2017 Belize 54 Daybridge

If the legendary wooden boats of our past had kept evolving, how might they look today?

Belize could well offer some insights.

We sense they may have stayed with a lower profile than many of today’s offerings. Not just for beauty’s sake, but because the more tall and top-heavy a boat, the more ungainly and susceptible to windage.

The trick is to have a sweet sheerline and profile without it stealing room below decks. On the Belize, the sheer remains fairly flat until gently rising toward the bow.

But in this case, even good looks can be deceiving; the Belize actually delivers greater space— in the sizing of beds, heads, showers, in fact all living areas— than similar-sized production counterparts.

It’s a testimony to very experienced thinking, artful computer-aided design and stronger, less bulky miracle materials. But there are more differences: Unusually for a motoryacht today, the Belize sheer is really the top edge of a substantial and shippy bulwark— instead of a token toerail— for more secure side access and drier passagemaking.

This bulwark is in turn capped with a shaped teak rail (left natural, but available with four coats of gloss, if desired).

Set atop the caprail is a beautifully electro-polished array of stainless stanchions (32mm rather than 25mm) carrying two horizontal rails that wrap right around the boat, to almost halfway along the cockpit.

The top rail isn’t the usual 25 or 30mm pipe, but a 60mm X 40mm elliptical shape that, as the hand falls upon it, feels as substantial as the reassuring traditional teak handrail of days gone by — without the vulnerability and maintenance.