Designed by Altres Design and built by Alliaura Marine, the fiberglass cabin cruiser was intended for cruising. Its defining idea is the “monomaran”: a single-hull yacht conceived to offer the spatial and operational advantages associated with a catamaran. A tilting drift keel gives it a genuinely shallow-water character.
Design and Construction
Rather than starting with a clean sheet, Alliaura Marine developed the Feeling 52 from the Feeling 55. It therefore inherits the larger yacht’s architectural language and interior planning wholesale.
The fiberglass hull measures 15.80 meters overall and 15.62 meters on the waterline, with a 5.20-meter beam and a displacement of 20,000 kg. It’s a voluminous design, described in the source record as having large capacity. That roominess is central to the monomaran concept: translating catamaran-like space into a single hull.
The keel is a tilting drift type—a centerboard-style arrangement with a quoted raised-keel draft of 130 centimeters. That gives the Feeling 52 access to anchorages a 52-foot cruiser would normally avoid. The specifications also list a 2.20-meter standard draft and a near-zero minimum draft, underlining the boat’s shallow-draft cruising brief.
Rig and Handling
The Feeling 52 carries a sloop rig with 132 square meters of sail area. Reviewers credited the hull with excellent performance.
The monomaran brief isn’t solely about interior volume. The builder presented the concept as a way to combine a single hull with the easy operation and open deck-level arrangement associated with a multihull. The twin-engine installation also gives the boat an unusual propulsion profile for a monohull of this size.
Power and Accommodation
One of the Feeling 52’s most unusual engineering choices is its engine room. It houses two 55 hp auxiliary sail-drive engines, an arrangement transferred from the flagship Feeling 55. The equipment list specifies 2 x 55 HP sail-drive units, providing redundant propulsion and symmetrical thrust.
Two accommodation plans were offered. The private layout has two cabins, two heads, and four berths. The charter arrangement adds a third cabin, increasing the total to six berths. The three-cabin plan makes fuller use of the design’s large capacity and is evidently suited to higher-occupancy cruising.
Verdict
The Feeling 52 is a distinctive late-generation Alliaura cruiser that packages the company’s flagship thinking in a slightly smaller, less expensive hull. Its monomaran concept, twin 55 hp sail-drives, and tilting keel create a shallow-draft, catamaran-influenced profile that is rare among 52-foot monohulls. Accommodation ranges from a private two-cabin layout to a three-cabin charter plan.
Pros
- Inherits nearly all of the Feeling 55’s planning and styling at lower cost and length
- Tilting drift keel provides a 130 cm raised-keel draft for shallow-water access
- Twin 55 hp sail-drive engines provide redundancy and balanced propulsion
- Monomaran layout offers substantial catamaran-style capacity in a single hull
Cons
- The quoted minimum draft of 0.00 m implies a fully housed keel, while the 2.20 m standard draft still deepens the boat considerably
- Specialized twin-engine and tilting-keel systems may complicate servicing compared with conventional monohulls
