New Boats: Tartan 3600, Solaris 50 and Slyder 47

By Pete Nielsen

August 11, 2015

Longtime Tartan designer Tim Jackett is back in the saddle at the Ohio builder, and he’s wasted no time in coming up with a new model. Devotees of the brand will have no trouble recognizing the new Tartan 3600’s heritage; no fancy styling here, just a pretty, slightly retro profile that will evoke memories of those Sparkman & Stephens designs of the 1970s as well as later Tartans. Recognizing that most cruising boats are crewed by a husband-and-wife team, Jackett has pointed the 3600 squarely at this market. There is only one sleeping cabin as such—the owner’s stateroom forward, which boasts a large island berth and generous stowage. Casual guests are accommodated in the large open quarterberth aft. The saloon settees bracketing the drop-leaf table are too short to sleep on but perfect for two couples to dine in comfort, and the galley and nav station benefit from the space saved in the settees.

Construction is standard Tartan, i.e., an epoxy resin/e-glass/foam-cored hull with a lead keel and tall carbon-fiber rig. The fractional sailplan has a self-tacking jib, and all controls are led to the cockpit winches for ease of handling. The deck and cockpit layouts have some clever touches, such as a tilting wheel pedestal that does away with the need for twin wheels.

The 3600 looks like a welcome addition to the ranks of midsize cruisers. You’ll be able to check it out at the fall shows.

In the realm of sexy-Euroyachts-you-don’t-often-see-here, Italy’s Solaris brand ranks near the top. The company’s boats are typically sleek and racy, with low-profile styling, vast semi-flush teak-covered decks and sophisticated construction to decrease weight and increase performance. The latest boat to leave the yard is the Solaris 50, and it’s just the sort of weapon you could see yourself sailing along the Cote d’Azur, with a bevy of supermodels draped around the cockpit and a bottle of bubbly awaiting your attention. Indeed, such boats are the stuff of which dreams are made.

Javier Soto Acebal—who’s drawn his share of fast raceboats, like the Soto 40—is responsible for the lines of this beauty, whose looks are more than skin deep. Sail-control lines run in galleries under the teak deck to two pairs of powered winches in the cockpit, and the standard jib is self-tacking, enabling this powerful yacht to be sailed singlehanded. All desirable cruising amenities are included in the bright, open, three-cabin interior, which has an option for a crew cabin in the bow, and although the hindquarters are low and wide there’s a dinghy garage under the cockpit.

Solaris is actively courting a couple of U.S. customers, so with a bit of luck we will see one of these beauties at the 2016 boat shows.

The action is heating up in the world of performance catamarans, too, with some intriguing new designs popping up. One of these is the Slyder 47, a good-looking fast cruiser in the vein of Catana and Outremer. A true pan-European effort, the 47 is designed by a young Frenchman, Francois Perus, and is built in Italy, with the sales office in Germany and the creative director based in Switzerland.

Built of a carbon-reinforced vinylester resin/e-glass/Corecell foam composite, the boat displaces 18,000lb unladen and features a generous yet easily handled sailplan that should ensure fast passage times. Although it’s a production boat, it can be customized to suit owner preferences. The Slyder 47 has too many interesting features to describe here, but two examples have been sold to U.S. sailors so we hope to be able to sail one of them before too long.

CONTACTS

Slyder Yachts slyder-yachts.com