Small boats versus big boats. Who wins?

Our own Marco Cohen* had fun putting comparing small boats and big boats, inconveniencing two great “minds.” The inventor of easy sailing and Wallys Luca Bassani and speedboat genius Umberto Felci. We anticipate that we do not it’s just a matter of wallet…

Small boats vs. big boats

Venghino venghino gentlemen readers and ladies readers because in this article we are going to try to field a fascinating challenge: namely David versus Goliath, small boats versus big boats. I can already hear some of you approaching me and saying, “iNo point in making speeches. It’s all about the portfolio. Little money equals small boat, lots of extra money means lots of extra boat“.

But are we sure that this is really the case? Let’s start with the British, perhaps the inventors of modern yachting. An old Anglo-Saxon adage went something like this: “
The true Gentleman or Gentlewoman must have a boat (sailing, of course) at least two feet above his or her age
“.

Basically, always pecuniary permitting, a nice J/24, perhaps to share with friends fresh out of college, a Grand Soleil 44 to celebrate the mid-life crisis into the 40s, and why not, the queen of the seas, the Swan 65 to face old age with class and dignity. I would also add a couple of young sailors, given the age and size of the boat.

But of course now times have changed, technology and easy sailing have radically changed the approach to sailing.

How small boats inspire big ones. Bassani speaks

And speaking of easy sailing, I took the liberty of calling out the man who grafted this concept even onto boats that once needed an army as crew: Luca Bassani, the genius of the lamp who invented Wallys.

I mention two of them with emotion, Esense crazy boat, a string of teak at breakneck speed, the triumph of minimalism in which, as in vintage boats, there is not even a stanchion rail with stanchions but an edge that runs the length of the boat where all the hydraulic and mechanical devilry is hidden that allows the boat to be steered with a button. And Tango by my beloved designer Mark Mills, a kind of 100-foot daysailer with which he won the line of honor at the Giraglia in 2020.

But in his account, one thing in particular amazes me. To the question “
what did you steal from small boats to graft onto much larger ones?
“, he answers with a simple yet brilliant… “Easy. The jib on the Soling (8.15-m keel racing boat that was Olympic class from 1972 to 2000, ed.): small, steerable and self-tacking. Recovered on the early Wallys, at a time when large overlap genoas reigned supreme, it is now back in fashion on many of the large series boats, including cruising boats.”

As if to always remind ourselves that while it is true (quoting the Godzilla launch poster), “Size does matter,” it is also true that in the end between these two categories of boats seemingly so far apart there may be many more points of contact than one might think.

Bassani’s equation: age x 2 = boat length

Bassani, however, immediately clears up any doubts about the old Anglo-Saxon adage: table now to be thrown away this one and raises with twice the length of the boat relative to its age.

A nice 60-footer at 30, an 80-footer at 40, and why not, at my age, a nice Wally over 100 feet. At this point, for the series so much is free, I ask for the rendering of the new Wallywind 110. The price no, that I couldn’t ask him…. My attention lingers on a moving outdoor kitchen lounge area complete with a fridge built into the deck. Imy absolute all-time dream: vermentino always fresh at hand, the shade of the sails, I push a button and without doing anything I can even tack by taking the aperitif.

Small boats, good and bad

I open my eyes again and stop dreaming and think back to all those ordinary people struggling to make ends meet even in middle-class affluence.

Because at the end of the day, we shipowners know this to our cost, sailing always costs money if you are the one who ultimately pays the bills.

The good news is that more and more extraordinary sailing performance and marine qualities can now be found even in smaller boats, which now have access to all the most prestigious offshore races (even in the “for two” categories, i.e., with only two crew members), from the Fastnet on down.

Two examples for all small, beautiful and bad:

1) The new Jeanneau Sunfast 30 OD designed by the same VPLP studio that designed together with Guillaume Verdier Comanche, the most successful 100-foot maxi in recent years. Aggressive line, upright foredeck and flat, sharp entrances that prelude long, safe gennaker surfing.

2) The J/99, probably less revolutionary and extreme in look, but which was able to triumph in the very tough 2022 edition in the Sydney Hobart in which 42 percent of the boats entered withdrew (and virtually all were larger than the J’s 9.9 meters).

Small boats and Fern-thinking

To hear the reasons for small boats, I have discomfited two very recent projects but there is a small one that has always made my heart flutter. He is now his own age, but he has never lost his joyful irreverence and his distinctly superior boat speed as a size.

You can recognize it even among 100 boats leaving, so original are its rounded lines-I’m talking about theUFO 28. Conceived for Garda, from the pen of Umberto Felci and glimpsed/crossed in several seas starting from Trieste. I take this opportunity to question Felci on our issue.

He immediately gives me great credit: “Small boats always give great satisfaction in sailing. Certainly from the table of the British, which of course I agree with, I should have a 60-footer, but I must confess that even now few things amuse me as much as racing 470s. I participated again, last season, in the European Masters Championships.

Even now I still try to transfer to the engineers in my firm the thought that even on a large boat the sail equipment and deck plan must be designed with the same precision and functionality as on a small boat
“.

How big boats and small boats affect each other

So it is true that much of the experience on small boats can be transferred to a 60-footer. Certainly, however, Felci continues, “
the process works the other way around as well, and the evolution of construction required to design a 100-footer can be transferred by bringing an attention to design and surface lines that was once unthinkable, even on smaller boats
“.

In all this pleasant conversation, alas, completely rejects an old idea of mine. The one about the portable outdoor refrigerator adaptable to any cockpit, even smaller ones, and solar-powered in the boat: solar panels too bulky, the case would get hot, and then why displace those finally lying in the sun by putting a fridge in their place!

I also propose to him the ‘improbable comparison that had given me the idea for this article and he asks me if I am completely crazy to want to compare a 28-footer from 1995 with a 100-footer but as unsaid I try anyway at the end of the article.

Let’s summarize.

To sum up and finish this comparison that on paper seemed unequal… Shall we also put, besides the lightness it gives on the wallet, the sense of freedom of having a boat of small size, in which to experience the sea up close?

Also vessel, but that can be carried in pairs without obviously going crazy each time to retrieve crew members. And here I am not talking about boats with professionals on board, because that is another sport. What’s more, let me also make a philosophical point that goes beyond the amount of money that can be spent, but goes back to the English saying quoted in the opening of the article, which basically states that every age has its ideal size.

I would translate it differently.

And if it’s true that when the aches and pains of age begin, one is inclined to surround oneself with greater comfort and thus seek a slightly larger boat… I would like to remind you of Picasso’s famous phrase: “It takes a long time to become young and learn to paint as a child“.

It is nice to think that having reached a certain age, it is nice to rediscover even in sailing the taste for simple things and the true luxury of never having to depend on anyone… this explains the success of, for example, a very old lady of the sea like the Dinghy at agé sailors and also the concept boat of the Wallynano or the various daysailers that can be armed to enjoy sailing in total autonomy and freedom.

And now, by popular demand (whose?). The impossible comparison!

Small Boats vs. Big Boats / Ufo 28 vs. Wally 110

Click on the table below to open it and enjoy it in higher resolution

Small boats versus big boats. Who wins? The verdict

In the end, if Paris c’est toujour Paris and St. Tropez is still St. Tropez, it is also true that sailing always remains sailing, whatever the size of the boat. When I walk around the regatta docks, I always pause to see people’s faces.

Of course if I look at it as a whole, even just from the clothing and appearance (I refer you to my article on the Copa del Rey where the crews of the ClubSwan 50 looked like they came out of a GQ photo shoot and the crews of the class where I competed looked like they came out of a physical therapy rehab center) it is easy to see what kind of boats they are racing on. But when I just look at the smile, it’s the same for everyone. And you can only enjoy that one, but don’t buy it.

*Who is Marco Cohen

The author of our article, film producer and sailor Marco Cohen, pictured here at the helm of a small boat (in that case a Cape 31, designed by his “fetish” designer Mark Mills).

Owner of a MAT 12 (designed, indeed, by Mills) tours the Mediterranean for regattas (losing almost all of them but having a lot of fun). A keen humorist and sailing philosopher (“I re-embraced sailing at age 37 after yet another soccer injury, when I realized it’s the only sport you can do sitting down and with a glass in your hand”), his articles are always a big hit. Below you can read some of his “pearls”:

• How to slow down a racing boat. 10 secrets to not winning
• Phenomenology (semi-serious) of the Winter Championship.
• The owner’s syndrome or how to be happy despite the boat
• How to participate in offshore racing knowing you will lose
• Guide to Dreaming Sydney Hobart
• The boat change syndrome