Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 36i

We've seen some good times - the dot-com boom, rocketing real-estate prices, a bullish sharemarket and you know what else, a yachting craze. While corrections of the markets and high fuel prices have affected many areas those in the business of building, selling and sailing yachts couldn't be happier. After all, as we are so often reminded, the wind is free.

But lend your ear to long-time sailor and yacht salesman Ron Jacobs, who represents Jeanneau and Sydney Yachts on Pittwater, and you'll get a good-news story for other reasons. "It's a generational thing," Jacobs explains as we set sail for Lion Island, a monolith that stands guard at the entrance to Broken Bay, just north of Sydney.

"Our market is the 50 to 65 year-olds," says Jacobs cranking on a bit more halyard tension on the main. "The baby boomers?" I ask rhetorically. "Exactly. Thanks to them the yacht market is going gangbusters," he adds jumping across the deck to tug on the leachline. Me? Wheel in hand and dreaming about retiring of course.

But with that new demographic of sailors comes a whole new set of wants and wishes and must-have inclusions that are reshaping the yacht industry. And with a new market to satisfy and design parameters we're seeing better and better yachts these days.

Take the latest Sun Odyssey 36i from Jeanneau with two cabins instead of three. Pitched at the baby-boomer market it's sure to attract scrutiny. Though Jacobs says it's the smallest yacht he's prepared to stock in today's bigger-is-better market it's not short on space. Nor is Jeanneau short on fans...

Such are the high times that Jacobs staged a Jeanneau owners' rendezvous on Pittwater the weekend after I tested the 36i. Some 33 Jeanneaus and 120 people turned out. Not bad for a dealership that has been selling Jeanneaus for just five years.

LATEST LINES
Jeanneau is on one hand a contemporary yacht builder, which stands to reason with its French parentage, and on the other resolute about certain specifications. All its yachts are well ballasted, fitted with Yanmar diesel inboards with shaft drives rather than Volvos with saildrives, and models such as the latest 36i, the first in Australia after a European launch last October, designed by Marc Lombard.

Lombard needs no introduction. He's the French naval architect behind shorthanded Mini-Transat yachts, maxis to 140ft, Open 60s that competed in the Vendee Globe, cool French cats and a few production yachts like the Jeanneau. The 36i hull is performance orientated unlike ye Jeanneaus of old that dragged their tails and were lucky to crack 7kts.

Maximising waterline length the 36i has a vertical stem and a wide beam carried a long way aft with lots of buoyancy at the transom. It does everything but drag its tail and with just one cabin instead of two back aft you are assured of keeping weight out of the ends.

 Speaking of weight the "i" in 36i stands for injection-moulded which is what the entire deck of this yacht has thanks to a so-called Prisma Process. This way weight is kept out of the boat, you get surfaces that are easier to clean, while for the ISO9001 and 14001 accredited Jeanneau factory there are environmental and safety benefits. Robotic routers cut all the joinery below further streamlining production.

EASILY SAILED
With the standard 1.94m cast-iron keel, 1571kg of ballast, and loaded with crew and gear, the 36i has a stability curve showing 123 degrees making it pretty stiff for a production-built cruiser-racer. Unladen its 130 degrees. For comparison all yachts in the Sydney to Hobart must have a 118-plus degrees stability figure. So you could race to Hobart.

There is also a Performance version of the 36i with 2.10m deep keel, taller mast and tri-radial Mylar sails with 7.8 per cent greater area, and Dyform rigging and Dyneema low-stretch halyards and sheets if you want to race the yacht. However, even as tested with the new Quantum sails the yacht's performance is, ahem, a quantum leap forward of where the older Jeanneau's with daggy Dacron wardrobe used to be.

You can add stuff like (asymmetrical or symmetrical) spinnaker gear, some of which is factory fitted as part of the Performance version, and a bigger wheel to your 36i. But as a couple's yacht this basic boat was delightfully simple to sail and that's a stipulation of the baby boomer sailing set these days.

The high-aspect fractional twin-spreader rig comprises a deck-stepped Selden alloy stick, solid kicker and, on the demo boat, an optional factory-fitted adjustable 12:1 backstay so you can maximise sail shape and performance in five to 25kts. The yacht flew a standard No.2 furling headsail, a nice cut too, and a battened main with lazyjacks that otherwise lives in a Sunbrella boom bag. In-mast furling main is optional.

Jeanneau considers the 36i could well be sailed by a couple as we did hence the primary genoa sheet winches near the wheel and the single-line reefing system. All halyards lead back to the cabin top where a roof-mounted traveller and a short boom help keep the cockpit clear for social sailing.

OUTDOOR SPACE
Jacobs says Jeanneau offers the biggest cockpit of all the European yachts and the 36i's is a good size for six adults thanks also to the wide-beam aft hull. Most Jeanneaus like this will doubtless be fitted with dodgers and biminis to enhance the outdoor living space, perhaps a factory-fitted optional cockpit table and a barbie as well.

The boat comes with a neat steering pedestal with grab rail, compass, space for gauges and an engine control panel within reach of the wheel. There is also a twin gas-bottle locker for barbie and galley, optional Shorepower and 25amp battery charger.

Of course you'll need a roll-up tender with rigid air floor and outboard (bracket optional). And good news in regards to storing the ducky on this two cabin version is a massive walk-in portside storage room perfect for tender, outboard, tools and victuals, even a freeloader crew person.

 Besides a decent cockpit the 36i has a walkthrough transom with hinged infill panel over the liferaft storage, deck shower (cold-water only is standard) and deep-reach swim ladder. Teak toerails with trendy custom stainless steel fairleads and lifelines trace the contoured non-skid decks. There is a decent anchor locker, optional windlass and twin roller pulpit.

No skimping on the deck gear either. The 36i has Harken two-speed 32 halyard and 40 primary winches, tracks and mast blocks, and Spinlock clutches or jammers. Simplicity on deck is very much the tenet and at 115 per cent the genoa isn't something you wrestle with.

INTERIOR GLOSS
As a two-cabin baby boomer's yacht the 36i is nothing if not roomy on the accommodation, head and galley fronts. Headroom is lofty from 1.8 to 2.0m and there are plenty of big windows, opening hatches (two with fly and shade screens) and ports for fresh air, and natural light.

The oversized galley will appeal to the entertainer while the giant bathroom (it's more than just a yacht's head) makes this a nice 36 for holidaying aboard. With the new injection-moulded deck and router-cut teak joinery featuring solid-timber handholds, architraves, tables and fiddle rails, the finish is excellent but timeless rather than trendy and easily cleaned thanks to teak-and-holy print flooring, vinyl upholstery and moulded surfaces.

There's plenty of scope to add your own touches too using things like scatter cushions, books in the library area, maybe some art on the forward bulkhead. The test boat had a marine stereo/CD player with iPod jack. An LCD television would be nice.

More importantly I could get to all sides of the Yanmar engine that lives in an insulated space under the companionway steps and, I noted, has a dripless seal for its 25mm stainless-steel shaft. Located conveniently and immediately to port of the steps is the head, an exceptional space with separate shower stall, trendy aqua-coloured Plexiglass shower screen, opening port for ventilation and manual-pump loo that can be upgraded to an electric model.

A large hatch in the head leads back aft to the massive storage room with teak cabinetry and drawers. Cruising couples might use the space as a storeroom or workshop. There's the base for an emergency single berth for one crew or a kid too.

On the flipside is the aft double cabin with the usual hanging space and storage for clobber but with more width than either aft cabin in the three-cabin 36i. Still, owners are likely to gravitate to the forward cabin with a vee-shaped double in the bow, plus more hanging and locker space. There's headroom and dressing room at the foot of the beds and, being at either end of the boat, you're assured privacy. 

Appealing to the entertainer and the serious cruising buff, and sure to be appreciated during Hamilton Island Race Week, is the starboard galley. It's alongside the companionway steps so you can send food up top easily and is a giant U-shaped area befitting of something you would expect in much bigger yachts.

There's a trendy glass splashback (but even safety glass is of questionable intelligence in a yacht), abundant food-prep space on a laminated counter, and covers concealing twin sinks and an enormous top-loading 180lt fridge/freezer the same model you will find on Jeanneau's 39.

For serious cruising the yacht has a 355lt water supply split between fore and aft tanks but the holding tank is small at 50lt. The gas stove/oven is a two-burner upgraded with a grill and trendy timber handles. Expensive upgrade though.

The navigation station to port features a new instrument panel with digital watertank gauge and, interestingly, a sliding chart table that, when retracted and an infill added, boosts the length of the settee to that of a short sea berth. Opposite is a small U-shaped lounge and dinette that optioned up create an impromptu double should, worse luck, the offspring want to stay over.

SAIL AWAY
The prevailing 12 to15kts of northerly breeze was to the liking of the 36i and its crew. But we didn't have to cheer at cracking 7kts as we might have in Jeanneaus of old. Instead the slippery yacht clocked 7.5kts and some 8.2kts on a beam reach close to boat speed while heading back from our circumnavigation of Lion Island.

Should the wind fizzle and motorsailing the go, no worries, there's a 29hp Yanmar with (optional) self-feathering three-blade prop and a handy 130lt fuel supply. Ours was only a brief sail but being built to CE Category A for eight the 36i is very much the ocean-going yacht.

It's simple to sail shorthanded, won't round-up dramatically when overpowered, rewards with a hot shower in a separate shower stall, has plenty of galley amenities and a nice big bed at the end of the day. So while you can do those midweek twilight races and Sunday social sails, you should set sail to nearby ports and enjoy the surfeit of space while living aboard.

What more could you want? How about for the worm to turn, the cycle to come back around and for a boom in something I have invested in. Like leisure time. Time for sailing to places is a commodity the baby boomers seem to have plenty of but which we Generation Xers are still working at getting.

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