SWAN 50 - TEST SAIL

A year ago when I posted the first designs of this boat I could not be more enthusiastic about. It seemed to me that Swan had recovered the leadership in design that was its trademark some decades ago. Now that the boat is on the water it does look as good as in the drawings I am not not the only one being enthusiastic about it: Just look at the eyes of Toby Hodges (the boat tester from Yachting world) when he is talking about the boat, or sailing it. http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/2015/10/swan-is-back-swan-50-club.html

This Swan is cruiser racer, more pointed to racing than cruising but even so the interior is almost as well designed as the hull, a very modern and zen one that will suit cruising in style for a small crew.

Two movies, one from the yachting world test sail other from Swan with interesting designs about the boat building (carbon). What a boat!!! One that will but the a smile on the face of anybody sailing it for the first time...and that is not what sailing is about? Pleasure?
                                                                                                      7.5k speed with 5k trw? WOW!!!

INCREDIBLE!!!!

3D_BP_IX por voile-magazine
Yes, the new maxi Banque Populaire is beautiful, with 104 for 75 ft, weighting only 14T with 890m2 of sail area, a huge foiling machine designed to fly over the oceans at over 30k. But that is not what is incredible. Incredible is what is going to be the first assignment of that huge trimaran: A solo non-stop circumnavigation!!!! Even knowing the talent of Armel le Cleash that is just incredible and never attempted on a trimaran of this size, even more a flying one. The boat is already being built.

Armel come from the Open 60's, 2th on the last Vendee Globe. we will be the favorite for this year's Vendee:
 And after that he is going to concentrate on this circumnavigation multihull. What a sailor, mono and multihull alike!!! Look at him smashing a record on the "old" Banque Populaire and imagine what it would be doing that for several months non stop!

Maxi Banque Populaire VII - Armel Le Cléac'h... por VoileBanquePop

He may well be the first sailor to manage to hold the two bigger records, the ones of a solo circumnavigation on a monohull and on a multihull. I bet he will have a big competitor regarding that huge achievement: François Gabart, the winner of the last Vendee.

POGO 36 FIRST IMAGES

What is happening with structures and the Pogo 36? The drawings were released two years ago, the boat took an eternity to be built, is on the water for some time but the photos are very rare and no test sails yet? Don't seem normal to me, neither a good sales strategy. It didn't happen that way with other models. Anybody knows what's going on?

As it had seemed to me on the drawings, the hull design is beautiful but I find the boat too voluminous, specially on the forward sections and I don't find those frontal windows well designed. The ones on the JPK are much nicer.

Some no data regarding the stability has been published and the Pogo 36 will have a 126ºAVS with a keel down and 100º with a keel up. Those are good values for this type of boat, specially the one with a keel up. I would say that with weaker winds (or with reefed sails) one would not have a problem sailing the boat in swallow waters. No photos of the interior yet.

More information regarding this boat on previous posts and a nice movie about structure shipyard:
http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/2014/12/more-about-pogo-36.html
http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/2015/07/pogo-36-designer-comments.html

ALLURES 45.9, THE PERFECT PERFORMANCE VOYAGE BOAT?

The ones that know Allures, particularly the Allures 45, should be thinking that I am becoming too old and don't know of what I am talking about, after all the Allures are aluminium good centerboards, fast among that type of boats, but not particularly fast boats since they have the ballast not on the keel but inside the boat and on a stub very shallow keel and that means the need of a big ballast, since the ballast weight cannot be brought down.

Forget about that, well, they still offer the new boat with those characteristics but I am talking about something truly new on Allures, a version with a  swing keel, the type of keel used by Pogo, with all ballast on the keel. The diference between the two versions are 2T and because the Allures is a well built Aluminium boat, even the centerboarder was not particularly heavy, with 12,6T (the new HR 44 weights 13.3T) and that means the new swing keeller is really a light boat for a 45fter with 12T, just about half a ton lighter than a First 45.

That is possible because that swing keel, that has most of the ballast near the bottom, goes really deep, at 2.9m, when down, but the boat has only a draft of around 1.5m with the keel up. Sure, I would like it to have a bit more ballast to make it a more powerful boat (probably more half a ton would be enough) and maybe it is possible at request since being an aluminium boat it is not hard to make the needed reinforcements, but as it is it is already a very interesting boat and certainly a fast one.

Regarding the previous model, the 45, the beam was maintained but the hull is now 0.8 meters longer, featuring a more powerful stern (with the max beam brought back) and the LWL considerably longer due to a plump bow.

The interior is not very different from the one of the 45 (that was a nice one), with a raised chart table that allows a very good view around and some view forward, that is increased by the normal pitch movement of a sailboat in waves. Features a cutter rig, a good tankage, a sail locker and 3 interior layouts, being only one really adapted to long range cruising, with two cabins, a technical space and lots of storage.

I liked a lot the "old" 45 (that had a very good price), but it was not really my type of boat. This one is and it just looks great, kind of near perfection....now, if it could come with some ballast and some more sail area, it would just be perfect ;-)

http://www.blue-yachting.de/assets/Docs/ALLURES-45-9-version-EN-23062016-BlueYachting.pdf

RM 890 REVIEWED

I am back at my sailing chair, after some months cruising in my boat and to start the new season on the sailing chair I chose to talk about a boat that we had already talk about here, one so cute that gives almost an irresistible desire to get one, the RM 890.

http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/2014/03/rm-890-one-of-best-rm-ever.html

There are reasons to talk more about it, now that more sail tests have been made and also because David King, a follower of this blog, after reading the first post didn't resist the desire to have one and emailed me his feelings and some comments regarding a test on his boat by PBO (the boat on the photo above):

"she behaved perfectly on test - as docile as a lamb… no apparent vices - the tester (David Harding) tried everything - pinned the sails in hard and threw her round and round, let go the helm while she sailed herself for at least a mile, tried to get her to round up - anything and everything in fact. t’was more than a test - a cross examination… forwards and backwards under engine, throwing her about again.
 what a boat! how come that wide shape can do this? guess the architects know. so glad I opted for the twin rudders (against some advice I might add) as he’s very light on the helm - just a touch of windward moving - just enough. can’t believe that last December she was just a pile of plywood sheets. can’t believe I’d spend so much on a dream in my twilight years…."

Well, it was not only you that went for twin rudders, the one from François Gabart, the winner of the last Vendee Globe, has also twin rudders (it seems that it was another one that could not resist that beauty).
On the picture featuring Gabart and his RM, we can see a very curious Spraywood that offers a big protection against rain or bad weather, almost a full enclosure when fully deployed. Another interesting feature of this boat is the storage and technical space, easily accessibly and well thought.

Some more comments by Dave and a test movie by the Italians of Solo Vela (they were impressed too):

 "This boat has no twin rudder problems under engine. She has a 20hp volvo saildrive with a flexofold 2 bladed prop. Turns in her own length even at low speed and reverses easily...She's sailing cutter rigged with the staysail rolled. This did not seem to affect the performance and we could still tack OK. She was never below 5.9/6 knts in 10/13knts of breeze, most of the time at 7/7.5 even to windward."

I AM CRUISING (LOG)

So not many posts here on the next months. On the past I posted on the Blog a kind of log of my cruising itinerary. Not anymore, it is not the object of the blog and if you are interested you can follow it (and comment) on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/paulo.pernao

NEW 24 HOURS SOLO SAIL RECORD: ALMOST 30K AVERAGE!!!!!

The incredible performance is from Thomas Coville on his new maxi trimaran (sodebo Ultime) that was built utilizing parts of old Geronimo trimaran: 714Nm in 24 hours on a beautiful and fast boat:
Coville is a great sailor that has been not lucky on the confrontation over the years with another great (probably even bigger) solo trimaran sailor, Francis Joyon. Now he finally got a big achievement. Here we can see Coville at his best, sailing his old and smaller trimaran on demanding conditions: