Putting thoroughbred performance into performance cruisers has never been easy. In his Vancouver 42, however, Robert Harris has made it look easy. Combining rugged good looks, liveaboard volume, and go-anywhere capabilities in a boat that still ghosts racily in single-digit wind strengths is quite a feat. On top of that, Harris made here a double-ender. To this exceptional design the builder, Ta-Yang of Taiwan, brings both an internationally acclaimed standard of construction quality and a refined semicustom flexibility that gives individual sailors exceptional control of the look and layout of their boats. The formula for making husky boats sail like sylphs is one that Harris has explored in depth throughout his decades at the forefront of sailboat design. Oversimplified, that approach involves a very slippery hull, a very powerful sailplan, and a set of jumbo underwater foils that are as efficient as they are big. Although the Vancouver 42 displaces close to 30,000 pounds, Harris has made it possible for her to carry that weight with considerable grace. For pure power and for coast-wise sailing, she can be rigged as a sloop. The vast majority of buyers, however, specify the cutter rig and its putative superiority for passagemaking. An even wider range of options is available below.