We're in Sweden - it's nearly the shortest day of the year in the middle of winter.
It's almost dawn and we're driving north for a test sail on a very exciting new boat.
Here she is. It's the Hallberg-Rassy 40C, a beautiful boat first launched two weeks
ago and we're one of the first magazines to get to sail her.
So we've just come out from Orust, we've got full sail up at the moment
with well there's one roll in the jib, we've got 22 knots across the deck
apparent wind or doing 7.8 knots upwind,
it's lovely flat water, it's a great breeze, she's just sailing beautifully.
It's light on the helm, tiniest amount of weather helm but the twin
rudders just feel really smooth, there's no play in the helm at all and she's
just a pleasure to helm. It's very different to the south coast of England
where I'm used to sailing, you've got these granite skerries dotted around and
as you can see we're within a few meters of them but we've got about 17 metres of
water under the keel here so we've got plenty of depth it's just stunning it's
beautiful. If you've never sailed in Sweden, do it. She's really about ease
of sailing so it's all push-button, so by the helm position here I've got the
Genoa winch so I can sheet in and out I can reef the main here, that one's got
the mainsail in-mast reefing, I can control the out haul with a push button,
and the main sheet's just behind me. Yhis boat's got a manual main sheet, oh there we
go, just a little bit of a gust, so with the twin rudders sometimes you hold on
and hold on, when probably on a single rudder boat you'd have eased the sheets a
little bit earlier there.
You don't really need a winch handle at all on this boat, ease the sails and
you're away. Sheet in that Genoa a little bit, perfect.
The nice thing with the centre cockpit boat is you're quite high actually with
a really good view all around you and on this boat all of the controls are
brought onto the console at the wheel. A lot of it is push button control so it's
really easy to use. On the console we've got anchor up and down, autopilot, bow and
stern thrusters, and they're variable speed, you've got the main chartplotter
then you've got genoa in-and-out furling the main furling in
and out, as well as the electronic throttle and you've also got a button
for the control lines, which come back to a powered winch as well up on the
foredeck. One of the key things that makes this a more modern Hallberg-Rassy
is the plumb bow, which is a breakaway from the more raked bow of older
Hallberg-Rassys and the integral bowsprit for setting light wind sails
from. It's also got an integral bow roller for the anchor and the
electric furling drum is below decks to give you maximum sail area and a nice
clean look. Lhen you've got a really good deep anchor locker here, plenty of space for
fenders, and there's a shelf that sits above the anchor locker, which is
brilliant and then moving aft you've also got flush patches around the edges
that drains overboard beneath the waterline so you don't see it at all and
great ventilation as well. At the mast you've got in-mast furling and Selden
Mast, who make the mast, do this really neat electric motor that fits inside the
mast and you can actually get these to retrofit to standard masts and then that
comes up to the Elvstrom membrane sail apex sail which is fully battened
with vertical battens so you get a really good sail shape. The halyards are
led aft under the deck, which keeps them really neat and they just come back on
one side and go back to an electric winch so it's all push-button and then
you've got the typical Hallberg-Rassy split shroud base so it keeps the side
decks nice and clear with the inners coming to the inner side and the cap
shrouds coming down outboard, so it's really easy to walk aft.
Moving aft there's this nice step because the combing is very wide, so that
makes it much easier to get over into the cockpit. There's a walkthrough below
decks under here to get into the aft cabin so the step also provides a
housing for an electric winch, so that doesn't impinge then on the head space
for the walkthrough. On the rear coaming here after the helm station
you've got the main sheet with the adjustable traveller, so that's within
easy reach of the helmsman. It's a nice little detail and then you've also got
on either side these absolutely cavernous deck lockers. They've
got a drain in the bottom of them, so you can put wet things in there fill it with
fenders, paddleboards, engines, barbecues, whatever you want to put in there.
We've also got a fold-down transom here it's not full-height, and that's for
two reasons: it stops the transom looking really bulky
and huge, it gives you something to look at, so it's from an aesthetic point of
view, but it also keeps the weight down, which means that it can just be operated
by a simple hand line and a cleat so, there's very little to go wrong, no gas
struts no hydraulics, uncleat it and there you go, there's your bathing platform
and there's a ladder in there as well with two recessed hand holds.
At the forward end of the cockpit you've got a really nice spray hood that comes
quite a long way aft, you get really good shelter
you've got the instrument repeaters and a chartplotter repeater but the really
nice touch about this is the companionway hatch, so you've got a
sliding hatch, but then recessed in here push the wash boards down and they pop
up with a gas strut, so you don't have to find anywhere to stow them, you don't
have to lift them out just give it a shove down and away they go and under
the cockpit sole you've got a really deep space where you can stow a life
raft and it also means that if you do ever get green water over the cockpit it
drops down straight into there and then drains away without going below at all.
What could be better than a good read comfortable armchair and a glass of wine
after a day out on the water? This is the appeal of a beautiful comfortable boat
like the Hallberg-Rassy. Let me show you around down below. The galley on the
Hallberg-Rassy 40C is a really good space, amazingly for a 40-foot boat you
have this walk-in galley that's full of storage and full of really useful space.
You've got a little lift-up extra work surface there, double sinks, stowage
behind here, storage lockers there, storage under the sink and under the
oven, you've got a fridge there, another fridge here, a top opening fridge there,
you've got a dishwasher, a microwave, all the mod cons. Moving forward these two
armchairs are something of a Hallberg-Rassy invention, they are incredibly
comfortable to sit in, if you've ever tried them. They're an option you can
have a straight settee down this side, which gives you an extra C berth. It does
slightly limit the space for the galley, but it's a slightly more practical
space with a larger crew. The table folds up like that so you've got a really good
big table, whichever option you go for. Other options in here also this light
European oak finish, you can choose that or a slightly darker mahogany and then
with the lighting pack you get extra LED recessed lighting here, indirect lighting
to create a really nice ambiance. It comes as standard in certain places but
for extra indirect lighting and dimmable LED lights that's another thing that
you'll need to tick on the options list. On the portside you've got a forward-
facing chart table, big enough for a leisure chart, and you've also got space
for mounting instruments on portside. It's a little bit cramped in - I'm just
slightly bumping my head here, but you've got good fiddles that also double as a
handhold. One nice touch that I like, access to the electrics here
all beautifully wired in, nice retaining cord there and you can add in
instruments as you need very simply. Switch panel, battery
controls, stereo, heating, charging points, it's got everything that you need, but
you'll notice that there's no instrument repeaters and no chartplotter down here
that's something that an owner might well add in once they've got the boat.
Moving off down portside we're actually walking through underneath the cockpit
coaming. This is the cockpit coaming, that's the cockpit seat there. Chart
table, behind it you've got an extra freezer they're full
of cornettos at the moment, lovely. Wet locker here right next to the chart
table, which is good and convenient. You've got your switch fuse panels in
here for the whole boat, really easy to access. In the aft cabin you've got a
full width cabin for the owners, so it's really spacious on the centreline.
Midships you've got a full sized double island berth, but a really
nice touch is that at the sides there are lockers above the height of the berth,
which act as permanently boards so you can't roll out even if it's a slightly
rolly anchorage or you're on passage. You've got this nice sofa for relaxing
away from crew if you've got them on board, bookshelf there for all of your
reading material, you've also got the main engine in here and there's a good
access door here, so you can get to all the main service areas in the engine,
water calorifier and there's space for a generator underneath the companionway
steps as well. The only downside of the owners cabin aft is that there's no
en-suite heads and I can see that people might want that. If you do want that then
you need to go up to the Hallberg-Rassy 44. On this boat you have to come forwards
through the saloon and just before you get into the forward cabin the heads is
on portside here and there's even a washing machine in there.
In the forward cabin you see some of the benefits again of this new modern
hull shape, she's got almost vertical hull sides, which means that you can
really push out the width of the berth in here giving you lots of space, good
wide foot space at the end of the berth. As with the rest of the boat you've got
an opening hatch, you've got hull windows and you've got really good
stowage up here. You've got a shelf on both sides and you've also got some
shelved stowage in there and then just opposite the heads you've also got a
hanging locker too. This boat's got all the mod cons like flat-screen TVs,
dishwashers, washing machines, but at its heart it's still a true Hallberg-Rassy.
Hallberg-Rassy is the epitome of a sturdy long-distance cruiser and the new
40C behind me delivers that in bucket loads. The wider hull shape and twin
rudders aren't going to be to everybody's taste, but what you get is a
powerful boat that will easily outrun older Hallberg-Rassys. The basic model
comes in at £405,000 including VAT and the
fully specced up one that we've been testing is £555,000 including VAT.
If you've got that kind of money she's going to be worth every penny