with a long, wide island bed. There are top-hinged lockers, which on this boat did not have supports to hold the doors open, but these will be included on all subsequent boats. The tongue and groove-effect white hull sides
give a classic feel, and a mahogany hand-hold makes entering and leaving the berth easier. Under the aft end of the berth are four good drawers, while forward of these is stowage with a small protective box screwed over the log and echosounder, but this does make it less convenient to clean the log. There’s a pipe, with a ball valve, running through this locker. It leads from the forward deck locker into the grey water tank beneath the saloon fl oor — the tank also takes the drip tray from the bottom of the keel-stepped mast and the drains from shower trays. The tank is then emptied via an automatic pump. The ensuite heads is a reasonable size, although
it doesn’t have a separate shower compartment. It does, however, have a wraparound shower curtain. There’s a good hanging locker outboard, though the wet locker in the aft heads will perhaps see more use as you would have to get wet waterproofs to the forward cabin via the bed to use this one. Both aft cabins are a good width (158cm/5ft 2in)
that extends under the line of top-hinged lockers outboard. These, like all lockers on board, have ventilation above them. It is an option to have a pull-out shower from the tap in the aft heads, but this yacht’s owner chose not to have a shower aft.
PRACTICAL LIVING This is a boat that offers elegant and practical living space. The saloon feels wide as the seatbacks have been taken well outboard. While this does limit the storage space behind them, the trade-off is the sense of space. There are also plenty of hand-holds, except on the large fold-out table. There are lockers forward, complemented by bookshelves under the hull windows. With the tankage under the seats (fuel to starboard, water to port) stowage is limited to the ends of the C-shaped seating to port. There are also nice hidden features such as stainless-steel water tanks with catering-grade pipework. The fi xed table is good and has a deep drawer in its support. Unfortunately, the bilge pump is on the port side of the table and is awkward to access as one has to crawl under the fi xed table. There are options for the table to have fold-down leaves. Engine access from the front
and rear is excellent, though less so from the sides. Inspection panels can be added on request. The hull is foam-cored and vacuum-infused using vinylester resin; the foam goes down to around a 50cm each side of the centreline. The deck is foam- cored and injection moulded, but care has been taken to hide any exterior fi ttings and the fi nish of the headlining is excellent.
ARCONA 435 THE TEST VERDICT
There are few boats that offer both speed and a genuinely quality interior, but the Arcona is one of them. She was a joy to sail for the helm and comfortable for the crew. The sail handling is well thought out and works whether you’re sailing fully crewed or short-handed. Arcona are owned by Orust Quality Yachts, the same owner as Najad Yachts and as you’d expect from a company of this pedigree, the quality is very high both in terms of workmanship and the materials used. The UK spec boat has a host of extras like 3Di sails, a spray hood, sail cover, an electric halyard winch, asymmetric spinnaker and is very close to the boat that was tested. It’s not necessary to have all of these, and any owner can of course spec the boat to suit. This doesn’t do much to reduce her price, but you don’t buy a Ferrari to put on cloth seats and remould tyres.
WOULD SHE SUIT YOU AND YOUR CREW? While one might expect passage times to be reduced in a yacht like the Arcona 435, I fear, however, that won’t be the case, and why would you want that? Anyone buying such a boat will be sailing her further, faster and make any trip last as long as possible — just for the sheer pleasure of sailing her. She really is a delight. Where many performance cruisers try to save weight with the quality of the interior fit-out, no such economies are visible on the 435, except, perhaps for the lack of locker door supports. If you want even better performance there’s the option for her hull and deck to be built in carbon with a carbon rig, and you can also have a deeper keel too, but you’ll have to find an extra £96,000 for that luxury. Even without these, the Arcona 435 is a performance- cruiser in every sense. If you want to cruise with speed and style, she delivers. But should you wish to throw her around the race course, then relax in comfort afterwards, the Arcona will take it all in her stride — she is all you could want her to be, and more.
PROS + Sailing
experience + Good
performance
+ Comfortable and practical interior
CONS
- No separate shower
compartments
- Low seating at helm
FACTS AND FIGURES
PRICE AS TESTED £440,000
LOA 13.80m (45ft 3in)
HULL LENGTH 13.20m (43ft 4in)
LWL 12.20m (40ft) BEAM 3.98m (13ft 1in) DRAUGHT
2.30m (7ft 7in)
DISPLACEMENT 8,900kg (19,621 lb)
BALLAST 3,400kg (7,495 lb)
BALLAST RATIO 38.2%
DISPLACEMENT 135.8
SAIL AREA 111m2 (1,195sq ft)
SA/D RATIO 26.3
DIESEL 180 litres (40 gal) WATER
300 litres (66 gal) ENGINE 45hp
TRANSMISSION Saildrive
RCD CATEGORY A DESIGNER
Stefan Qviberg BUILDER
Arcona Yachts AB UK AGENT
Arcona Yachts UK TEL 023 8045 7770 WEBSITE
arconayachts.com
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