Can the Arcona 385 live up to the reputation of it's much-loved predecessor? - Yachting Monthly 

How old are you ?

That is Sobering, given the Superb quality of USA Steel and galvanising, so much so that on my trip to the USA to buy my last boat, which was gorgeous apart from a Rubbish Anchoring setup, after seeing the Chandlers loaded with atrocious quality Steel Chain, with Crap Galvanising, I ended up getting Superb Chain triple galvanised from a USA Truckers Supply company, for an all Chain setup that got the Boatbthrough multiple Tornado hits, that one in particular was so severe, I'm convinced that Chinese Rubbish Chain would have snapped like soft liquorice.☹️

Actually that's the only real Negative I could see with the Boat. Me, if triple galvanised properly, I'd weather it until colour Change, then thoroughly epoxy seal it before installing. A bit likevone of the Luxury Csr makers used to do with Aluminium Castings to age them to stabilise them many years ago. I think Hispano Suiza ? from memory. 🤔

I delivered a Grand Soleil 43 with a steel frame. It had previously hit a wreck at hull speed. The collision broke the helmsman's ribs on the destroyed steering pedestal but the boat sailed back to port under its own power. Any fibre matrix would have lost the keel and almost certainly sunk. The frame was removed, rejigged and refitted. There's a reason that X-yachts and Arcona use steel and it ain't ignorance or economy.

Tightening the backstay pulls the tip of the mast back, bending the mast and tightening the forestay. This has 3 effects on your sail shape 1. Reduces lateral forestay sag, results in a flatter jib 2. Reduces mainsail leech tension, twisting the sail out and spilling wind off the top 3. Mast bend also flattens the main (reduces draft) There's more to it but that's basically why you put backstay on when it gets windy.

@@bryan333333333333333 thank you for the explanation. would you say this is the general rule for a Bermudian rig, right? I am more used to gaff rigged vessels or two mast boats and we never did such a thing.

@@en4ce_ That's right. I've only really sailed bermuda sloop rigged boats with modern flexible masts. I don't have the knowledge to speak on any other kind of rig configuration

Yours is 2000 kg heavier, wet laid, mass production caravan. This is a vacuum infused performance cruiser. Absolutely no comparison

@@samianttilampela6384 oh really. You do know they made an S edition of the cr 40, too? The Bavaria cruiser 40 S has an S number of 3,25, quite close to the Arcona 380/385 that both are listed with an S number of 3,85. So these boats perform within the range of racer-cruisers and compare in most ways. Obviously they are produced in different ways, this is not a reason for denying similarities, it is actually the opposite, as this is how to show how little you gain from producing in a way that makes the boat so much more expensive. Neither is the fact that Bavaria makes a lot of boats a logic argument for claiming that they make low quality. The budget for development and techniques for quality control raises with a higher number. Not the opposite. FYI: The S Number is a formula that assesses relative performance of sailing yachts, giving values that range from 1 to 10, with sub-ranges of these values assigned to Racing Machines (5-10), Racer-Cruisers (3-5), Cruisers (2-3) and Lead Sleds (1-2). The formula for monohulls is: S# = 3.972 x 10^[-DLR/526 + 0.691 x (log(SAD)-1)^0.8] DLR in the formula is Displacement-Length Ratio and SAD is Sail Area/Displacement Ratio.

The innovation in ease of usability the past few years, has been an absolute godsend for crippled old farts like me to be able to keep Sailing tbh. I thought I was condemned to have a Motor Yacht. Ugh ! Still got to use a Professional Delivery Crew though, to keep Insurance Company happy. Still, things could be worse. Best Wishes. Bob. 👍🙂🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇺🇲

It’s not 1980

@@testicool013 😂😂😂

High Quality Never Comes Cheap, and I suspect that will always be the Case. Secondhand there can be considerable savings though, I imagine ? 🤔 Best Wishes. Bob. 👍🙂🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇺🇲

People pay that for a watch which keeps poorer time than a £10 Casio. At leadt this boat dors the business.

@@atakd I like Casio too, plus cheap watches with Seiko Quartz Movements like Current Sekonda watches. But for me, as I'm disabled and don't drive (Sailboat means I'm mobile again, hopefully soon ), changing batteries is a oita, so enter the Citizen Eco Drive with up to 15 years real quartz Chronometer accuracy which on Sale can be incredibly Cheap for what you get. Plenty good enough for length of day Navigation plus sextant use. +/- 10 mile accuracy isn't hard to get to quite fast with daily and nightly practice, if all the GPS Satellites get CME'd. Hopefully that never happens, or there'll be a lot of lost Boaters doing head scratching Out there. Best Wishes and Fair Winds. Bob. 👍