40 Express

A very distinctive yacht, the Midnight Lace 40 combines the rakish styling and efficient performance common to nearly all yachts designed over the years by Tom Fexas. She was built on a lightweight, fully cored hull with a relatively fine entry and slender 13-foot, 6-inch beam. The original two-stateroom floorplan of the Midnight Lace 40 has the galley to starboard in the salon and facing L-shaped settees. A new arrangement introduced in 1992 offered a much-enlarged galley to port and a full-length L-shaped settee opposite. Topside, the cockpit is raised two steps up from the salon level, and while not intended for any serious fishing, its large enough to satisfy a couple of weekend anglers and came with a standard transom door. Additional features include excellent engine room access under the cockpit, side exhausts, a unique foredeck cockpit, a varnished teak transom, and a stylish helm console with room to flush-mount most electronics. A good performer with superb seakeeping characteristics, she’ll cruise efficiently in the low 20s with a pair of 300hp Cummins diesels while reaching a top speed of 26–27 knots.