Wednesday, April 30, 2014

QUANT 30

The Quant 28 was already a very interesting boat with an incredible upwind/downwind performance, a Hugh Welbourn design using Dynamic Stability System (DSS). The boat was conceived as the ultimate sailor for the Swiss lakes and it is a blast. Chief tester of Yach de magazine, Michael Good, that has tested hundreads of boats when tested this one said that it as was one of the high lights of his career as a boattester. Yes, the boat is as extraordinary as that, been able to make on that test between 13 and 17kts, wind 9 to 11kts wind. A movie of that test:
The Quant 28 was much of a prototype, the Quant 30 aims to be a production boat. The design has been simplified, using two independent foils instead of one. Unlike other DSS-equipped boats that have a single foil that slides through the center of the boat the twin foils flip out laterally. Easier to build and easier to use. 
The objective was not making a faster boat but a more easy one to sail, able to be exploited by average sailors. Even with top ones the small difference downwind will probably be compensated in overall speed by its superior easiness.
If you don't know already how it works DSS you can learn it here, as also more about the Quant 30:

The DSS system is a way to provide more stability in a dynamic way through an immersed small wing. It allows an increase in stability very useful mostly to narrow boats, substituting the hull form stability of a beamier boat. That allows to take advantage of the superior finesse of a narrower hull without losing performance due to an inferior stability/power, specially downwind. Wild Oats (a narrow racer), the winner of the last Sydney-Hobart used DSS. 
But nothing as to look how it sails the Quant 30, and it sails very well. It seems a lot of fun to me ;-)

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