Saturday, November 11, 2017

ELEVA 50, DIFFERENT AND NOT ONLY IN WHAT REGARDS GORGEOUS LOOKS.


The first time I looked at this boat I thought it was all about looks with little substance but then I saw the way it was built, the quality of the hull design and interior design and my curiosity was aroused.

This is a very unusual boat, if it was a car it would be a Ferrari and a Ferrari certainly is not the most adequate car for touring extensively even if some would disagree and say that a Ferrari holds better to a road than a sedan, breaks better, accelerates faster and it is much more fun to drive and therefore it would be for them much better than a sedan for cruising around, if it can carry the luggage and offer a suitable comfort.

That's in that spirit that this boat is designed, like a Ferrari but with a luxurious and practical interior and a dinghy garage that can take a 2.7 meter dinghy. A boat that can not only cruise but also race, far from being ridiculous, even on real time.

Like it is proposed the Eleva is a boat for being sailed from port to port. The absence of a bimini or a spraywood would make life difficult for the typical cruiser even if I am quite sure that they can study a set up regarding those needs. It is a pity that it is not included in the basic design, at least as an option. If that it was the case the design could have been as elegant as the boat design.

Curiously one of the most interesting things about the boat has nothing to do with looks but with the technical characteristics, building techniques and materials. The design is from Ceccarelli, a reference in what regards fast boats, the hull is beamy, comparable to a 50ft Oceanis or Hanse, but with finer entries and less beam on the forward part of the hull.

It is remarkably light (10 500 kg) and it has a big B/D (37%), considering that it has a torpedo keel and a 2.87 meter draft. It can have an optional 2.45 mdraft but in this case it will have more ballast and a bigger B/D ratio.

As you have probably already understood this is a boat with a huge stability and very powerful, being able to carry a big sail area. With a jib, as front sail, it carries upwind 154m2 and that gives a SA/D of 32!!!! That means the Eleva will be able to sail very well with very light wind as we can see on the movie. The 75hp engine would have no difficulty in handling the boat due to its light weight and small wet area.

The deck and cabin are made in carbon to bring the weight down and the hull is infused on the two sides of the core using epoxy resins. The boat structure is also infused on the hull becoming a part of it. Carbon is used on the more stressed areas to increase strength.

All interior structure (bulkheads) is assembled together using infusion and then as a monolithic structure, glued and glassed to the hull, increasing its stiffness.

The interior is comfortable and functional, it has a good tankage  with 270 liter diesel and 510 liter water and in what regards storage it has besides the big central locker a big sail locker. A very interesting cruiser that for the ones that like to stay at anchor misses an integrated spraywood and a bimini. It would be nice too if on that big and flat deck an option of integrated solar panels was offered.

Then we would be talking about a perfect dream cruiser, if the winches were not too far away from the helmsman and if their operation would not necessarily interfere with the comfort of eventual passengers. Of course, all winches are electric and can be controlled from the steering position but even so I would prefer to be near the winch, controlling it, even when it is power operated. 

Nothing that cannot be changed or modified. The price for such a boat does not seem excessively high, being similar to the one of other comparable Italian Yachts  like Ice. It will go from 650 000 euros to a million, including taxes.

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