Yes, not properly a nice looking boat, at least from the hull up and why I am posting it here is a good question. That is an intriguing cruiser with a nice hull, an interesting lifting keel and a very good sail performance with a bulkier and oddly designed cabin.
This yacht is a Morozov concept designed by Teixido&Harrold, a young and innovative NA firm based in Barcelona. It is the type of boat many cruisers say they want, but then when the bill to built such a boat comes up, they rapidly change of idea and buy a Bavaria. This is an expensive boat for a 35ft boat costing 250 000 euros and looking detailed at this yacht I can understand that price even I find that there is not a market for such a boat.
Probably the ones that would like the looks and the concept don't care much for performance and anyway they are on the market for an used 50 000 euros boat and the ones that will appreciate de speed will refuse to have a boat that looks like a caravan.
But I can be mistaken regarding market. Also this is just a prototype and Morozov is an interesting character, a talented guy and there is always the possibility of containing the price making it a much simpler and less expensive boat, improving at the same time the looks, since the hull and keel set up looks to work very well.
The boat includes some unusual features for this type of design, like water ballast, a Open type hull, a lifting keel with not much ballast. I would chose to skip that water ballast and have a bit more ballast on that torpedo. That 1500kg keel, even if with a torpedo and with a 2.30m draft is just adequate to provide an average final stability but not a very good.
An unusual and interesting yacht, that as it is, offers a lot, if one wants to live on a 35ft boat, wants to have a good sailing performance and don't mind too much about how the boat looks. Don't miss the movie with the boat keeping up with a X35. Not bad for a caravan ;-)
No, this yacht did not won the contest, it was one of the nominated and the Ice 52 is a good example of the extraordinary level of the entries this year. That beauty, looking like a racing boat, has a great built quality, a very good cruising interior and a huge garage that can take a 2.80m dinghy. It certainly dose not look like having the space for it but I could confirm at Dusseldorf that the space is really there.
But this post is not about a particular boat, even if later I will certainly make one about the Ice52, but about all of them and the movies of the tests that Yacht.de posted in their site.
Look at the great sail performance of the Hanse 315, it sails like a Dehler.
Look how fast and easy the RM 1070 goes. Look how fast is the the small 24 Bente and how incredible, even with light wind, is the Quant 23. Look at the face of testers and the big smile on all faces, when they are describing how good is the sensation to sail that little boat :-)
No, this one also did not won the contest, on the multihull category, but what a beautiful and fast cat. Unfortunately the Dazcat 1495 was not at Dusseldorf, but on the video below it does not only sail fast as it looks like having a great cruising interior.
Look how well and fast that Aluminium voyage boat, the Adventure 55, goes on light wind. Look at the very nice interior for this type of boat. Not in Dusseldorf too, but looking at the pictures it seems really an impressive interior, a high quality one.
Look at how it sails the little cat, the Comet 37, and how nice the interior is. Look at Maxi 1200 and the Sunbeam 41, two very good cruising boats. Particularly the Maxi 1200 that has a quite remarkable price regarding the quality it offers. Look at all those beautiful boats and tell me if those guys are not lucky to be paid to test sail all those beauties :-)
Probably most of you never heard about Cyachts. It is a small Dutch shipyard that makes high quality cruisers. They have some interesting boats, mostly on what regards quality/price, but the design is old and have not been updated for many years.
Well, it seems that has changed and at Dusseldorf I saw some beautiful drawings regarding a new boat designed by a great NA, Dyktsra, that has drawn some of the most beautiful modern/classic boats that I know off. Fast boats too. A Cyacht designed by Dykstra can only be a great sailing boat since Cyachat has the quality the "savoir faire" and the experience needed to make a great product at a fair price. They announced that shortly after the 47 a 41 will be made, designed by the same NA, and pretty much with similar lines.
The 47 will have a displacement of 13200 kg. To put this is perspective I would say that an Oceanis 48 weights 12494kg with a B/D of 28%. That means that all the diference in weight goes right to the ballast since the Cyacht will have a B/D of 40%. Continuing with comparaisons, a Halberg Rassy 48 (an old design) weights 18.5T and the new Solaris 47 weights 12600kg.
The hull will be moderately beamy but considerably less than an Oceanis 48 (4.40m to 4.74), similar in beam with the one of the Solaris 47. The hull has the beam brought back and a plumb bow, featuring modern bulbed keel with 2.20m draft.
Not really a performance boat but certainly a fast boat and since Cyachts build their boats with quality materials and modern techniques (full cored hull, vinylester resins, composite keel structure), a strong boat too.
If I was on the market for a 45/50ft main market cruising boat of high quality I would certainly follow this one till its completion and probably I would consider it among the ones to be looked more closely. It will promise to be a great boat.
Yes, it is not a new design, by modern standards it is a rather old one but it is amazingly contemporary. It is a MKII, the boat was modernized in what reefers cabin design, appendages and interiors and it looks like a brand new design. A great design by Ceccarelli that says about it on an interesting interview:"I am proud of that design...I like it!. It's a boat I would recommend to my best friend." http://www.ceccarelliyachtdesign.com/?p=2755
I have already posted about the Azuree 33C and there is not much more to be said about it, except that I have visited the boat and that the interior looks even better than on the photos. The interior quality is remarkable, as the overall quality, at a very good price. The boat (without VAT) has a basic price of 116000 euros with a first pack that costs 10490 euros, that will give already a decently equipped boat and a performance pack (that I would not miss) that costs 12060 euros.
We can add the spraywood and the bimini for 3775 euros and for 130265 or 142325 euros with the performance pack (bigger mast, folding propeller, adjustable kevlar backstay, dynema running rigging, performance lead keel) you can have a beautiful fast cruising sailboat with a great interior. Off course you will have to add VAT if in Europe but that's a lot of boat and quality for the price.
Two boats that belong to the same group, both in aluminum, provably sharing the same basic hull, so what's the point? and what are the diferences? Besides the obvious diference regarding one being a true deck salon and the other a raised saloon with a raised chart table, they are considerable and point to slightly different market sectors. Both are voyage boats, meaning both are designed for a large autonomy and specifically designed to travel far, but while the Allures 52 is what we could call a voyage boat the Garcia 52 goes a bit further in what regards being designed to be sailed on remote places. That has advantages but also disadvantages, unless you put those features to good use. Both use an identical cutter configuration.
The Garcia 52, regarding the Allures has a reinforced hull structure and while on the Allures the decks are in composite sandwich (to lower the weight) on the Garcia they are in Aluminum to make it an even stronger boat and only the top of the cabin is in composite. All that is responsible for a superior weight of the Garcia, about two tons more (16.9T to 18.8T) and that will certainly make it a slower sailboat and a more expensive one. In fact that diference in price is considerable costing the Allures 52 about as much as the Garcia 45 (incl 20% VAT: 640 000 to 840 000).
Allures 52
Both boats are what the French call deriveurs, with similar configuration, with a big hydrodinamically profiled centerboard, a big draft when down and a small one when up ( a bit more than 1m when up, about 3m when down). Most of the ballast is on a skeg that protects the propeller and some of it is on the bottom of the boat. Even with most of the ballast on the skeg, the ballast weight needed is a lot more than on a deep keel boat. Both boats have an excellent running ringing, that allows for easy sailing from the cockpit, even solo sailed.
Garcia 52
I only saw photos of Allures 52 interior and they are quite deceiving, I would say, but I believe that is mostly due just to a bad choice of interior colors/wood. I know well the interior of the 45 that is a very nice one, with good quality all around and also a very functional. The one of the 52 has just the same set up but a bit bigger, giving a good all around outside view from the chart table seat and allowing to sail the boat from the interior.
I had the opportunity to visit the Garcia 52 at Dusseldorf and could confirm what I had previously posted about the 52: While the 45 looks too small and cramped for having that interior configuration, the 52 looks perfect. A nice boat with a wow!!! interior, one that would make a perfect boat to live aboard, with dedicated spaces for everything you can think off, from generator to watermaker, AC, wash machine, big freezer and a diesel tankage to have all the equipments running for a long time (1100L).
Allures 52
The Garcia offers an interior quality and finish that I would call luxurious, with a very nice saloon on two levels, with a raised sitting living space, allowing for an all around view (that will allow the boat to be sailed from the interior), with relatively small "glass surface" in height, but almost continuous in length. Those glasses are double to warrant a good isolation regarding cold or heat.
I had the luck to have the boat showed to me by the project manager Antonio Costa, a very nice guy but most of all a very knowledgeable one. I have the added pleasure to discuss the boat with him in Portuguese since he is a Luso descendant. I have learned a thing or two with him regarding why some options were chosen regarding others and talked about future developments. Even had the pleasure to see that we shared the same idea in what regards a further improvement of the boat, namely regarding the opcional use of a modern swing keel, the type that is used on the Comet Explorer 46, a deep keel with all the ballast on it. That would allow a big diminution of the boat weight, something like 2T, giving it the same displacement and sail ability of the Allures 52, possibly with a better final stability.
I was really impressed with the level of thought, practicability and functionality that is condensed in that boat and that is only possible because Garcia (and Costa) is the repository of decades building high quality top voyage boats. Most of all it impresses how that practicability does not translate itself on a lesser polished product. In fact it is hard to remember that we are on an Aluminium boat designed to explore remote places and not on a luxurious cruiser, kind of an Oyster or an Halberg Rassy.
I would chose the Allures 52 if I would only want a very good aluminium voyage boat, able to take shelter on very swallow waters and had no desire to sail on remote places or high latitudes. The Allures 52 is a faster and better looking boat and costs 200 000 euros less. If I really dreamed to explore Arctic and Antarctic regions or other really remote places I would chose the Garcia 52 or the Boreal 52. For living aboard full time I would definitively chose the Garcia.
I never had been on a Boreal but the biggest difference regarding the Garcia seems to be the level of finish. Not that the Boreal has not great quality everywhere, but the interior (and exterior) is not as polished as on the Garcia, meaning that it does not look like a luxurious cruiser. Some would dispense the refinement others would prefer to have the better of two worlds. Both cost about the same: about 1 million Euros for a completely equipped sailboat with full options.
The Garcia 52 is already a good looking boat, even if not as nice as the Allures 52 but I can't wait to see the Garcia 62 and I really hope they would go forward with the project. The 62 would really bring the boat design of this type of boats to a new level, making it not only a true explorer boat but a beautiful yacht, whatever the measure. That and a swing keel to increase power, speed and stability would make it truly an universal boat that would look as well on the Med or at the Antarctic.
