DUFOUR 310 GL

This was one of the most interesting boats I saw in Dusseldorf with an awesome interior for a 31ft boat and a very nice hull. The Italians of Giornale de la Vela tested it and said nice things about the sailing potential and great Interior:

“The wind left to be desired but at noon a breeze appeared, between 10 and 13 knots in the channel between Portovenere and Palmaria . We begin to tack upwind to measure the speed : 6.5 average and when the gusts puffed the boat accelerated rapidly touching 7 knots remaining easy on the rudder , without risking broaching and maintaining the course without the need for corrections on the ruder that does its duty even though it is not particularly deep. 

The boat heels slightly over its chine and even in what regards changing direction the boat has a good performance , the hull comes out of the tack and accelerates quickly to a good pace .
On a beam reach we got 7 knots. We did not have aboard the asymmetrical : nevertheless even without one downwind the boat maintains a good pace : 6.5 knots. “

http://www.giornaledellavela.com/news/en/2014/02/26/avventura-grandi-velisti-test-e-grandi-eventi-e-vela-di-marzo/

Next it was tested by the Germans of Yacht.de and for what I can understand they were as amazed as me with the great cruising interior (they passed most of the movie showing it :-( ). The boat sailed well they reached 7k with not much wind and they said it was a pleasant boat to sail.

Not bad, here you will have the comments about the best tests made to interesting boats in France,
Germany, Italy, Brittany and with some luck on some other countries. Kind of gives a complete image of the boats ;-)

SCHIONNING CATS - THE ARROW 1200

If Jef Schionning was an European it would be designing catamarans for the main production shipyards but it is an Australian, away from the main production centers and in the end that is maybe a good thing in what regards design. It seems odd but the fact that Jef has not being so much pressed by production companies into designing what they think it would be a good mass production cat, with its huge space and interior volume, probably has contributed for the maintenance of his basic philosophy through all his line: Fast light weight catamarans with  slim hulls, daggerboards, reduced windage with rounded or inclined cabins to dissipate wave energy in case of breaking waves and rudder kick up system to prevent damage from contact with submerged debris.

Because there is not around him a market for mass production cats they specialized themselves in designing simple to built cats for the small professional boat builder and amateur, developing a support system for builders. amazingly and contrary to what generally happens with this kind of designs provided by NA, they are not slightly outdated but really innovative cutting edge designs and one of the more interesting is the new Arrow 1200 :

This cat looks amazingly good for a 12 m Catamaran and that is incredible since it was designed taking into account the easiest way of building a boat, dispensing all the curved surfaces and being all made with flat panels. It ended up with an aggressive and kind of "stealth" looks, one that screams "fast boat" and in this case quite adequately.

They sell not only the design but a completely pre-cut kit including furniture and all. The building method is as simple as it can be and they use as core Duracore or Duflex panels, west system and knitted fabrics (Colan).

This allows for a very light cat (5000kg) that they say will reach easily 15k and will have a max speed over 20k. The design is very beamy to increase power and stability (6.5m) and has a huge sail area for the weight but a manageable one with main and a self tacking jib (105m2). Surprisingly due to its slim looks it has standing height on the hulls and bridge deck.

http://www.schionningdesigns.com.au/upl/website/arrow-1200/Arrow1200StudyPlansUpdated26.02.14.pdf

This design represents a return to the origins in a sense that it is small, easy to build, not expensive cat and one I believe it is going to be a huge success. Jef Schionning designs have become more complex bigger and difficult to build and most of them are built professionally. Have a look at this movie. Nice cats ;-)

http://vimeo.com/47809143

LONG RANGE CRUISING IN A REAL FAST BOAT (charter)

And why would someone want to cruise on a real fast boat ???: Because to some cruise on a slow boat is boring :-) A slow boat will take you there but for many cruising is not only the pleasure of voyaging but also the pleasure of sailing and in what regards that a slow boat is a boring boat, one that you want to sail on autopilot.

Even on a fast one sometimes, with weak winds, it can be boring but when the wind gets up to 10k and over you have a sport's machine in your hands. Sailboats are slow if you compare them with cars, a car is slow if compared with an airplane but you will have much more vivid sensations in a car than in an airplane and the same can happen in a fast sailboat. The sensations are not in accordance with its relative slowness. Between sailboats 1K difference can be a lot and you can think that is nothing but that is not the main difference between sailing a fast or a slow boat. More important is the sensation and precision you have at the wheel, the fun you can have sailing it ....and anyway that extra knot will mean three more days on an Atlantic crossing and that is something ;-).

Of course, with the boat I am talking about, this one: http://youtu.be/qu3DpS8qeA8 you will go way faster than 1k comparing with a slow cruiser of the same size and when you get on the trade winds with 25K you will sail easily at 2 digit speeds and while surfing waves slightly sideways you will have the same sensation that you will experience at the wheel of a powerful sports car going fast on a twisting dirt road, controlling the slides.  Off course some would not like to do that in a car either and will found that very disagreeable too on a sailboat and that's why there are some that prefer to sail in slow heavy boats.

For the ones that like fast ones this was a great idea: Alexis Guillaume, founder and instructor at the "Sail away" sailing school decided to give sail lessons in a different way and have fun while doing it. He picked up a Jumbo 40class racer with a cruising set up (a boat very similar to the one of Eric) and started cruising across the Atlantic, to South Africa, Brazil, Caribbean and back to Europe, taking as crew "students" and making some major races along the way.   

You can see some nice videos here:

http://www.sailaway.be/world/media.html~

and have more information here:

http://www.sailaway.be/world/

http://www.sailaway.be/world/bateau.html

 http://www.sailaway.be/course.html

FABIAN CONTE and the CONTE 28

Argentina is home of some of the best world yacht designers among them German Frers, JK, Soto Acebal and many others, some that I don't know. Recently I saw a beautiful 28ft performance cruiser and looking for his creator found another Argentinian talented Naval Engineer, Fabian Conte. Just look at this beauty:

The boat is light with just 2100 kg, relatively narrow, with 2.82m, a lifting keel possibility (0.40/2.30m) and certainly a big B/D ratio that allows a huge SA upwind (56.60m2) and comes after the success of several smaller racing boats :

 http://www.capehornmarine.com/

The boat is built in Argentina by Contructora Naval Norte Argentina and I am sure the price is an interesting one. The boat has a surprisingly good cruising interior and it looks as good in the photos as in the drawings:

                                 

And more interesting things are on the way:

http://www.contedesign.com.ar/corum410.html

CIRCUMNAVIGATING IN A FAST HOME MADE BOAT

That story about fast boast doing a circumnavigation (or a long passage) being as slow as slow boats because they are loaded and are not fast anymore and all that jazz...you have surely heard about that but that does not make it true. These guys on a 40ft fully loaded for a circumnavigation went sometimes over 15K and even one time over 17K. They are not just a couple and have the look of guys that eat well :-)

The boat was built by one of them during five long years, by a David Reard plan (classic 35)  http://www.mediareard.com/en/. Like the RM it is a plywood/epoxy boat and a nice one, except the cabin that they have decided to "improve":-(

They have completed the circumnavigation  in 2013. One of them was good with a movie camera and they have made some movies that are along the most viewed on the net. They speak French (the owner is Belgian) but the movies have subtitles in English.   You can find them all here scrolling  the blog  that is also interesting, but in French: http://dujardinsimon.blogspot.be/

Here you have the blog of Eric Jacqueline, the owner and builder of the boat, a lot less interesting one but where you can see  some photos of the boat being built:  http://eric-jacqueline.fr/     .
One of the first movies:               

TS 42 CAT

Look at this beauty:

Normally I am not attracted by small Cats: They normally have a huge freeboard to allow for a standing height and are not nice to my eyes, not to mention the huge windage or the potential negative effect of breaking waves over those flat surfaces. 42 ft is still too small for a cat to look appealing to me but this one makes the trick at the cost of having a standing height only on the central part of the cabin. Well, if with a well designed interior (as it seems to be) that would not be a problem to me.

The design comes from one of the biggest specialists in cats, Christophe Barreau on the lines of the TS52.8, a nice design with already some years (I find the 42 even nicer):

At least one of the few 52.8 built has already circumnavigated.

http://www.christophe-barreau.fr/en/ts-50-2/

They say the price of the new 42ft would be around 300 000 euros and that seems just very good specially because the boat is going to be built by Marsaudon composites, specialists on high performance boats and high technology composites:

http://www.marsaudon-composites.com/

Certainly a very fast cat and not one to put on the hands of an inexperienced sailor but one I would not mind to have. Not that I am experienced in cats but I am careful and I can learn. With that one, I would go slowly and even slowly I am sure that I would go fast on the water: That cat only weights 5.8T ;-)

Anders - PRICE OF OCEANIS 38 AND DEHLER 38

Anders:
I was actually not talking about extraordinary costs of upgrading an Oceanis with special performance equipment but choosing from the options list to get a normally fully equipped boat.
Paulo:
Do you mean that regarding a standard Oceanis 38 with options and a standard Dehler 38 with the same options and level of equipment the Oceanis 38 is not less expensive? I find that hard to believe but certainly you have asked for prices. That would be interesting. Can you email me more details about that?

Anders:
Yes, I have full price lists and calculations of both Oceanis and Dehler 38. Oceanis 38 is slightly more expensive at the same amount of standard equipment. Dehler sails, to pick an example, are much better for the price. They end up at appr. €205000.

Paulo:
That is quite surprising and it means that if we actually want to put the Oceanis 38 near the sail performance of the Dehler 38 (bigger mast, traveler for the mains sheet, better quality sails and so on) then the Oceanis 38 would be more expensive. And what is true for Dehler should be true to Elan or Salona that are even less expensive than Dehler for a similar level of equipment.

Hard to understand Beneteau policy on the Oceanis 38 unless the boat is meant to be sold with a lot less options then the ones you required. The boat cost on the standard configuration a bit less then 100 000 euros (without VAT). That 's the problem with options, they can raise the price of a boat sharply and as the Oceanis 38 has more options that any other boat it seems that the end result for someone that wants a lot of options can be quite surprisingly ;-)

http://www.beneteau.hr/userfiles/file/Specifications/Oceanis38-specification.pdf
http://www.beneteau.hr/beneteau-oceanis-38-yacht-11-548