SURPRISING ARCONA 50

Arcona is known to produce very well-built performance cruisers with a traditional flavor being all yachts designed by Stefan Qviberg, who unfortunately passed away a few years ago. I was very curious about the designer that would succeed Stefan, but I confess that I was not expecting it to be Niels Jeppesen, the founder and designer of X-Yachts.

Very similar in design to the X5-6

Not because he is not an excellent designer but because of his connection to X-Yachts. I cannot see a more fit successor and this is great for Arcona and to all who like performance cruisers. Jeppesen sold the shares he had on X-Yacht company and will be working with Arcona as a designer, and he says that he has been given more freedom to design the new Arcona than what he was allowed on X-Yachts, and that is also wonderful news, because Niels likes fast sailing boats, and certainly knows what he is doing.

I looked with anticipation at the images and data about the new 50 to try to understand what type of boat the new Arcona will be and.... it was not difficult, it looks like a smaller X5-6, the last yacht he designed for X-Yachts. 

I would have expected a different boat, closer to the XP line than to the X line, and not so similar to the X5-6. And when I am saying it looks like, I mean not only the looks, that are really close to the point of Arcona looking like an X-Yacht, but to the type of boat and boat dimensions.

I am not sure I like the way Arcona goes because it means Arcona is changing from traditional cruiser-racers to modern performance cruisers: slower, less sportive, beamier boats with a bigger cruising interior. I would say the other Arcona are in between the XP and X lines, closer to XP while this one could easily be a new X-yacht from the X line.

The drawings show a beamier boat than the other Arconas, similar in beam to the X line of hulls, very similar to the X5-6 in transom design, with 4 electric winches aft, near the helmsman, an electric furling boom, and an electric mainsheet traveler (that will be an expensive option). Like the X yacht, it can have an optional inner stay for having two fixed frontal sails, the smaller one on an auto-tack system with a rail, the genoa on a traveler.

A luxury performance cruiser that depends on a generator for working and pointed to fast relaxed cruising. The interior is also similar (but smaller) to the one of the X5-6, which is a bigger yacht, but an interior bigger than the one of the X4-9, which is closer in size.

Arcona 50

The main difference to the X5-6 (besides size) is that the X5-6 offers in all layouts a forward crew cabin, while the 50 offers a sail locker on all layouts.

There is another difference and one that is positive for a cruising boat: the Arcona 50 offers a twin rudder set-up, that is advantageous in what regards reliability (in the case one is broken with a shock with a submerged heavy object) and it is better for Med type of berthing, because near the quay many times the water is less deep than some meters away, and a deep rudder represents a liability if it hits the bottom sailing backward.

X 5-6

A twin rudder set-up has the disadvantage of lesser maneuverability in marinas, but this type of boat has always a bow thruster so that should not be a problem.

The Arcona 50 offers a dinghy garage, but if it is used for that finality the cockpit storage space for cruising stuff is limited. Also, the central upper opening to access the dinghy garage is small, if the space is used for storage, and it will be difficult to reach anything stored laterally unless the transom is open.

Unlike the other Arcona, this one does not have a cockpit table that disappears into the cockpit floor, and it is easy to store and deploy. A pity, because that was a great feature, a trademark from Arcona, that allowed for a clean cockpit for sailing and a very nice cockpit table when required.

Regarding dimensions, it is difficult to know the size of the boat because they don't give the hull length, only LOA (14.99m) and this boat seems to have an integrated bowsprit, that can be an option, and if that is the case the Hull Length will be the same as the LOA.

And in fact, the 14.99 LOA seems to be the HL, if we take into consideration the announced13.98m LWL. The X5-6 has 14.94m LWL (16.58m HL), the XP50 LWL is 13.31m (14.99m HL), the X4-9 13.58m LWL (14.50m HL) and the Arcona 465 13.25m LWL (14.09 HL).

The Arcona 50 has a 4.60m beam that compares to 4.89m on the bigger X5-6, with 4.49m on the smaller X4-9, 4.43m on the XP50 and 4.24m on the Arcona 465. Regarding displacement, they don't give it yet, but probably it will be around 14500kg, while the X5-6 displaces 18800kg, the X4-9 12900kg, the XP50 13600kg and the Arcona 465 only 9550kg (the 465 is carbon made).

Regarding B/D and draft the Arcona 50 (considering 14500kg displacement) will have 46.9%B/D for a 2.4m draft, the X5-6 has 38.3% with a 2.9m draft, the X4-9 has 42.5% for a 2.40m draft, the XP50 has a 41.2%B/D for a 2.65m draft and the Arcona 465 has 39.8% on a 2.50m draft.

We can see that Niels Jeppesen is one of the few who designs cruising boats with a high B/D ratio, and that the new Arcona 50 will not be an exception. Not surprisingly the XP50, if we consider the draft, is the one with a proportionally bigger B/D, but in this case the difference in B/D between the faster and slower X-Yachts is not big, contrary to what happens in most brands. 

It is worth also mentioning that the XP50 and the Arcona 465, the faster boats, are also the narrower but again it may be pointed out that the increase in beam (for having a bigger interior) on the slower boats is not comparable to the increase in beam on many other cruising boats, even performance cruisers. 

Jeppesen is one of the few designers that seems to refuse the modern tendency for hugely beamy boats at the cost of sail performance. Just for comparison purposes (with the Arcona 50) let me remind you that the new Hanse 460 was 1.12m less long but had 19cm more beam.

They give the weight of the ballast (6800kg) but not yet the displacement, but I am sure that this yacht is going to have a large B/D, and maybe the difference for the X-yachts (more B/D) has to do with those having a T keel and Arcona maintaining an L keel ( they don't give information about the type of keel).

Like X-yachts, Arcona has a high quality of building and the two companies use similar building methods, having as boat structure a steel grid. They use sandwich composites, having foam as core, infusion methods and the main difference seems to be the use of epoxy resin by X-Yacht and vinylester by Arcona. Vynilester is not as good as epoxy, but it is better than what is used by most brands, and similar to what is used in most top-quality brands.

The interior of Arcona yachts is a high-quality one, slightly more classical than the one of X-yachts, but it is possible that this yacht's interior will have a more modern design. The Arcona 50 will have as competition mainly the X line of X-Yachts, Solaris the LC line of Grand Soleil as well as the Swan 48, the brands that produce this type of performance cruisers, oriented for easy sailing.

As more sportive alternatives, but still, with a high-quality cruising interior, we will have the X-Yachts XP line, the Italia yachts, GS line from Grand Soleil, ICE yachts, or Mylius. If one wants to sail in a sportive way, with a better sailing performance, with or without racing the boat, the Arcona 465 or the correspondent yachts of these brands, will be a more interesting alternative.

Understandably Arcona turned to the type of boats that are selling better in this segment, performance cruisers, not really cruiser-racers, the type of boat Arcona used to produce, even if with very good quality cruising interiors. This is the first one of a different type. I am a bit disappointed with the turn to more sedate sailboats, but I hope that this change will not be generalized to all Arconas, even if I don't believe it.

If this boat will be a success, or not, will depend basically on the price at which it will be proposed and on the interior design, which, like the price, has not yet been made public. I hope it will be a success because Arcona, as a brand, really deserves it. 

 

If you consider buying a 45/50ft cruising performance yacht with similar characteristics to Solaris or X-Yachts X line, then this one deserves to be included in the selection. If you are looking for a very fast cruising boat with a great cruising interior, and one that can be used also for racing and want an Arcona, then look instead at the slightly smaller Arcona 465.

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2020/03/dusseldorf-2020-superb-all-carbon.html

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2019/02/arcona-435-2019-european-boat-of-year.html

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