NEW GRANDSOLEIL 40, FAST AND SPACIOUS CRUISER, OR RACER

Nothing new or very exciting about the new GrandSoleil 40, but a yacht does not need to be exciting to be a great and fast cruiser. The design looks well-balanced and clean. The search for interior space is responsible for a beamy boat, considerably beamier than the previous GS 39 ( HL 38.10 ft, 3.70m beam), that even if smaller is a much narrower boat. But the GS 44 is also a beamy boat and is fast and performed well in handicap racing.

The GS40 has a 39.04 feet HL and a 4.09m beam and it is not only beamy, as it features topsides a bit too high for my taste (considering a cruiser-racer) but they are very well disguised in the overall design. 

The design is from Matteo Polli, who designed also the GS44. 

I love his designs, but he has to design what the shipyard wants, and in this case, Cantiere del Pardo is clearly trying to conquer a share of the main market, offering a faster and better-built boat, with almost as much interior space as the offers from the big brands.

For the success of this approach, the final price (that is not known yet), will be fundamental and it is evident that the Cantiere is trying to keep it down as much as possible, offering a standard boat with a minimum of sail hardware.

The standard GS40 comes without a mainsail traveler, without a genoa traveler, with a jib in a self-tacking rail. This allows for a very simplified rigging that only needs two winches on each side and allows you to save a lot of money.

But the stability (sail-power) is there, provided by a big hull form stability and a 33.3%B/D, on a 2.40m torpedo keel and probably a cast iron one with a lead torpedo.

 That will make it uncomparably more powerful than big brands boats that typically have a B/D between 24 and 27%. 

Also, the more advanced building techniques and better materials allow for a 7500kg displacement, which is about 500kg lighter than the lightest among big brand yachts and with superior resistance to torsion and flexion. All that will make for a better and much faster cruising boat, better built, offering about the same interior volume, with a better interior finish.

And the GS40 has considerably finer entries than big brand boats and a transom with the beam not all pushed back, allowing for a different hull that will allow more heel without increasing substantially drag and better performance in lighter winds due also to a lesser drag, being easier to sail with strong winds over hull speed.

It has a deep single rudder that I am sure will be very efficient. Has it has been explained here many times, a well-designed deep single rudder has advantages and disadvantages over a two-rudder setup. 

The GS40 is also offered in a race version, which will be much more expensive, and will have top sailing hardware that will include 6 winches, travelers for the main and genoa, sophisticated and efficient running rigging, and even carbon spars, as an option. 

The cruising GS40 comes standard with a 1.0m fixed bowsprit. The race version comes with a huge one, 1.70m. The smaller one includes an anchor stand, as well as the bigger one, and that is quite rare. 10 years ago, Grand Soleil was offering all this (except carbon spars) on the standard version. Times are changing, and fewer people want a top sailing boat.

That makes sense because the majority of cruisers use the engine more than the sails and, when they use them, they don't bother with fine regulations. So, they don't need the more complex sail hardware that was offered as standard some years ago, which is now optional and can get that way to a less expensive cruising boat.

The good news for the ones that like sailing is that all equipment is interchangeable and you can order the boat with the equipment you want. That will also make a better-equipped boat a much more expensive sailboat. The sail area upwind can vary between 84 and 95m2, and that is a big difference.

The interior, designed by Nauta Design seems very nice and practical. Standard, it comes with only one good-sized head,  but most will opt for the two-head version because the space of the extra head will be maintained as a cabinet, in a place a cabinet with that dimension will not make much sense (except for racing and to store sails).

The galley is a big one and the saloon looks well and spacious including a decently sized chart table, even if without a dedicated chair.

With a 300L water tankage and a 170L diesel, the GS40 is well suited for cruising, and even for the ones that like to motor, it is offered an optional 50hp engine that will give it a motor-sailor ability. The standard engine has only 30hp and it will work well as an auxiliary engine.

More information about the GS40 here: https://www.diamond-yachts.de/grand-soleil/modelle/grand-soleil-40-performance.html

I am very curious to know the price and to see if the boat will succeed in attracting a bigger clientele. Probably it will be exhibited in Dusseldorf and I will get back to it later when I have seen it, and after the first sail tests.

Then I will make a bigger post comparing it with the Italia 11.98 (also a Matteo Polli design). In fact that comparison will be very curious because these two boats, designed by the same NA, apparently with the same purpose, have different hulls, being the Italia Yacht a bit narrower and with a relatively different transom.

The boat is already on the water and you can see it here at Cannes boat show. The one that is showing the boat didn't say it but the boat presented in the video is a mix between a the race and cruising version, with the sail hardware from the racing version and many extras from the cruising version and therefore a much more expensive boat than the standard cruising version.

The lack of a microwave, an option, that is seen in the drawings, makes the galley look unfinished. Like on the 44 probably there are optional cabinets that will fit in the space over the salon "widows" that is left unused.