Rhapsody 43 Royal, ZIROCCO

Broker's Comments

Newly polished, bottom painted, rigged and ready for new long-distance cruising.
Launching is planned for mid-April 2025.

Rhapsody 43 Royal, ZIROCCO is a long-distance cruiser in a class of her own.

She is specially designed, engineered and built to sail on the high seas. The technical description shows the hull’s strength, torsional stiffness, stability and sailing characteristics.

The yacht is designed by Göran Dahlström who is known for designing sailing yachts with very good cruising characteristics when sailing windwards. The sail plan is precisely designed for the yacht’s length, width and displacement and therefore the rig is determined with a mainsail of 44 square meters and a jib of 45 square meters. This provides excellent upwind performance while remaining easy to handle for single-handed sailing or a small crew. Additionally, the yacht is equipped with both a Code Zero and a spinnaker for downwind sailing.

Göran Dahlström is known for his meticulous attention to materials and craftsmanship, ensuring every detail is suited to the yacht’s purpose. He has written a book about his various yacht designs, where the 43 is described in detail with sketches, calculations, and design objectives to achieve a sleek, strong, and rigid hull. He emphasizes that the Rhapsody 43 must meet the expectations of those who appreciate true sailing.

At his boatyard in Karlshamn, southern Sweden, sailing yachts of various sizes were built during the 1980s and early 1990s. However, only four hulls of the 43 model were produced, with ZIROCCO being hull #3. As the yachts were built to order, their layouts and equipment may vary.

ZIROCCO has a forward and an aft cabin, both with a double berth and each with its own toilet. The forward cabin also has an upper berth and there is an extra cushion to add to the port sofa in the saloon, so it can become an additional berth. This gives a total of 6 berths on board.

Two companionways lead below deck! On the low superstructure, there is a small cockpit just aft of amidships, providing direct access to the navigation table and saloon. The main cockpit, located at the stern, features a steering wheel, engine controls, a table, benches, and a large sprayhood. While this layout is common on yachts of this type, one key feature sets ZIROCCO apart—an additional companionway from the main cockpit leading directly to the aft cabin. This design allows the crew to move safely and stay dry without needing to go on deck.

The current owner bought the yacht in 2011 and planned, among other things, for Atlantic sailing. Therefore, from 2012 to 2017, the yacht underwent a comprehensive refit and upgrade to bring its equipment up to modern standards. (see “Key Facts” for the biggest upgrades). They then sailed the ARC in 2018 and spent the next two years sailing in the Caribbean and the US East Coast. The pandemic caused them to sail back to Europe in 2020 and they have since been sailing in the Mediterranean.

At 34 years old, ZIROCCO is exceptionally upgraded to modern standards and so well maintained that she can be compared to a yacht just 7-8 years old. Considering all these factors, along with the extensive and thoughtfully selected equipment, our assessment is that ZIROCCO is in excellent condition.

Key Facts

• Classic solid built long distance cruiser in very good condition with solid equipment ready for new adventures.
• Can be inspected on land in Lagos, Portugal until the end of April and then in a marina in southern Portugal.
• Newly polished and waxed hull sides and 2 coats of SeaJet Taisho antifouling (2025). Primed 5 coats of epoxy (2017).
• The Royal version with lead keel, hydraulic system and satin varnished teak interior.
• Large Owners Cabin aft and forward cabin, both with double berth and separate toilet. 2 extra single beds.
• Fully battened mainsail and jib, tri-radial Hydranet (2013), Code Zero (2018) and spinnaker and cutter jib.
• The foresails have a furling system and are operated from the cockpit. All halyards, control lines and sheets are also operated from the cockpit.
• All reefing of the mainsail is done from the cockpit with the so-called ‘Single line’ reefing system and includes 3 reefs.
• 2 hydraulic Lewmar 56 winches, two electric Lewmar 46 winches, 5 manual winches. Hydraulic anchor windlass.
• Standing rigging Dyform (2017) and all halyards and sheets in Dynema (2017).
• Engine, Volvo Penta D2-55 (2017) and after a thorough service refit (2023) as good as new.
• Lewmar Mamba steering system renovated with new gearbox and linkage system (2024). All bearings in the pedestal replaced (2017).
• Complete B&G electronics (12” Plotter Zeus 3, autopilot, VHF, AIS, Radar etc.) integrated with NMEA 2000 network (N2K).
• With PC at the nav table, N2K network data is available for TIMEZERO navigation program etc. and for N2K analysis program.
• 4G-Router with 4G antenna on radar pole that provides Wi-Fi internet support for computers, telephones, plotters etc.
• Teak deck in good condition, renovated with new caulking (2021). Is both glued and screwed.
• New heating system, Wallas Viking Air with control via display, mobile phone and internet (2025).
• Dinghy, AB Lammina 9 UL Hypalon with aluminium bottom, for 4 persons (2020) and 6 hp Yamaha outboard motor (2017).
• Life raft Viking Rescue Pro 6 persons with service until 2028 and JonBuoy with service until 2026.

Owner's Comments

In 2010 our kids had grown up and we decided to look for an offshore cruiser that had been our dream for a long time. In the 1980s we had sailed most of the Sweden east coast and Stockholm’s archipelago in our A22 (22 Square meter rule) and now wanted to go for an extended cruise.

We loved the classic offshore style of yachts from the 80s/90s and started searching for such a yacht to rebuild for shorthanded ocean cruising. After sailing an A22 for many years we wanted a yacht with excellent sailing properties but also one that was ocean going.

In 2011 we found the perfect yacht for our plans, a Rhapsody 43 launched in 1990. Rhapsody Yachts with Göran Dahlström had a solid reputation of building sailor’s yachts with great sailing performance. We did an extensive investigation of the yacht, finding the hull, rigg and interior of great quality but most of the equipment obsolete.

We decided to buy the yacht and made a 5-year plan for a refit and update with plans to leave Sweden and sail south thereafter. We were about to downscale our consultancy business and had time to spend on a refit.

Over the next years we sailed extensively in the Baltic Sea in the summers and in the winters, we worked on the yacht. We refurbished the teak deck with new caulking, toilet system, hydraulic system, LPG system and more. We invested in new sails, new deck hardware, new engine, new B&G electronics added an aft companionway and much more to be found in the specification.

In 2017 we sold our house and finally started our extended cruising. We spent one year sailing down to Portugal and sailing eastern Mediterranean. In 2018 we joined ARC for a transatlantic crossing via Gran Canaria and Cape Verde. We spent two years sailing the Caribbean, Bahamas and US east coast.

In 2020 we were sailing the Caribbean down to Trinidad to leave the boat for the hurricane season then Covid started to lock down the world. We were stranded at Antigua when all countries in the Caribbean closed their borders. After 3 months we gave up and decided to sail home to Europe joining the ‘OCC Atlantic Crossing West to East’ Facebook group. Some 300 yachts migrated at the same time home to their countries from the Caribbean to Europe in May/June, sharing positions on Facebook.

We have been through many adventures in our sailing years. The most memorable is all wonderful sailing in the Caribbean and Bahamas, a thunderstorm outside Georgia US, hard weather sailing from the Azores to Lagos Portugal, meeting a lot of interesting people and much more.

The yacht has fulfilled our requirements as a safe and excellent sailing yacht in all conditions, especially good at beating. She is easily handled by a crew of two or even single handed. The well protected cockpit with its sprayhood and companionway directly down to the aft cockpit makes her very safe in difficult weather. The single line reefing system and control lines leading aft to the cockpit mean that we never have to leave cockpit in bad weather.

It also doesn’t hurt that we often get comments in marinas that it is a good-looking yacht.

Sadly, we are getting older and have to give up owning our own yacht. We reluctantly sell her and will miss her a lot but now it is the time to pass her to a new owner.