Hot stuff (but very cool)


When the Solaris team applied their 44 years of high-end boatbuilding experience to upping the game in the mid-sized performance cruiser market the result was something rather special… Italian, of course!


Looks good, doesn’t she? Easy on the eye. It’s difficult to know exactly why but she just looks… right. A sort of understated elegance that whispers style, comfort and control, while at the same time suggesting performance, an unspoken promise of power. The new Solaris 55 was developed by Solaris Yachts’ in-house technical team with naval architecture input from Argentinian designer Javier Soto Acebal. Since being founded in 1974 in


Aquileia, moments from the lagoons of Venice, the Solaris shipyard has successfully mastered the blend of studied, elegant comfort with the sort of performance that reminds us that it’s good to be alive and here at the wheel. In its long story Solaris has worked with many top designers including the late Franz Maas, Sparkman & Stephens, Doug Peterson, Bill Tripp and now Soto Acebal. One of the other designs


currently in build at Solaris is a new light-displacement Maxi72-styled


62 SEAHORSE


Wally 93, which also perhaps explains some visible aesthetic parallels between the two houses. The Italian yard is now among the


biggest composite production facilities in Europe and to date has produced over 200 yachts between 37 and 68ft. An impressive range of manufacturing equipment includes an oven of up to 130ft – Solaris has completed several carbon luxury yachts of between 80 and 120ft. This company also understands


that its loyal owners want the ability to sail shorthanded, or with family and friends who are perhaps not seasoned sailors. To that end, all the sail controls on the new 55 are kept within reach of the two wheels and there’s an optional self-tacking jib to make upwind sailing as stress-free as possible. A simple, but effective, sailing package was at the heart of the team’s latest brief – while respecting the Solaris lineage in terms of performance and aesthetics. The brief for each new Solaris


A comfortable 13kt sailing two-handed in Porto Cervo. The distinctive way in which the maximum beam is carried aft is reminiscent of current raceboat philosophy. The extra benefit in a performance cruiser is of course a direct gain in internal volume. Twin rudders ensure the powerful hull is easily controlled – especially important for shorthanded sailing


model usually begins with just a displacement figure and an LOA, with which the design team then start to work out how much of the displacement can end up below the waterline in the search for the optimal hull shape. For the new 55 the designers


opted early on for a high prismatic coefficient, with generous hull volume fore and aft to avoid the need for excessive width midships to meet form stability targets. Some flare was then incorporated in the upper bow sections for reserve buoyancy, the flare carrying aft to increase interior volume. One drawback with hull flare can be the increase in wetted surface with heel, but with so much form stability the designers could recover any losses by reducing the keel weight for the same stability with a commensurate reduction in displacement. With such a powerful hull, twin


rudders were considered essential, resulting in a yacht that is easy to


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