NEW RM 1380, LOOKING GOOD

I confess that after the way RM went bankrupt some years ago, being saved by the Grand Large Group (Allures, Garcia, Outremer, Gunboat), but without fulfilling the contractual brand obligations to the many clients that had boats being built, RM lost a lot of appeal to me and I consider the situation very unfair, I did not know that was even legally possible.

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2020/03/rm-yachts-bankruptcy-and-shameful.html

Under Grand Large ownership the RM has survived and contracted the original brand creator (he had sold the brand some years before it went bankrupt) Martin Lepoutre as CEO.

Above the new 1380, below 1370

https://www.boatindustry.com/news/36335/martin-lepoutre-find-a-level-comparable-to-when-i-sold-rm

Under the new management and maintaining the "old" line of yachts, things took some years to stabilize and to customers to renew the trust in the brand that, when it went bankrupt, had a large number of sailboats in order. 

They went bankrupt not due to lack of orders but due to the impossibility of delivering the boats at the contracted price without losing money. The boats were well designed, well made (even if with some finishing problems at the end), and constituted a very interesting option as fast voyage boats, especially suited for the trade winds.

Like the Pogo, the hull design was very influenced by trade wind racers, like the 40 class racers or IMOCA, less fast than the Pogos, heavier, not so radical, and with a much better cruising interior, the RM offered (and still offers) a very interesting cruising line that deserved praise in several articles in this blog:

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2019/11/beautiful-rm-1180.html

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-rm890-became-rm890.html

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2017/01/2017-european-family-yacht-of-year-rm.html

http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2015/11/rm-1270_13.html

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2014/10/on-water-rm-890-versus-mojitomalango.html

http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2014/03/rm-890-one-of-best-rm-ever.html

The new RM 1380 follows the previous RM 1370 and has the particularity of being the first boat developed by the RM under the new ownership. Let's have a look at the boat and at the differences to the previous model, this one:

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-french-wooden-voyage-boat-rm-1370.html

http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2017/01/rm-1370.html

This one, like all other RM, is built in plywood, epoxy impregnated and can have an optional kevlar outer layer for better impact resistance and the differences to the previous boat seem small, but let's look at them in detail:

The new boat is slightly shorter than the previous one, it has increased only in the denomination (1380 to 1370) and in beam (4.53m to 4.50). The new boat has 14.40 LOA while the previous one had 14.74m and the hull length decreased from 13.68 to 13.30m. The older boat displaced 9400kg, the new one is heavier, displacing 9800kg.

The older boat was proposed with three different keels, a fin keel (2.45m), a twin keel (1.95m) and a swing keel with all the ballast in the keel (1.30/3.20m). On the new one, they don't mention the possibility of a fin keel with a torpedo but only the twin keel version (1.95m) or a swing keel (1.45/3.35m).

Above the new 1380, below 1370

They don't say what this boat ballast is, which I hope is not different from the older 1370 that had a 3000kg ballast on the twin keel with a 1.95m draft. That gives it a 30.6% B/D that is slightly higher than what mass production cruisers of this size offer (having as reference the 1.95m draft) but less than what is offered by performance cruisers.

The running rigging seems to be the same but while the 1370 had 6 winches this one has only 4 standard ones and I don't understand why the winch that is near the steering wheels is the one that was taken off. In fact, the new version has a winch distribution typical of a tiller use, while a tiller is not previewed. 

For all the manoeuvers, if the boat is single-handed, the man on the wheel has to leave it and go forward to work on the winches.

Smaller but with a bigger interior volume, not only due to the small increase in the max beam but mostly because the forward sections are much beamier, giving it a worse sailing performance upwind but allowing for having two cabins at the bow (as an option) making it more interesting for charter, with the possibility of having 4 cabins.

1370, twin keel version

The max beam is now all pulled back, increasing slightly the interior space on the aft cabins, increasing even more hull form stability (like the beamier forward sections) but increasing drag in light wind and upwind sailing and allowing the boat to sail with even less heel.

The other main difference is an aesthetical one that makes the boat look better, I mean the chine on the upper part of the hull that makes the freeboard look smaller, but I wonder about the costs of that and in what regards strengthness, and unnecessary complication. 

RM 1370

The problems that led to the bankruptcy, some years ago, had to do with the complicated shapes of the upper part of the hull that had to be made in fiberglass. 

They don't mention the use of fiberglass on the site so it is possible that the extra top chine is made with plywood and maybe without a considerable extra cost or lesser resistance.

But I am a bit allergic to shapes that are used aesthetically as visual references to racing boats when those shapes have the opposite result in regard to sail performance. 

RM 1370

On a racing boat those chines on the upper part of the hull, and especially in the bow area, have the finality of diminishing the height, without decreasing buoyancy or hull form stability, but in this case, due to the type of building and used material, it adds weight, instead of saving it.

295 000 € was the price of RM1370, back in 2017, standard, at the shipyard. Now the 1380 costs considerably more (330 000€)  and this happens not only with the RM. All boats cost now a lot more than 5 years ago and unfortunately everything points to an even bigger increase in prices this year.