[1][2][3] The design was built by Bayfield Boat Yard in Clinton, Ontario, Canada, starting in 1984, but the company went out of business in 1988 after a factory fire and production ended then.
[1][2][4] The Bayfield 40 is a recreational keelboat, built predominantly of balsa-cored fibreglass, with wood trim.
It has a staysail ketch rig, with aluminum spars, a clipper bow with a bowsprit and trailboards, a raised counter transom, a keel-mounted rudder controlled by a wheel and a fixed long keel.
[1][2] The design has sleeping accommodation for six people, with two double berths aft with optional raisable privacy panels in between and a U-shaped settee in the main cabin with a drop-down table that converts to a double berth.
The galley is U-shaped and is equipped with a two-burner propane-fired stove, an electric refrigerator and a sink.