The Hanse 458 at the TAG Heuer VELAFestival 2019
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TAG Huer VELAFestival 2019 could not miss Hanse, represented in Santa Margherita by Cini&Webster, the German giant’s historic importer for Italy. On the dock is one of the shipyard’s new entries, the Hanse 458 unveiled a few months ago, which had its world premiere at the 2018 Cannes Motor Show. We at the Sailing Newspaper had tried the boat a short time ago, so here is a rich summary of our experience on board.
ABOARD THE HANSE 458
The rendezvous is in Lavagna, in the Gulf of Tigullio, very early, because that’s how we rehearse in Liguria in good weather to take advantage of the last puffs of the night Tramontana. The Hanse 458 awaits us placidly moored at the dock, already fully armed. We wasted no time and went straight out, hoisting the mainsail just outside the harbor with an operation made rather smooth by the electric primary winches of our test model. The anemometer immediately marks 16-17 knots. With the mainsail full we set a southerly course, turn off the engine and unfurl the small self-tacking jib.
The goal of the new 458 is to enhance one of the strengths of the latest Hanse production, maximum ease in sailing. All rigging (halyards, mainsail sheet, jib sheet) is adjusted from the two primary winches positioned close to the rudder wheels. The option to mount them electric in this sense seems to us to be an optionals definitely worth taking advantage of.
The boat is sweet to the wheel: we play hemming and leaning to load it into the gusts and then accelerate into a deep slack as the land recedes quickly behind us. Once we have gained enough water we decide to change our gait and go upwind, the true test case for ease of handling.
Moving to the leeward wheelhouse we cock, before hemming, the headsail by pulling it back inside the pulpit. Then we return to the windward helm, start hemming and simultaneously capping the mainsheet from the other winch. We are upwind and performed the maneuver completely on our own, with no help from anyone. For safety we keep the mainsail sheet handy, but even when the wind rises to 16-17 knots it is never necessary to let go of the mainsail, under gusts just hemming slightly is enough to stay in complete control of the boat at all times. We steer on our own, without touching anything but the rudder wheels. The boat steers easily and intuitively, keeping a good pace around 7 knots.
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