A year ago I posted about a new project, the Shogun 50. At the time it was not more than a very nice design by Håkan Södergren and Oscar Södergren but now it is not only on the water but racing and it is time to have a new look at this awesome boat.
The Shogun 50 was announced with an incredible displacement being 450 kg lighter than the Swan 50 and it was incredible because the Shogun had on the project 50kg more ballast and the additional weight of a lifting keel.
I had some difficulties in believing that would be possible but now they announce not only a 100kg bigger displacement but also a 100kg heavier ballast, so it seems that the superior workmanship of the Rosättra shipyard (Linjett), associated with some high-tech firms, were able to build it according to specifications, a rare thing specially in designs that seem too optimistic. The yacht real displacement is confirmed by the displacement on the ORC file where it is even 2 kg lighter (7898kg).
The Swan 50 is a very special yacht but this one goes a steep further because without losing the extraordinary sail potential it has a much bigger cruising potential, one that is limited on the Swan by its draft (3.5m), needed for the stellar performance. This one has the same draft while sailing but can retract the keel for anchoring or mooring, to a 2.0m draft! This allows a completely different polyvalence in what regards cruising. For more technical information about the Shogun 50 and a comparison with the Swan 50 look here: https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2019/03/shogun-50.html
The boats are not very different being the beam their biggest difference which is remarkably smaller on the Shogun 50 ( 3.99 to 4.21m) having both a huge B/D, now even bigger for the Shogun (45.6%) due to the extra ballast and remember that B/D is associated to a torpedo keel with a 3.5m draft.
On a boat with a "normal cruising draft of 2.8 m for having a similar effect in lowering the CG the B/D would have to be much bigger, something like half the weight of the boat.
That huge RM created by the big ballast and the big draft are responsible for an unusually good safety stability and AVS. The one that is mentioned on the ORC file is 141.8º and the ORC AVS is normally smaller than the one that is calculated for the RCD files since the ORC one is physically measured.
That makes it also a hugely powerful boat and explains how this sailboat can have an upwind 34.6 SA/D, a number that is more typical of a downwind sail area. With a D/L of 77.2 this yacht like the Swan, is a rocket, a cruiser-racer cruising with the sail performance of an almost top racing boat of the same size.
But is the Shogun 50 as fast as the numbers make believe? Well, we are still waiting for a racing confrontation with a Swan 50 and I hope the skipper will race it on the big classics like the Caribbean 600, the Fastnet and the Middle Sea Race, where it is more probable to meet a Swan 50 and where other comparable sailboats, like Mylius,will be racing.
The LadyKiller, the first Shogun 50, has made the last European ORC championship, that unfortunately had not many boats racing on the superior class, but even so it can give us some idea of its sail potential.
The owner is an experienced racer that used to have a Swan 42 and has won one of the Baltic classics, so the boat was well sailed even if the other two boats I will compare results with, were also sailed by very good sailors. Probably the winner of the championship, Erik Berth (Swan 45), is a better one having a 2nd place on the 2016 ORC world championship, that is more competitive than the European.
The 2019 European ORC championship was won by Erik Berth on his Swan 45 a design already 19 years old but still a very fast boat. In 2nd came Samuli Leisti on a TP 52 crewed by a good Finnish team and the Shogun 50, with Mats Bergryd only got the 6th place, but this only means that with that boat it will probably be difficult to win on this type of mostly inshore ORC regatta. Probably the boat would get much better results on offshore races and the same happens with the Swan 50, that won the 2018 Giraglia race.
But if we look at results of the only offshore race on the ORC championship we will see that Shogun 50 made 4th in compensated, but second in real time, having lost in an 11 hour race 56 minutes for the TP52 and left the Swan 45 (that won in compensated) at 1 hour and 6 minutes.
This means that the performance of the Shogun 50 is in between the one of a TP52 and the one of a Swan 45 and that is a hell of a performance.
Regarding the Shogun 50 interior, I believe it could easily be better, not in what regards quality and finish, that seems to be high, but on the layout and also on the color scheme although that has mainly to do with the owner. But the client is always right, every man to his taste.
When I say the layout could be better I am referring to the interconnection of spaces and the need of a bigger galley. The saloon is visually and spatially separated in two segments, one for seating the other for eating and that does not make sense especially on a narrow boat, making the space feel smaller than what it is.
It also does not make much sense to have the saloon table on the part where the boat on a seaway has more movement and the galley, contrary to the one on the Swan, does not offer any support for cooking while the boat is sailing and this type of narrow boats with lots of ballast tend to sail with lots of heel.
Of course this particular boat, like the Swan 50, is much more designed to be used as a racer than a cruiser and both boats have no anchor stand and probably no winch for the anchor but while on the Swan 50, due to draft it does not make much sense in having it designed as a real dual boat, on this one, due to its lifting keel and much lower production (that allows a much bigger customization) it would not be difficult to adapt one for cruising.
With a more adapted layout and a longer bowsprit with an anchor stand, it would be a kind of a dream boat at the reach of only the wealthier ones since it would cost certainly way more than a million. But if you really like the boat and have enough money they are going to make a 42.6 sailboat along the same lines. It will not be cheap but it will certainly also be a dream boat and one that will leave nobody indifferent: most will love ir and some will hate it LOL.
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| Shogun 42.6 |
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