Test drive trimaran NEEL 45

Test drive trimaran NEEL 45

After such requests from the client, any dealer will grab his head and run to drink a sedative. But just not Eric Brunel, this guy has been in the yachting business for a long time and has an amazing flair. When in the late 80's new technologies and materials cultivated the rapid development of yachting, he switched from monohull yachts to catamarans. Now a new stage in the development of yachting, and he is not confused by the paradoxes of consumer requirements. Today he is the owner of the shipyard NEEL Trimarans, and in his multihulls, Eric solved all the issues radically. If we cannot fool the Froude number, and infinitely expand the hulls, we will not do this, we will simply raise the entire living block, together with the cockpit, above the hulls. And we will get excellent trimaran NEEL.

It is impossible not to notice it, it is as if an alien ship has landed in your yacht club. On the pontoon of the multihulls at the Cannes boat show, it was a showstopper, crowds of onlookers looked at it, clicked cameras. I also looked at this extraterrestrial creature for a long time, and mentally decided that this was another toy, a beautiful, maybe fast toy.

Test drive trimaran NEEL 45

But ... two months later in La Rochelle, Eric called me and offered to go to NEEL 45 in the sea. "Of course, I want to, without letting Eric finish, I said, and as soon as possible!"

The morning breeze from Biscay rang with earsplitting music in the rigging of four thousand masts Porta Minim, the largest marina in Europe, I stepped aboard an unprecedented creature. With close communication, it turned out to be very friendly, admired by its simplicity and homeliness, hiding behind a combat appearance.

What I remember is that I quickly got used to the unusual layout, everything is very intuitive. The feeling can be compared to the first time I picked up an iPad, unusual, but easy and pleasant. Two room-sized cabins are located immediately at the entrance, with good sea views with their huge panoramic windows: a point of attraction for romantic lovers who come on board for their honeymoon…. The galley is linear, two-sided, again, quite close to the cockpit, the salon is of the right size, and a good navigator's table on the left. In the center of the salon is the entrance to the guest cabin.

On the way, Eric said that the entire interior is individual, and is designed in each individual case for the client: any shapes, materials and colors.

And here we come to the last - according to the list, but not by importance - in the inner part of the main building there is a "wine cellar" which has become traditional nowadays, where lovers can store their wine, naturally (!) Along with other products and things.

Interior NEEL 45

Interior NEEL 45

Test drive trimaran NEEL 45

Test drive trimaran NEEL 45

Huge spaces for all technical devicesand you don't need to be an expert to master them. The same applies to the water and fuel tanks, the steering sector and the automatic pump, the charger and the hot water tank. Optionally, you can add a diving compressor, generator, and so on. What there is no doubt about is that there is absolutely no shortage of boat capacity. Two large lockers on each side of the cockpit will accommodate many items of skipper's equipment, however care must be taken not to overload the boat.

NEEL 45 - a cute trimaran, a long-awaited model among fans of cruise sailing, because three-hull boats have a rare alloy of qualities - they remind us of both the advantages of monohull boats, with all the pleasure of sailing and pride in a good sailing on courses against the wind, and of the advantages catamarans with their high speed, lack of a deep keel, shallow draft, and, of course, a solid amount of living space, which we find here with a rigid platform of 60 square meters, and even more if you count the trampoline in the bow between the hulls.

We must remember that before the appearance NEEL only Gerard pesty and his legendary "Architeutis" dared to embody such a design using a huge portion of the available space. The few other cruise trimaranes on the market are dealing with life volumes that are almost comparable to those found on monohulls of the same size.

They started the engine, in this case 50-horsepower Volvo-Penta, and in 5 minutes we were already out on the vastness of the ocean bay. At 2500 rpm, the trimaran gave out 9 knots, which is not very bad. There were no problems with raising the sails, everything was like on an ordinary yacht, the shallow draft made it easy to maneuver in the channel.

A good wind was required, but it blew as he liked, and in the afternoon settled at 9 knots. Not enough, of course, to be delighted about this, but the boat was managed well enough.

Test drive trimaran Neel 51

The trimaran is very sensitive to helm operation thanks to synthetic rope guiding lines. A properly calculated sail center gives a good balance to the course of the boat, and a slightly windward rudder just enough to feel the boat and please the helmsman. And then wonderful things happened. In a 9 knot wind on a sharp sidewind, carrying a large genoa and a full mainsail, the boat reached wind speed; she walked easily at speeds over 7 knots, often accelerating to 8 knots, and even reached a speed of 10 knots (this is with a wind of 9.6 knots!).

But in this configuration, a large genoa works better at a more complete angle to the wind (this is not Code 0!), And at the same time, the clew angle slightly offset to the wind becomes an obstacle to achieving a sharper tack angle. In addition, the installed anti-drift devices in the form of small fins, as well as the V-shaped floats in the underwater part, effectively preventing drift in strong winds, showed the maximum limits of their capabilities in light weather (which is an established fact for all multihulls). The trimaran goes well in light winds, I dreamed of such a boat.

Test drive trimaran NEEL 45

Left: charter version; Right: private version

Eventually…

… We saw a boat that, for many sophisticated sailors, will be the quintessence of their dream yacht requirements. Although NEEL is easily handled by a beginner, its future is in the hands of experienced sailors. The trimaran proved to be excellent in all courses. The high ground clearance and narrow floats do their job perfectly, the living space in one level will really please the fair half. In addition, the shipyard is ready to fulfill any whims and wishes of the client regarding both the interior and equipment.

“The class of cruise yachts is the most controversial. We, as the owners of such boats, want to combine the most polar qualities in one boat. The agony of choice at the boat show can be seen every year. And what we notice first of all on exhibition yachts is the peculiarities of the interior, but what we notice first of all on yachts on the water is the comfort of movement ... "

Competitors:

Test drive trimaran NEEL 45

Skipper's report

Yves Herman took NEEL 45 at La Rochelle and ferried it across the Atlantic to Martinique, West Indies. He shares his impressions with us.

“First of all, I would like to explain that we did not find strong trade winds - at most 25 knots. The boat is powerful, and has a very good mainsail, with a wide square top - a bit like a racing machine. On a downwind course, with one row of reefs on the mainsail, you can change direction quickly and when the boat accelerates you don't lose power (a bit like windsurfing). The boat accelerates very easily.

Despite its light weight, I find that it has a certain charge of inertia. Of course a downwind course requires a large staysail, an asymmetric spinnaker or a gennaker, which we did not have ... With wind speeds of 15 knots or more, you can tack downwind, making fordewind turns. If the wind force is less, the sails can be carried on the "butterfly" mainsail on one side, genoa on the opposite. We also went under Genoa on one side and with the staysail on the other. During the test with wind speeds of only 15 knots, we covered about 160 miles per day - a good average.

The boat goes well under sail; in light winds, it picks up speed instantly up to 8 knots. In trade winds, which were slightly stronger this time, she averaged 8.5 knots, regularly gliding at 1,012 knots, sometimes at 1,314 knots. The record speed was 17.8 knots on planing, but not for long. She is also good at sailing in strong winds, with two rows of reefs on the mainsail and under the staysail; as a rule, we took the first reef at 18 knots true wind. On a collision course with a wind speed of 25 knots, the trimaran behaves like a monohull; you control how it "lays down" on the float, it's quite impressive.

This boat is incredibly simple; after 45 minutes on board, you understand how it works. You get the impression that you are driving a sailing dinghy; you just forget about the size. "

Author: Sasha Goron - skipper from the Interparus Yachting team

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06.04.2012