Scandinavian Boat Design to the Rescue of My Perfect Boat

My perfect boat spec will probably never be quite met; on the one hand the Johnsons will never be affordable in terms of  new price for the range  j88 to 97, and probably not get numbers in OD here anyway, while on the other the other 24 to 27 feet designs lack a certain je ne sais quoi.  The modern flock of 26 to 29 foot sports boats are trying hard to be mini super racers and either lack some performance, accommodation or just plain old charm and style.

Where would the purposeful yet cosey Albin Express or Hunter Sonata be without a certain charm and style,  of their times of course?  Where would the Maxi 77 be without the wonderfully thought out use of space and the rather surprising balance and performance?

Well lo and behold! The Scandinavians are at it again, with the super stylish design and splitting performance offered by the Life 7.5 from the Swedish pen of Dieter Blank

Already dubbed most flatteringly  as a 'Mini-Wally', the boat captures a massive dose of modernity with a certain understated elegance, those aesthetic qualities so lacking in many sub 40 foot racers and performance cruisers over the last five years or more.

The boat flirts with the eye immediately by being wonderfully proportioned in length to free-board ratio, with a neat  cabin top, long uncluttered wooden decked cockpit,  while tipping a hat to the modern hard chined hull and hard lines on the coach roof,  and sporting near plumb bow to boot.

The real charm comes with the application of teak decking, standard to the cockpit an option for the deck as a whole. Couple to this a coloured hull, optional although bound to be sought after by new owners, then the boat is really a little beauty.

However there is a little bit more to the overall impression which is hard to put your finger on at first glance: the overall cleanness of the lines fools the eye a little into thinking this is a much bigger boat. What is going on?  Well the designer has been very aware of clean style and also the functionality of having lines and sheets lead under the deck. This cleans up the whole appearance, taking away much of the clutter which does not scale down so well on boats under 30 feet.

A triumph og style over function I hear you mutter under your breath on the idea of a 27 foot boat with jib sheets lead under deck for a mere few feet. However having just come back from a Melges regatta, I can tell you that the jib sheets get cleated under buttock or shoe shaped jammers at all the inopportune moments. Even the bow-sprit has a neat recessed solution, prodding out from middle of the bow.

Another surprising pair of features tidy up cockpit and transom no end! Firstly the same tuck it away neatly approach is taken to the double rudder,  which in all other sub 30 footer twin rudder designs is an ugly affair which looks like a trap for feet and a place for the main sheet to get fankled up in. Here it is tucked away in a slot under the transom, with an apt cool curved design for the tiller which is lead to the top bearing flush with the deck rather than onto the leverage in sight, like the horrid looking sketch-o-graph set up of comparable boats. The main sheet itself gets a back-to-the future solution. No traveler and an aft running block with a single sheeting point in the middle, , more akin to a1920s meter design. The boat relies instead on a hefty kicker and a relatively high boom to then essentially set the leech tension by, "Vang Sheeting" while the main sheet should then just adjust the angle of attack.

The latter point may scare some cruiser sailors away from the boat, especially when they see there is gosh, no back-stay either. The drawback is that you have to train  your crew to vang sheet and blow the damn thing when you want the main to be fuller or you need to unload the mast to bear away. Also there is then A LOT of main sheet running about back there, all be it with little for it to catch on. Back up here a little Charlie, this is a boat with an assymetric spinnie old bean, so the main will by in large not be slipped out to the run. I would hope that the designer and spar company have paid a little attention to how much pressure from the kicker can be taken in a gybe so that a moments forgetfulness doesn't bring the rig down in a gybe if the kicker is too hard on.

Who will buy this type of boat? Well it is very much a racing sailors boat, but that need not be a very experienced sailor. Also some may buy it purely on aesthetics to be quite honest, why have a bubbly white caravan of a day boat when you can have a Carrera Porsche? Given the current rich-poor split in the rest of Europe, it is likely to sell most in Scandinavia where employee and small business people's pockets can still stretch to such a petite weekend race horse when they are young and so being that spartan accommodation and low head room is still acceptable.

  It is a boat which could sell well against the Melges here and the "cult" of J bowsprit boats from the j70 through the j97 of what ever is being sold in that range, and not just new but by second hand pricing.  J boats are pretty overpriced, and the new star j88 is under accommodated for the whacking price tag for a 29 footer. Up against the Scmelges 24 footer, well it is a different appeal in being able to crawl down below and cut some zs or have a beer out the 18 hours of Scandinavian sunlight in the cabin. Not to mention going below to think over frustrations when the wind dumps you this Friday on the Færder regatta, or count your scalps and gloat in peace hidden from jealous eyes in Horten.....

With clement weather, there are wonderful nooks and crannies to cruise in, round the Swedish and Danish Coast, down Oslo Fjord, round to Mandal on the south coast and the sheltered sea lanes and Fjords from Hardanger up and past Bergen.  It would be a very spartan camping experience, but that huge cockpit lends itself to pleasant anchor-drams of a summer's eve without much need for more than a mattress and a pillow once you amble down the companion way. Also you will be able to creep snugly into that shallower wee bit fjord side hideaway by raising the keel, or by the same merit cut out the middle man delivery sail, and rather trail to your chosen holiday coast.

So far there have been four export sales to here in Norway according to the yattin' press here, which makes the boat probably the best selling sports boat of the last twelve or even 24 months! I have heard of only one new built Melges coming to Norway from Devoti in the last quite-a-while with the fleet maybe reaching its' natural peak in Oslo at least due to two factors which combine to work against the Melges here - one its new price and two its zero point zero accommodation on board.

Don't get me wrong, the Melges 24 is a fantastic boat if you are looking for a big dinghy and the second biggest fleet outside the USA now is Norway on paper. But to gather the fleet together that means trailing often a whole day, and then the expense of hotels, or camping, or a mother boat. Wandering off to a hotel at night can kill off the spirit of a regatta for me at least.

I could imagine having one without Life Lines a la classic or J100, but with races like the Faerderem and some bumpy headlands to get round in open sea it is probably a good thing to be classified in that safety bracket. Add rug-rats into the picture and you see life lines are a good thing to have.


If the videos on their web site are anything to go by, then the boat has a cracking performance. It does look a little twitchy and it will need a dinghy or ex Melges sailor to get the best out of the rig and sheet trimming, with the square top main being a curse as well as a blessing. Square top mains need twisting off and reefing down earlier than lower aspect mains to the same height of course, yet unlike the Melges 24, there are reefing points and lines in place. This is an absolute necessity for short handing or cruising.  So far I have seen only one video with the kite up, while it is conspicuous by its absence.

Motion photography apart, the boat seems to have hit a sweet spot in remembering that people like pretty things that also happen to work well, and that can make the difference between desire for purchase rather than a passing interest and on the list to buy. At a new price of possibly around 120 000 € delivered with sails then the boat is about 20 % cheaper than the suggested complete price for the j88 and 20% more than the Seascape 27.