Daysailer with a difference
Do you fancy something like a dinghy, only bigger and that won’t tip you in?
Then you should consider Dufour’s new Drakkar 24, says David Harding
D
uring the summer in Poole I
see dozens of sizeable
offshore yachts heading out
of the harbour and making
the long and challenging
passage to Studland Bay. Here they will
drop anchor so the crew can have
lunch and possibly row ashore for an
ice cream before heading home again a
few hours later.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with
doing this and, besides, some of these
boats do indeed go a good deal further
than Studland – perhaps Swanage on
occasions. Some even stay overnight.
Nonetheless, the fact remains that much
of what many people do in their eight-
berth 40-footers could be done just as
enjoyably and far more economically in a
25-footer or, if they preferred, in a 40-footer
with a large cockpit and a cabin with a few
bunks. It’s not only a question of size, but
also of the division of space.
In the Med and other parts of Europe it’snot automatically assumed that everyone
wants maximum accommodation and a
cockpit that’s just about big enough to
accommodate the crew if they all sit still
and keep their elbows in. There are stylish
daysailers like the Saffi ers from Holland
and the Tofi nous from France, in which the
emphasis is very much on fun sailing and
outside living, perhaps with somewhere to
lie down under cover or brew a cuppa. In
the UK, Rustler build the 24 and the
stunningly elegant 33. When it comes to
trailable boats, however, it’s hard to fi nd
many over 20ft (6m) or so without a cabin
except for sportsboats like the Melges 24
and Cork 1720. So if you want an open,
trailable 20-something footer that’s not a
fl at-out racing machine, you might have a
search on your hands.Fun and engaging
Dufour is hoping that your search will lead
you to its new Drakkar 24. Essentially
she’s a big dinghy with a ballastedcentreplate, aimed at clubs and sailing
schools as well as people who want a
boat that’s roomy, light, forgiving,
undemanding to sail and easy to trail,
launch and recover. At the same time she
was designed to be suffi ciently engaging
to be fun to race.
Weighing a mere 1,900lb (870kg), the
Drakkar has a swinging centreplate rather
than a vertically-lifting daggerboard, and a
cockpit with room for eight. She has no
mainsheet traveller (though one is shown
in the early photographs) and a
conventional mainsail with a high boom
and a conservative amount of roach that
allows the use of a backstay.
Combined with the rig of modest size,
the moderately proportioned hull and the
single rudder, it sends out a clear
message: she should be reasonably fast
but defi nitely not furious. I will come to the
systems and details, but fi rst: how does
she sail? If a boat like this doesn’t behave
as she’s designed to, the rest is academic.