The Vismara VMM76 is a powerful beast of a boat, which was conceived to offer high-speed sailing alongside civilised living and bags of style.

It’s the result of a collaborative development programme between Mark Mills, who was responsible for the hull shape, Lucio Micheletti for styling and interiors, plus Vismara’s in-house design team.

The project is for a very experienced owner who gets a lot of pleasure from being fully involved in sailing the boat. “The intention was to create a very good all-round performance cruiser, with a Mediterranean focus,” says Mills.

“That’s always a bit of a balancing act, but this boat is as friendly in light airs as possible for a very well equipped cruiser, and the sail plan will also work really well for power reaching in a breeze.”

The hull has a very modern, powerful shape. Within the confines of providing volume below decks, including space for a large tender garage, the stern sections have a relatively low wetted surface area at rest, so the boat doesn’t need 15 knots of breeze to get going properly.

At the same time, the topsides chine gives very powerful stern sections that dig in to provide additional stability when the boat is heeled.

The result should make the Vismara VMM76 a lightweight, easily handled yacht of a size that can offer fantastic accommodation, along with startling performance when pushed. On the other hand, even when sailed conservatively it’s clear this is a boat with long legs that will happily cruise at speeds well into double digits and therefore make short work of long passages.

Key sail controls are taken to four electric winches ahead of the helm stations, so it can be comfortably handled by a small crew when offshore.

Construction is of carbon sandwich and a lot of effort has gone into minimising weight. As a result displacement is a whopping 11.5 tonnes lighter than the Swan 78, for instance.

Nevertheless even the briefest of glances at the teak deck, large guest cockpit and helm seats that convert to sunbeds make it clear this is no stripped-out racer.

Below decks there’s a fully fitted interior with three guest cabins, plus a forward owner’s suite and crew accommodation. A lifting keel reduces the 4m draught to just 2.5m, which opens up a wide range of anchorages. Mills says this is, “a critical solution to offer the necessary stability, without the usual increase in displacement.”

Specifications:

LOA: 23.80m / 78ft 0in
Beam: 6.00m / 19ft 8in
Displacement: 31,000kg / 68,400lb
Draught: 2.50-4.00m / 8ft 2in-13ft 1in
Sail area: 280m2 / 3,010ft2
Builder: www.vismara-mc.com