Classic Boats – The superprojects of 1985-1987

We told you about
Classic Boat
and presented you with the most significant ones, brilliant projects that deserve to be celebrated and considered for their value(HERE). To explore the topic as it deserves, Contextualizing each project and each boat to its time, here is now a series of in-depth articles, brief analyses of design canons, their evolutions and the Classic Boats themselves, period by period. On the heels of the previous episode (HERE), devoted to the early 1980s, we now come to the second half of the decade, a period deeply poised between what was IOR logic and the advent of a new era.

Classic Boats – The Great Projects 1985-1987

If until the early 1980s the push for performance and technological progression was dictated within the canons IOR, with the first half of the new decade, the rule instead entered a crisis, with as many yards and as many designers ready to move away from the spirit of the regatta, seeing the rule system itself heading toward its end. A series of conditions, these, that lead the second half of the 1980s to favor new designs, different from the many seen previously and, above all, bring us closer to the radical changes at the end of the century, with designs significantly deviating from the canon and with the introduction of the new system, the IMS.

• Discover all Classic Boats of Historical Value by Giornale della Vela

The period 1985-1988 is, however, still filled with the previous teachings, a design culmination almost at its turning point but still overwhelmingly close to the previous two decades. We are still, in short, in a cauldron of genius destined to churn out some of the greatest Classic Boats of the century.

Do you have a Classic Boat to report? Are you a Classic Boat owner? Place it in our archive at
this link
! Entering your boat of historical value is super easy. Just enter data and description of the boat. The editors will publish it in a very short time.

Classic Boat 1985-1988 – The Apotheosis of the Fast Cruiser

Building on the great lessons learned in the early 1980s, successes such as Brava, Azzurra and Blue Show, the Vallicelli studio opens the second half of the decade with a major project for Comar, a boat fully in line with its time: the

Comet 12

. The lines are clean, the hull is seaworthy, safe, and, under the waterline, all the studio’s experience in the racing world emerges.

It is the archetypal Fast Cruiser of the decade: wide stern, flush deck and huge cockpit. A design distinct from the lines of the studio, but in full dialogue with the great successes of the period, such as the

Baltic 43

of ’86 – signed by the Judel/Vrolijk duo – or like the

Nauta 54

, another great performer of great class, first, moreover, in the My Song saga.

Almost at the same time, Beneteau approached these high standards, abetted by the hand of the brilliant German Frers. Thus was also born the

First 51

, a 15.6-meter that once again consecrates the insights of the Argentine, who designs an excellent hull for the French shipyard, derived from one of his great racing prototypes. The stern is always wide, long, but here the maximum beam plays a big role, huge, a full 4.55 meters. Dimensions that give ample space both above and below deck, offering surfaces that are decidedly unusual both for the tonnage and for the era. Solution that Frers also adopts in the peer

Grand Soleil 52

(pictured above), his great masterpiece of 1987.

Classic Boats 1985-1988 – The Series Cruise

At the same time as the big fast cruisers, the “large mass production” yards, on the other hand, continue their unstoppable rise. The great icons of Beneteau’s First and Oceanis lines continue during this period, represented first by the highly successful

First 375

Finot, and then by the long-lived

Oceanis 350

e

430

, boats set for the general public and capable of winning the full favor of the market.

These are also complemented by the great successes of competitors, French, in the case of the

Pretorien 35

by Wauquiez signed by Holman & Pie, and Italian in the case of the

Comet 375

, signed this time by Finot and Peterson. The trend is clear, to produce sloops for cruising but that do not disdain performance, safe, dry and rational boats that in their own way recover the clean and elegant decks of their contemporary “giants,” while opening up, however, to the public to whom these would instead be prohibitively expensive. An example followed that is also found at another large Italian, the

Grand Soleil 343

, a 10.4-meter capable of marrying performance and comfort to top-of-the-line quality.

• Discover all Classic Boats of Historical Value by Giornale della Vela

1985-1988 – Toward a paradigm shift

If 1985 and 1986 still maintain the pace of the previous mid-decade, a different air is already hovering with 1987. In addition to the extremes presented by the small Nytec 23 – a drift for everyone, out of all logic and designed only for running and having fun – or from the grandiose ULDB 65 (pictured above) by Vallicelli – a Ultra Light Displacement resounding, extreme in displacement, classic in design and with a gorgeous stern and a clean deck rare for the time (Blue Ribbon is an excellent example), one is indeed in a period that hints at the new, a new that will know how to stay.

Just in ’87, X-Yachts caught the air of change, and rode it out with a quantum leap. It opens the era of its performance-cruisers, starting with the

X-372

, a comfortable boat with a powerful hull, suitable for cruising but deeply raced, with tapered appendages and turbulence kept to a minimum. It immediately follows the

X-452

(opening image), the emblem of a quest for the most competitive cruiser-racer on the market. Thus from the hands of Jeppesen comes a 45-footer with clean, streamlined lines, crowned by an outstanding transom and performance not to complain about.

But the final blow is given, absurdly, by Beneteau. The year is 1988 and the

First 35S

, a clear breakthrough in design and marketing thinking. For the first time a designer outside the boating world, Philippe Stark, gets his hands on a production sailboat. Success is nothing short of great, keeping the production line running from 1988 to 1994. One only has to see its deckhouse, with those unusual windows to understand that times are changing, and with them design and demand. An absolutely bipolar market is about to open up.

Three “tidbits” about Classic Boats

• Want to learn more about the world of Classic Boats (1967-1998), the iconic boats of the period, the legendary designers, the stories and races of the “golden age” of sailing? Check out our section dedicated to Classic Boats!
• Want to find out what Classic Boats of Historical Value by Journal of Sailing are? Find them all HERE!
• Do you have a Classic Boat to sell? Put it (for free) on our classifieds market!
• Do you have a Classic Boat? Participate in the SAIL CUP with your boat. There is a special ranking for you! Find out which stage is right for you!