It all started with what seemed like a simple request from two children: “Dad, we need a swimming platform!” In this case, the dad is Sascha Hahnen, who comes from Sulzberg in Austria and owns a Bavaria 26 on Lake Constance. Since its refit, the little yacht has become a floating attraction at the Württemberg Yacht Club in Friedrichshafen. It’s not every day you see a 7.60-metre-long small cruiser with a full-sized bathing platform and an adventurous bowsprit.
Hahnen is an inventor, a tinkerer and a go-getter. He’s the sort of person who doesn’t spend ages wondering whether something might work, but prefers to try it out straight away to see how it might turn out. He seems to have a distinct penchant for fine-tuning sailing yachts until they are perfectly suited to his demanding family and sailing life.
And he’s a repeat offender. Together with his hard-working family, Hahnen has already carried out an extensive refit on a Bavaria 50 called ‘Abygail’ in Croatia: battens were repositioned, furniture refitted, davits fitted, fittings rearranged, indirect LED lighting installed and kilometres of new cable laid.
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The “Bubu 3” then became the next major refit project. A Bavaria 26, built in 1986, 7.60 metres long and 2.50 metres wide. A Lake Constance boat with a straightforward history, a manageable size and that compactness which Hahnen clearly finds particularly appealing. He likes a challenge, the seemingly impossible. When his sons Julius and Constantin expressed a wish for a swimming platform in 2019, it became for him not just a family obligation, but rather a most welcome challenge.
However, the courage to make such a drastic change didn’t come entirely out of the blue. Sascha Hahnen was also inspired by one of the best-known YACHT refit projects of recent years: the Dehlya 25, which the editorial team purchased in 2016 in a severely dilapidated condition and, over a period of just over three years, has practically rebuilt from scratch with the help of numerous industry partners. For Sascha Hahnen, the “Willy” project fell on fertile ground. “If you can turn an old Dehlya back into a modern, well-designed boat, why not turn a Bavaria 26 into a personalised Lake Constance concept?”
The bathing platform also extends the length of the boat
However simple the children’s wish might have sounded, from an engineering point of view the matter was not quite so straightforward. A swimming platform on a 7.60-metre-long Bavaria 26 is not the sort of accessory you can simply bolt onto the stern. The hull is too short, the stern too narrow and the lever too large for that. If you were simply to attach a classic bathing platform there, the small hull would buckle under the load. Hahn’s solution is therefore not an attached step, but essentially a floating moulded section. A sort of additional stern section that extends the hull by about half a metre whilst also serving as a bathing platform. When folded down, it becomes a spacious bathing platform; when raised, the tail section neatly seals off the stern again and almost nothing of it is visible. In this way, the Bavaria 26 is transformed into a Bavaria 28 in the blink of an eye.
For the project to work, the platform naturally had to be as light as possible. After all, it was intended not only to provide buoyancy, but also to be easy to retrieve and launch. Hahnen therefore opted for a complex carbon-fibre construction, laminated over a foam core. The component floats independently in the water, thereby taking the weight off the stern. This means that two people can stand on the attachment at the rear without the boat’s buoyancy being significantly affected.
And, incidentally, this solution also offers advantages in terms of sailing performance. With the new stern section acting as a sort of spoiler, the effective waterline of the ‘Bubu 3’ increases by around half a metre. For a boat of this size, this is not merely a decorative detail, but a noticeable change in proportions. More length in the water potentially means greater stability, better straight-line stability and perhaps a little more scope for speed. Seen in this light, the children’s wish for a swimming platform has not only resulted in a practical solution, but also a minor hydrodynamic optimisation of the standard hull.
Four attempts before finding the right bowsprit
After the stern, it was the bow’s turn. At first, Sascha Hahnen had a small Bowsprit fitted for the gennaker. Whilst this provided the desired speed, it didn’t necessarily offer the kind of control a helmsman would like. Under pressure, the little Bavaria all too often got out of control. “Of course, I had to do something about that,” says Hahnen.
Of course. For him, it was the spark that set the next design in motion. This solution wasn’t in the accessories catalogue either; it was essentially created from what was available on board and in the workshop: a spinnaker pole, additional fastenings, wire stays, fittings, shackles and plenty of brainpower spent thinking about loads, angles and usability.
And it was also a question of harbour geometry. The bowsprit is, in fact, dimensioned precisely so that the ‘Bubu 3’ can just about manoeuvre out of its berth in the marina of the Württembergischer Yacht-Club in Friedrichshafen. This means the crew have to execute the manoeuvre with millimetre precision. However, the structure could also be retracted for other harbours or for transport to winter storage. Not at the touch of a button, nor elegantly via a line from the cockpit, but rather in the old-fashioned way: undo a few shackles, push the spinnaker pole back, and secure it. A bit of a faff, admittedly, but doable.
It only finally worked after several attempts. Sascha Hahnen designed and built no fewer than four different versions of the bowsprit. Each one worked a little better than the last, but each also presented new compromises. And every new attempt brought him closer to what he actually wanted. Although the current version works well from a technical point of view, it still doesn’t quite meet the owner’s ideal. A fifth version is therefore already in the pipeline. Sascha Hahnen always sees room for improvement. And he looks forward to new challenges with palpable anticipation.
Below deck, even the structure had to be redesigned
A third major area requiring work was found below deck. The Bavaria 26 has a dinette in the saloon. The table in the middle can be lowered, turning the seating area into a large sleeping area. All well and good, were it not for that mast support. On the ‘Bubu 3’, too, it was positioned almost exactly where you least want it when you’re trying to sleep: right in the middle.
Sascha Hahnen was desperate to get rid of them. So he sought advice from experts. As expected, the responses varied widely, ranging from ‘difficult’ to ‘impossible’. In the end, there was only one solution left for the Hahnen family: the deck had to be reinforced at the sides and the entire cabin superstructure had to be strengthened so that the structures could bear the loads from the mast even without a fixed support. This meant the deck had to be removed, additional structures were laminated in, and layer upon layer of carbon fibre was applied. And just to be on the safe side, the owner also fitted a mobile mast support with a hydraulic ram, which can be pressurised for sailing and removed again at night. However, it was never actually needed. The structures hold up just fine as they are.
A boat that will probably never be quite finished
A tour on board becomes a journey of discovery. Here, a homemade fitting; there, a reinforced structure. Almost everywhere you look, there’s a detail that’s unique in its design and execution and testifies to a great deal of ingenuity. The family has put hundreds of hours of work into the conversion so far. They’ve never regretted it. “It’s really been great fun,” says the energetic owner.
Sascha Hahnen will never tire of continuing to optimise the boat. Seen in this light, the ‘Bubu 3’ is not a completed refit project, but rather a living work in progress. The boat is certainly ready to sail, but the design is far from finalised.
How far should you go with a refit: just make improvements, or completely reinvent the boat? Share your thoughts in the comments.
Michael Good
Editor Test & Technology
