Bavaria goes BIG
Where we tested: The Solent, UK
Conditions: winds, easterly, 18-29 knots
Model: three-cabin version, with furling mast and Elvstrom laminate sails
What constitutes ‘good value’? What you get for your money in any market segment often comes down to size – be that square feet of real estate area or gigabyes of memory. But is bigger necessarily better value?
Sailors with the means and desire to buy new understandably seek as much value for money as they can get for that size. What we’ve seen over the last decade is a marked increase in the volume to length ratio of new yachts, and more recently in the way contemporary hull shapes can further boost internal volumes at each end.
For a production yard to stay competitive though, it needs to offer more than just bang for your buck. It needs to be shrewd in its design and innovative enough to lure you away from the competition, to make you think its yachts are roomier, brighter and better. It needs to make boats that the crew want to spend time aboard, and are practical to manage or give the helmsman an enjoyable hands-on experience; preferably both. Value should include some emotive quality too – the hard to quantify satisfaction you get from using it.
This is a tall order. But as we surged down
