PROVEN. Italia Yachts 14.98, balancing performance and comfort. VIDEO
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The Italia Yachts 14.98 we tested in Genoa is a boat we were looking forward to with great curiosity, because we knew how much the shipyard had invested in terms of energy and development on this project. And we were also waiting for it because it is a particular boat concept, not easy to center.
THE BALANCE BETWEEN PERFORMANCE AND CRUISE
In fact, there is a lot of talk in the sailing world about so-called “hybrids,” i.e., those boats whose use is not intended for one purpose only. Cruise-racing used to call them, today the labels have changed but the concept has not: these are boats that are equipped with every comfort for cruising but at the same time are able to return important sailing performance to the owner, even winning in regattas.
Be careful, however, making a true hybrid that works in both worlds is a very difficult exercise in style on the part of the shipyard. In fact, often the quest for convenience ends up “engulfing” performance, and the hybrid remains only on paper. But this is not the case for Italia Yachts, which has made the ability to sail its boats well the central philosophy of its product, and it has confirmed this on the 14.98 despite the fact that there is also a clear cruise imprint on this product.
The Italia Yachts 14.98 is a sailboat, not a boat with a sail (grant us the expression), the difference is subtle but decisive. This is a genuinely comfortable craft that is also suitable for long voyages, but the pursuit of comfort is not “obsessive,” and above all, the interior volumetries, while in the name of cruising comfort, have not been exaggerated so as not to weigh the boat down and distort its philosophy.
THE SEA TRIAL
We sailed on a tough day, with gusty northerly winds even over 25 knots with a base of 15 in the first part of the trial, then decreasing. Conditions that allowed us to test the boat in different situations. We started the outing with a hand of reefing to the mainsail, sailing in an area with tense gusts that nonetheless revealed the maneuverability of the 14.98 even in “muscular” conditions.
A pleasure to be able to get the boat to lean firmly and easily even inside a gust at over 25 knots and feel it accelerate immediately above 10 knots. The speeds we recorded were true sports boat speeds: always above 8 knots upwind, with true angles to the wind around 40 degrees, with speeds well above 10 as soon as we leaned up to the wide windward or crosswind. When we moved to an area with less air, even below 10 knots, and hoisted the full mainsail the 14.98 showed us its reserve of horsepower instead: the boat accelerates easily even in little wind, all without the need for a spasmodic search for fine tuning.
In the following video we take you aboard the Italia Yachts 14.98 during our test in Genoa. The full test of the boat, with all the photos, details and complete performance numbers, you will find in the next issues of the Journal of Sailing print edition.
Mauro Giuffrè
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