When Moody, a division of Germany’s Hanse Yachts, introduced its first Decksaloon model—a 45-footer designed by Bill Dixon—in 2009, it ushered in a look that has since been reflected across the brand’s 41- to 54-foot lineup, including the newest model, the Moody DS48.
This look includes a plumb bow and stern, a sizable beam (nearly 16 feet) carried aft to the transom, and a high freeboard that’s made to seem taller still by solid raised bulwarks and stainless-steel life rails that run from stem to stern, giving the boat’s deck a shiplike feel, especially when walking around the topsides.
And, like its predecessor, the 48 has a cockpit and salon on the same level, so you walk into the boat’s interior as you might on a catamaran rather than going down below as you do on most monohulls.
When I visited the DS48 at the Annapolis Sailboat Show with my Boat of the Year judging colleagues this past fall, my initial thought was the same as when I stepped aboard the 45 all those years ago: “Wow, this boat would make a great liveaboard.”
The DS48 has a roomy cockpit that is a couple of steps down from deck level. The recessed lounging area works on several levels. First, it separates crew work from play. Second, by locating the helm stations aft at deck level, it in effect raises them for improved visibility over the cabin top. It also provides room underneath for a dinghy garage.
The cockpit also has twin teak tables, with outboard cushioned seating to either side. Overhead, the cabin top extends aft as a hard Bimini top, which has a fiber middle section that can be opened in good weather to see the sun and stars.
Forward, the cockpit ends at a wall of glass and a door that opens into a salon surrounded by vertical windows in the sides and windshieldlike panes that slope down to meet the deck just abaft the deck-stepped mast. The 360-degree view of the great outdoors is impressive from the well-appointed galley just inside to starboard, or when sitting at the dining table with U-shaped seating forward of the cooking area, or when working at the nav station to port. The nav desk on the boat that we visited had an autopilot and a throttle control, making it a useful indoor helm station for watchkeeping in snarly conditions or, say, on passage in the tropics, where air conditioning is appreciated.
Otherwise, there are the twin outdoor helms, located outboard and far aft. Each wheel is set on a large pedestal that is also home to display screens, throttle levers, thruster controls and push-buttons to operate a pair of electric headsail furlers—one for the self-tacking jib and the other for the reaching sail that’s tacked down just forward of it. The DS48 that we visited had a vertical battened in-mast electric furling main. Overall, the rig and sails were suited to the needs of a shorthanded crew.
To finish off the tour of the interior, hatches in the salon sole open to access an engine and equipment room below. A standard DS48, which runs just over $1 million, is powered by a 110 hp Yanmar and saildrive. The boat in Annapolis came with another $500,000 in upgrades, including a 150 hp Yanmar, bow and stern thrusters, electric winches and furlers, a methane fuel cell and loads of solar panels, a lithium battery bank and Mastervolt electrical system, extra refrigeration, a dishwasher, a watermaker, air conditioning, and a mast-mounted camera that provides a bird’s-eye view of the bow to make docking easier. I believe the technical term is the boat is “loaded.”
Forward of the salon and a couple of steps down on the DS48 we toured, there was a utility room to port and an en suite guest stateroom with twin berths to starboard. Interior-layout options allow an owner to swap out the workshop for a second en suite guest stateroom with a double or twin berths, or a single-berth captain’s quarters.
A spacious owner’s stateroom is far forward, with its own head and shower compartment and ample cabinetry for clothes and such. Overall, the layout we saw would work quite well for a couple with kids in tow, or for cruisers who want occasional guests aboard.
For a big, roomy boat, the DS48 sailed well. In around 10 knots of breeze, we saw GPS speeds in the mid-6 range, and we hit 8 knots in one midteens puff. I jotted down “solid” to sum up the feel of the boat underway. The Jefa steering was smooth and responsive, and sailhandling, especially with the self-tacking jib, was a one-person chore. One thing I did notice was that it took a while—just under a minute—to furl in the reaching sail when coming about, an amount of time that I thought could prove annoying in some situations. Then again, the DS48 is probably not a boat you’d be short-tacking up a narrow channel. There’s a motor for that.
The owner was aboard for our test sail. His plan was to set off for the Caribbean and live aboard—sometimes with friends and other times not—while sailing from island to island over the winter. His DS48 should more than suit his purpose.
CW contributing editor Mark Pillsbury was a 2025 Boat of the Year judge.
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Price $1.5 million (as tested)
Contact: moody-yachts.com
