Baltic's Alice Delivers, a 37m Sloop With a 2.25m Keel Swing

How much does Alice's keel range change where she can cruise?

Alice's keel telescopes from 4.15 metres to 6.4 metres on one hull, giving her owner the shallow draft to work skinny-water anchorages at the short setting and the offshore stability of a 6.4-metre fin at the long one, without owning two boats.

Baltic Yachts, SuperYacht Times and BOAT International all confirm the same numbers: an all-carbon 37.08-metre hull, 8.3 metres of beam, roughly 108 to 109 tonnes light displacement, and 35 tonnes of ballast on a keel that extends and retracts rather than simply lifting and dropping. A conventional lifting keel on a yacht this size usually swings between two fixed settings a metre or so apart; Alice's 2.25-metre range is unusually wide for a 121-footer, and it is built into a full custom carbon structure rather than bolted on as an option, which is why Baltic and naval architect Malcolm McKeon designed the hull's ballast and stability curve around the mechanism from the start rather than retrofitting it. That 35-tonne ballast figure works out to roughly a third of Alice's light displacement, a high ratio that points to a hull built for stiffness under sail rather than for interior volume, consistent with the performance-cruiser brief McKeon was given.

The practical effect is that the same yacht that can anchor in 3 metres of water off a Bahamian sandbank at her shallow setting can extend to 6.4 metres for an Atlantic or Southern Ocean passage, where the deeper fin restores the righting moment a family-cruising sailplan needs in open water. Most 120-foot sloops fix one draft for the yacht's life and the owner picks a cruising ground to match; Alice's owner does not have to choose. Neither Baltic nor either trade title discloses the keel's raise/lower mechanism in detail - hydraulic ram travel, cycle time or a maintenance interval - which is a genuine gap for anyone comparing the system's long-term reliability against a simpler fixed or lifting-keel design.

How long did Alice take to build, and what happened between her May launch and August delivery?

Alice went from a signed contract in June 2024 to delivery in August 2026, roughly 26 months, with her May 2026 launch at Baltic's Jakobstad yard marking the start of a three-month commissioning window rather than the finish line.

Baltic Yachts project manager Tommy Johansson, quoted by SuperYacht Times, called the build a project that 'aligns with Baltic Yachts' expertise in every way,' crediting the owner's own engagement in the process. The yard is in Jakobstad on Finland's west coast, where Baltic has built its carbon custom range since the 1970s; McKeon handled naval architecture and exterior styling, Adam Lay Studio the interior, and Daniel Calascione of A2B Marine Projects represented the owner throughout, a standard arrangement on a fully bespoke build where the buyer is not resident at the yard.

Neither BOAT International nor SuperYacht Times details what filled the three months between launch and handover, but on a custom carbon sloop of this complexity that window is normally sea trials, rig tuning, systems commissioning and snagging rather than idle dock time - the telescopic keel alone would need its full range cycled and verified before an owner takes delivery. A 26-month contract-to-delivery span is on the longer side of what semi-custom yards quote for a production 120-footer, which is the direct cost of a bespoke hull engineered around a mechanism as unusual as this keel, rather than a stock design with the option ticked. BOAT International's own AIS tracking placed Alice off Port Bannatyne on Scotland's west coast in July 2026, a month before her formal handover - evidence of sea trials or a delivery passage already under way, though neither source confirms which.

Can Alice's owner sail her without a full professional crew aboard?

Alice's captive-halyard rig and in-boom-furling mainsail let her get underway within minutes with a limited crew, a deliberate answer to an owner's brief for family bluewater cruising rather than a fully crewed offshore racing program.

McKeon told SuperYacht Times the brief was 'to create a fast, capable and comfortable bluewater cruising yacht that could be enjoyed by the whole family while delivering exceptional sailing performance' - a brief that shows up in the rig choice as much as the interior. In-boom furling and furling headsails, run through a captive halyard system, are what let a family crew of a handful of people set and strike sail without hand-flaking a mainsail on a boom this size, and the fixed bimini and glazed deckhouse extend that same low-effort logic to time spent at anchor rather than underway.

Adam Lay, the interior designer, described the brief as wanting 'a natural, textural interior with a robust and comfortable environment that would feel safe and inviting for the whole family,' and the finished cabins lean on brushed walnut and textured veneers worked to suggest water ripples, with wall lighting styled after tree branches. It is worth being plain about what that means for a prospective buyer: this is press-office language from the yard and its designers, not an independent account, and because Alice was delivered this month, no owner or charter guest has yet published a review of how the boat actually sails or lives up to that brief.

What does a yacht like Alice cost, and is the price public?

Baltic Yachts has not published a price for Alice, and neither has any brokerage or trade title reporting the delivery, which is normal for a fully custom build sold directly through the yard rather than listed for resale.

That silence is itself useful information rather than an oversight: full-custom carbon sloops in the 120-foot range are priced against a specific owner's brief, materials list and equipment schedule, so a public sticker price would tell a shopper little anyway. What is missing alongside the price is more telling for a technical buyer - sail area, auxiliary engine specification, fuel and water tankage, and guest cabin count are absent from Baltic's own yacht page as well as from both trade write-ups, an unusual gap for a yacht that has already been formally delivered rather than merely launched.

For an owner comparing this route against a semi-custom production sloop from a yard offering a published base price and options list, Alice is the other end of the spectrum: two years plus of build time, a design built around a single unusual mechanism, and total reliance on the yard's and owner's own disclosure for every number that matters. Baltic's own history of custom carbon builds in this size range, and Malcolm McKeon's naval architecture credits on prior full-custom yachts, are the closest thing to a track record a prospective buyer has to go on until Alice herself has logged sea miles and an owner or charter guest is willing to talk about it.