DEHLER 42

Beautiful design by Judel-Vrolijk, on the classic side, a boat that should be a very interesting proposal to all that like sailing and cruising, with many options that can make it faster or slower, more expensive or less expensive, more adapted to a dual propose utilization (cruiser-racer) or only fit for cruising.

 It is not a completely new boat but an upgrade of the existent Dehler 41; the same hull with new built materials, in what regards the less expensive version (closed foan instead of balsa) and most of all a much nicer cabin design and I hope a much nicer interior, since the one of the 41, the first boat since Dehler was bought by Hanse, was ugly.  In any of the cases, even on the lesser specification version, a better sailboat than a Beneteau, Hanse, Bavaria, Jeanneau or Dufour GL.

And that is a thing most cruisers seem not to understand: they look at a sailboat like this and only see a sailboat with a slighter smaller interior (less fat) and associate the sleek lines to racing thinking that it is designed for racing and that a main market mass production boat is a better cruising boat, safer and stronger.

Well it is a worse one, unless you cannot live comfortably on the slightly less spacious space these type of boats (Salona, Arcona, Comfortina, Solaris) offer because in what regards all the rest these boats are better, offering a much better sailing hardware, better building (hull and structure) more seaworthiness, with a better stability and most of all a better final stability. And off course, they sail better in a more comfortable way, specially in bad weather upwind.

But the truth is that most cruisers assume that main market cruising boats are safer than these ones just because they are fatter and most chose, sailboats by the interior they can see on boat shows, with a big help from their wives. That really pisses me because makes these type of boats, better sailboats, a species in extinction. It seems Beneteau is going to finish with its First line, the one that was on the origin of the Brand and we see Grand Soleil, that always had made this type of boats, starting to make fat boats. Not commercially interesting this type in what regards mass production boats.

So what you can get better on this boat even if you chose an inexpensive downgraded version that is not much more expensive than a Beneteau or a Jeanneau?: You can get a vacuum infused foam sandwich hull using  vinylester resins on the outer layers you get carbon reinforced hull structure laminated to the hull to distribute keel and rig forces, and all that means a stronger boat. You get higher quality sailing hardware, bigger winches, you get a sailboat with a more comfortable motion, you get a sailboat with a better stability and a bigger B/D ratio, a more seaworthy sailboat, you get a faster sailboat.

All this seems  to be completely ignored by sailors when they buy a sailboat and I believe that most disregard all this by ignorance, assuming that Beneteaus and Jeanneaus are built the same way, with the same materials, have just a bigger interior and are slower. Well, I hope this small rant contributes to clean the waters.

Regarding the boat itself there is not much to say, it is a kind of classic boat regarding this type of boats so there is nothing really special about it, except that it is a very nice design and offers a very big list of options that can make of a basic boat different sailboats with very different performances and prices. Curiously the boat is more pointed to cruisers than to serious cruising-racers not offering even on its higher specification a racing top specification.

The Dehler 42 weight can go from 9350kg to 8450kg, possibly less with carbon spars, the draft can go from 1.98m to 2.40m with different types of keels offered, including L ones, the sail area upwind can go from 93m2 to 99.5m2, depending on the lenght of the mast. 

Regarding the interior no images are shown but it will be an interior very similar and with the same quality of the one of the Dehler 38 or Dehler 46 and that means a very good cruising interior with a cozy look and feel. I like more the one of the 38, that seems more well proportioned and there is a fair chance that this one would be just like the 38 but better and bigger.

The basic price is very interesting at 169 900 euros but if you are interested on a boat of this size, just pick the airplane to Dusseldorf, go to the boat fair (end of this month) and they will offer you huge discounts, I bet more than the announced 50% discount on the extra packages.

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