Design and Construction
Hood laid out the 42 as a heavy cruiser in the fullest sense. Her displacement-length ratio of 350 places her firmly in that category. She displaces 27,450 pounds and carries 10,950 pounds of lead ballast, giving her a ballast-displacement ratio near 40 percent.
The hull is solid fiberglass. A stub keel and retractable centerboard give the boat a draft of roughly 4 feet 8 inches with the board raised and 10 feet with it lowered. She can enter most marinas with a loaded draft of about 5.2 to 5.5 feet, while the lowered board provides deep-keel stability offshore.
Her 13-foot-1-inch beam produces a length-to-beam ratio of 3.26. Together with a motion comfort ratio of 43.3, those figures describe a voluminous, easy-riding hull rather than a lithe racer.
Rig and Handling
The 42 carries a masthead sloop rig. Her sail-area-to-displacement ratio is 14.2 under the ISO reference sail, rising to 16.9 with a 135 percent genoa. Those figures place her squarely in the moderate-performance cruising range: enough canvas to keep her moving in a breeze without making her overcanvased for short-handed control.
The standing and running rigging follow conventional masthead proportions. Halyards are about 130 feet long and half an inch in diameter. Genoa and jib sheets are 42 feet long and five-eighths of an inch in diameter, while the mainsheet is a 106-foot, five-eighths-inch line. The cunningham and kicking strap each run from 16 to 33 feet, and the clew outhaul matches the kicking strap’s length.
Below the waterline, the hull has about 592 square feet of wetted surface, a large area consistent with its heavy-cruiser form.
Performance
As a displacement hull, the Little Harbor 42 has a theoretical maximum speed of 7.9 knots, based on her waterline length. Her large wetted surface and moderate sail plan favor cruising rather than speed.
The capsize screening value is 1.65, a figure that, by that formula alone, would place the boat among offshore-capable designs. Her immersion rate is about 1,570 pounds per inch, so she sits heavily and changes trim slowly as weight is added. That is characteristic of a cruiser intended to carry provisions and gear rather than chase a rating.
Accommodations
Available material doesn’t describe the Little Harbor 42’s interior arrangement. However, the hull’s volume—shaped by its 13-foot-1-inch beam and heavy-cruiser proportions—supports the kind of livable platform Hood designed the Little Harbor line to provide.
Verdict
The Little Harbor 42 is a scarce, thoughtfully conceived Hood cruiser. She combines a genuinely versatile centerboard draft with the mass and comfort of a true heavy-displacement hull. She isn’t a performance boat, but her numbers describe a stable, marina-friendly offshore candidate built in very limited numbers.
Pros
- Retractable centerboard provides a 4.7-foot shoal draft and a 10-foot offshore draft
- Heavy-displacement hull, high ballast ratio, and strong motion comfort figure
- Masthead rig with a moderate sail-area-to-displacement ratio under genoa
Cons
- Only a few hulls were built, limiting fleet support and spares commonality
- Large wetted surface and modest sail plan favor cruising rather than speed
