Solaris is a brand mostly known for beautiful high-quality big yachts, but it was not always like that, I mean, the high-quality was a constant but their more popular yachts were for many years a 36ft and a 39ft both designed by Frans Mass... but that was 40 years ago.
More recently with the increase of the shipyard production (10 years ago ) besides big units, they returned to the origins and produced a 37ft (2010) and then a 42ft yacht (2012). Both boats were (are) great sailboats and sold relatively well, but it seems that the shipyard makes much more money selling big units than smaller boats, and some years later these were taken out of their offers and not replaced.
At present, the smallest offer is a 44ft boat and this year they have expanded their offer to even bigger units, an 80ft and a 111ft boat, so it comes as a big surprise the announcement of a new 40ft boat designed by the same NA that designs now all their line, Soto Acebal, the one that had already designed the 37 and the 42, a decade ago.
Soto Acebal is known for designing fast boats, among them two famous very fast one-designs, the Soto 30 and the Soto 40. For more than a decade he worked on German Frers cabinet and since 1998 has his own office, being Solaris his main client.
The new 40ft should be available in 2021 and the drawings show us a beautiful design, as it was to be expected from Soto. But looking better there are some things I really don't like, being the main one the option he took to give the boat the look of a bigger yacht.Sure it looks very nice and the cockpit looks amazingly big with the two wheels far apart but for managing that Soto has taken away the side deck on the aft part of the cockpit and the only seating place for the helmsman are two small foldable seats that should be very uncomfortable and almost impossible to use with the boat heeled, while sailing close to the wind.
They say that configuration has the advantage of offering a bigger traveler for the main but that does not make any sense on a boat that comes standard without a main traveller, with a self-tacking jib and only 2 winches, if we can trust the pictures. The information regarding the boat is imprecise, in some places the hull length is 12.36m, while in others 12.36 is the LOA and that is what seems right for a 11.70 LWL.
Even in what concerns racing boats where probably the overall most successful box rule in what regards overall condition is the TP52, the max beam is 4.43m and that max dimension is rarely used with several very successful racers having much less, like Platoon, the winner of the 2019 world TP52 championship ( 4.37m Beam and over 50%B/D).
The Solaris 40 displacement is surprisingly high, 9850kg, if compared with the old 42 (8800kg) or with the one of the Solaris 44 (9900kg), especially taking into account that the 44 has 3600kg ballast and the 40 has 3050kg. That means that without the keel and ballast the 44 is actually 550kg lighter than de 40! That is really odd!
The 31%B/D on a 2.40m torpedo keel is normal by modern parameters and more than what mass production boats offer but less than the 36% of the 44 (on a 2.60 keel) or the 34% (on a 2.5m keel) offered on the old 42.The new 40 has no promotional price for anticipated orders (without seeing the boat) and costs standard at the factory without taxes 289 000 euros. The 44 costs 314 000 euros and the extra 25 000 euros seem more than compensate for the extra size, the extra performance and I would say the better design.
Hi Paulo,
ReplyDeleteAs always, really thanks for your reviews and comments, I learn a lot with them.
About the contradiction with the new "beamy-performance boats", maybe the "solution" is that they are designed for using a code zero instead of a big genoa. So for going up wind, if there is high wind a jib (small and self-tacking optionally) is used with a closed angle; if there is low wind, a code zero with a wide angle. Then, the option of genoa and close angle (the option with higher heel angle and higher penalty on a beamy boat) is avoided. What do you think?
Really thanks,
Woody
You are right that self taking jib is the standard equipment that most boats are equipped with now, but it is not because they are designed for that, it is because it is cheaper to come equipped like that.
DeleteThat avoids the cost of two genoa tracks, the cost of a bigger and more expensive genoa and avoids the installation of two expensive winches.
Yes, on a standard boat with that equipment it is cheaper to install a code 0 than to have a genoa but then most boats don't have the space to have a code 0 and a gennaker for downwind sailing and probably having a big genoa and a gennaker is a more useful set-up regarding cruising than a jib and a code 0.
But nothing of this has to do with the boat heeling. The ballast only produces RM when the boat heels and when it heel more it produces more. Beamy boats can have a significant ballast and then they need to heel to get the extra RM from the ballast. It is a question of more or less power and it is going upwind that the boat needs more power and that’s why it heels more.
Mass production boats have little ballast, are beamy and have a smaller B/D so they gain not so much in heeling because most of their righting moment comes from hull form stability and the extra power they would get from ballast when heeling more does not compensate the extra drag.
Not a big problem in situations where a lot of power is not needed (they just sail slower) but they don’t perform well upwind against waves (with heavy weather) because it is when more power is needed to overcome wave drag.
Very beamy racing boats, like class 40 or IMOCA have a lot of form stability but also o a lot of B/D so they heel upwind to get the extra power but because they are beamy they have more drag than a narrow boat and the performance is worst as well as the pointing ability.
https://www.enelgreenpower.com/content/dam/enel-egp/immagini/articoli/news/Article-media-fantini-defi-atlantique.jpg
great points also in the comments indeed. And fully agree that storing both a Code0 and a Gennaker.... it's a lot of space on a cruising boat!!! :)
ReplyDelete