The design draws heavily on the builder’s race-course experience. Its powerful, stiff hull has a pronounced chine, while a carbon mast and deep-draught lifting keel support the boat’s performance. Retracting the keel preserves access to shallow anchorages that many other 50-footers can’t reach.
Design and Construction
Pogo Structures builds the 50 using resin-infusion technology refined over many years. The hull, deck, and structural interior components are vacuum-bagged foam sandwich, using glass, polyester, and PVC foam.
The same lightweight approach extends to the furniture, which is made in the builder’s own woodworking shop from materials described as durable and good-looking.
Insubmersibility is a deliberate part of the structure. Numerous voids around the boat—especially beneath the bunks and inside the longitudinal stringers—are filled with foam. Watertight bulkheads also isolate the rudder technical area aft and the bow forward. The builder claims that the boat is unsinkable, based on this compartmentation and the volume of foam rather than any single material.
Rig, Keel, and Handling
The Solent rig uses a carbon mast with only two sets of quartered spreaders and no backstay, making for a sparse, race-bred arrangement. Upwind sail area totals 151 square meters, comprising a 93-square-meter mainsail and a 63-square-meter Solent on a furler. A 35-square-meter trinquette, also on its own furler, is intended for tight angles. Off the wind, the sail plan includes a 200-square-meter asymmetric spinnaker and a 120-square-meter gennaker.
The deep-draught lifting keel draws 3.50 meters when lowered and retracts to 1.50 meters. It provides the stiffness needed for performance while allowing the boat into deserted shallows. The keel rotates in roughly ninety seconds.
Under way, the Pogo 50 is balanced under autopilot. The builder describes the helm as light, accurate, and pleasurable to use. Steering is by dual tillers, an unusual arrangement on a 16-meter yacht. An electric winch sits on a cockpit column between the rudders, handling the mainsheet and the two undercarriage sheets.
Accommodations
Speed hasn’t come at the expense of living space. The Pogo 50 has a vast saloon and a huge galley, along with three cabins and two combined shower-and-head compartments—the inventory expected of a modern 50-footer.
Numerous openings bring abundant light and air into the interior. Forward-facing saloon windows provide genuinely useful all-round visibility from below. At the navigation station, a tilting chart table and arched seat allow the navigator to plot a course or read the chartplotter while the boat is heeled.
A removable, perforated coffee table can be installed in the cockpit. Its supports stow away when not in use.
Practical Details and Known Issues
Testers identified one practical annoyance rather than a structural fault: the storage spaces beneath the rudder rails are awkward to open because the rails must first be lifted.
The bilge-pump handle, by contrast, drew praise for its accessibility. It’s mounted on the step beside the starboard rudder rather than buried inside a locker.
Ownership and Passage Record
For a boat of this size, the Pogo 50 is light to handle. Its lifting keel and foam-core construction also keep maintenance away from heavy ballast and complicated joinery.
The design has a useful passage-making result to its name. In the 2012 ARC, the Pogo 50 Surfing Petrel finished fourth overall in the Cruising category.
The Verdict
The Pogo 50 is a committed fast cruiser that translates Mini and Class40 racing DNA into a 50-foot package suitable for a family. It isn’t a floating apartment. Instead, it’s a thoroughbred that can sleep six in comfort, with a light and spacious interior.
For sailors who value days saved on passage and access to anchorages beyond the reach of many similar-sized boats, few production yachts of this size make the case so cleanly.
Pros
- Lifting keel provides a 3.50 m performance draught and retracts to 1.50 m for shoal-water access
- Vacuum-infused foam-sandwich construction, watertight bulkheads, and foam-filled voids support insubmersibility
- Carbon Solent rig has no backstay, with balanced handling and a light helm
- Roomy three-cabin layout with exceptional natural light
- Designed for long-distance cruising with a short-handed crew or family
Cons
- Accessing the storage beneath the rudder rails requires lifting the rails
- Dual-tiller steering and race-derived systems demand an engaged owner
