[1][2] The Landfall 42 was built principally for the charter trade, to compete with Morgan, Irwin, and Whitby's models, and gained some popularity as a charter boat in the Caribbean.
[3][4] The Landfall 42 was the first example of a trend within C&C Yachts toward more cruising-oriented designs under company president George Cuthbertson's direction, a trend continued with an expansion of the Landfall series during the later 1970s and early 1980s.
[5] The design was built by the Canadian company C&C Yachts starting in 1976, but it is now out of production.
[1][6] The Landfall 42 is a recreational keelboat, built predominantly of fibreglass, with wood trim.
It has a cutter rig, a rounded raked stem, a raised transom, a skeg-mounted rudder controlled by a wheel and a fixed fin keel.