Yachting

(Wang) #1
86 http://www.yachtingmonthly.com MAY 2016

PHOTOS: GRAHAM-SNOOK.COM

NEW BOAT TEST


Legend Yachts started fitting cockpit


arches long before they were popular.


Have they now redefined the space


inside a small yacht? Graham Snook went to see


Legend 31 – Performance on test
Point
of sail

Apparent
wind
angle

Apparent
wind
speed

Boatspeed

Close-
hauled

Around 30° 14-17 knots 5.4-6.3 knots

Fetch 60° 13-16 knots 5.8-6.3 knots
Beam
reach

90° 8.2-9.6
knots

5.4-5.7 knots

Broad
reach

120° 5.0-6.0
knots

4.9-5.1 knots

Run 180° 4.0-4.5 knots4.2-4.4 knots

Legend 31


B


oat model sizes confuse me.
Bavaria’s new 34 is 32ft, this
Legend 31 is 32ft, my father’s old
Beneteau First 325 was 34ft and
don’t get me started on Elan’s
E3. I’m not suggesting this is a way of
hoodwinking buyers (or harbourmasters),
but it seems the goalposts are forever
moving and the only way to know for sure
is to look at the hull length. ‘Hull length’,
mind, not ‘length overall’ (LOA), for that is
a different can of worms.
The Legend 31’s 31ft 11in hull length is
bigger than her name suggests and her
interior is on an even larger scale, as is the
width of her cockpit. To get headroom in
smaller yacht usually means you end up
with a tubby-looking boat, but Marlow
has pulled off what I consider to be a good

looking hull with more interior volume
than seems possible.

Performance
Our test boat didn’t have wind instruments,
so all wind speeds were recorded at deck
level and wind angles are approximations.
Caveats out of the way, we sailed her in
Force 3-4, and even when pushed in the
gusts (not that there were any that would
over power her) she heeled moderately
and her aft chine dug in, keeping her
tracking straight. She tacked through 90°
and with a bit of breeze she wasn’t slow,
but she wasn’t fast either.

At the helm
The space for the helm isn’t overly
generous. Sitting outboard facing in,
there are no foot braces, so it’s more
comfortable to sit with legs either side of
the wheel. However, space between the
wheel and the seat is too tight to squeeze a
leg through (well, one of my legs at least).

When I pressed the paddle at the base of
the pedestal and canted the wheel towards
me as I sat down, I could use the neat
hinged footblocks forward of the wheel
but it wasn’t possible to reach the paddle
to cant the wheel to extricate myself.
The mainsheet and its traveller are out
of reach if you’re sitting down, but when
standing both can be eased from the helm.

Design & construction
When I sailed her big sister, the Legend
37, I found the aft quarter chines in her
Glenn Henderson-drawn hull do a good
job of increasing grip in the water as she
heels; the 31 also has these chines, to
similar effect. They also serve to add more
volume and hull width aft.
Both hull and deck have a plastic
honeycomb Nida core above the waterline.
The hull is also reinforced with Kevlar,
which is rarely seen on this size of yacht.
The interior is built outside of the boat, in
one module, then bonded into the hull.

ABOVE: The cockpit
is 2.92m wide, but
only 1.5m long

RIGHT: The Legend
is a capable cruiser
with a Tardis-like
interior
Free download pdf