I know that many look at this blog as a way to see what is going on the European yacht panorama and some boats constitute for them a surprise. Well, I can say this one is a surprise for me too. This is a beautiful boat, it seems very well made and certainly very well designed (by Cossutti) but what is odd is all the process: The boat is built by More Yacht, a Swedish firm, in Croatia and More Yachts is a Charter company that has many other sailboat on charter, including Salona.
I mean now it has the More 55 too, since the two first will be available next year on Croatia and Caribbean . Eh!Eh! my kind of charter boat, but quite amaizing regarding the market. Maybe the market is changing and these guys are just offering what more people want and don't find on the market. Anyway they are going to produce 10 sailboats for their charter fleet and then they will offer it to the public, with a different layout.
The price, given the high quality building techniques, is absolutely amazing, 355 000 euros fully equipped to sail and for the ones that want to keep the boat doing charter they warranty an income of 276 000 euros in six years over an estimated 390 000 euros. So my friends, this is not only a new interesting boat but may be quite a revolution for the ones that are working actively and that charter each year.
The More 55 is very similar in building techniques to a top Salona (and I believe that the know how comes from there). They use vinylester epoxy based resins with vacuum infusion and a stainless steel structure to distribute the loads from the keel. Even the interior wood work looks like Salona, on its standard mahogany versions.
The design is very interesting, being a beamy boat, with 5m of beam (about the same as an Oceanis 55), has very narrow entries (all the forward part of the hull is narrow), with all the beam pulled back, but while the Oceanis 55 has a B/D ratio of 26% this one has 41%!!!! on a 2.7m torpedo keel. A very, very stiff boat with a huge amount of power.
We can see that power put at a good use on the sail area that the boat is able to sustain. The Oceanis 55 has a very decent SA/D of 21 the More 55 has 29!!!. We are not only talking about a very fast and seaworthy boat but also one that is made to cruise, with a big tankage (650L of water, 550L of Diesel), a big engine (110hp) and having as optional equipment generator, air conditioning, satellite communications among others. 
I guess this is my boat of the year ;-) I hope it will be at the Dusseldorf boat show. I really want to see this one.Off course, as on all the boats we can always point at some things we would like to be done differently and among them certainly the lack of handholds and proper rail on the galley (to be clipped on) but remember these versions are just charter boats to be used on the Med and Caribbean. The owner versions will have a different interior and I am sure that have them with good handholds will not be a problem, if the owner wishes so.
Just stumbled upon your article about More after having seen a few More yachts here and there. I tried googling the morecharter, but it seems they are no longer to be found on the internet. Do you have any more info about them - are they out of business and do they make More 55 still?
ReplyDeleteYes, the original owners went out of business and sold More. The charter firm that originated the yacht does not exist anymore.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the new owners. while the first owners were passionate sailors that were trying to do a better, but less expensive sailboat, new owners are businessmen that are trying to make money.
I don't know if they are succeeding, but for what I saw of the new comercial manager in Dusseldorf some years ago, a very beautiful but very unfriendly young woman in high heels, that obviously did not understand anything about sailing boats, I don't believe they are going anywhere.
The last news on their internet site is from 2021, on the facebook site there are no posts about new boats being made in 2023 or 2024. I think they are still in business, but in not a good shape.
If you are interested in one, it is better to see exactly what is the company situation. You can do this asking them to find to you a local bank insurance over the money you will pay for a new boat.
You will see by the money the bank will demand to you to do this, if they are in good shape or not, this is a service than should cost 3% of the boat cost, if the shipyard is on a normal economic situation. If it is in a real bad situation they will not find a bank that will take the risk.