Hanse 341

Rolf Vrolijk is very much a man of the hour in international yacht racing, following the dominance of this year's America's Cup by the yacht he was responsible for designing. A Dutch national who has lived for many years in Germany, Vrolijk was recruited by the Swiss Alinghi challenge after his design Bravo Espana showed potential for its Spanish team in 2000. In February, Alinghi whipped the New Zealand defenders five races to nil in an outstanding performance.

Vrolijk is hardly a new face at the forefront of racing yacht design. He has been involved with many high profile and successful yachting campaigns over the past few decades, particularly Admiral's Cuppers during the heyday of the offshore racing regatta for national teams.

In partnership with Friedrich Judel, Vrolijk established one of the major yacht design firms in Europe, and he professes to have designed "hundreds of sailing boats - I don't know how many".

Quite a number have been for mass production rather than the specialised (and super expensive) custom-building realm of the Admiral's and America's Cups.

In recent years, one of Judel/Vrolijk's developing relationships has been with Hanse Yachts, a German production-yacht manufacturer based in Greifswald, a Baltic town with a long tradition of boatbuilding in what used to be East Germany. Hanse Yachts was established by Michael Schmidt, one of Germany's top yacht-racing campaigners, after the nation's reunification in 1989.

The current Hanse range includes four models from 31-41ft, all designed by Judel/Vrolijk, and larger models are on the drawing board.

According to Peter Hrones, the Sydney-based Australian distributor for Hanse, the company built around 250 yachts in 2001 and has been doubling in size annually over the past four years to become the second largest yachtbuilder in Germany after Bavaria.

With their conventional, full-bodied cruiser lines and modest rigs, the Hanses could hardly seem further removed from the rarefied world of America's Cup Class (ACC) design. Yet even here Rolf Vrolijk is on a winning streak. At the huge Dusseldorf Boat Show late last year, the Hanse 341 was declared European Yacht of the Year in the 10-12m category, while the Hanse 311 was second to the Beneteau First 27.7 in the under 10m category.

You have to wonder about some of the awards that flow out of the major boat shows these days, but in this case they seem to have been based on a representative selection process with a large judging panel, which appraised sailing ability, interior fitout, craftsmanship, innovation and design, as well as the relationship between price and quality.

We test sailed the smaller Hanse 311 for the December 20002 issue of Trade-A-Boat and found it a well built, furnished and equipped craft, easily managed by a couple and offering dependable performance under sail or power, although we said "it makes no pretense at being the latest and greatest speed machine".

Since then, Alinghi has gone on to win the America's Cup and Rolf Vrolijk has climbed the yachting celebrity ladder, but judging from our recent sail on the Hanse 341, the only impact on the Hanse range is higher public recognition for the design team.

Don't expect a towering rig, coffee grinders to operate the winches or a torpedo bulb at the base of a long, thin keel. Do expect a comfortable and cosy interior, which is something you won't find on Alinghi or any other ACC racer I can recall.

Like the 311, the Hanse 341 is essentially a sturdy and voluminous family cruiser/club racer with an easily managed rig and no pretensions to lightning performance. It has a smaller cockpit and a larger interior than some locally produced yachts of comparable size - reflecting its cold climate heritage, probably - and there's nothing flashy or streamlined about its profile, with the long coachhouse being quite traditional in appearance.

The 341 offers the option of competitive club and/or coastal passage racing under IMS or IRC handicap, or relaxed cruising and twilighting.

CONSTRUCTION AND HARDWARE
The yacht is built to the CE Category A (Ocean), and is quality assurance certified by the German Lloyd's organisation.

Hull construction is solid fibreglass (GRP) to the waterline, with end-grain balsa/GRP sandwich topsides and deck. The hull and deck join is through-bolted and all bulkheads are glassed in top and bottom. The separate inner ceiling moulding is finished with padded vinyl headliner panels that can pull out to provide access to the deck fittings. Cabin doors are foam sandwich construction and are set on hinges that allow easy removal if preferred.

The standard specification includes a pressurised hot water system, 12V refrigeration, dacron mainsail and headsail on a Facnor twinfoil roller furler, Simrad log and depth instruments and Plastimo binnacle compass, Lewmar and Gebo hatches, Harken winches, stainless steel 60lt toilet holding tank, plus basic safety and mooring equipment.

Options include a spinnaker package (priced at $2780) and a couple of keel variations. The standard keel is a cast-iron fin attached with stainless steel keel bolts, while the rudder is on an alloy rudder shaft. A lead bulb shallow keel drawing 1.55m is available for an extra $2400, while a swing keel option drawing 1.02-1.80m with twin rudders can be included for an extra $15,500.

The standard engine is a 19hp Volvo Penta saildrive unit, located under the companionway. More powerful options are available up to 28hp. The standard propeller is a fixed two-blade model, with a two-blade folding prop available for an additional $980.

ON DECK
The rig is seven/eighths fractional with anodised aluminium Sparcraft mast (deck-stepped) and boom, supported by two sets of swept-back spreaders, shrouds and lowers. The backstay is adjustable with block and tackle, as is the boom vang.

The mainsail has Rutgerson battcars, which reduce load on the halyard and make raising and lowering the sail simple and quick. It is set up with lazyjacks and boom bag (or stack pack, as Peter Hrones calls it).

There is only one headsail sheet for the self-tacker, leading to a car on the foredeck traveller, up to a turning block on the mast and then back down to the deck and aft to one of the two Harken 40 self-tailing winches at the rear end of the coachhouse. These also serve duty with the mainsheet (the main traveller is forward on the coachhouse), halyards and sail control lines.

There are also two Harken 40 self-tailing primary winches mounted on the cockpit coamings in case a conventional headsail set-up is preferred, or for running spinnakers. Moulded into the cockpit coamings to either side further aft, within reach of the helm, are mounting spaces for additional (optional) winches, in case a cockpit traveller is preferred for the mainsheet (better for racing and singlehanded sailing) and/or for spinnakers.

As it is, with the mainsheet forward the boat would be a handful for singlehanding (until you mounted an autohelm on the Whitlock steering binnacle, that is) but is well set up for sailing by a couple, with one behind the helm and the other at the forward end of the cockpit, where there is a generous-sized teak bridgedeck at the top of the companionway.

Although it isn't particularly big, the cockpit has a protected feeling largely due to the enclosed transom, which does not open for direct access to the boarding platform and swim ladder at the stern. The teak-laid cockpit seats are comfortable.

There are storage lockers under the seats, including a very large locker on the port side, which is also accessible from inside the yacht, through a door at the aft end of the bathroom.

BRIGHT AND SHINY
As on the 311, the most striking feature when you first step below on the 341 is the colour and shine of the interior joinery. The marine plywood and foam sandwich fitout is finished with mahogany veneers, treated with a two-pack varnish for a high-gloss shine that seems to emphasise the russet tone of the wood.

The cabin floors throughout are synthetic teak/holly veneer. (A neat gizmo is the suction cap supplied to lift the floor inspection hatches, which circumvents the need for lifting eyes.) Rattan doors on the saloon cupboards and cabin wardrobes look good while also promoting ventilation.

The standard interior layout provides two private double sleeping cabins, one in the bow and the other in the starboard quarter, with the port quarter allocated to storage space and accessible from the cockpit and through the bathroom. An alternative layout (priced at an additional $5300) transforms the aft quarters into two mirror-image double cabins divided along the centreline.

The forward cabin provides a long double V-berth, with shelves either side along the hull and two storage lockers at the aft end, comprising a hanging locker to port and a three-shelf wardrobe to starboard. Under the bunk is the polyethyene freshwater tank.

The second private cabin in the starboard aft quarter has a generous-sized double berth and a hanging locker at the outboard forward end. The stainless steel fuel tank with shut-off valves is under the bunk.

The saloon is quite elegant in appearance and function. On the starboard side is a U-shaped lounge surrounding a timber table with a large base that doubles as the drinks cabinet. There is the option of a dropleaf extension (not included on the test yacht). Opposite on the port side are two large single seats to either side of the navigation table, which may not be big enough to satisfy traditionalists who prefer a bigger, single-purpose nav station, but should be adequate for the type of sailing that most buyers are actually likely to do with the boat.

Outboard of the table is wall space for the electrics panel, radios and navigation electronics, which can be mounted on a cupboard door that is part of the panelling, allowing easy access to the wiring at the back of the instruments.

The galley at the starboard aft end of the saloon has two round stainless steel sinks with hot/cold pressurised water supply, a two-burner Triton stainless steel stove and oven. The top-loading fridge (cooled by a 12V Waeco unit) is large capacity. Stainless steel trim insulates the surrounds of the fridge and oven. All available space is dedicated to storage cupboards and drawers.

The bathroom compartment opposite on the port side is big for a boat of this size and contains the manual marine toilet (with holding tank), vanity unit and hot/cold pressurised water to the washbasin and separate shower. There is a large hanging locker for wet weather gear, etc, and access through to the big aft storage area.

UNDER SAIL
We were fortunate to get a decent breeze for this sail on Sydney's Pittwater. The 5-15kt southerly was already quite gusty, and to the north of Scotland Island it was funnelling into bullets of 20kt or more.

Under full mainsail and jib, the 341 proved easy to manage by two people; the self-tacking headsail took all the effort out of tacking and gybing and will be particularly appreciated when sailing shorthanded.

The 341 was lively and responsive to the helm on all points of sail, though it did exhibit noticeable windward helm, which would need some rig tuning to iron out. Sailing upwind, the boat also had a tendency to round up into the wind when hard-pressed in the strongest bullets; beyond a certain point the rudder would 'let go', which signified that we had too much sail up for the gusts. A bunch of crew on the rail would make a big difference, of course. Those mainsail battcars should help with reefing.

My personal choice of layout for a boat of this size would be a cockpit mainsheet traveller and a tiller, although there's no doubt that the coachhouse-mounted traveller provides a clearer cockpit and Peter Hrones says that 90% of potential buyers ask for wheel steering. Because of that, he is including this option in the Hanse 341's standard price.

Which in total probably wouldn't even buy you the steering system for one of those America's Cup boats designed by Rolf Vrolijk. Let's just say there's no comparison between the two, even if they do share a designer. But if you're in the market for a medium-sized cruiser/club racer and you're not a Swiss billionaire, the Hanse 341 certainly represents better value.

Highs
A very attractive and relatively spacious interior for cruising, although the two-cabin version may not be so well suited to coastal races such as the Pittwater-Coffs.
Easy to handle two-handed.

Lows
In need of some rig tuning to iron out the windward helm, does not like to be hard pressed under sail and will round up fairly readily when over-canvassed.
Will the high-gloss finish be high maintenance?

Rolf Vrolijk is very much a man of the hour in international yacht racing, following the dominance of this year's America's Cup by the yacht he was responsible for designing. A Dutch national who has lived for many years in Germany, Vrolijk was recruited by the Swiss Alinghi challenge after his design Bravo Espana showed potential for its Spanish team in 2000. In February, Alinghi whipped the New Zealand defenders five races to nil in an outstanding performance.

Vrolijk is hardly a new face at the forefront of racing yacht design. He has been involved with many high profile and successful yachting campaigns over the past few decades, particularly Admiral's Cuppers during the heyday of the offshore racing regatta for national teams.

In partnership with Friedrich Judel, Vrolijk established one of the major yacht design firms in Europe, and he professes to have designed "hundreds of sailing boats - I don't know how many".

Quite a number have been for mass production rather than the specialised (and super expensive) custom-building realm of the Admiral's and America's Cups.

In recent years, one of Judel/Vrolijk's developing relationships has been with Hanse Yachts, a German production-yacht manufacturer based in Greifswald, a Baltic town with a long tradition of boatbuilding in what used to be East Germany. Hanse Yachts was established by Michael Schmidt, one of Germany's top yacht-racing campaigners, after the nation's reunification in 1989.

The current Hanse range includes four models from 31-41ft, all designed by Judel/Vrolijk, and larger models are on the drawing board.

According to Peter Hrones, the Sydney-based Australian distributor for Hanse, the company built around 250 yachts in 2001 and has been doubling in size annually over the past four years to become the second largest yachtbuilder in Germany after Bavaria.

With their conventional, full-bodied cruiser lines and modest rigs, the Hanses could hardly seem further removed from the rarefied world of America's Cup Class (ACC) design. Yet even here Rolf Vrolijk is on a winning streak. At the huge Dusseldorf Boat Show late last year, the Hanse 341 was declared European Yacht of the Year in the 10-12m category, while the Hanse 311 was second to the Beneteau First 27.7 in the under 10m category.

You have to wonder about some of the awards that flow out of the major boat shows these days, but in this case they seem to have been based on a representative selection process with a large judging panel, which appraised sailing ability, interior fitout, craftsmanship, innovation and design, as well as the relationship between price and quality.

We test sailed the smaller Hanse 311 for the December 20002 issue of Trade-A-Boat and found it a well built, furnished and equipped craft, easily managed by a couple and offering dependable performance under sail or power, although we said "it makes no pretense at being the latest and greatest speed machine".

Since then, Alinghi has gone on to win the America's Cup and Rolf Vrolijk has climbed the yachting celebrity ladder, but judging from our recent sail on the Hanse 341, the only impact on the Hanse range is higher public recognition for the design team.

Don't expect a towering rig, coffee grinders to operate the winches or a torpedo bulb at the base of a long, thin keel. Do expect a comfortable and cosy interior, which is something you won't find on Alinghi or any other ACC racer I can recall.

Like the 311, the Hanse 341 is essentially a sturdy and voluminous family cruiser/club racer with an easily managed rig and no pretensions to lightning performance. It has a smaller cockpit and a larger interior than some locally produced yachts of comparable size - reflecting its cold climate heritage, probably - and there's nothing flashy or streamlined about its profile, with the long coachhouse being quite traditional in appearance.

The 341 offers the option of competitive club and/or coastal passage racing under IMS or IRC handicap, or relaxed cruising and twilighting.

CONSTRUCTION AND HARDWARE
The yacht is built to the CE Category A (Ocean), and is quality assurance certified by the German Lloyd's organisation.

Hull construction is solid fibreglass (GRP) to the waterline, with end-grain balsa/GRP sandwich topsides and deck. The hull and deck join is through-bolted and all bulkheads are glassed in top and bottom. The separate inner ceiling moulding is finished with padded vinyl headliner panels that can pull out to provide access to the deck fittings. Cabin doors are foam sandwich construction and are set on hinges that allow easy removal if preferred.

The standard specification includes a pressurised hot water system, 12V refrigeration, dacron mainsail and headsail on a Facnor twinfoil roller furler, Simrad log and depth instruments and Plastimo binnacle compass, Lewmar and Gebo hatches, Harken winches, stainless steel 60lt toilet holding tank, plus basic safety and mooring equipment.

Options include a spinnaker package (priced at $2780) and a couple of keel variations. The standard keel is a cast-iron fin attached with stainless steel keel bolts, while the rudder is on an alloy rudder shaft. A lead bulb shallow keel drawing 1.55m is available for an extra $2400, while a swing keel option drawing 1.02-1.80m with twin rudders can be included for an extra $15,500.

The standard engine is a 19hp Volvo Penta saildrive unit, located under the companionway. More powerful options are available up to 28hp. The standard propeller is a fixed two-blade model, with a two-blade folding prop available for an additional $980.

ON DECK
The rig is seven/eighths fractional with anodised aluminium Sparcraft mast (deck-stepped) and boom, supported by two sets of swept-back spreaders, shrouds and lowers. The backstay is adjustable with block and tackle, as is the boom vang.

The mainsail has Rutgerson battcars, which reduce load on the halyard and make raising and lowering the sail simple and quick. It is set up with lazyjacks and boom bag (or stack pack, as Peter Hrones calls it).

There is only one headsail sheet for the self-tacker, leading to a car on the foredeck traveller, up to a turning block on the mast and then back down to the deck and aft to one of the two Harken 40 self-tailing winches at the rear end of the coachhouse. These also serve duty with the mainsheet (the main traveller is forward on the coachhouse), halyards and sail control lines.

There are also two Harken 40 self-tailing primary winches mounted on the cockpit coamings in case a conventional headsail set-up is preferred, or for running spinnakers. Moulded into the cockpit coamings to either side further aft, within reach of the helm, are mounting spaces for additional (optional) winches, in case a cockpit traveller is preferred for the mainsheet (better for racing and singlehanded sailing) and/or for spinnakers.

As it is, with the mainsheet forward the boat would be a handful for singlehanding (until you mounted an autohelm on the Whitlock steering binnacle, that is) but is well set up for sailing by a couple, with one behind the helm and the other at the forward end of the cockpit, where there is a generous-sized teak bridgedeck at the top of the companionway.

Although it isn't particularly big, the cockpit has a protected feeling largely due to the enclosed transom, which does not open for direct access to the boarding platform and swim ladder at the stern. The teak-laid cockpit seats are comfortable.

There are storage lockers under the seats, including a very large locker on the port side, which is also accessible from inside the yacht, through a door at the aft end of the bathroom.

BRIGHT AND SHINY
As on the 311, the most striking feature when you first step below on the 341 is the colour and shine of the interior joinery. The marine plywood and foam sandwich fitout is finished with mahogany veneers, treated with a two-pack varnish for a high-gloss shine that seems to emphasise the russet tone of the wood.

The cabin floors throughout are synthetic teak/holly veneer. (A neat gizmo is the suction cap supplied to lift the floor inspection hatches, which circumvents the need for lifting eyes.) Rattan doors on the saloon cupboards and cabin wardrobes look good while also promoting ventilation.

The standard interior layout provides two private double sleeping cabins, one in the bow and the other in the starboard quarter, with the port quarter allocated to storage space and accessible from the cockpit and through the bathroom. An alternative layout (priced at an additional $5300) transforms the aft quarters into two mirror-image double cabins divided along the centreline.

The forward cabin provides a long double V-berth, with shelves either side along the hull and two storage lockers at the aft end, comprising a hanging locker to port and a three-shelf wardrobe to starboard. Under the bunk is the polyethyene freshwater tank.

The second private cabin in the starboard aft quarter has a generous-sized double berth and a hanging locker at the outboard forward end. The stainless steel fuel tank with shut-off valves is under the bunk.

The saloon is quite elegant in appearance and function. On the starboard side is a U-shaped lounge surrounding a timber table with a large base that doubles as the drinks cabinet. There is the option of a dropleaf extension (not included on the test yacht). Opposite on the port side are two large single seats to either side of the navigation table, which may not be big enough to satisfy traditionalists who prefer a bigger, single-purpose nav station, but should be adequate for the type of sailing that most buyers are actually likely to do with the boat.

Outboard of the table is wall space for the electrics panel, radios and navigation electronics, which can be mounted on a cupboard door that is part of the panelling, allowing easy access to the wiring at the back of the instruments.

The galley at the starboard aft end of the saloon has two round stainless steel sinks with hot/cold pressurised water supply, a two-burner Triton stainless steel stove and oven. The top-loading fridge (cooled by a 12V Waeco unit) is large capacity. Stainless steel trim insulates the surrounds of the fridge and oven. All available space is dedicated to storage cupboards and drawers.

The bathroom compartment opposite on the port side is big for a boat of this size and contains the manual marine toilet (with holding tank), vanity unit and hot/cold pressurised water to the washbasin and separate shower. There is a large hanging locker for wet weather gear, etc, and access through to the big aft storage area.

UNDER SAIL
We were fortunate to get a decent breeze for this sail on Sydney's Pittwater. The 5-15kt southerly was already quite gusty, and to the north of Scotland Island it was funnelling into bullets of 20kt or more.

Under full mainsail and jib, the 341 proved easy to manage by two people; the self-tacking headsail took all the effort out of tacking and gybing and will be particularly appreciated when sailing shorthanded.

The 341 was lively and responsive to the helm on all points of sail, though it did exhibit noticeable windward helm, which would need some rig tuning to iron out. Sailing upwind, the boat also had a tendency to round up into the wind when hard-pressed in the strongest bullets; beyond a certain point the rudder would 'let go', which signified that we had too much sail up for the gusts. A bunch of crew on the rail would make a big difference, of course. Those mainsail battcars should help with reefing.

My personal choice of layout for a boat of this size would be a cockpit mainsheet traveller and a tiller, although there's no doubt that the coachhouse-mounted traveller provides a clearer cockpit and Peter Hrones says that 90% of potential buyers ask for wheel steering. Because of that, he is including this option in the Hanse 341's standard price.

Which in total probably wouldn't even buy you the steering system for one of those America's Cup boats designed by Rolf Vrolijk. Let's just say there's no comparison between the two, even if they do share a designer. But if you're in the market for a medium-sized cruiser/club racer and you're not a Swiss billionaire, the Hanse 341 certainly represents better value.