Small boat on a big ocean: Dehler 30 One Design

Thierry’s on a visit to the Circa Marine yard in Whangarei to inspect progress on the Deo Juvante project.

although Thierry claims top-end speed is not a priority, it is hard to imagine he will always be able to resist opening the throttles and deploying all 1000hp at his disposal. So, just in case, there is also discussion about adding rudder winglets to resist stern-squat at full chat – as long as additional benefit can also be demonstrated at the 11-12 knot cruising sweet spot.

“Thierry is one of those great clients who is constantly bubbling with enthusiasm,” says Loomes. “He wants a kite, he loves the idea of foil tips on the rudder, he is totally open to ideas. It is a great thing to work with people like that.”

And once Deo Juvante hits the water? A summer circumnavigation of New Zealand and Stewart Island, then Japan via South East Asia, across to Alaska via the Eleutian Islands, down the Pacific coast of South America and on to Antarctica.

“Then call me after two years and I will tell you what we are doing next,” he adds with a smile.

Small boat on a Big Ocean

Words and Sailing Images By Ivor Wilkins An affinity for small boats on big oceans has led Marc Michel and Logan Fraser to bring a new Dehler 30 One Design yacht into the RNZYS fleet with a view to two-handed racing in Squadron and SSANZ events — most notably the 500-mile Three Kings Race, one of the closing events of the club’s 150th anniversary.

Intense lobbying for the addition of a mixed-gender two-handed keelboat event in the 2024 Olympic Games saw a number of production yards developing potential candidates in the 30ft range. Those hopes have recently been dashed with World Sailing and the IOC opting instead for two more sailboard classes.

While Michel only regarded an Olympic campaign as a “very distant” possibility, the flurry of activity in the market did offer a slate of six or seven boats to consider, which quickly narrowed down to a shortlist of three before settling on the Dehler.

“With or without World Sailing or the Olympics, double-handed offshore racing is growing exponentially around the world,” says Michel. “My real goal was to get back to bluewater short-handed racing.

“I have an affinity for small boats and big oceans. I have sailed on maxis in the Sydney-Hobart race and the like and they are bloody scary. I think small boats are relatively safer, providing it is the right boat, and a hell of a lot of fun.”

Both Michel and Fraser have pedigree in this genre. Australian by birth, Michel was chairman of the Short Handed Sailing Association of Australia and completed many events on the East Coast as well as a Lord Howe Island race.

He also finished 3rd in class in the 1991 Melbourne-Osaka race — “in a totally unsuitable Holland 43 with a masthead rig and overlapping, hankon sails”. With Mark Turner, who went on to establish the Extreme Sailing Series, he formed the first non-French pair to compete in the AG2R Transatlantic Race sailed in water-ballasted Figaro 30 one-design yachts.

Michel settled in New Zealand in 2000 to head up sales and marketing for Navman and joined the three-way ownership of the Brett Bakewell-White Z39, BMW Yachtsport, before corporate life took him out of sailing for several years.

Responding to an urge to return to short-handed sailing, he competed for a while in SSANZ events in another unsuitable boat, before beginning a serious search for something more appropriate.

Logan Fraser is a graduate of the RNZYS Youth Training Programme and has campaigned extensively in SSANZ events on the 8m Murray Ross design, C U Later. He also competed in the most recent Round North Island Race and competed on the match race circuit in the Kiwi Match team.

“The Dehler was just the right mix of technology, safety, comfort and speed,” Michel says. “It is a boat you can push hard, but it will still look after you. A huge amount of refinement and thought has gone into this boat.”

Dehler brought Judel/Vrolijk and Speedsailing Rostock into their design team to develop the concept, which Michel says took some inspiration from the Volvo 65 and scaled it down. The result is a sophisticated package.

The hull is built in E-glass with the load-bearing internal structures in carbon-fibre. It features pronounced chines aft flowing forward to a heavily chamfered bow reducing weight on deck but retaining considerable volume in hard running conditions.

“As it heels onto its chine, it develops the beam and wetted surface stability you need,” says Michel. “Add water ballast into that and you have a potent machine. The only limitation is the crew, not the boat.”

The deck-stepped carbon (Axxon Composites) rig is placed well

The Dehler 30 is well-equipped for short-handed racing.

BOAT TEST

The interior is surprisingly roomy and comfortable, the absence of bulkheads and bright surfaces maximising the sense of space.

aft, over a 940kg lead keel and T-bulb, drawing 2.2m. Stability is further assisted with side waterballast tanks carrying 200 litres each.

With the removable carbon prod in place, the long foredeck provides multiple headsail options. The swept single-spreader rig is well supported with shrouds to the gunwales. The twin masthead backstays control bend.

The underwater profile is shallow and clean, with a “stealth drive” retractable shaft and fixed prop activated from the cockpit. This is a winwin, reducing drag under sail, but providing plenty of bite under power, which, in turn means only a 10hp diesel engine is required.

For the sail wardrobe, Michel turned to Evolution Sails which has “invested heavily in supporting double handed racing as an event sponsor.,” he says. “I like what they are doing. They have done a lot of work on reefable headsails that actually work and retain good shape, which is a great asset for short-handed racing.”

The approach, according to Evolution’s Josh Tucker, was for a simple inventory with each sail providing a broad working range. “You don’t want to be changing sails for every small change in windstrength,” he says.

With foredeck space for multiple headsails, a wide selection of options, combinations and crossovers come into play. Working from the front, there are two nylon gennakers, both from the same masthead hoist: one is a big running sail, the other, smaller, flatter slightly heavier an all-purpose design. There is also a panelled, triradial code zero built in Technora fabric.

The J1 headsail is on soft hanks and includes a reefing point that reduces it to a J3 (from 28.5m2 to 21.5m2). Reefing is simple: pull the tack down to the reef point, attach the sheets to the new clew, roll up the loose foot and it zips away into a tidy solution. “We did a dozen or so of these sails for the Round North Island Race and they worked really well,” says Tucker.

A furling J4 jib, which doubles as a storm sail or gennaker staysail, sets on an inner forestay.

The two-reef flat-top main and the jibs are carbon and aramid Element membrane sails. Down the track, an offshore mainsail with three reefs will be added to the inventory. Both mains utilise Ronstan ball-bearing cars, as opposed to bolt ropes. Tucker is a SSANZ stalwart with four Round North Island races, a Round New Zealand race and a race to New Caledonia among an extensive racing resume. He is impressed by the Dehler product.