Tofinou 9.7 2023 Review

Tifonou is a French brand of fast, premium daysailers that, at a pinch, can double down as extended cruisers with comfy below-deck accommodations.

It is a fairly new brand, having established itself in 1987 on an island off the coast of La Rochelle. Its home adjoins the Bay of Biscay, a body of water known at times for being dangerously unpredictable.

The formerly family-run business – it has recently handed over to new owners – has built more than 550 boats at the rate of around 50 boats a year, with its origins stemming from a single 7.0-metre open dayboat model. 

The Tofinou range extends across four models from the trailerable 8.0-metre Tifonou 8 up to the fully bluewater cruising-capable 15.9-metre Tifonou 16. In a few weeks, it will unveil its first all-electric model, the Tofinu 7.9, that will replace a diesel saildrive with an electric one.

The model we’re looking at, though, is the perfectly Sydney Harbour-sized 9.8-metre Tifonou 9.7, brought into Australia via Ensign Yachts. It’s a boat designed to be as fast short-handed for club racing as it is with an extended crew chasing passage line honours.

Mosman-based Ensign Yatchs has no set price for the Tofinou 9.7, which is appropriate given the somewhat unpredictable exchange rate when converting factory Euros to Australian dollars. However, you could probably expect a price tag well north of $400,000 depending on how you’ve configured your yacht.

You could argue that’s expensive given other French brands could sell you a proper, similar-sized cruising yacht with better below-deck living space for similar money, but just use your eyes to drink in what you get.

The base boat comes with quality stainless steel drop-down cleats, a galley, cushions for the vee berth and benches, four Harken Performa winches, a carbonfibre bowsprit, navigation lights, bilge pump, a Victron battery management system and a 15hp saildrive.

An add-on we like are quick-release mounts for the fenders that allow you to set and forget with ease.

The laundry on our test boat comes via North Sails. At this end of the market, these boats are highly customisable in terms of the sail plan, so you pretty much run what you brung, to coin a phrase.

Tofinu attempts to blend traditional French yacht-making with modern construction, building a range of sailboats that, although they look neo-classical, incorporate finishes that highlight the artesian skills of the people employed in its factory.

The plumb-bowed hulls and decks are made of hand-laid, resin-infused fibreglass and foam sandwich finished in vinyl ester, but the topdecks are transformed into a work of art featuring highly polished dark mahogany and fibreglass contrasted with lighter-coloured, 8.0mm-thick teak for the high-traffic areas.

The use of lightweight materials keeps the displacement down to a handy 2300kg dry, remarkable given the size of this boat.

The mahogany coamings are removable so they don’t need to be touched up or revarnished on the boat.

No visual clutter interrupts the eye as it runs from the bow to the transom. Peugeot Designs, responsible for the layout, has all the lines running back to the cockpit hidden in channels beneath the deck. There are no stanchions or safety lines protruding, and even the cleats slide down to deck level when not in use.

Three different keels are available on the Tofinou 9.7 including lifting, swing and fixed. The lifting and swing keels are operated manually.

The Tofinou 9.7 features a fractional rig consisting of a tall tapered mast with backstay and two spreaders that can run a big 48.0-metre-square sail plan, and a hull that can come with twin rudders instead of just one – unusual in this length of boat, but welcome given the semi-displacement hull’s high-performance potential.

The Tofinou 9.7 is fitted with a 15hp saildrive, but can optionally come with an electric saildrive for those who don’t need to motor far.

The skiff-style design of the Tofinou 9.7 accentuates its 9.87-metre length and 3.0-metre beam, the latter of which is carried a long way forward.

A low coaming separates the working cockpit from a sugar-scoop transom with a lazarette that is clearly optimised for lazier days anchored at your favourite swimming spot.

The cockpit’s shallowness and the low coach house profile running forward make it feel like you sit on the Tofinou 9.7 rather than in it. 

The cockpit is a good size, featuring wide benches with rope lockers below and a flip-up section of floor that doubles as an angled footrest while working upwind. 

Winches for the jib sheets are mounted inboard on binnacles and can easily be accessed from the tiller with separate winches forward for asymmetrical spinnaker work using the carbonfibre bowsprit. All lines enter into the cockpit and feed into dedicated lockers to keep the space uncluttered.

The mainsheet is set on a continuous loop so there is no tail.

The mast stays have protective covers where they meet the deck, adding a sense of quality.

Below decks is accessed via removable washboards and a sliding canopy. Step down, and the low-headroom, minimalist aesthetic cabin features a pair of bunks or sail lockers, depending on need, that extends under the cockpit floor, a pair of lounges, a split galley with stove to port and sink to starboard, and a forward vee berth.

There are no hull windows fitted to the Tofinou 9.7, so natural light comes from a hatch forward of the mast step and the large companionway leading into the cockpit.

Sydney turned it on for our test day providing plenty of sunshine but not much in the way of breeze. Heading out from Rushcutters Bay, the gentle north-easterly is only touching around 10 knots gusting to around 15, and easing.

Our test boat is fitted with race-crafted North Sails 3Di composite sails. The boom is fitted with lazy jacks so hoisting the flaked main is easy, while the telescopic bulb keel below us winds down easily to give extra drive upwind.

In front of us, B&G instruments help tune the sails to help tune the sail plan for maximum performance.

Even in this light breeze, the Tofinou 9.7 is sitting nicely, hitting around 7.0 knots upwind. The tiller is extremely responsive, needing only small adjustments to react to the slight shifts in the light winds.

It’s not the sort of breeze to test the hull’s club racing credentials, but Sean Rush, Ensign Yachts’ chief executive, has had a pretty handy run of class wins already racked up.

The boat sits on a decent hull angle, with the wide bem used effectively to minimise the wetted surface of the flatter planing hull aft.

The cockpit suits two-handed sailing well, with all the controls in easy reach. The boat is fitted with line jammers that are similar to a finger trap – the line pulls in easily and holds fast, but releases at the pull of a toggle. It makes for fast and accurate adjustments and quick tacks via a self-tacking system located in front of the mast.

Coarse trimming on the aft two-speed winches is easy, with finer trimming requiring a winch handle to tune the self-tailing system.

Turn to a reach, and the Tofinou 9.7 hits its strides. We didn’t crack the asymmetric spinnaker on test, but under jib and main the hull rose easily, popping up onto the plane briefly as the almost imperceptible gusts hit and filled the sails. There’s no point in heading dead downwind, as the swept stays limit how far you can send the boom out.

Under motor, the 15hp saildrive is more than enough to push the lightweight Tofinou along at a decent clip, with enough bite from the furling prop to easily slow and stop the hull.

Daysailing is all about enjoying the moment. If part of that involves spending your time on a distinctive yacht that oozes class, nothing can really go past the Tofinou 9.7.

The only compromise is if you also plan to use this boat beyond just a weekend. The lack of adequate below-decks headroom and limited onboard resources means that while it will be comfortable for a night or two, anything beyond will start to lose a bit of its shine.

Still, lifting that club racing trophy up high on presentation night may more than make up for these shortcomings.

Specifications
Model: Tofino 9.7
Length overall: 9.82m
Waterline length: 9.15m
Beam: 2.99m
Weight: 2300kg (dry)/800kg (keel)
Draft: 0.9m (min)/2.10m (max, retractable keel)
Sail area: 19m2 (jib)/28.0m2 (main)
Engine: 15hp saildrive (std)/electric saildrive (opt)/shaftdrive (opt)
Fuel: 25L, diesel
Water: 50L
Accommodations: 4 people/3 berths