Hanse 320

Baby boomer

It's usual that after a yacht race, especially a social race of the owners' regatta ilk, that one heads fairly directly to the yacht club for a couple of convivial lagers and to tell a few stories of the day's events, right?

Not so this time. We rounded the committee boat on finishing our second of two races aboard the new Hanse 320, tacked, and headed straight back up the race track into a light nor'easter. Why? Because we were having too much fun to end it. The day was gorgeous, the company more than entertaining and the little Hanse was in its element.

We'd had a race in the morning, anchored for lunch in a lovely bay in Pittwater, started the second race and although we were thoroughly out-gunned by the bigger Hanses, we'd held our own to finish down the back of the fleet but not disgraced, and we were simply not ready to head home yet.

On board was Damien from the Hanse distributors Windcraft, Macca from Perth and myself. We're all yachties and although we were offered a bigger boat for all or part of the Hanse Regatta, we chose the baby of the fleet, the all-new Hanse 320.

The 320 is a cracker of a little boat. Its overall size belies the interior volume and solid feel of the boat which seems for all the world more like a 34 or 35-footer. Its two-cabin layout, roomy cockpit and ample decks give it a real feeling of spaciousness and it would certainly make a great weekend cruiser for a couple or even more.

ON DECK
The 320 is a pretty little boat and I've always been of the belief that if a boat looks good, it probably goes just as well. This 320 is no exception. Designed by Judel/Vrolijk and Co, the 320 is well proportioned with a highish freeboard, wide 10ft8in beam and a broad transom (hence the roomy interior and big cockpit). It has a tall two-spreader rig (in fact it's quoted as being 48ft5in above the waterline which is big for a 32-footer), a long boom and the traditional Hanse self-tacking jib.

Other quality items I noted were the adjustable backstay and solid boom vang as standard. These are often optional extras on smaller cruising boats, but not on the Hanse 320.

In standard form, the 320 doesn't have a mainsheet traveller, but Windcraft have “Australianised” it and added a traveller just forward of the wheel. It's a good addition and one that doesn't really encroach on the cockpit space. I believe it makes the boat a little more easy to handle rather than having the main sheeted in the middle of the cockpit as it is ex-factory.

As with most modern boats, all the control lines come aft to two largish self-tailing Lewmar winches on the cabin top. The jib sheet is designed to come back to the starboard side cabin-top winch but as Damien pointed out, if you are sailing short or single-handed, you can bring it back to the primary winch on the starboard side.

I found getting around the boat was a breeze thanks to the wide decks and outboard-mounted chainplates; this leaves a clear passage to the foredeck. Once there, I found a big anchor locker with a substantial electric anchor winch and an offset fairlead for the anchor.

The boat is rigged to take a larger headsail with tracks on the deck and the big primary winches. This would be a good idea if you wanted to belt it around a twilight track as we found the little headie a bit small for the light airs we encountered on test day.

That said, the 320 is no slug. We registered 5.5 to 6kts on the breeze and over eight on a reach - and this was in no better than 12kts of breeze.

The boat is also very manoeuvrable. The big wheel and rack and pinion steering gear combined with the deep spade rudder allow the boat to be turned virtually on its own length. Most impressive.

Windcraft has decided to go for the bigger engine option in the 320 so it's nearly overpowered with a 30hp Yanmar 3YM30 driving through a saildrive to a three-blade folding prop. Expect a top speed under power of nearly eight knots, but it's quite happy to cruise around at six knots with a very efficient fuel burn of around two litres per hour.

DOWN BELOW
Hanse has a reputation as being very modern, even avant-garde in its interior design, but this boat is somewhat more traditional than other Hanses I've sailed. It is a standard two-cabin setup with the pick of the two probably being the aft cabin. It has a big double berth with hanging lockers and plenty of storage for your gear. The forward V-berth is quite comfortable, but you wouldn't want to be too much over six feet tall or you'll be hanging over the end. It, too, has good storage and a hanging locker.

The single head is roomy and there's a hot and cold shower to rinse off the salt.

The galley is a traditional U-shaped affair with a deep, top-opening fridge, a two-burner gas stove with oven and a double sink. There's a good deal of storage for food and hardware, and it's well ventilated with opening windows and hatches.

Another nice touch is the starboard lounge which has a pull-down armrest converting it into two chairs. The port side is a semi-wraparound affair and the dinging table folds up so you could sit five comfortably for dinner.

The interior is light and airy thanks in part to the inclusion of through-hull windows. It's certainly not a pokey interior and this is where some of the smaller European boats have given away ground to the US boats which all seem to have bigger interiors. Not so now. Thanks to the high freeboard there is also plenty of headroom and I didn't find myself having to duck to get anywhere around the interior of this boat.

The interior is trimmed in a classic mahogany style with nice touches like the wooden window surrounds. There is an option for the wooden trim to be either an American cherrrywood or teak which would further lighten the interior.

SAILING ON
One of the reasons I wanted to continue sailing after our race was that I wanted to test the stiffness of the Hanse. With that tall rig, long boom and 9/10 fractional jib, I thought it might be a bit tender and as the breeze was trying its best to build, I thought we'd go and have a look for a bit more.

The 320 has a cast iron keel with a bulb on the bottom and a draft of 5ft7in. The ballast is quoted at 1480kg out of a displacement of 5200kg which I thought might be a bit light on, but the Hanse seemed to find its happiest angle of heel and stay there. We even tried to the move the mobile ballast (us) to leeward, but it had little effect in the seabreeze that topped out in the low to mid teens.

Suffice to say that even though we didn't get a decent gust, it seemed to be a pretty stiff little boat. There is a shallow draft version that can be ordered with an increase in ballast to 1700kg, but unless you really need it, I'd be sticking to the deeper keel.

As with all of these breeds of boat, the Hanse 320 is a cinch to sail due to the obvious advantage of the self-tacking headie.

Windraft has also been pretty thoughtful about the placement of the mainsheet traveller controls which face back to the helmsman so he can adjust it easily from his or her position at the wheel.

The boat tacks beautifully and points quite high for its design. On a reach it's a gem and tracks nice and straight.

I'd love to try it with a number one headsail or even a gennaker, but then that can wait for another day.

In all, I gave the 320 the thumbs up as a lovely, very cost effective, little weekender or even coastal cruiser. Testament to that was when we were offered to swap our little boat after the first race and hop on a bigger 40-plus footer with all the trick sails. We declined.

LOWS