Classic Boat — January 2018

34 CLASSIC BOAT JANUARY 2018

LAKE CONSTANCE PILOT CUTTER

Two deep quarter berths with foam mattresses are

surprisingly comfortable, as is the Breton fo’c’s’le berth,

open to the main saloon. The quarter berths run right to

the transom, providing ample stowage or legroom to

accommodate guests of Dutch proportions. Throughout

there are useful lockers and under-berth storage, and the

odd one out is a fold-down chart-table – up-cycled from

an old Jeanneau, Stefan tells me with glee.

LINES LEAD AFT

Back on Lake Constance, the thin drizzle is lifting and a

few coppery rays of sun stab down between heavy

thunderheads. The breeze is light as we leave the tiny

harbour, and the lake’s surface is smooth. A few sails dot

the horizon to the east, near the Austrian border.

The gaff main is up in seconds – at 490sq ft (45.2m^2 ),

it is easy to handle, and Stefan hauls in the throat and

peak halyards at the same time through his big fi sts. All

the halyards are light Dyneema core under polyester

braid, in a range of colours – not very classic, but as

Stefan only half jokes, “It makes it easier to tell yachting

journalists to ‘pull the red one’.” These lines are

controlled through swivelling Harken ratchet blocks

with modern cams. It’s a system that makes the boat

supremely easy to singlehand. Only the topsail gives us a

few problems. In principle, it is easy to raise or lower

with the main already set, but the jack and main yard

can swing the wrong way when one strikes the sail. The

cutter rig puts a Yankee on a continuous furler at the end

of the 10ft bowsprit, controlled from the cockpit, while

the jib is hanked on. All the sheets come back to cams

either side of the companionway. The mainsheet is also

on a swivelling ratchet block, fi xed to the boom itself, to

keep the small cockpit clear. The system is adapted from

a high performance 49er skiff, and works admirably

well, being easy to release with a quick fl ick. The sheet is

on a rope traveller at the stern that can be easily adjusted

for really closehauled sailing.

For upwind work, Stefan says the gaff cutter rig is the

equal of any modern sloop, and he reels off a host of

larger boats he has beaten into port or round the cans.

He particularly notes an occasion when he caught up

with raceboat Sporthotel, the Dehler 38 belonging to

Karl Dehler himself, into Mariehamn in the Aland

Islands. “We regularly beat boats with carbon spars and

sails,” Stefan says proudly, rubbing his great beard.

For downwind sailing, there is a large 785sq ft

gennaker, which rustles gently as it propels us west

towards Konstanz at near windspeed. With her

featherweight, large rig and sleek underwater profi le, this

is undoubtedly a fast boat. We reach along at 8kt in

about 6-8kt of wind, falling to 5kt when we turn hard

on the wind. Alzira seems to fl oat on the water. In these

light winds, the sound of the water at the bow is a gentle

song, matched by the gurgling of our wake through the

drain holes in the transom. It only takes a few stray gusts

from the mountains to kick the boat up to 11kt.

She is fair to handle under power, as well. With her

light displacement, she pivots around her narrow

keel, turning at full speed in her own length. The

rudder is semi-balanced and deep, a cross between a

modern spade rudder and a transom-hung one. Her

17hp Lombardini chugs along at lower RPM, but can

push the hull at 7kt through fl at water. As I step

ashore for the last time, I gaze back along that deck,

with its elegant mahogany hoops to carry a

sprayhood.

All nautical terms have been stretched a little over

the years, but while Alzira is certainly a modern

classic, the idea of her as a pilot cutter is bound to

raise eyebrows. Really, she is related to the traditional

workboats of the West Country in only a passing

resemblance. Alzira fairly fl ew on the fl at lake waters,

but with her light displacement she’d surely struggle in

the conditions that the weatherly pilot cutters of old

revelled in. Perhaps, like her more traditional

namesake, she is simply a boat well-designed for her

home waters and her purpose. She is, after all, a Lake

Constance Pilot Cutter, not a Bristol Channel Pilot

Cutter.

Nautical terms aside, here is a boat that is great

fun, easy to sail and turns the head of every other

yachtsman in the vicinity. For sure, the sensation of

fl ying across the water under gaff rig, hearing the jaws

of other sailors drop as we overtake their white tubs,

is not something I’ll forget in a hurry.

Above, left to

right: sliding

worktop over

cooker; runner-

up in the Classic

Boat Awards

2017; bulkheads

were laser-cut

from plywood

LAKE

CONSTANCE

PILOT

CUTTER

LOS

39ft 4in (12m)

LOA

29ft 6in (9m)

LWL

27ft 3in

(8.3m)

BEAM

8ft 3in (2.5m)

DRAUGHT

3ft 11in/ 6ft

6in (1.2/ 2m)

DISPLACEMENT

2.3 tonnes

ENGINE

Lombardini

18hp