NEW DEHLER 46 SQ, A GREAT CRUISER

Some days ago, I posted an article with a comparison between the E6, the Dehler 46, and the Salona 46, and I said that the SQ version of the Dehler should come soon, but I was not expecting they would announce it just some days after the article, that you can read here:

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2022/04/elan-e6-salona-46-and-dehler-46.html

Dehler went further than on the SQ version of the  38SQ proposing a completely new designed interior, and those are great news because the previous interior was a very particular one, did not please everybody, and most of all, those rounded cabinets were fragile and not easy to use with the boat sailing, especially with heel.

The new interior is more luminous due to the use of lighter wood and bigger hull ports, the saloon cabinets look more usable and with a more consensual design, but over the galley, they save money by proposing an open space with some shelves, instead of a cabinet. The shelves don't have a protection bar and would be unusable with the boat sailing. I hope they modify the design till production, but I don't have many hopes.

The layout is the same but I am sure the Dehler with the new interior will look like a completely different sailboat, at least inside. Outside the only change was an integrated bowsprit, that looks very similar to the one that was already available on the race version, and that probably could already be mounted on the cruising version.

Anyway, the Dehler was already a great performance cruiser, and the only explanation I can find for its moderate success is the not very popular interior design.

I hope that with the new interior this boat becomes more popular unless sailors who like performance cruisers are definitively captured in their tastes by very beamy sailboats, like the Elan E6, a thing that happened previously with the ones that buy main-market cruising sailboats.

There is another new option, an arch over the forward part of the cockpit that will allow having the boom control over it, at a single point (without a traveler). It will work less efficiently than in the standard version (with a big traveler forward to the steering wheels) allowing less control over the mainsail but it will allow the use of a bigger bimini that can be up while sailing (not also a thing that a sailor that likes performance would want). It will also give support for a bigger and higher sprayhood.

This option, even if of no interest to the ones that want a performance sailing boat, will allow a more extended market and without taking anything from the ones who want a better sailing boat. Those, just will not have that option.

This type of option, an arch for boom control, is already common in main market sailboats and Oceanis has offered it already for many years, as well as other brands, including Grand Soleil 46 LC, that will be competing with the Dehler, for the ones that want the boat in that configuration.

The bad news, that was already expected due to the increase in the cost of all materials is that this boat is more expensive than the previous Dehler 46. Yacht.de magazine talks about 70 000 euros more, but I don't understand what they are talking about. 

The new Dehler will cost at the shipyard standard 371 223 €, about 42 500 € more than the previous model, an increase of about 13%, that I would say was expected. I would be surprised if the price does not rise again till the end of the year. 

There are materials that went up 30% and there is now about 5% inflation that will also contribute to the price increase, all due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its consequences. The Dehler has now a price much closer to the one of the E6, which costs 388 500 € and leaving the Salona 46 (295 000€) as a much less expensive option....but I would say, not for long.