Welcome Gulliver 57! At VELAFestival comes the round-the-world boat

At the 2018 Tag Heuer VELAFestival there will be boats truly for all tastes, and this was already one of the most visited boats in the last edition. From the pencil of Marc Lombard and the brainchild of Carlo Gullotta, we welcome the Gulliver 57, a world-turning boat that promises to be one of the superstars again for this edition. To relish it again, we offer you our super test.

Our test of the Gulliver 57

Arriving at Marina di Varazze on a warm summer morning made pleasant by a light southerly breeze, the Gulliver 57 awaits us at the dock. The first visual impact is with a boat with a hull that winks at the shapes of Oceanic opens with a very pronounced maximum beam and aft, sport cruiser deckhouse, carbon mast, and oversized deck equipment of the highest quality. Already in this description we find a number of elements that strongly characterize the boat, giving it that requirement of uniqueness that custom models, as this one is intended to be, must have in order to clearly differentiate themselves from mass production.

Top-of-the-line deck layout

Walking around the deck, one cannot help but notice the quality and sizing of the equipment signed in large part by Ronstan, various blocks and hardware, and Andersen for the winches. Each maneuver is correctly deferred with careful study of shooting angles. Valuable are the diverters on the winches on deck, which allow multiple maneuvers to be moved simultaneously by diverting them to the stern winches as well, providing a wide variety of firing solutions.

To understand the quality of the equipment, one only needs to observe that the mainsail alone has 3 dedicated winches: two for the carriage and one, mechanical/electrical, for the sheet. A total of as many as 9 winches cover the rigging.

Sporty look

Particularly striking to us is the design of the deckhouse, which is soft with a round top line that gradually slopes down to join flush with the deck.

The fenestration on the deckhouse greatly streamlines the boat, as does the rather low freeboard, two details that make the aesthetics of this 57-footer particularly pleasing.

About the deckhouse and deck: the passage to the bow between the shrouds is comfortable and particularly smooth and above all clear of obstacles since the jib carriage is cleverly placed on the deckhouse: more efficient sailing and more comfortable cruising.

We sail

The day is not the easiest from the wind point of view: testing an aluminum boat with a maximum pressure of 8-9 knots and lower average is not the best, but we trust in the boat’s sporting qualities, which in fact are confirmed. The boat has lifting keel that ranges between 1.70 m and 3.50 m, with ballast corresponding to nearly one-third of the local displacement.

The Gulliver 57 sails well, and as soon as it accelerates it has a great ability to maintain inertia even in dips in the wind. With 8 knots we touched a GPS speed peak of 7.2 and an apparent angle to the wind of 30-32 degrees, almost 8 the speed when the wind touched 9 knots of real.

We decide to hoist the gennaker, taking advantage of the fact that the new A3 needs a test being a sail still never used.

Despite the fact that the gennaker in question is designed for much more sustained air, leading the boat on the narrow slack in the angle at which the sail is used, 100-120 degrees, the speeds are very good, and with 8-9 knots at some times we equalize the wind speed.

Interiors

We get the big surprise as soon as we enter below deck. Where is the dinette? We find it in the stern, in the unusual position below the cockpit.

The reason is very simple: on a boat of this size the height even under the cockpit is good, but it is at the stern that the hull has its maximum width. And here the dinette takes on a decidedly XXL size

Six beds in total, in addition to the two that can be obtained in the dinette, divided into a guest cabin, two crew beds and the master cabin. Double bathroom, fore and aft, with separate shower compartment, and large kitchen with oven. The overall taste of the interior is understated, with the right balance of wood, algerite, and composite, to find a mix of quality, aesthetics, and lightness of materials.

Significant interior brightness brought about by multiple light points, good ventilation, excellent stowage space: in almost every meter of the boat there are several compartments to stow galley, equipment, clothing and various accessories.

The story of Gulliver 57

Carlo Gullotta, its creator, has been sailing since childhood moving between the worlds of racing and cruising. From Melges 24s to aluminum hulls, Gullotta’s passion for sailing is all-encompassing, even though in his everyday life his business is something else. From the need to improve his aluminum boat, a dream was born to build a custom-made boat for sailing around the world with a safe, fast and, above all, aluminum boat.

Persuaded with some insistence by the famous French designer. Marc Lombard, Gullotta set up a shipyard and began building the boat by relying on specialized professionals, such as the Milan-based firm Valenti Yacht with which he developed Lombard’s design, creating unconventional interiors and personally conceiving the deck rigging plan.

During construction, the boat piqued the interest of a Belgian shipowner, who expressed interest in a custom, aluminum type of boat with the features needed to tour the world. Thus Gulliver 57 is transformed from a mere dream to an opportunity. Today there are two sailing hulls, but the path laid out seems likely to take them very far.

Lombard Project, Valenti, Gullotta

Overall length 17.50 mt

Length at waterline 17.41 mt

Maximum beam 5.17

Draft 1.7-3.5 kg

Displacement 15700 kg

Material of construction Aluminum 5083H111

Water 400/800 t

Diesel fuel 450+90 lt

For more info: info@gulliversail.com tel. 3356202546

Mauro Giuffrè

DISCOVER ALL THE NEWS FROM THE TAG HEUER VELAFESTIVAL 2018