Friday, December 12, 2014

REVOLUTION 29


David Raison revolutionized  the sailboat  bow concept with the famous victory on the 2011 Mini Transat showing to all that his strange boat with an odd looking "bathtub" bow was faster than the other mini racers. The concept was rapidly forbidden on the other racing open classes (40class and Open 60) as a way of not making the existing fleet obsolete.

 David Raison, a sail racer and a NA, surprised everybody with an association with an aluminium boat builder, proposing the concept on a small 22ft aluminium cruising boat with a lifting keel. The boat denominated Revolution 22 is interesting but a bit strange and not only on the bow concept (that allows a huge interior space), but on the use of aluminium for such a small boat. Hard to understand for what type of cruising that boat is pointing at and perhaps that's the reason it has not been a success.

They did not give up and will be presenting on the Paris boat show another boat with the same concept, a 29ft boat. I would say that one makes a lot more sense: with that bow the boat will not only have a great interior for two living aboard as it will have a very interesting performance as a coastal cruiser with some potential offshore. The bigger length allows a proportionally less higher freeboard and makes the boat less strange and more elegant. This one seems a lot more interesting than the previous one, not only revolutionary but kind of making sense in what regards a 29ft cruising boat with good sailing performance and a maximized interior space. It has also a much nicer looking interior:  While the 22 has a Spartan interior, this one looks nice and cozy.

On the first movie the previous model, on the second one we can see a match between that bow concept and a traditional one trough the performance of  two mini racers, side by side.

1 comment:

  1. Great idée. It is a much better design than those sailboat with wide beam toward the aft end en pointed bow. Those sail like tricycle while the fore peak dig into the wave. The part of the side of the scow hull in the water when tilted has a slender shape in the water like the hull of a catamaran. It easily slide in the water at higher speed.

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