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Interesting Sailboats

Tuesday, july 16, 2024.

Thanks to all that have commented posts on the blog, but from May to the end of September I am sailing, I have not time for the blog, and I will not reply.

Till October, have fun sailing, after that I will return, and maybe I will post some new articles, and I will reply to comments.

Friday, March 22, 2024

Insieme 40, a true living aboard cruising sailboat.

The Insieme 40 is not really a new boat, it is a super equipped and slightly reinforced Sunbeam 40.1, now made by Vilm shipyard, also a German shipyard, and under the supervision of Gerhard Schöchl, who directed previously Sunbeam yachts.

Back in 2015 they had managed to substitute their older cruising models and had two new yachts, the 40.1 and the 46, both contemporary designs, well built, well designed, with nice and high quality interiors, good cruising sailboats, proposed at a fair price. 

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2015/10/sunbeam-401-great-cruiser.html

The 40.1 has a 3.99m beam and even if that does not make it a narrow boat, it is much narrower than for instance the Hallberg-Rassy 400 (4.18m), and even more if we consider less expensive and lower quality sailboats like the new Hanse 410 (4.29m) or the Dufour 41 (4.27m). 

Basically it is the same boat even if they don't disclose the displacement neither the ballast while saying that the boat has a "high ballast ratio".

The Sunbeam 40.1 is a relatively light cruiser, with 8500kg for a ballast of 2980kg on an efficient torpedo keel with 2.00m draft. The ballast ratio at 35.1% is way better than in mass production cruisers and a good one, better that the one of the Hallberg-Rassy 400, with a better final stability, even if the overall stability of the HR is way bigger, due to its 11000kg displacement.

Anyway, if not for bluewater use, the original model with 8500kg displacement is more adequate, and will provide more fun and sailing performance than an heavier and more reinforced sailboat. And doing some Atlantic crossings in the right season, and mostly cruising in the Med, Baltic or Caribbean, in the sailing season, it is not giving it a bluewater use, even if one cruises extensively, or lives permanently aboard. 

It comes standard with high quality cruising hydranet sails (jib and main) using a furling mast, that should not be difficult or expensive to change to a standard mast, with one line furling boom, taking the opportunity to increase sail area. A furling mast in a boat of this size for bluewater use is not a choice I would have made, and even worse with vertical battens, that give a better performance but that increase jamming possibilities, and in the case of jamming makes lowering the sail much more difficult.

It comes with a sloop configuration, but with the deck stepped mast already prepared for a cutter configuration, that is an option. It comes with 6 winches, one of them electric, Harken genoa and mainsheet travelers. A self tacking traveler for the jib is optional and will only make sense in the cutter configuration.

It comes standard with a solid bow platform that serves as anchor stand and as bowsprit for a geenaker or code 0, with a 25kg spade, 50m of 10mm chain and an anchor winch with 1700w. It also offers an acrylic windshield on an aluminum frame.

In what regards standard electric systems it makes a big difference towards other yachts, coming with a huge house lithium battery bank with 660AH, 3000VA inverter with integrated 120A charger and 400W solar panel system, integrated into the deck. It has a large 120A alternator and numerous outlets (USB + 230V).

On the saloon the seats on the starboard side were removed to be substituted by a multifunctional counter with two drawers (that optionally can be a freezer) and by a pilot chart table and a dedicated seat.

Besides the extensive standard equipment they offer options that make sense for extended or bluewater cruising, some of them not offered as options in other sailboats, like an arch with additional solar modules (up to 760Wp), davits for the dinghy, a watermaker, a washing machine (3kg), additional fridge/freezer, a microwave instead of the gas stove, a diesel heater, a masthead camera including collision warning system, and an additional, complete backup autopilot system. 

The Sunbeam 40.1 was better built than mass produced sailboats, the Insieme 40 is probably just a bit better, and its quality probably near, or similar, to the one of GS 42LC, that would be the boat with which to compare the Insieme 40.

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2020/10/grand-soleil-42lc-one-of-best-new.html

Both boats use as structure a GRP liner that is bonded and glassed to the hull, plywood bulkheads bonded and laminated to the hull, 20mm plywood on the GS, 25mm and 16mm on the Insieme. 

Both use vinylester resin for the first layers then polyester resin, using both boats a high density closed foam core on a sandwich hull, using GS an infusion vacum system, and being hand laid on the Insieme, that uses below waterline only monolithic fiberglass, while on GS, they have only monolithic fiberglass in the places where their use is more indicated, like the keel. The GS uses some carbon fibers as reinforcement in the more stressed areas.

The keel is all cast iron on the Insieme and it is cast iron with a lead bulb on the GS. I would say that the GS has slightly better built specifications, but because the Insieme 40 is not built like a production boat, eventually, that can be compensated by a superior care and more controlled quality check, but to really know that you have to visit the shipyard and see how they work and how  the quality control is done.

https://www.yachtingmonthly.com/yacht-reviews/sunbeam-40-1-review-32080

Comparing with the Grand Soleil 42LC, depending on using a furling mast or not, and a jib or a genoa, the SA/D can vary between 21.3 and 23.2 and that means that to have the same performance of a Grand Soleil with a furling mast, the Insieme has to have a non furling mast and a genoa, and that the GS has the potential to be faster, due to a longer LWL and optionally more sail area. But I would not be surprised if the narrower hull of the Insieme and the transom design (and aft hull shape) could compensate that, upwind or in light wind sailing. Not being truly performance cruisers, these two are fast cruisers.

One thing is for sure, in Europe, with VAT, to have a new superior quality cruising sailboat, offshore capable, and very well equipped for cruising, you need about  600,000 euros, and that is just too much for the vast majority. In 2004/2005 when I was dreaming of changing my almost new Bavaria 36, for a bigger boat, for the retirement days, what you needed was about 350,000 euros. In 20 years yachts almost doubled their prices, and the same did not happen with average salaries.

Friday, January 5, 2024

Rm 1080, a worthy successor to a great cruiser.

RM yachts used to be very innovative boats and great yachts, but for several years I have not made a single post about them, even if they continue on the market, after a bankruptcy and subsequent recovery by Grand Large Group, that owns several brands: Allures, Garcia, Outremer and Gunboat, besides RM.

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2020/03/rm-yachts-bankruptcy-and-shameful.html

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2019/11/beautiful-rm-1180.html

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2022/02/new-rm-1380-looking-good.html

https://interestingsailboats.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-french-wooden-voyage-boat-rm-1370.html

The RM 1380 is a better boat but I would say that most who will spend more than half a million on a boat will also want that boat to look nicer than a much cheaper boat, and the hull finish of the RM was quite deceiving. 

Not only due to ugly graphics that look inappropriate in an expensive boat but also due to a lacquered blue painted hull, that you could see clearly did not have a perfect finish. All this contributed to an amateurish look, where class was absent. A functional yacht but not one you would fall in love with. You can see what I am talking about, as well as the big and well-finished interior in this "Yacht.de" presentation: