Boat show season kicked off with the Cannes Yachting Festival, and our editorial staff went on the hunt for new slings to tell you about. One of these is the new Grand Soleil 72 Performance presented as a world premiere in Cannes, which will also be displayed at the Genoa Boat Show. Here is our tour on board and a preview of the boat while waiting to try it out.
Grand Soleil 72 – The Video
Grand Soleil 72: Performance or LC?
To understand what the Grand Soleil 72, in its two GS 72 Performance GS 72 LC (Long Cruise) versions, is like, we were guided by an outstanding speaker, project manager Franco Corazza, who is the daddy of the “superyacht” project along with the shipyard team.
Why a boat in two versions.
“One same hull, declined in two versions. One to satisfy those who want a true sports car design (Performance), and the other version that those who like to sailing with a Blue Water,” Franco Corazza tells us to begin with, continuing: “But the hull and construction are identical.
In both versions, a boat of the highest build quality, with the boat skeleton, spars, and longitudinal members all made of polyester-based vinylester composite with extensive use of carbon reinforcements where you really need them to make the structure more rigid and solid, i.e., where there are greater stresses and strains.
Interiors are made of composite or lightened woods. The result is a solid, lightweight boat at the top level of the world’s benchmark production. As an example, the boat including reinforcements and bulkheads succeeded 100 kg less than expected. The empty displacement of the Performance version is 31,000 kg, at the lowest limits of the category. And the LC version weighs only 500 kg more.”
Data from the Grand Soleil 72
Overall length 23.75 m
Length at waterline 19.84 m
Hull length 22.00 m
Maximum width 6.20 m
Standard draft 3.70 m
Sail area 310 sqm
150 hp engine
Fuel 1 ,000 liters
Water 1 ,000 liters
Cabins 4 with 4 bathrooms
