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Dear readers,

"Was this supposed to be a caravan?" asks one Facebook user in his comment on the first photos of the new Dufour 41 on our website. Another adds: "It would be nice if it was nice." To answer the question and put the statement into perspective: Yes it should be a caravan, a cruising boat should be easy to live in and move around in. A lot of space for a lot of comfort is a basic requirement, and the industry is currently pushing the realisation of this customer wish to the extreme. Each new model is wider than the last. But that's not all: the designers are brutally stretching the given length through the shape of the hull: The hulls are getting wider, but remain so at the stern. They grow in height and become round at the front; viewed from above, they have the outline of an ironing board. The almost motorboat-like appearance is complemented by almost vertical freeboards, which only taper to a narrower waterline below the chine.

In addition to a welcome feeling of spaciousness, these measures simply provide more room for people and equipment. Up to four cabins and three toilets are possible from around 40 feet. Three! Who needs that?

Collective diarrhoea caused by spoilt fish at the crew dinner is hardly reason enough to provide three rooms and installations as a precaution. One wet room per cabin may be a customer requirement in the charter scene, okay. But then again: four cabins on 40 feet? That means an occupancy of up to eight people, not including the sleeping space in the saloon. Eight people who first have to be accommodated in the cockpit while sailing, eating or drinking. Dufour does it consistently, the cockpit can actually be used for more than ten people thanks to a bench seat running aft in the cockpit across the wide stern. The downside of the desire for many bathrooms and a large cockpit: the saloon has to shrink. This is acceptable for use as a charter yacht as well as an owner's boat. Some are usually travelling in warm weather and others with smaller crews.

So the modern hulls make perfect sense, but are they also attractive? Torsten Conradi, head of the renowned design office Judel/Vrolijk: "The taste of cruising sailors usually follows what is modern on the regatta course. This characterises the idea of modern, fast boats." While IOR, then IMS and later ORC used to set the style in Germany, the French offshore scene is increasingly influencing the visual fashion. Imocas and Class 40 are wide for a lot of dimensional stability and good gliding properties and round at the front for a lot of buoyancy. Contemporary cruising yachts in particular are modelled on this, even if the shape serves a different purpose. Modern cruisers are four-fifths French in character. Beneteau, Jeanneau and Dufour are built on the other side of the Rhine, while Hanse is supplied by a design team from La Rochelle. And Bavaria is also following the trend.

Modern boats can be ugly, no question about it. But who wants to sail on a flat, narrow and even narrower boat these days? Who can cope with a dog bunk in the stern and crawl height and doesn't need a shower on board, even though the boat is 35 feet and larger? Why don't the mass-produced shipyards build boats like the Luffe, Faurby or Aphrodite? The market has sorted it out. The development follows the general desire for more comfort, which has long since brought us furling mainsails, stern thrusters, washing machines, televisions and dishwashers on board.

Nobody has to buy them, but most people do. Everyone as they wish. Fits.

Fridtjof Gunkel,

Deputy Editor-in-Chief YACHT

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