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Opposite: like so many other offshore performance initiatives, the roots of the Seascape story lie in the Mini 6.50 class – this is Andraz Mihelin with his last Mini entry, half of a two-boat campaign with Seascape co-founder Kristian Hajnsek. Left: determined to be at the front of new ideas, Mihelin’s interest in Bénéteau’s wing programme led to his own project – this is his latest elegant proposal


SH: Could you be a little more specific – what are the major differences between what you wanted to make and what was already there? AM: Well, we believe that one of the things that defines fun sailing today is planing. We need boats that are able to plane in normal wind conditions, let’s say 10-15kt. They can be big or small, but planing boats are fun to sail. The boats that were available when we started to build the first Seascape couldn’t do that. There was literally nothing on the market. Either they were sportsboats, like the Melges 24s, which take four or five guys to sail and are quite complicated to use, or they were boats from Bénéteau, J-Boats or, at the time, Archambault, who were sup- posed to deliver that kind of performance but didn’t. They are not really planing boats, they are actually displacement boats, even if they are sold as performance boats. Either they tried to comply with various handicap rules, and therefore they made them heavier and less stable, or the build quality was too ‘traditional’. There might be other reasons too. But anyway there were really not a lot of boats like that on the market. What we found was that most customers for our first model, the 18, were actually not racers; they were cruisers, they just wanted a fun, truly planing boat. So we opened up a different market. SH: So weight is the biggest issue here… AM: Yes. The problem with most produc- tion boats is simply that they are too heavy. A part of the reason is that people want luxury in their performance boats and they don’t quite realise the conse- quence… it simply kills the whole concept. The boat becomes a displacement boat that might occasionally surf instead of a planing boat, which is something com- pletely different. And I think it’s up to the producers to change that. We are the experts. At this point Seascape is too small to change very much, we don’t have the muscle. But there are brands that could, if


they wanted – if they had the guts and the vision. What we can do at Seascape is to build a product that is currently directed towards a niche in the market and educate a community around it. And I really believe that we have to educate people. They should know: what does weight mean in a sailing boat? What are the real consequences? SH: Weight can’t be that important in every kind of sailing boat…


AM: Actually, once you are in a displace- ment boat, weight really isn’t that impor- tant. If it weighs four tons or five tons – who cares? In light air the lighter boat will accelerate a bit faster and there are some other benefits. If the lighter boat maintains the same stability, of course it will make a difference. But in the end you are always locked into a speed range of 0-7kt, maybe 8kt, whatever the length of the boat might be. That’s it. SH: So when does it start to make a difference? AH: Well, once you have a planing boat, weight suddenly makes all the difference in the world. Just like a multihull. When you have a planing boat, with a hull shape made for planing, every kilo starts to count. Weight becomes a main factor the second a boat tries to break out of its hull wave. Actually, there are three factors that really count: low weight, a lot of form or hull stability and low centre of gravity. These three things make it possible to load the boat up with a large sail area, and the power can then be translated to speed. SH: So, to sum up, in your view what are the main problems with today’s mainstream boats? AM: (Finally takes a breath) A good defin- ition of a machine comes from Antoine Saint-Exupéry. He says that a machine has reached the highest state of development when it becomes invisible. We should strive toward that goal. Of course, we have made our share of mistakes, but it should ideally be like this: when you step on a boat for the first time you should not even


have to think about how to use it. Some things you can change and adapt, but some things are deeply rooted in the boat and you cannot change. If that is the case, we have failed. It could be steering, it could be weight. For me, being on a dis- placement boat is simply painful. You bear off, hoist a gennaker or spin- naker, and you basically start pushing water. You just dig a hole in the water. Resistance increases, the speed remains almost the same. It feels wrong. If you power up the boat even more, it starts broaching and you have all kinds of prob- lems. The loads are higher. Rolling is more intense. The energy goes into the boat. Energy has to go somewhere… if it can’t go into speed, it goes somewhere else. Energy becomes your enemy. SH: So now you have a nice little niche product – you could stay with that for ever and be happy. But in fact you see this as just a first step in a bigger change? AM: Yes, the first step is to master this niche, of course. I dare say that we are close to a situation where we produce the best trailable performance cruisers in the world. This is where we want to position our brand. So now we have a range of entry- level boats that can support themselves, and we can decide to go into bigger boats or dinghies, whatever we feel needs rethinking. But I’m well aware that the mainstream


market is getting tougher, the water level is going down in the aquarium of the boat industry. It’s dog eat dog. I think it’s much better to be in a blue ocean market, where we can swim freely. In the traditional market there is still good demand, but also a lot of competition. So we are exploring the blue ocean. And I should probably be the last to encourage others to do the same thing… if the others keep on doing what they do well, so much the better for us. SH: So this traditional way of building and using boats that you want to challenge – how and when do you think it will change? AM: I’m sure about one thing: it will not change by itself. Or maybe it will eventu- ally, because the whole world is changing. But it will take much longer if we don’t do anything to help it. And the thing is, it’s up to us, the people working in the marine business. We all realise that we are in trouble and have to do something. As a small company we don’t have the resources to do a lot, and I would honestly be happier if some of the bigger companies took just a little bit of their resources and put it into the same thing as we do. Or into something else, for example the Bénéteau


SEAHORSE 55





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