With one foot more (12.50 to 12.80) the Pogo 12.50 is now the Pogo 44. The beam is the same (4.5m) and it weights 400kg more (5500 to 5900kg) being the increase in weight not only due to being slightly bigger but because Pogo abandoned the type of interior design that maximized weight saving and now it has an interior like the one of other fast cruisers, with doors and all.
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| Above Pogo 44, below Pogo S3 |
The outside look is on the line of the 36, certainly practical with the possibility of having forward views, but I find that banal and not very exciting or elegant. A long way from the impression the first cruising Pogo of the new generation, the 10.50, had caused me when it was launched 15 years ago.
The freeboard is relatively big and the chines on top and near the hull waterline don't do enough to disguise it. The racer from where this boat was derived is now so much more beautiful, light and elegant! And it has nothing to do with the advantages of the forward view because the new class40 designed by Manuard has them and it is even more beautiful than the Pogo S3.
The hull seems to be very similar with a slightly more rounded bow and cut on the transom above the water line forming a step (that could be there if the hull was not cut that way). It looks odd and unnecessary and I cannot imagine why they have done that.
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| Pogo44, below PogoS3, Manuard class40, Pogo44 |
On the interior the saloon with a big galley looks nice with lots of light and big "windows" on the hull that allow an outside view and that I hope on such a light boat don't compromise hull integrity.
But I cannot say the same about the rest, the heads seem small and too compartmentalized on the front cabin, making it small. It makes us remember that this is a 42ft boat, not a 44ft.
Like on the Pogo 12.50 the mast is deck stepped with a compression post and brought almost to the middle of the boat, meaning well inside the saloon.
This allows big forward sails and a cutter rig (if we can still call it that way). The big extensible bowsprit of the 12.50 is now transformed on a small fixed one. Not an improvement in what regards sailing.
The running rig and standing rig are similar to the previous one with well tried solutions that work very well and I have no doubt that even if a bit more heavier this boat will be a very fast one although probably not more than the Pogo 12.50.
The Pogo 44 displaces 400 kg more and the sail areas are very similar with an identical area for the main sail (64 m2) and just 5m and 6 meters more for the Jib and genoa, now with 30m2 and 50m2. They announce for the asymmetrical spinnaker 150/165m2, the one of the Pogo 12.50 has 155m2.
It will come standard with two rudders, two tillers set up with the winches forward, over the cabin but it will be offered with a two wheel set up and then it should have a different winch set up. They have not showed the drawings of the two wheel version so I don't know if that will be the case.
Contrary to the Pogo 12.50 this boat cannot have a fixed keel and will be available only with a swing keel.
On Pogo (Structures Shipyard) they have the bad habit of not announcing the ballast of their boats and we only know that with the swing keel deployed it has a 3.10m draft (more 10cm than the Pogo 12.50) and up, a 1.38m draft.
But I have seen the stability curve of the Pogo 12.50 and it is a good one that indicates a good B/D with a 124º AVS. I heard that the ballast was 2000kg and that will give (for the Pogo 12,50) a 36% BD that, considering the type of keel and draft, makes sense for this type of boat and provides not only a great sailing stability (associated also to a very beamy hull) but also a good safety stability.
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| Pogo 12.50 stability curve |
The similar sail areas indicate that they have maintained on the Pogo 44 about the same B/D they used on the Pogo 12.50, maybe just a little less due to a slightly bigger draft.
Comparing it to the Pogo 12.50, this will be a boat with a similar performance, meaning a very fast boat maximized for beam reaching and downwind sailing, but offering a better cruising interior, a more traditional one and that will make it more polyvalent increasing the number of potential clients.
Many wives, including mine, would never accept a boat without doors on the cabins, a boat that would offer a very limited privacy with more than a couple aboard.
Well, this one solves not only that problem but offers a much nicer saloon with a sea view and all. The Pogo has become bourgeois LOL and that includes also a more powerful engine, one with 50hp.
All that without losing its performances or increasing much the price. That is not a bad thing. I just wished it were a bit more elegant and sexy.
The first ones will be sold for 261 905 euros standard, a non equipped boat without taxes at the factory and that means about 30 000 euros more than a Pogo 12.50. That is a very good price and I bet they will raise it after a comfortable number of orders.
Olá Paulo, thank you for your initial analyses of the new Pogo. I agree that it's not the most elegant boat in the world, but nor is the Pogo 36 (at least in my opinion). I think Pogo does striking designs that can be considered attractive because they are different, but they are not elegant in a traditional sense.
ReplyDeleteIMO what will be more important is to see how it sails, especially whether it can improve in the areas where the 12.50 is not brilliant, while maintaining its strong points.
As far as interior is concerned, it actually is possible to order the 12.50 with doors - at least the pics on the company website suggest this. See here - https://www.pogostructures.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/BOOT2018_1-1920x1279.jpg
What I find very weird is that new '44' seems to have a rear-looking nav station and no longer a proper place for the navigator to sit. Just look at this rendering - https://www.pogostructures.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Pogo44-cam2-10-03-2020.jpg. I hope that Pogo will offer some flexibility in its cabin layout. IMO the layout on the 12.50 is super logical (nav station right, cooking area left, eating area ahead) and it would be a pity if they were to change this. Also, I believe that a boat like a Pogo does not need two bathrooms. One should be enough - after all it is supposed to be a fast sailboat, not a floating latrine ... ;-)
I don't know when they introduced that option for having doors on the 12.50 and it is a real one, not a custom thing, because now they have on their site photos with and without doors but for many years the 12.50 had no doors (that only appeared on the 50ft boat) and this to save weight.
DeleteThat's the same evolution that brought them to the Pogo 44. Do you remember how it was the first Pogo 40 meant for dual purpose? They where way more naked than the Pogo 12.50:
http://www.finot.com/bateaux/batproduction/structures/pogo12/interieur1.JPG
All boats are compromises in what regards what people want from a sailboat and I believe that the Pogo 44 goes on the right direction in what regards to be the boat that most people that want a fast cruising boat prefere, and that's what is important for the shipyard.
Even the chart table goes on that direction. A dedicated chart table today only makes sense if you ocean race the boat and pass there a considerable time looking for the best wind routing otherwise it is something you use for some minutes a day, while the salon you will use it for much longer so it makes sense to privilege the saloon over the chart table.
The same with the two heads that will allow it a more comfortable living aboard by two couples and that's why most performance cruisers have them.
Regarding this boat improving anything over the Pogo 12.50 in what regards sailing I doubt very much. They are very similar in what regards hull, the Pogo 12.50 is lighter and will sail slightly better.
Off course they could have made this boat like the Pogo 12.50 (in what regards the target sailor they want to hit), lighter and with a less comfortable interior and then it could sail marginally better due to some more few cm on the LWL, but it would be such a small thing that I would say it would be negligible.
If they wanted to make a more sportive version they would make it with water ballast and backstays an a really light interior.
Anyway I don't believe they are going to make a more sportive version of the Pogo 44, except in what regards the purposed sail area and carbon mast where this boat will have two options, like the Pogo 12.50. A really sportive version would be much more expensive and would have an much more naked interior and the ones that would buy it would be very few.
If you want a faster Pogo without the comfort of this one and with a real chart table adapted to ocean racing routing than you should buy the Pogo 40 S3 that has not only water ballast as well as backstays and has a really light and almost naked interior. I am sure they can make a slightly better "cruising" interior if you want.
Curiously they have stopped the production of the S3, I believe because they are not making money on it and I would not be surprised if they stopped making class40s and turned to the much more lucrative market to where the Pogo 44 is pointed.
I think the coach roof windows are really special. What other cruising boats offer a view forward from below? This is pure utility -- have a watch below, no need for a doghouse.
DeleteHi Paulo,
ReplyDeleteApparently Pogo wants to get back to class40 with a new boat.
https://www.tipandshaft.com/en/class40-en/class40-a-thriving-market-for-new-and-second-hand-boats/
Cheers to that and to Christian Bouroullec that did not lost his love for racing sailboats, otherwise he would stop making them and would be after the money, doing only cruising boats and less and less sportive, look at X-Yachts, do you know that they are going to discontinue the XP line?
DeleteGreat article by the way.
Glad to know that it seems that the Globe race will be competitive, not only with old class 40 and amateurs.
Regarding the CIC not to be popular it obvious why. What do you thing that would happen to the Route du Rhum in some years if it would be renamed CIC?
It would become a transat like any other. For keeping a tradition we cannot change the name of a race or the public will go away. The name is part of the myth and the myth is what makes it different from others.
44 is downright ugly. Much prefer the 12.5. Ideally they just widened the bow on the 12.5, done, that's it.
ReplyDelete