOUNGE
FORWARD COCKPIT
INFUSED HULLS