I had already said that I like these "kids" and their boats. This is a Chinese shipyard but contrary to almost all other Chinese shipyards it is not an European or American operation taking advantage of the cheap Chinese labor to relocate the production to a more favorable place. No, these one is really a Chinese one, managed by very young people. They started to make Olympic class boats under licence and rapidly expanded to bigger boats that had nothing special (except the 31R) except being well designed and inexpensive. They started with performance cruisers using the know how design of Simonis Voogd.First they made a 26ft boat then a racer (18r), a top racer (31R), then a cat (36ft) and now a fast 33ft performance cruiser. All boats are fast and even if only the 31R is an innovative boat, they all are inexpensive and built with modern building processes, using vacuum infusion, cored hulls and epoxy resins (the 31R is a carbon boat). I believe these "kids" and their boats will go far and that this one will be the first true Chinese Shipyard on the world's market. The new Fareast 33:
The boat looks good even if quite traditional in design and that big wheel seems a bit outdated. I hope they will purpose it also with a tiller set-up. The boat dimensions seems very good, particularly the weight (3900kg). Regarding ballast or B/D ratio they say nothing but it seems the same type of design used on the 26 and that one had 36% and that seems alright to me. The boat has a hull length of 10.00m, a LWL of 9.18m, 3.33m Beam, 2.00m draft and 58.8m2 of sail area.
The hull is not very far from the one from the Salona 33 even if the quality of the Salona's interior and its cruising potential is a almost for sure superior, as well as the price.
The Beam is very similar (3.33m to 3,35m), the hull length practically the same but the Fareast LWL a bit better (9.18m to 9.04m). The weight makes a big difference: the Fareast is much lighter, 1050kg lighter and even if the Salona has more sail ( 69.5m2 to 58.8m2) probably the Fareast will be faster in almost all conditions.
Interesting boat no doubt, specially if the price is in order with the prices of the previous boats ;-)
We will be following here these series that with the RC44 series are probably the world's top racing in what regards monohull crewed regatta racing.
The championship will start in the US and then will pass to Europe. There are six series of races, two of them in the US. There are 15 teams racing the series but most of them don't make the US races. Most of the boats that make the US series are American with the exception of an Italian one (Azzurra) and a Swedish one (Ran).
After the first series in Key west (6 boats) the Americans of Quantum are leading, followed by the Swedish of Ran and the Italians of Azzurra.
2014 MIAMI SERIES:
After 3 days racing in the Miami series (7 teams), Quantum is leading followed very closely (only 2 points) by Azzurra. Last day, the third, the wind arrived and the races went with more than 20k. Great fun and great images ;-)
Only one more race to go and the Americans of Quantum lead by 8 points over the Italians of Azzurra.
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Some great images from Quantum, back in 2012:
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And Vesper with some problems:
Mr Pelicano:
By one of those interesting coincidences, a good sailing friend of mine from San Francisco, with whom I did the Melges 24 Worlds last year, was aboard Quantum Racing for the Miami TP52 Series event, these past few days. His son and Terry Hutchinson's son are in Junior Sailing together. :) I am awaiting a full report from him on his adventures and will be happy to share anything interesting he has to say. I am not ashamed to say that I love the TP52 class and how they sail those boats like big dinghies. Glad they were able to put together a series to replace the very successful (and well-covered) Audi MedCup series. Maybe Audi will come back and renew sponsorship for 2015 if the global economy improves.
As promised, here are some comments from my friend who was aboard Quantum racing for the two heavy air days of the recent TP52 Super Series regatta in Miami:
”Definitely not a slam dunk but it was pretty much a two-horse race until Azzurra fell apart on the the last day and all Quantum had to do was cover them. I was on the boat only for the two heavy air days, Thursday and Friday, when we saw TWS in the low 30s and downwind boat speed breaking through 25 knots, but unfortunately not on the very light air Saturday and Sunday. I stepped into Jordi Calafat’s gear (obviously physically but not intellectually) as he couldn’t make it, literally drinking from the water canteen labeled with his name. Indeed, the chase boat would come alongside in between races with personal water bottles and power snacks, then take everything away, including the water canteens, before the next race. You had the option to wear your spray top or pants, or hand it over to the chase boat, but if you chose to keep it you could not take it off and throw it down below. No excess weight literally means no excess weight.
Other than the occasional jump onto the coffee grinder, my role was largely confined to babysitting Roland, the class-imposed on-board guest from sponsor watchmaker Zenith, who had never before set foot on a sailboat; I was in charge of hoisting him across the 14 foot beam on the tacks and ensuring he wouldn’t get beheaded or otherwise mutilated by a running backstay on the gybes. I am proud to say that I succeeded, although there were a couple of close calls.
The atmosphere on the boat while racing is almost eerie. Everyone does their job like clockwork, barely uttering a word. Everyone on the boat has at least one AC campaign and Volvo/Whitbread cap, plus assorted world titles and Olympic medals. Some like Baird and Warwick Fleury have won the Cup more than once. The only chatter while racing is the back and forth between navigator Juan Vila (41-day round the world record on Banque Populaire) and Terry Hutchinson, with Juan constantly feeding information off his iPad on laylines and weather, and Terry looking for pressure and making the calls on the manouvres, always thinking two or three shifts ahead. I have not heard Ed Baird say a single word in two days while steering, he has blind faith in where Hutchinson tells him to go and just locks himself onto driving that beast as fast as humanly possible. The intensity level is unimaginable, you could cut the adrenaline with a knife. The stakes are so high and given the financial commitment made by the owners and sponsors, there’s tremendous pressure to perform on all of these guys.
Off the water it’s a bit more relaxed, and everyone was extremely gracious; I was struck by Ed’s effort to engage in conversation with a nobody like me at the crew dinners. I also had an opportunity to bond with my compatriot and idol Lorenzo Mazza, former downwind trimmer on Prada and Alinghi. But at the end of the day, these are professional athletes subject to massive physical and psychological demand, so the tension never dropped below a certain threshold and no one strayed off the short path between the crew house and the harbor. If these guys ever party, it is not during a regatta, which suited me just fine since I was only there for the sailing.”
Needless to say, I am terribly jealous of my friend. It was clearly an experience of a lifetime!!!:-)
Many thanks to you and your friend for the excellent "live" coverage of the event :-)
That was just great!!!!
The Italians of Azzurra put a big fight against the several American teams and only on the last day they were clearly beaten. So before coming to Europe Quantum leads with two victories on the two American series and Azzurra follows with 2 nds. It will be great to see how they will do on the 4 European series that will have a lot more teams racing.
From your friend's description results clear why I consider this one of the top two mono-hull crewed regatta series.
Christophe Mora is a young French mountain guide that decided to do a circumnavigation and chose a Django 7.70 to do it. At the time he was looking for some nice guys that wanted to share with him his adventure on different legs. He has made it to Brazil and I guess that by now he already knows how to sail LOL. So if someone want to join him (he seems to be a very nice guy) or follow his voyage this is his site:
Hi Paulo - I don't know if you've seen the Yachting Monthly interview on YouTube with Robert Taylor, the owner of the modified Corribee 21 "Mingming 2"? This is a junk-rigged "adventure" yacht, designed specifically for extended (67-70 days) in the high northern latitudes - e.g., Greenland, Spitzbergen, etc. Ordinarily it is not what one might consider a "performance" boat, but Taylor explains how the modifications he made to the boat in fact improved its average speed by 1-1.25 knots, enabling him to extend his cruising range by as much as 1,000 - 1,500 miles, on any given voyage. It is a very clever design, and demonstrates that you can have an affordable "adventure" yacht if you are willing to make some compromises in personal comfort.
This is the interview you mention (movie):
It belongs to a series YachtingMonthly has on older designs. That is a pretty conservative magazine and I am a bit ashamed to say that I had subscribed it or bought it for 20 years or so LOL. I had an old traditional boat so It went well with the magazine :-). Regarding the Corribee 21 or that rig, it was an interesting boat for its time but way outdated today. Nobody seems to give a damn about it except Robert Tailor and YachtingMonthly.
Regarding putting a much bigger rig to that boat I hope that it will not end in disaster. There was a good reason for that rig to be of that size. A rig is designed proportionally to the boat overall stability and the one on that boat is not big.
MR Pelicano:
As for Roger Taylor's Corribee, indeed, this is an ancient design, although the same design that Ellen MacArthur singlehanded around Britain, when she was a teenager. I was more interested in what Taylor did the junk rig, which of course is not one you see very often but shares some similarities with the wing sail rigs we've been seeing lately, with respect to the cambered panels, which facilitate easy reefing.
Regarding the Corribee and the rig junk sail there are two basic differences: It is not a wing sail and it only works well on one side of the mast. When you tack to the "wrong side" or you lose the shape of the sail or you have to pass it to the other side of the mast. Not easy on a boat with a big sail and not fast in any circumstance. On a wing sail you don't have that problem because the mast is inside the sail, not on one of the sides.
Both from having sailed singlehanded from Norway late July -13 in a 30ft 1980 model Finnsailer, now currently in Florida going up the East Coast of USA, from following the thread over at SN, and reading books on boat design."Principles of yacht design" is a great read, you can get it on Amazon. Yup, I want more speed and stability, having done many slow rolling miles :) Should I do ocean crossing again, I probably would like an aluminium boat with contemporary hull forms to make them fast and stable going downwind or an RM with Kevlar enforced hull. A few mm of plastic feels thin sometimes. A pilothouse/inside lookout position would also be great during squalls and on nightwatch. Here are a few aluminium boats that have caught my interest lately:
(Paulo, hope you can help out adding some pictures from the links)
Hi TK,
The discussion seems interesting to me but you have lots of boats there and different ones too, even If I like almost all (not much the Cordova). Some we have already talked about on the old thread others not. I will add more pictures when we speak of a single boat otherwise it will be a too long post. I assume you are interested in boats with about 40ft?
And why do you leave out boats as the Allures 39 or the OVNI 395?
That means you are interested in performance aluminium sailboats only? You mean voyage performance boats or just performance cruising boats?
What about price? It is not a problem? Price is normally the problem in building an aluminium boat and you should know that regarding that material the price is not proportional to size. I mean a 45ft to a 40ft boat would not have the same difference in price if they are built in aluminum or fiberglass.
Regarding speed and price consider that a bigger boat will be faster and that it will be hard to built (unless you are going to do it yourself) a 40ft custom or almost custom aluminium boat for the price it will cost an Allures 45 (with the same quality of finish). Even if that 40ft can be proportionally faster, overall the Allures 45 would be faster, not to mention with a bigger interior and a bigger storage/load ability.
Very hard to beat Allures 45 price/quality/performance or for that matter the one of the OVNI 445 that is even less expensive. You have also the new OVNI 43 evolution to consider.
Regarding a true pilot house, a 40ft sailboat is just too small to have one without looking ridiculous but other ways of providing an outside view can be arranged being one of them the type of cabin used on the RM. Another solution is a deck saloon layout even if I don't like them too much on a 40ft boat. Other option is an hard dodger. On Henseval design (Territoire 11.80) another solution is tried but I have to say that he is a much better NA than an Architect: that interior is not going to work. To go to the aft cabins you would have to go on your knees or at least go crouching. The only way that space works with a standing height access to the aft cabins is if it is an open space (and then it is not a pilot house anymore). I see settees on that "pilot house" and no way the height of the settees on a 40ft pilot house will be enough to pass under on the "deck" below while going to the aft cabins.
Regarding Berckemeyer designs one of them, the German 39 was produced in Europe or at least they tried (made at least one boat) but the price was too high. Higher than an Allures 45 if I am not mistaken. http://www.sailnet.com/forums/739241-post1139.html The VK yachts seem to be an exception in what regards price (they are made in Poland) but the truth is that I never managed to see a photo of the interior of one (cannot say anything about the quality) and they are not voyage boats like the rest. http://www.sailnet.com/forums/1233954-post5486.html
So, what is really what you are interested in: A boat to built yourself or the best boat for the price? Or the best boat regardless the price? And the best boat to do what exactly?
This beautiful movie shows that you don't need to have money or a great boat to have a wonderful cruising time and brings me great memories. Of course, with that one, you will not have a great sailing time and a great cruising time but if you cannot have both, cruising on a sailingboat is just great even if slow and easy.
