I mentioned last week a boat I saw at the Boats Afloat Show. I wrote thusly: “a 23′ powerboat that could be described as the Norwegian version of my little C-Dory.”

Here it is, the little Skibsplast 730HT:

I can almost hear you saying “What?! That doesn’t look like a C-Dory!” No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t look like most American-designed boats. But it’s a compact, all-weather cabin cruiser, and it packs a lot of cruising features into a small package, much like the C-Dory, Sea Sport, and Arima boats do.

For instance, it’s got a fully-enclosed cabin, complete with…um…”Alaska bulkhead”. Sort of. It’s got a tiny enclosed head. It re-uses space at least three ways: a convertible forward-facing seat underway becomes an aft-facing dinette seat while in port; a fold-open galley surface encroaches into the helm seat area, acknowledging the fact that “cooking underway” virtually never occurs on small coastal cruisers; and the V-berth expands aft into the cabin at night.

This last feature is actually kind of unique. The forepeak, in and of itself, is really too small to accommodate a full-length V-berth. But it has a sort of “lid” enclosing it, which folds down an aft. Here’s the clever bit: Underway, in the closed position, the outside of this lid constitutes a forward companionway to the bow. The sloped windshield on the port side is a hatch, folding open and allowing one to walk right up onto the foredeck.

But no, it’s not a direct replacement for any of those domestic models. The design clearly originates elsewhere, for starters; it just doesn’t look American. It has recognizable “yacht” styling , rather than the “fishing boat” aesthetic of the domestic boats I’m comparing it to.  The comfortable-looking cockpit and transom area, for instance, will almost certainly offend the serious angler.

Furthermore, a Volvo inboard diesel (160 HP) isn’t the sort of thing we’re accustomed to seeing on trailerable cabin cruisers. The Skibsplast is quite a bit heavier than a C-Dory or Arima, more in line with a Sea Sport of comparable size.

Anyway, I just thought it was an interesting boat. The model I saw is for sale at West Coast Yachts in Seattle.