Design and Construction
The hull is solid fiberglass, and Bowman's background practice of building to Lloyd's Register scantlings with thick, mat-heavy laminates informs the character of this generation even where the individual survey does not restate it. The Corsair carries a displacement of 23,500 pounds on a 12.92-foot beam, yielding a length-to-beam ratio of 3.56 and a displacement-length ratio of 322 — figures that place her squarely among heavily built cruisers with a comfort-oriented motion profile. Her Motion Comfort Ratio is 33.0 and the capsize screening value is 1.81, both consistent with a stable, seakindly hull meant for distance rather than speed contests. The wetted surface runs about 559 square feet, and the immersion rate of roughly 1,439 pounds per inch speaks to a hull that resists being pushed around by loading or wave action.
Keel Options and Draft
Bowman offered the 46 Corsair with different keel alternatives, and the choice materially changes where she can go. The stub-and-centreboard version draws only about 5.51 to 5.81 feet depending on load, letting her enter most marinas without drama. The long-keel variant sits deeper at roughly 6.99 to 7.29 feet and can only enter major marinas, a meaningful constraint for a buyer planning Mediterranean or restricted-water cruising. Both are fin or long-keel forms in the lineage, and the draft spread is the single biggest operational divider between individual boats.
Rig and Sail Plan
She is built with a masthead rig and carries 720 square feet of mainsail-and-jib area, giving a sail-area-to-displacement ratio of 14.0 on the ISO reference sail and 16.8 with a 135% genoa — enough canvas to move the displacement without demanding extreme rig loads. The standing and running gear scale to the boat: the mainsail halyard runs an estimated 110.5 feet at 14 mm diameter, the genoa sheets are 46 feet and 5/8 inch, and the mainsheet is a 115-foot, 5/8-inch line. A spinnaker halyard and sheets were part of the estimated inventory, confirming the original sail plan anticipated downwind work. The theoretical hull speed is 7.6 knots, the expected maximum for a displacement hull of this length.
Accommodations
Below, the yachtdatabase survey records one cabin arrangement with five berths and a fresh water capacity of 169 US gallons. The single-cabin description in the source reflects the as-surveyed layout rather than a claim that no owner ever reconfigured a boat over decades of use, but it is the only accommodation fact the survey establishes. For a 46-foot cruiser of this weight, that berth count and tankage frame a boat built around liveaboard range rather than charter-pack density.
The Verdict
The Bowman 46 Corsair is a deliberately heavy, seakindly cruiser from the Holman & Pye and Bowman Yachts collaboration of the early 1970s. Her virtue is structural seriousness and stable motion; her compromise is draft-dependent access and a conservative turn of speed. The keel choice is the defining used-boat variable.
Pros
- Solid fiberglass hull in the heavy Bowman tradition with a 1.81 capsize screen and 33.0 comfort ratio
- Shallow stub/centreboard draft option opens most marinas
- Generous 169-gallon water capacity for extended cruising
Cons
- Long-keel version limited to major-marina access at roughly 7-foot draft
- Conservative 7.6-knot theoretical maximum suited to passage-making, not racing
- Only one cabin layout documented in the surveyed specification
