Jeanneau 42 Deck Saloon

You can't miss the signature eagle-eye windows and sculptured deck lines that announce Jeanneau's groovy new 42DS has arrived in Australia. The styling is the work of Italian designer Vittorio Garroni. And, while DS stands for 'Deck Saloon', the acronym could so easily mean 'designer series'. Even tied to the marina, the chic yacht commands attention.

Nor will you see past the voluminous hull from ocean-racing yacht designer Marc Lombard, who is responsible for penning everything from 100ft maxis to Open 60s through to mini transat yachts. It is especially beamy aft, giving volume where you want it, to a full-width owners' aft cabin with a king-size bed, no less.

What isn't quite so obvious, however, is the new closed-moulding or resin-injected process used to make that signature one-piece deck saloon moulding. The deck has integral strength, which means no bulkheads, pillars, or posts to interrupt your passage through, and time spent within, the super-sized aft cabin.

So there are no prizes for guessing who the new 42DS is meant to mollycoddle. With just two double cabins, each with en suites, this yacht is the antipathy of Jeanneau's Sun Odyssey charter specials.

The yacht comes standard with in-mast furling and a snap-to-tack 120 per cent genoa. You can then add an electric halyard winch, which this yacht's owners were going to do, along with electronics, a rubber ducky and outboard, a barbecue, bimini, and dodger.

Leave the cockpit to go forward and you will experience unfettered access along wide walkways that lead all the way to the bow. Meanwhile, there are twin wheels for a good view forward and a walkthrough transom.

Water lovers will welcome the moulded steps leading down to the ocean. And the open transom also assists with collecting guests and provisioning.

 So, as you can see, there is a lot to embrace on the latest deck saloon from Jeanneau. While it is the smallest model in the dashing DS series, the 42DS is no minnow. Think space, think volume, think head room, big beds and comforts for you and, should you wish, another cruising couple. And, yes, do think style, for this is surely Jeanneau's most contemporary yacht in the series.

SAILING NORTH
Fresh off the ship, the new 42DS - the first in Australia - was sailed from Sydney Harbour to Pittwater. The owners, Donald and Margaret Campbell, were aboard for the maiden voyage. Though it was a quasi-coastal passage the wind could just as easily have carried us further afield.

With five adults in the cockpit we never felt cramped and the conversations flowed like the wake astern. Meanwhile, I did my best to hook into the ridiculously gusty westerly wind. One minute: a hat overboard, a reef in the main, 20-plus knots. The next: knocks from just eight knots.

En route, while enjoying the helm, which is so balanced the yacht almost sails itself, I got talking to the Campbells, who were only too happy to share their sailing experiences thus far. After owning a Folk boat, they tried a powerboat, which they said was just too boring, before buying a Jeanneau 37 Sun Odyssey, and now this 42DS version.

What they wanted above all else were more comforts and a yacht to assuage another couple. The two cabins, each with an en suite, will be perfect for that. Each couple has the run of one end of the boat. Meet in the middle, the deck saloon for dinner, and live up top by day.

Though their terrestrial home is by the harbour, the Campbells are Pittwater sailors. No ships or ferries to contend with and less crowds, says Margaret, who adds that an awful lot of thought had gone into choosing this 42DS.

By the end of the process, they were so convinced they had the right yacht that they bought it sight unseen - which is something Margaret says she wouldn't even consider with a $10 purchase, let alone one nearing $400,000.

DECKED OUT
Jeanneau's 42 Deck Saloons are built in a special new factory to Category A for eight people in open seas where the winds are greater than near-gale Force 8 and waves range to more than four metres. Construction is GRP with a resin-infused deck with balsa coring. The bulkheads in the boat are glassed in and there's a full internal grid liner or moulded pan for added stiffness.

The standard yacht has an L-shaped cast iron keel drawing 2.13m, with the option of a shoal draft model drawing 1.6m. Though it's a high volume and very high sides yacht, which gives a good feeling of safety at sea, it's well ballasted, having a ballast ratio of 32.9 per cent with the Selden furling mast, around which the yacht was designed. That's not always the case with furling mainsail rigs. A traditional battened main is optional.

The high-aspect alloy rig is deck-stepped and fractional, about seven-eighths, with twin swept-back spreaders and backstays, cable rigging and split shrouds. There's a rigid boom vang or rod kicker and concealed halyards leading back to the cockpit via Spinlock jammers. To reef the batten-less Dacron mainsail is no more difficult than winding the sail in using one of the two Harken two-speed 40 halyard winches on the cabin top. The two reefing positions are marked on the sail's foot out from its concealed tack.

The primary winches are Harken two-speed 46s and, so as to assist with shorthanded sailing, they're located within reach of each leather-bound wheel. The short overlapping headsail further assists tacking, while an extra-wide traveller on the cabin top gives wide mainsail sheeting angles. This is a boon as the 42DS derives a lot of its power from its main. The largish sail plan might also lend the yacht to twilight racing.

 When the wind doesn't blow, a new-generation 4E Series 54hp Yanmar can be called on to propel the yacht to as much as 9.5kts and a comfortable continuous eight knots at about 2200rpm. The optional three-blade folding prop helps improve pointing angles compared to sailing a fixed number. And with the optional bowthruster fitted, the job of leaving the marina is a cinch.

A good word about the servicing room around the Yanmar: Thanks to the resin-infused deck and open-plan aft cabin the motor more or less lives in a moulded pod. As such, you can get to all sides of it and remove inspections panels to easily check the gearbox and dripless (30mm) shaft seal, perform oil checks and changes, clear the sea strainer of weed, and tackle routine servicing tasks. Similarly, the wiring looms and most other engineering items are all easily accessed throughout the Jeanneau.

In the cockpit, when at anchor, the large moulded pedestal and teak dinette with folding leaves beckons. There is handy storage space for personal items inside the table base and room behind it, before the helm to mount a chartplotter and autopilot. Underway, the table base acts as a handy footrest when the yacht is healing, which is just as well considering the width of the cockpit.

Besides the usual longitudinal cockpit seats, which each double as daybeds, there are two raised seats before the halyard winches. These would be sheltered once a dodger is added. Together, there is definitely enough seating for the eight-person capacity. So imagine the room with just two couples on board.

Additionally, there are small teak-topped side steps that can double as seats outside of the cockpit. And it's upon stepping outside of it that you realise just what an easy boat the 42DS is to get around in. The split shrouds create broad walk-around side decks and there is non-skid on the cabin top and toe rails with trendy inline fairleads. The pad-eyes can also be used for lifelines.

There's room to stow the tender on the flat moulded foredeck. A split bowroller with wonderfully deep anchor locker, windlass and pulpit head the yacht. Aft, the sail and life raft lockers under the cockpit seats are huge. A port-side aft locker grants access to the steering gear and you get a twin gas bottle locker as well. Of course, there's a hot/cold deck shower, swim ladder, shorepower and cockpit stereo speakers.

In respect of capacities, the boat has a separate engine-start and house battery system, 355lt hot/cold water system with separate tanks under the double beds, which is enough water for more than a week thanks to the usual saltwater manual pump loos, 130lt of fuel, and a terrific new top-loading 140lt fridge/freezer. Which brings us to the indoors.

INSIDE THE DECK SALOON
From the base of the companionway steps it's a short reach to the fiddle rails tracing the U-shaped galley conveniently located to starboard. Besides having a big capacity, the fridge, which is destined to feature on all future Jeanneau yachts, features a neat polypropylene insert with dividers and baskets and a decent freezer tray for a steak or two.

You also get a huge sink and gimballed two-burner gas oven/stove/grill, crockery cupboards and cutlery drawers, and a plenty of accommodating subfloor compartments for stowing long-term provisions. A glass splashback adds to the style and an opening port provides ventilation. In fact, there are 10 opening hatches with fly screens that, together with the deck saloon windows, create a light and bright ambience below decks.

 Timber ceiling clutch rails, which range forward to the dinette then mast compression post, assist with access in a seaway. While predominantly teak with a touch of moabi wood on the surrounds, the satin joinery is nice and light. There are non-skid faux timber floors and upholstery is a cream vinyl, while the headliners in the cabins were mostly moulded. Headroom is lofty throughout the boat. The nav station to port has room to mount a chartplotter, radios and autopilot alongside the comfy curved fore-and-aft seat before the chart table. The AC/DC panel, a Sony sound system, and more storage space are nearby.

You'll also find the switchable water/fuel/volts gauge. Further storage is nearby in the saloon side lockers and underbunk voids. Add the sub-floor spaces and there's a catacomb of storage space to appease cruising aspirants.

Though a two-cabin boat, the port-side saloon lounge and U-shaped settee opposite are both long enough to use as impromptu beds or, more likely, sea berths. There is the factory option of having a convertible dinette to make a double bed. Bookshelves are nearby, ready for your cruising tomes.

BEDS AND HEADS
The private suite in the bow is destined to be the domain of guests. There's a deceptive amount of room, a big vee-shaped double bed and full headroom, side pockets and a hanging locker with three drawers for storage. An overhead hatch provides fresh air. The moulded en suite is similarly generous, featuring a moulded vanity, manual marine head, hot/cold handheld shower, and plenty of storage for personal effects.

The owner's aft cabin in the 42DS has enough headroom to dress after you come inside and almost a metre of head room over the massive 197cm by 196cm king-size bed. Along with a hanging locker, storage shelves and shoe locker, trick reading lights and hatches for cross-flow ventilation, there are his and hers two-seater lounges flanking the big bed.

A door leads from the aft cabin into the port-side en suite, which has a second door back out to the saloon, thereby doubling as a dayhead. Besides the manual head, which you can option to a push-button electric number, there's a huge amount of moulded floor space where a shower curtain pulls around a track and a wall-mounted handheld shower rose. The vanity is kind of chic, too, with an 85lt holding tank taking up the wall cavity. All set to sail.

COASTAL CRUISING
Off North Head, I could see all the way north past the unfurling headsail, through the crisp autumn air, to the central coast in the distance. My mind wandered further north where, given the rare commodity of time, we could have kept sailing on the warm westerly wind and sparkling sea. Train the bow on a distant waypoint, cut the motor, set sail, engage the autopilot, put the alarm on the radar and voila - cruising the modern way.

But disaster struck not long into the fanciful journey. My French Legionnaires-style hat took to the wind in a 20kt gust. We reef, which is no more difficult than furling the mainsail to a point marked on its foot, and continued hatless. Somewhere along the way I glanced down at the handheld GPS, which registered 7.8kts on the sprightly beam reach. The yacht felt solid.

Then the wind died and our otherwise speedy passage was wracked by fickle shifts and puffs. About three-and-a-half hours later we reached our next port of call, Pittwater, where the 42DS will spend its immediate life.

While it has been said that you need to go no further than Pittwater, Jeanneau's 42DS opens up much greater possibilities and the coast is your oyster. Here is an ideal off-the-shelf production yacht on which one or two couples can cruise to Queensland and back home again.

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