DUSSELDORF 2020: THE SUPERB ALL CARBON ARCONA 465

The ideal cruising sailboat is something that cannot exist because for different people the perfect boat is a different one, depending not only on the type of sailing and cruising but also on personal tastes regarding lifestyle, the importance one gives to sailing fun and speed versus comfort and even boat motion through the water.

Probably the success of this blog has to do with my understanding of this and also because during my life as a professional architect I have worked directly with clients providing them the house they dreamed about, a house many of them thought that was my ideal house too, for my personal use and they could not be more wrong.

Their mistake is the best compliment they could have made me because it means that I could understand so well their dreams and their ideal house that they could not believe that it was not mine too.

I am talking about this because people keep asking me what my ideal boat is, a question that makes little sense because what they should be thinking about was what their ideal boat is, not mine. Even in what regards my ideal boat  it is hard to decide, it would depend on the budget and with so many interesting boats around, it would be hard to choose.

But assuming I was rich enough to have no budget limitations I would say that it would have to be  very fast, polivalent in what regards all points of  sail and wind ,very well built, comfortable with a very nice interior, a nice and spacious cockpit (with a removable table), rewarding to sail, possible to be sailed by two (without the need of a lot of buttons for mechanical assisted sailing) with a good storage space, no smaller than 44ft and no bigger than 50ft.

Even so the choice would be difficult with many boats as strong candidates but if we limit that choice to the boats that were present at the Dusseldorf boat show (a huge number) that choice would be a lot simpler and clear to me and it would be the Arcona 465. I bet some of you would be asking why not the Swan 48? Well that would be a great choice for many but the Arcona is 50% less expensive, faster and more fun to sail. Between the two it would be an easy choice for me.

I like fast, sportive, comfortable boats and the Arcona 465, all built in carbon, is much lighter, more powerful and faster than the Swan and probably as strong or stronger and the high quality interior and style of the Arcona suits my taste even if it is not as luxurious as the one of the Swan.

Arcona 465, GS 48P, Solaris 47, X 4-6

Closer candidates would be the Grand Soleil 48 Performance, the Solaris 47 or the X 4-6 and I would be very happy with any of them.

But  the Arcona is the opposite of what the other boats represent as tendency, a true performance boat with all  due equipment  for a very good control of sail shape, while the others come standard with an incomplete performance sail hardware that you have to complete buying it as extras, when it is possible and in some cases it isn't (traveler for the main or 6 winches instead of 4).

The the Grand Soleil 48 has a slightly more modern hull, but I prefer less beamier boats with a bigger B/D like the X 4-6 or the Arcona and even if the Grand Soleil has an all carbon version the truth is that on its fiberglass version, with a similar equipment to the Arcona, has a similar price (the comparable carbon version costs much more) and anyway I really don't like the transom design.

The  Race version has a much more naked interior and although it is possible to have a race carbon version with the  performance cruising interior then the cost rises again and in the end a carbon performance cruising version with all the equipment and a carbon hull and deck, that comes standard on the Arcona,  will costs almost the double of the cruising version.

The GS 48 is a slightly bigger boat but I would not need the extra space. Even if smaller I like the cozy interior of the Arcona as much, with its two sofa set up and I suspect that the Arcona, although the Grand Soleil is well built, has a stronger built.

The previous version of the Arcona 465, with a dark mahogany interior was a bit too classic looking to me but this one, a MKII to whom they had inexplicably given almost no publicity, with an integrated bowsprit and with a different cabin design, looks very elegant except for the step on the transom that I find not pleasant to the eye.

Arcona 465, GS 48P, Solaris 47, X 4-6

But I guess that I could convince them to change the back-stay position to allow a solution similar to the one that they have on the X 4-6, that  has a similar step that disappears when the small bath platform is closed, making the transom a much better looking one.

The interior wood color options are a bit limited and they offer only mahogany, white oak or bleached oak, but I believe it would not be a problem to have a teak or darker oak interior, paying just a bit more. 

Then would it be perfect? Hell, no, for me perfection is something very hard to get,  although I very much like the kind of performance this boat offers (great seaworthiness, very good with lightwinds, very good upwind and with strong winds), for downwind sailing I would have preferred the transom and the aft part of the hull to be a bit different and regarding overall design I would have chosen a less classic look, a bit more modern one (bow, transom, cabin design).

I really like the way it is built,  I like the interior and it has a great price 473 880€  that we can compare with 396 000 for a Solaris 47 or 424 700€ for a X 4-6, but a Solaris or a X 4-6  are much heavier boats, not carbon ones and without much equipment that is standard on the Arcona (traveler for the main and genoa  and 6 winches).

On the Arcona you have many things that are optional on other performance boats like carbon hull and cabin, steering carbon wheels, Sprayhood, 6 winches, genoa and mainsheet travelers and several other pieces of equipment.

This is a sailor's boat and contrary to the modern tendency you have not to buy piece after piece of equipment (when there is a place for them and they are options) to turn it into a real performance boat. 

On the Arcona the only thing that is extra is the carbon mast and boom that cost 51 668€ and frankly it makes no sense to have a carbon boat with aluminum spars.

If you are still not convinced that this is a great price let me remind you that on a boat of this size the option between a fiberglass hull and deck and carbon ones is of around 150 000/ 200 000 euros and that the race version of the GS 48 with a similar sail hardware to what comes standard on the Arcona (except carbon spars) costs 148 000 euro more than the performance version.

Because the price seemed to me low, regarding the boat quality, I had on previous posts about this boat some difficulty in believing that this was really an all carbon boat, but after talking with the guys from the shipyard there is no doubt about that : the hull and deck are made with a carbon sandwich using divinycell as core, vacuum infused with vinylester resins.

Arcona 465, Solaris 47, X 4-6

The bulkheads are also in carbon sandwich laminated to the hull and deck as well as all the furniture (they don't use inner liners).

The boat has a structural steel grid, bolted to the main bulkhead and laminated to the hull, that distributes the keel efforts. The keel fin is made of steel and protected against rust by a layer of glass fiber and has a torpedo made of lead with antimony.

A full extras boat will cost about 600 000 € (without taxes) about the same that a Grand Soleil 48P or a Solaris 47 will cost equipped the same way, but without carbon hull or carbon deck.

It  seems a very good price to me and if you think it is expensive maybe you should know that it is about the same price of a well equipped Dragonfly 40 trimaran .

The first data is from the Arcona 465 then from Grand Soleil 48P, from Solaris 47 and X 4-6 (m and kg): Hull Length - 14.09, 14.90, 14.35, 13.50: LWL - 13.25, 13.40, 13.40, 12.33; Beam - 4.24, 4.50, 4.36, 4.27; Displacement - 9550, 11500, 12600, 10900; Draft st - 2.50, 2.80, 2.80, 2.30; B/D - 39.8%, 34.6%, 34.1%, 41.3, SA/D - 29.1, 24.1, 24.2, 23.6; D/L -. 114.5, 133.1, 146, 161.8.

We can see that, notwithstanding the name, the X 4-6 is in fact a 44ft boat and much smaller than the others. If we refer to the water line almost one meter less than the Arcona (93cm) while the difference from the Arcona to the bigger boats is only 7 cm and that is why the X4-6 looks lighter than what it is, but the D/L shows that in fact it is comparatively the heaviest of all these boats

Arcona 465. GS 48P, Solaris 47, X4-6

I like the X 4-6 hull that is similar the the one of the Arcona but just a bit more beamy and with the max beam more pulled aft, I even like more the hull of the Solaris 47 that seems a lot more beamy than what it really is.

 If we look at the numbers we will see that the Grand Soleil  difference in beam to the Solaris is bigger than the one from the Arcona to the Solaris.

 Regarding hulls, I would say that even if I don't really dislike any I like more the one of the Solaris, than the one of the X 4-6 and at last, for different reasons, the ones of the Arcona and Grand Soleil.

Regarding the interior, I prefer the one of the X 4-6, that is very well finished with good taste everywhere, but I like also the one of the  Arcona and I hope they can make it in a darker oak or teak ( I don't like white oak).

 Its quality is very good, the design a bit on the classic side but those two sofas are a must and contrary to other boats the space where the "window" is set is designed to have books that will not obstruct the window. That will make a lot of sense and being an avid reader I have always plenty books on the boat and that shelf would be very useful.

The other two boats have nice interiors too but the one on the Grand Soleil has on the saloon "windows" lining some details that don't match and that disturbs me, probably something easy to fix. The  Solaris 47  is the one I like less  even if it is not bad. Just too impersonal and too "square" to my taste.

As we all know, most cruising boats are chosen for the interior with a big "help, if not a dominant one, of the wives. I also know that the ones that read this blog resist to this temptation but I discovered, with surprise, that some here choose the boat neither for its performance, nor its interior or built quality but for its outside look.

Meaning they don't choose it for being fast but because it looks, fast or as some call it, because it looks sexy and that is another way to say trendy. That is more important for them than the real performance of the boat.

This has hit me by surprise and I am not talking about just a case but a real trend that considers the looks of a sailboat more important than its real sailing performance and, of course, the dominant look is the one of the offshore racing top boats, like IMOCA and VOR, beamy boats with large transoms that are designed predominantly to sail downwind, a point of sail that is not dominant in what regards the average use of a cruising sailboat unless it is bought to circumnavigate.

To understand why I would choose the Arcona 465 between all the boats exposed at Dusseldorf you need to understand that sailing performance is very important to me, that I like a well balanced  boat in what regards upwind and downwind performance.

But that I also like cruising boats to have a very nice interior providing a very good cruising comfort, that I don't want a boat for racing, but to have pleasure sailing while cruising and living aboard for 6 months in a year. That I like beautiful looking boats but my taste in what beauty regards is quite varied and I find many different types of boats beautiful.

Arcona 465, GS 48P. Solaris 47. X 4-6

For racing the Arcona 465 would not be the best option, because it has a huge rating (1.201) that should be really difficult to reach maintaining all that beautiful interior (one made the 2017 Fastnet with a medium quality crew with not bad results), but it is an excellent option in what regards performance cruising, truly a super boat with sparkling performance on all points of sail and at a very interesting price, certainly much faster and more enjoyable to sail that any of the other sailboats I mentioned, with a comparable if nor better interior at a similar price.

And because being the sexiest of them all is not the main factor on the choice, being enough to be a very well built good looking sailboat, it is clear why the Arcona 465 is by far the boat I would prefer and chose among those. If we listen to the opinion of the ones that test sailed it, people who really like to sail and understand a sail boat performance, you will understand better my choice:

the X 4-6 bathing platform and the Arcona 465

Pipe Hare from Yachting World: "Load the 465 with all of your gear and you can expect the performance of an unladen glassfibre yacht of the same size....Here is a boat that instantly changes its personality, coming alive when under sail. The helm was light and the boat felt nimble and fast...From my point of view the boat felt great – alive, capable and fun...After a few hours on the water it was interesting to observe the boat’s two distinct personalities: depending on who was on the helm and whether they were ramping up or backing off the power, the boat could switch from being a twitchy sprinter to a calm ultra-runner and back again.

"https://www.yachtingworld.com/boat-test/all-carbon-arcona-465-on-test-is-this-the-ultimate-performance-cruiser-105005

Stefan Almers on Sailing Today: "The Arcona 465 is a sailor’s boat, a dynamo generating sailing excitement. Not of the buckle-up and hang-on-for-your life variety, but the Arcona 465 is simply a beautifully balanced, gloriously responsive cruiser’s dream....I loved this boat. She wasn’t showy or loud, wildly modern or overly traditional. She looks designed to do exactly what you’d want a boat to do and do it with ease. She handles exceedingly well, so light in the water she seems to skim across the surface, with speeds to match – an easy 8-10kt. But she doesn’t fight you hard, even in a blow.”."

https://arconayachts.se/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/st238_044_arcona_bmhgrp_sj.pdf

Arcona is a small Swedish company that makes about 30 yachts a year, a family yard already with two generations, that has seen her start in the 60's under the name of Boo Marine. The Arcona as we know it today is linked not only to the Jansson family but to a designer that since the 80's has designed all Arconas, Stefan Qviberg, that unfortunately will not design the next one. He passed away some months ago.

I hope they can find a designer able to create a line as successful and personalized as the one created by Stefan Qviberg. There is something comforting in having a brand designed by the same NA, like it happens with Hallberg Rassy, X-yachts or Jboats and something odd in changing designer with each boat like Beneteau does.

The Arcona was bought in 2018 by Orust Quality Yachts that owned already Najad but Torgny Jansson, the previous CEO, was maintained at the head of Arcona business and development department. Anyway, not good news because Najad is a liability, with only one yacht, the 395 offered in two versions, one a CC (very ugly) and the other a AC, that is just a bit better. Besides a 39fter  is the wrong boat for the Najad market (wrong size) and the "American" taste interior does not help either. The Najad 39 is advertised  as "the mini super yacht", in what can only be a reference to the price, that is high.

The fact that they have been building boats uninterruptedly since the 60's, on a market as slippery as the yacht market (1000 boats built), is a tribute to the quality of their work and to the quality of Qviberg designs, specially if we take into consideration the lousy quality of their promotional work.

A good example of that is the quality of their site where the 465 photos  are not from the MKII version, the current one, but from the older one and because there is no photos available only the one on the cover and the ones from the boat show are from the actual model, all the others are from the MKI.  I guess they are more interested in building boats but this is not certainly the best way to sell them LOL.