Design and Construction
Garcia builds the Passoa only in marine-grade 5086 H3 aluminum alloy. The robust plating is 10mm thick low in the hull and tapers farther up. Passoa hull construction
The construction is thoroughly integral. Fuel and water tanks, including their baffles, are built into the bilges, where they form a series of collision compartments. Fixed ballast consists of 11,000 pounds of iron pigs, sheathed in glass and sealed inside bilge tanks. They sit on an insulating tar bed, with iron chosen over lead for galvanic security.
The chainplates aren’t simply bolted on. Curved I-beams beneath them span the hull’s midsection and are strong enough to lift the boat. Most examples also have an integral solid-aluminum stern arch abaft the cockpit. Some carry a smaller forward arch, which provides a natural foundation for a dodger and mainsheet traveler.
Keel, Boards, and Seaworthiness
Unlike American keel-centerboarders, the Passoa has integral centerboards that drop straight from the bilges. These work with a very shallow spade rudder and a retractable daggerboard aft, positioned between the rudder and propeller to improve directional grip.
With the boards raised, the boat draws only 3 feet 5 inches. That makes her a genuine gunkholing and beachable hull: she stays upright when aground and can be driven onto a shore.
The internal ballast and wide hull form support self-righting behavior, with a theoretical angle of vanishing stability near 110 degrees. In breaking seas, with the board raised, the boat skids off breaking waves that would trip a fixed-keel boat. Passoa stability and shoal-draft design
Several Passoas have circumnavigated and cruised at high latitudes, with no record of significant capsize problems.
Rig and Performance
The standard cutter rig uses a relatively short, deck-stepped mast that rises just under 60 feet from the waterline. It carries 797 square feet of sail, giving the boat a sail-area-to-displacement character suited to loaded cruising.
The Passoa has a 38-foot waterline and displaces 26,200 pounds light or 32,000 pounds loaded. Hull speed is around 8 knots. Her shallow board-up draft and self-righting ballast plan allow her to move between coastal wandering and ocean work without compromising the core structure.
Accommodations
The standard layout has two small staterooms aft and a large master stateroom forward of the galley and saloon. Farther forward, beyond a watertight collision bulkhead, is a large forepeak.
The galley and saloon occupy the short, raised trunk cabin. On observed boats, this is the only part of the interior with full standing headroom of more than six feet. The arrangement gives up full-headroom interior volume in exchange for a low, seaworthy trunk cabin—a deliberate cruising choice rather than a deficit.
Verdict
The Passoa 46/7 is a thoughtfully engineered aluminum voyager. Details such as integral tankage, bilge-backed chainplates, and glass-sheathed iron ballast directly address the demands of serious cruising.
She isn’t a volume-production comfort boat. Instead, she’s a purposeful, beachable, self-righting passagemaker with a proven offshore record.
Pros
- Integral aluminum tankage and collision-compartment bilges
- Beachable with the boards raised and able to stay upright aground
- Self-righting, with a documented history of circumnavigations
- Chainplates backed by hull-spanning I-beams
Cons
- Theoretical AVS of around 110 degrees is modest compared with many ocean boats
- Full standing headroom is limited to the trunk-cabin saloon
