The French boats are a treat for all sailors who want to be performance-orientated for once: Gennaker, wide stern for early planing, plenty of sail area - and yet controllable and comfortable enough for cruising. The French shipyard Pogo Structures has been proving for years that this combination is possible. Having once made a name for themselves with a one-design for the Mini-Transat, the French company now also builds large pogos up to 50 feet in a racing and a slightly tamed cruising version. The Pogo 30 belongs to the latter.
The company of Class 40 and Pogo sailor Andreas Lindlahr cooperates with the Rostock-based company Speedsailing, which has been a well-known address for incentives on Volvo 60s for years, to charter the small racer. Accordingly, the boat is also available from the harbour in the Hanseatic city.
The Hamburg native describes the sailing fun with the boat as follows: "Spi-sailing is much easier than with conventional yachts. Most of the time, the gennaker wrapped on a furler is enough to have some relaxed fun. When I was on free watch during the crossing in the English Channel, I slept very well in my bunk. I thought the wind had gone to sleep, it was very quiet. When I took a look outside, I realised that we had been planing at eleven to twelve knots for hours."
The boat is also fully seaworthy, as the swivelling keel reduces the draught from 2.5 metres to just 1.05 metres at the touch of a button. This means that harbours should no longer be a problem.
The sailing fun costs 2300 euros per charter week, 2070 euros in the early and late season, including gennaker and asymmetric spinnaker on board. Fastdownwind has also announced the purchase of another boat, a Pogos 36, for the end of this year.
Bookings and information about Fastdownwind.
Andreas Fritsch
Editor Travel
