MAXI 1200

8:08 PM in Boat Plans

As you can see, it looks well, the new Maxi. For the ones who don't know Maxi Yacht was a Swedish company that made expensive performance cruisers, not really cruiser racers, but fast cruising boats with luxurious interiors, having Pelle Petterson as a designer .

The brand was bought by Najad and when Najad went down and was bought by other companies, Maxi yachts was left to die. When everybody thought that Maxi yacht was finished  an improbable savior appeared, the Polish Delphia.

Delphia is a relatively new company that started with a technological help of the Italian Comar (the ones that make the Comet) and soon it was making reliable quality sailboats even if the designs are a bit under average regarding other mass production builders (they insisted in having their boats designed by Polish NAs).

They had the good sense to ask for help to old Pelle Petterson to finish the model that Maxi was developing when it went down, a more sportive model and Pelle accepted the challenge of working with the "kids" from Delphia and it seems they got along together notwithstanding the age difference. I am very curious about the result that will be presented at the Dusseldorf boat show.

It is not only a difference of age but a difference of methods in designing a boat, being Pelle from the old school, designing by hand and applying intuition and the knowledge of a life designing fast sailboats, complemented with the work of the new Polish NAs that design with cad and use modern VPP and CFD to improve the design.

As I said the hull looks very nice, relatively narrow, with 3.75m for 11.56m of hull length, a considerable draft with a torpedo keel (2.32m) a light weight (6900kg), specially considering that 36% of it is ballast, mostly on that torpedo. Being a narrow boat allows it to have less sail area than a more beamier one and it carries upwind only 84m2 sail area.

In what regards design, a very interesting boat with a hull with chines, that will allow a considerably heeling angle before hitting the water and for what we can see of the building, a top boat that uses carbon to reinforce more stressed areas and a structural grid to distribute effort by the hull . The hull  is a cored one (with PVC as core) and laminated with vinylester resins, being the keel area  monolithic with reinforced lamination using carbon fibers.

The interior layout seems very good and I am very curious regarding the quality of the interior design, that contrary to other Maxi is a more modern one. The designs don't look great but they are just hand made designs and what matters is the real thing.

The rigging is adapted to solo sailing and makes a lot of sense regarding cruising but I don't understand two things: The fixed cockpit table and the absence of traveler. That is a big disadvantage in what regards club racing and even in what regards cruising, I like to have the sail properly trimmed with the help of a big traveler and I like to take the cockpit table away and have all the cockpit space available.

 Probably a small traveler can be mounted but only over the cockpit seats and that will make awkward the passage between the wheel and the forward winches. I really don't like the boat design in what regards that and I think it will not be easy to find an alternate solution, giving the cockpit design. Great for fast unconcerned cruising but not a polyvalent boat, able to cruise and race and that is just a shame since it seems a very fast hull.

 Maybe the boat is just meant to offer only that since I don't see also an adjustable backstay and it seems the boat is offered standard with a bowthruster, that seems dispensable to me in a boat with those dimensions and weight. Off course, another matter I am very curious about is the price. Will this boat have Maxi prices, that were really maxi or will be at mid way between Maxi and Delphia prices? Much of the success of this boat depends on that.