DJANGO 8S, DEHLER 30OD, MOJITO 888, POGO 30.

They have a lot in common with mini-racers, just a bit bigger and with a better cruising interior. The Django and the Mojito have in common the same NA, Pierre Rolland, a great NA that deserves to be better known:

Mojito, Pogo, Django and Dehler

His career as an architect started 33 years ago when he designed and built a mini racer to do the Mini-Transat that he had done two times on that boat. Then he designed the mini that won the Mini-Transat in 1993 and in 1995 the first production Pogo, a mini racer.

Pogo (Structures shipyard) built 140 of those, between 1995 and 2002, a great success and the beginning of what is today a well-known and successful medium-sized shipyard.

He continued his solo racing career on the Figaro class, for some years more, having done three "Solitaire du Figaro" and a  Figaro Transat (AG2R).

But having more success as a NA than as a top racer, he gets more involved in naval architecture and in 1999 he designs the first cruising Pogo, the 8.50 a boat that was even more successful than the Pogo mini racer, with 180 boats built.

Just for the fun of it, he did not stop racing the Mini-Transat, always in boats designed by himself, and his last participation, in 2009, was the best, finishing 2nd. Before that he had been 4th in 2003.

He designed also several voyage boats and on one of them, the Jaco 50, he made a year-long voyage with the family.

But most of his designs are either solo-racing boats or small ocean-going fast cruisers based on his mini-racer experience and that's the case with the Django 8s, the Mojito 888 or with any of the boats built by the two shipyards, all designed by him and also some other boats built by other shipyards (Bongo).

The Pogo 30 is designed by Finot-Conq. But Finot is already retired and even if the firm retains his name, it is Pascal Conq that is today the head of the design cabinet. Pascal Conq,  if compared with most NAs, has also a significant racing experience even if much smaller than the one of Rolland and not really in solo. He won several IRC races and the Tour de France, an important French crewed coastal race.

The Dehler 30 OD is designed by Judel/Vrolijk but the relevant name here is the other associate of the cabinet, Torsten Conradi, that has not less racing experience than Pascal Conq. but one also not related to solo racing.

He won with Karl Dehler, in 1986, the 3/4 ton world Championship on a Dehler and curiously Karl Dehler is the project manager of the Dehler 30 OD.

These boats have in common having been designed by very experienced NAs that are also sailors with big racing experience, sailors that like to sail and cruise fast, and all of them know a lot about what it takes to design a fast and safe boat even if a small one and in what regards this particular, none better than Pierre Rolland.

The building materials and techniques are very similar, all using vacuum infusion, sandwich hull and deck using a foam core and polyester resins, with vinylester on the first layer and a boat structure laminated to the hull, on the Dehler reinforced with some carbon.

All these boats are about designing the smallest, fastest and less expensive boat, able to cross oceans (they are all Class A) offering all that is needed for cruising, even if on a spartan way, but never undermining sailing speed and fun of sailing.

The Django 8S and the Dehler 30 OD are the newer ones, having been presented last year. However the Django 8s has the same hull used on the Django 7.70, the one used on a never-ending circumnavigation I talked about in a recent post.

The 7.70 hull was just extended on the transom by 0.70 m. The Pogo 30 has already some years, like the Mojito 888 but I would say that all these hulls are up-to-date.

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-never-ending-circumnavigation-on-25ft.html

Let's have a look at the boats' dimensions (meter, kg), starting by the Django 8s, then Dehler 30OD then Mojito 888 and Pogo 30: HL- 8.01; 9.14; 8.88; 9.14. LWL - 7.70; 8.97; 8.70; 9.10. Beam - 2.99; 3.28; 3.45; 3.70. Draft - 2.00; 2.20; 2.30/1.00; 1.95. B/D - 32.0%; 33.6%; 33.2%;33.8%. Displacement - 2000; 2800; 2850; 2800. Ballast - 649; 940; 890; 945. SA/D - 32.1/66.0: 33.9/66.1; 28.3/53.7: 30.7/64.5. D/L - 124.1; 109.9; 120.5: 105.3.

We have two boats more suitable for racing than cruising, but also able to cruise in a very spartan way, the Django 8S and the Dehler 30OD, and two more suitable for performance cruising, the Mojito 888 and the Pogo 30.

The Django is smaller than the Dehler but has an almost identical SA/D and I can only hope they race together to be able to compare results on the water. By the numbers the Dehler will be faster, not only because it is bigger but because it has 200L water ballast (for solo sailing) and a bigger B/D with a bigger draft.

Only time will tell if the superior knowledge in designing this type of boats will have any relevance on performance or if on the Dehler, Torsten Conradi got it right with much less experience with small racers' design.

Comparing to other small racer designs optimized for downwind sailing the hull of the Dehler seemed to me to have too little forward buoyancy.

But I have seen videos of the Dehler sailing and the way the boat sails looks well to me, with the bow well out of the water, a thing that is particularly important in small fast sailing boats. Maybe I was wrong, even if looking at the designs it is clear that the Dehler has finer entries and less buoyancy there.

They all have a two rudder set up but the Dehler is comparatively beamier (length-beam ratio 2.7 to 2.6) but different in what regards transom design.

On both cases, beam is brought all the way back but the one of the Django is typical of a solo racer hull, with low hard chines limiting heeling, while the one of the Dehler is a more rounded one, also with chines but higher on the hull, allowing more heel before bringing added stability.

First two Mojiti then the Pogo

The Django will be easier to sail, with less heel, rolling less downwind and making the job of an autopilot easier especially at high speed.

The Dehler needs more control but will be faster upwind, not only due to the water ballast but also due to a bigger B/D that will be put at good use especially with the boat heeled, and that is certainly one of the reasons why the Dehler is designed to sail with more heel than the Django.

 Probably the Dehler performance in the very light winds will be just a little bit better, even if it is beamier, but that is hard to tell.

Both boats have already been tested and in both the test-sailors said very well about the sailing performance, both were reported to sail at around 12kt downwind with a F5 and both were noted for good performance upwind.

Surprisingly on the Django they have said that the boat apparently could point as well as a Sunfast 3300, a JPK10.30 or a J 99, that were sailing at the same time, a thing that seems to be hard to believe, but indicates a very good upwind performance for the type of hull.

https://www.voileetmoteur.com/essai/voiliers/essai-du-django-8s-un-django-dechaine/89774
https://www.yacht.de/yachten_jollen/testberichte/dehler-30-od-ein-racer--auch-zum-cruisen/a123385.html

Regarding cruising, both boats have a very naked interior but one that has everything needed for a couple to cruise in a spartan and sportive way.

I really hate the head of the Dehler is in the middle of the boat, protected by a folding screen. The smaller Django offers a better solution having it on one of the back "cabins" that functions also as storage space.

The Django offers two layouts, one for cruising another for racing but I think that the racing version has a better layout, even for cruising. If they want to make it better for cruising they can separate the back cabin with a door and add a small basin for washing hands and with that they will maintain the nice and big open space.

The Dehler comes initially with an electric motor, a solution that could be nice for a boat used for sailing from a marina and returning to it at the end of the day, but a lousy solution in what regards cruising, especially if it is done extensively. They seem to have understood that quickly and they have replaced it for a 9.9 HP diesel engine, but maintained the solution of a stealth propeller, one that can be brought up and disappear inside the hull, leaving a flat hull.

Above and below, Django. Last, Dehler 30 OD

That's a very nice feature and certainly more efficient than a saildrive in what regards drag, but the 9.9hp is just a very small engine for that boat and the smaller and lighter Django 8S offers a 14hp saildrive that will provide much better performance for cruising, especially against a strong current or against some waves, when there is no wind.

The Django, in what regards cruising, offers a huge advantage, the choice of three different types of keels, one similar to the one of the Dehler, with a torpedo but also two other options, a twin keel with two torpedos and a swing keel.

If the twin keel can have advantages in what regards reduced draft and putting the boat on dry, some performance especially upwind will be lost and the boat will become heavier due to the needed bigger ballast (about 200kg more) but with a swing keel, the weight can be the same as well as the RM at the cost of just a slight increase in drag.

The price of the two boats is about 110 000 €, on the shipyard, without taxes, both including carbon masts but while a full extras Django will cost 144 000€, I have heard about an incomparably higher price for a Dehler 30 OD fully equipped.

So if you are interested in these boats the best is to ask the shipyards about the prices of extras and compare the cost of the two boats with the equipment you want to have.

The Pogo 30 and the Mojito 888 have an upwind SA/D  a bit lower than the Django and the Dehler and are also beamier boats. While the other two have a length to beam ratio of  2.6 and 2.7 these two have both 2.5 (the smaller the number the beamier the boat). Besides being beamier the transom design is more similar to the one of the Django, being less rounded than the Dehler, having both a bigger similarity with a mini racer's hull.

The transom design of the Pogo, if we exclude beam, is not very different from the Django one,  but on the Mojito the hull has two well-marked chines instead of one. The intention is not to lose the big initial stability at low angles of heel that will prevent the boat to roll downwind, allowing also more heel upwind and that's when the second chine will work, at a considerable heel angle.

Obviously, this is not intended to allow for maximum pure performance, but it is an exchange between more easiness and control versus just a bit more drag.

That superior easiness will allow a solo medium sailor to go faster with that hull than if on the stern design a more performant and more difficult to control option was used, like for instance a design similar to the one used on the Dehler stern, maintaining the upper chine and rounding the hull.

The designer of the Django and the Mojito is the same, so it is very interesting to see how he changed criteria in what regards the design of these two hulls: the Django more pointed to pure all-around performance (less beamy, only one chine) and the Mojito with two chines to give, on a beamier hull, a better upwind performance that is a bit compromised by the big beam and that without losing much initial stability.

Probably that option will give it also a better light wind performance compared with a hull with the same beam with only a relatively low chine, like the one on the Pogo 30.

If the Pogo is not probably a match to the Django or the Dehler upwind, things change in what regards downwind sailing and here the SA/D is very similar and the Pogo should be as fast as the Django or the Dehler, easier to control and solo sail.

In what compares interior comfort for cruising, both the Mojito and the Pogo offer a lot more than the two other boats, with more interior storage and better galley.  The Mojito offers also an all-around view, and quite incredibly, a dinghy garage for a small 3 person dinghy. The Pogo offers a very nice and well sorted out interior, the better finished one, with lots of cabinets.

The Mojito and the Pogo have 13 and 14 hp engines, about the same as the Django but much more powerful than the 9.9hp engine of the Dehler.

Regarding tankage the Dehler is the one that offers less (25L diesel, 40L water) then the Django (40L diesel, 55L water), the Mojito (30L diesel, 100L water) and the bigger tankage is offered by the Pogo (40L diesel, 145L water). For extensive cruising or for a crossing there is always the possibility to install an extra water tank on any of the boats.

The Pogo 30 and the Django 888 have been sail tested several times and I never heard anything negative regarding the way they sail and, in a generic way, they have always deserved very positive reviews and evaluations. Here are some of the tests:

https://www.yachtingworld.com/reviews/boat-tests/pogo-30-on-test
https://www.yacht.de/multimedia/galerie/pogo-30-im-grossen-yacht-test/a80813.html
https://voilesetvoiliers.ouest-france.fr/essai/pogo-30-le-digne-successeur-du-8-50-f7f702cf-f22d-9b4f-8d02-06fc7c95dbdd
http://www.velablog.it/barche/pogo-30-il-perche-di-una-scelta-e-la-prova-in-mare-di-marco-giudici
https://www.sailingtoday.co.uk/videos/melango-88-8-review-test/
https://voilesetvoiliers.ouest-france.fr/essai/mojito-888-randonneur-panoramique-b5fcbfac-abe6-f74d-a5de-516e9ff2fcba

Django, Dehler, Pogo

The Mojito costs 110 690€ but this price includes a swing keel, which is an expensive option on the Pogo. The Pogo costs 98 700€, with a fixed torpedo keel, prices on the shipyard, no extras, no taxes.

 It is worth saying that almost all the Pogos are sold with a Swing keel and that will make it more expensive than the Mojito. The Pogo and the Mojito come standard with aluminum spars while the other two come standard with a carbon rig.

The standard price of all these boats is very similar but we all know that a boat fully equipped costs much more and the final price can be different from boat to boat. It is especially higher when the boat is seriously equipped for racing.

I  have visited again the Pogo 30 at the last Dusselford boatshow and I have to say it looks better than ever and it is from all Pogos the one I like more.

Of course, I do not mean that between a Pogo 12.50 and a 30 I would not have a 12.50 instead.  I am just saying that taking into account their size, I find the Pogo 30 comparatively a more interesting boat.

 And it is also, compared with all the others I mentioned here, the best-finished one and the one that has a nicer interior design.

For what they have told me at the boat show a Pogo with carbon spars, a swing keel (1.05/2.50m), fully equipped will cost about 160 000 euros without taxes.

But the Mojito 888 offers that incredible dinghy garage and a dinghy on a very small boat is always a big problem. If you have it over the deck, forward to the mast, it will make it very difficult to go forward and dangerous in heavy weather, if you tow it then the drag is big and it takes speed from the boat, not to mention that a small boat looks particularly ugly with a dinghy over the deck.

The dinghy that the Mojito carries is not big but it will be enough for two (it can carry three with some care) and for a couple, the garage is just a great idea that can make sailing a lot more enjoyable and the boat much better looking.

On the Mojito interior, light and the all-around view are great but I don't like the design neither the finish, that even if practical I don't find nice or cozy.  But it may be just me that gives too much importance to details and design. It is certainly a practical one and if the ones that buy this boat don't have objections about it you may well have the same opinion as them and then that dinghy garage can make all the difference.

Even if the slower of the four, I would like to make clear that the Mojito is a very fast boat for its size, with a huge SA/D upwind and downwind and that it is a boat that will give a lot of fun sailing, as any on the four mentioned here.

But one thing is cruising, other racing and in what regards that the Dehler 30OD, from these four, is probably the best option,  even better than the smaller Django, in what pure performance is concerned performance. In IRC or ORC racing, between the two, only time will tell.

The Django is smaller, does not have water ballasts, it has less draft and less RM and it will have certainly a considerably lower rating but even if the Django looks great the Dehler looks even better and it is not difficult to fall in love with that boat: it looks soo cute and so fast that it is hard to resist.

CORONA VIRUS AND 20002020

Thanks to you all the blog has registered 2 000 000 hits, an average of 883 hits a day in the last year and a half.

Unfortunately this automatic type of publicity I use on the blog only pays some cents when you click and open ads and unfortunately not many do that. Can I ask you guys to open the ads, at least the ones that you are mildly interested in?

With about one euro and a half a day I don’t have much incentive to post more frequently, especially now. If it was not this Covid 19 shit the blog would already have been closed for the sailing season, and I would be sailing and that’s a lot better than writing, even if about sailboats. LOL

Edit: Some of you have reached me saying that they could not see any adds on the blog. That's because most use ad blockers. If you wanna help me with that disable the ad blocker for my site (the ad blocker has an option to do that). The ads google use are not aggressive pop-ups so it will not make the blog harder to read.

SAARE 38.2, A GREAT CRUISER

I know all their models and had already been impressed by Saare overall quality, but this new version of the 38, the 38.2, that they showed at Dusseldorf, is something special. For cruising extensively a 38ft boat, by today's standards is small, but I, that cruise on a  41ft boat, found that this boat is so well designed and detailed that it would suit me fine.

It has very good interior storage, a big head with a separate shower, a large galley with a big refrigerator (water-cooled) and an optional small one on the saloon table for the beer and white wine (what a great idea!) and also a very good exterior storage with a small sail locker at the bow (but enough to keep the gennaker), and four cockpit lockers, one of them suited to have the liferaft and other communicating with a large storage space inside the boat that can be subdivided for the installation of a small generator.

The engine compartment is big and with enough space for the boiler and other technical equipment.

A diesel heating from Eberspächer is standard as well as the stainless steel windshield. They use Harken sail hardware and the boat comes standard with 6 winches, one of them electric, that would be considered oversized on mass production boats (40 and 40.2).

It comes also with spectra halyards, over the cabin genoa traveler, mainsheet traveler and with many things that are options on other boats like 4 gilthead aerators and one permanent aerator for good ventilation in all areas, 4 padeyes on Deck for life-lines, 6 additional padeyes inside the cockpit for life-belts, teak cockpit table mountable on the steering console, 30 l water boiler with 220 V heating powered by mainland electricity connection and heating via engine cooling circle and a  foot-pump for seawater or switchable to freshwater in the pantry.

It is really a boat thought for extended cruising and that foot-pump switchable to freshwater, when the water electric pump stops working, makes me envious. The 10 old-styled lateral cabin "windows" will not give so much light as a continuous plexiglass panel but while those normally only provide two small openings, all the "windows" on the Saare open and that will provide better ventilation especially if we consider that the boat has already 5 top hatches and four gilthead aerators.

Hallberg Rassy 372

The interior quality is one of the best in the industry and probably only possible on a small yard that still produces boats as if they were one-offs, with meticulous care, finish and attention to detail. 

Sometimes a good finish is not necessarily the same as a well-designed interior but in this case the interior design, even if a bit on the traditional side, is very agreeable and nice.

Saare is a relatively recent and not well-known brand so one should ask: who designs and builds these boats, what experience do they have? Saare is an Estonian shipyard and before building their own boat they built for Finngulf their boats. Finngulf, for the ones that don't remember, where excellent Finnish cruiser racers with not only great performance but ones with a very good finish and quality.

Saare 38.2. below, HR 372

Finngulf went bankrupt in 2011 and it was at that time that this shipyard decided to make its own boat, curiously founded by the same man that had founded Finngulf, Stig Nordblad.

The chosen designer was the same that designed the Finngulf, Karl-Johan Stråhlmann. So, even if recent, their competence in what regards building and the quality of the designs are well established.

However there are several things that I would like to be different on this boat, like a slightly more modern hull (10 years old) with the beam pulled aft and a plumb bow, but as it is, it is just a bit outdated, but not really in a way that compromises sailing cruising performance because the hull design was a very good one and that classic trend does not extend itself to the building methods and materials.

Like on the Hallberg Rassy, the Saare has a sandwich hull, using Divinicell as core, but while on HR they still use a hand-laid method, here they use vacuum infusion. HR use vynilester resins on the outer layers and good quality polyester on the others.

Saare uses only vynilester resin and they say that it is a top vynilester, close to epoxy, about 300 times more resistant to hydrolysis than normal polyester resin. This will allows the Saare to be lighter than the HR, for the same strength.

Both boats are built in two halves and joined together with a strong lamination, a well-proven technique, even if I prefer the hull infused all together, preferably incorporating hull structure and reinforcements like they do on Solaris, for instance. On the HR and Saare the boat structure is post laminated to the hull. I have no doubts about the work to be well dimensioned and well done on both companies but the method used by Solaris allows lighter boats for the same strength.

Saare 38.2 two layouts, below HR 372

The Saare 38.2 and the Hallberg Rassy 372 have similar dimensions: Hull length - 11.40m, 11.35; LWL - 10.16m, 10.25: Beam - 3.66m, 3.60; Displacement - 8 100kg, 7500; Ballast - 3100kg, 2900kg; Draft - 1.95m, 1.99; Water -  360L ,471; Diesel - 360L, 270; Engine - 51hp, 60hp; B/D - 38.3%, 38.7%: D/L- 216.2, 194.7: SA/D - 18.7, 19.4.

So, no cruiser-racers here, not really performance boats, but middleweight boats with good sailing potential, being the one of the HR slightly better than the one of the Saare that, however, has the option of a code 0 that seems to be a cross between a light nylon big code 0 and a big genoa (you can see it on the photos) mounted on a fixed bowsprit on a roller.

They call this a Cutter configuration and even if I would not use that denomination, it is a very interesting one that will allow upwind a 27.7 SA/D, certainly not usable close upwind but somewhere between close-hauled and close-reach. With this configuration, I am sure the Saare will sail very well in all wind conditions.

The Hallberg Rassy 372 is an excellent boat, the first of the modern HR, with a better sailing performance than the older ones, it has also a 10-year-old hull, very similar to the one of the Saare, just a bit beamier but both different from the approach modern HR hulls have now.

 Newer middle-sized HRs models have joined the modern tendency to have beamier hulls, maximized for beam reaching and downwind sailing while those two, especially the Saare, are more old school, with a more overall optimization and a better upwind performance.

Running rigging, above Saare, below HR

Another type of hulls, as for instance the one of the new HR 40C, are more maximized for beam reaching and downwind sailing, having beamier hulls that allow the extra advantage of more voluminous interior.

If one sails out of the trade winds, on the Baltic, Med or Caribbean and if one does not motor upwind, a boat with a better performance upwind can be a better choice because with varied winds one ends up sailing more upwind than in any other point of sail, due to apparent wind.

But as many just motor upwind, and certainly these boats can do it because with a 60hp engine they have a motorsailor potential, the advantage in what regards better upwind potential is reduced to only a more comfortable ride upwind and it will not justify the option for a hull of this type, versus the advantages a maximized beam reaching/downwind offers, including a larger interior.

However, there is another advantage of these hulls versus beamier ones, the superior performance in light winds, but again, if one does not sail with light winds, doing between 3 and 5.5kt speed, and if in those circumstances one just turns on the engine to go at 6 or 6.5kt, then the light wind performance will be of little relevance, something like 0.5kt between 6 and 7 kt speed with winds between 7 and 9 kts.

It is up to you to know what type of hull is more suited to you, depending on the wind (trade winds or not) and what is the percentage of engine use and in what circumstances. As a guide you should know those ocean racers that race predominantly on the trade winds are beamier than IRC or ORC offshore racing boats that race with a more balanced set of winds.

Sometimes it is not easy to notice the difference on the hulls because nowadays they all have the beam pulled back, but if you look at the beam dimension on boats with the same length the difference will be obvious as well as the shape of the transom, not in what regards a bird's view (where they seem similar) but on the way the waterline varies with heeling.

Looking at the polar speeds of the Hallberg Rassy and Saare they look very similar, the interior arrangement is designed for a couple providing good storage, but the Saare goes a step further on that maximization and offers a boat with a very big forward cabin, a bigger galley and more technical and interior space at the cost of having only a double cabin and another one that can be a single one (for two children) or another storage space.

If one really needs two full-sized cabins, not for hosting friends or sons then there is another layout that can have almost the same storage, with a bit less of space for technical equipment at the cost of a slightly smaller head (even so a good one) and a smaller front cabin ( a "normal" sized one) but having the advantage of offering, like the HR, a dedicated and more comfortable seat for the chart table.

Both interiors, the HR and the Saare, are well finished and of good quality but the one of the Saare truly gives the impression of being something special, on the detail of the storage space, on the way everything is thought out for extensive cruising and even in what regards finish.

Another important difference regards running rigging: both have the mainsheet at the end of the boom, going to a traveler forward of the steering wheel, using a german sheet system that needs the use of two winches, but while on the HR all the rest of the work, from the jib, genoa, code 0, control of the mainsail shape and reefing is done using only two other winches, on the Saare you will have 4 to do that.

That will allow making sail adjustments without having the need to block the forward sail sheet and will allow an easier and quicker sail trim. Due to the position of the blocks and the way the boat is rigged it would be impossible or very difficult to put two more winches on the HR. 

The Saare also has the option to mount the traveler for the main over the cabin, forward the windshield. Thay will give a lesser control over the main but can allow a bigger bimini.

The HR has the genoa tracks on the side deck while the Saare has bigger ones over the cabin and that will allow a better regulation upwind, going closer to the wind.

Maybe I am getting old but the Saare seems to me very close to the perfect boat for someone who wants to have a relatively fast, comfortable, easy, well-built boat to sail as long as one can in old age. 

The small size, the great seaworthiness, the middleweight, the relatively small sail area, the solent rig, the low freeboard are all characteristics that make its use easier and less expensive in the long term.

And if you think that I am exaggerating you should read what Fridtjof Gunkel, one of the oldest and more experienced test sailors from the German Yacht magazine said about the Saare 38.2, that he tested not long ago. You can download the full review from their site. Translated from the German:

https://www.yacht.de/yachten_jollen/testberichte/das-boot-fuer-paare-saare-382-aus-estland/a119893.html

"Saare 38.2 , a clear concept and a yacht at its finest...Why bother with dedicated guest cabins that are hardly or not inhabited and only serve as storage space and one that is difficult to use anyway? Why worry about storing on the deck fenders, life rafts and bicycles, when they can be stored in the interior?...

A consistent boat program created something new: a boat designed specifically for a small crew that meets the wishes of older cruising sailors. The boat not only sails very well as it is also extremely easy to operate: difficult to make it easier for a small crew. Consistently designed for a couple, well divided and equipped with plenty of storage space, stiff and fast, Saare 38.2 is an ideal boat for couples who cruise extensively and like to sail...

The price is high but quite reasonable for what is offered. It is worth mentioning the very extensive standard equipment, the high level of customization, timeless lines and the feeling of sailing something special.

"https://www.yacht.de/yachten_jollen/testberichte/das-boot-fuer-paare-saare-382-aus-estland/a119893.html

Also, years ago the Saare 38 was tested by David Harding, for the British Yachting Monthly, and he said : 

"The breeze started at 20-25 knots, gusting to 30 by the time we were heading home. It's always good to see how a boat copes with a litde pressure so we set out under full canvas, ready to drop in a slab if necessary. The Saare took it in her stride: she's a powerful offshore yacht and clearly relished the opportunity to show what she's made of..

The Saare will look after the shorthanded sailor and family crew alike, getting you where you want to go comfortably and efficiently....A boat on test can only be assessed in the conditions on the day, but it’s not often you come away struggling to find anything to criticize. 

This was one of those very rare occasions….The hull shape changes little when heeled; one reason she’s so balanced. The Saare 38 proves that a modern cruiser doesn’t have to have chines, an ultra-wide transom and twin rudders. Moderate, tasteful and well-designed can do just as well, or perhaps even better."

https://www.yachtingmonthly.com/reviews/yacht-reviews/saare-38

One more particularity of this shipyard and one that shows how close they like to be to customers is that if you like the boat delivered by sea they have their own delivery skipper, that will be glad to sail with you to teach you all about the boat particularities and boat handling, something that is only possible on a small shipyard like this one.

The price at Dusseldorf boat show was 290 538€, without taxes at the shipyard, for a standard boat that includes many items that are always necessary, but are never standard on other boats, including some electronic, diesel heating on all cabins, synthetic deck on the coachroof and side decks, anchor and rode, fixed windshield in stainless steel and safety glass, sprayhood to mount on top of it, 330 Ah AGM house batteries plus 66Ah starter battery, fly screens and integrated roller blinds on deck hatches, curtains in all windows, removable teak cockpit table, shore power with charger and inverter, 2 epoxy coats and antifouling.

On the list of extras you will find some items that are unusually offered directly by the manufacturer and that shows clearly for what type of customers this boat is addressed to, reflecting particular needs, like a cockpit tent, starboard storage compartment converted into a workshop (with shelves, boxes, workbench), deck washing pump mounted in the anchor locker, water maker, washing machine, solar panel, generator, hydro generator, wind generator, heating (from the diesel heater) on the cockpit and so on.

Quality is expensive but I would say that if one buys this boat, at retirement time, instead of a similarly priced bigger sailboat, not only will recover a  big amount of money on the next ten years (maintenance costs, shipyard costs, marina costs, touristic taxes) as one will be able to sail and cruise for more time, with less stress and probably enjoy more sailing on a boat where everything is simple, practical and well thought for cruisng. This is a boat where everything seems perfect and one where if you find something that you don't like, the chances are that they can change it to your liking.