Bavaria

The new 45 has space, speed and many new plusses thanks to Bruce Farr’s inspiration, says Garth Cooper

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Big, bold and bustling is probably an apt description of Bavarias Cruiser 45. Launched just over a year ago 60, have already been sold worldwide. The reason undoubtedly is that at last Bavaria has found the right way to build robust solid-feeling boats that dont creak and groan, and thats almost certainly down to involving top New Zealand born American designer Bruce Farr in the process.

And hows this for making you feel like royalty at sea each of the three cabins has its own ensuite heads-cum-shower unit.

The main living area, saloon, galley and nav station are all on one level, no tripping up or down breaks in the floor. This boat offers almost the same amount of space and comfort as the old Cruiser 50, but its a more superior finished package.

The boat: The hull is deceptive, the beam is carried right aft at deck level from the shrouds, she has a full almost round bilge amidships with a long flat run aft. The entry is quite full as well, resulting in a buoyant and internally voluminous hull. The first impression is of a boat that is purposeful and capable, powerful rather than pretty. Under water she sports a single medium cord fin keel with bulb and twin angled rudders. Motive power from a 75 hp Volvo saildrive unit sits almost exactly halfway between the keel trailing edge and rudders. As a traditionalist it was great to see the clear definition of the coach roof from the decks with clearly defined edges instead of the practice of blending it into the surrounding deck areas. Instead of being just a hump it stands up proud in the tradition of East Coast American boats.

Her flat profile coachroof makes a good sail handling platform and gives the helmsman superb views forward. I would have liked to see the halyards, reefing lines and other control lines which are brought aft from the base of the mast to the cockpit hidden under covering panels, it would make the coachroof really clean and uncluttered. It would also, as it is a good working and lounging area, reduce the dangers of tripping over them.

The side decks are not as wide as on some of its competitors, but are more than adequate and safe to walk on; the cockpit is positively huge.

And what a stern; the large centre section drops down on powered struts to form a combined boarding and bathing platform. In all this is a boat to go safe fast sailing and yet chill out and sunbath or even party on, at anchor or tied up to the jetty.

The attention to detail shows; we were told these boats take an additional 170 hours of work to build compared with the immediate predecessor. It shows. Fittings are properly bedded down and have substantial backing plates, and most have good, if not easy, access to get at for maintenance. It shows down below too.

Rig and deck gear: The rig is built by Selden, a tall slender stick with double swept back spreaders with caps and single lowers terminating on the outside of the deck. Its quite a wide rig so its easy to walk past going along the side decks. The furling headsail is a 100 percent genoa with inside tracks mounted on the coachroof, an ideal layout to adapt to self-tacking. Despite being slender the mast hides an in-mast furling mainsail, which, with a few tweaks of the powerful vang set remarkably well with no battens.

The mainsheet is mounted forward of the sprayhood, surprisingly attached to fixed points on the coachroof with a rope bridle and not a track. The sheet itself leads to the port winch by the companionway.

Theres another, both twospeed Lewmar 60s, on the starboard side of the hatch, with two much larger genoa winches on the forward end of the cockpit coamings. There are pads and mouldings for two more at the aft end of the cockpit coaming, which could be used for spinnaker or cruising chute work or enable the boat to be sailed singlehanded with ease.

Because of the drop-down section in the transom she is fitted with a split backstay. The port tail is fitted with a wormgear adjuster. It does mean that the increasingly popular quarter seats cannot be fitted and they do catch your back if you like to sit right aft and outboard when steering.

Right forward is a massive s/s bow fitting incorporating stowage for the bower anchor, the anchor winch is also right in the eyes of the boat with the chain dropping down into a deep locker.

Access is via a door from a forward lazarette, which is so deep you need the fitted ladder to ascend. The depth would be reduced a bit if you had a bow thruster fitted. With a deep fiddled shelf each side itll take all the fenders, mooring warps, tools, spares, even possibly a flubber in a bag and certainly the outboard. You could certainly store extra sails under here as well.

Either side of the centre line is a glazed opening hatch into the forward cabin. Aft of the mast are three such hatches on the centre line of the coachroof with two more over the aft heads-cum-shower units. There are sealed ports in the topsides corresponding with the forward cabin, saloon and aft cabins. The cockpit is comfortable, roomy and with a swing-leaf central table and instrument pod is just right for summer eating outdoors. There are two large shallow lockers in the aft ends of the cockpit seats.

Behind each wheel is a small hatch, which lifts and forms an angled floor section to give the helmsman a virtually level section to stand on when steering. On the centre line is a big hatch under which is a massive lazarette that will swallow a liferaft and masses of gear.

Engine controls are mounted at the side of the starboard steering position, along with the mains power connector. On the opposite side are the gas locker and the cockpit shower. In front of each wheel is a compass, while the chartplotter can either be mounted in the aft face of the cockpit table pedestal or on a swivelling pod mounted on the aft end of the table. The starboard steering position also has the multi-task instrument repeaters showing wind, speed and depth.

The table has two large bins in the centre section for keeping the sun lotion, sunglasses, sun hats etc; and binoculars, beer and other essentials.

Accommodation: The test boat was finished down below in light oak; you can have Mahogany or walnut; with the blue cloth upholstery and the flecked-black galley work surfaces and s/s grab rails. The cabin sole, which is a single level right through the boat, is of mahogany with ash stripes. One feature I really liked was the wooden grab handles on either side of the companionway and in the vertical mouldings of the heads units either side of the aft end of the saloon.

The galley runs down the port side of the saloon, giving a huge work surface when all the lids are in place. At the aft end is a large front access refrigerator, alongside and outboard of it is a big freezer box with a top lid built into the work surface. There are cutlery and pans drawers, then a two-burner, grill and oven cooker (again with matching work surface fold down cover), a small draining sink and a large working sink, both with covers.

Behind the galley are several overhead storage lockers as well as under sink storage.

The saloon consists of a fixed table with shallow fiddle mouldings and a bottle store underneath. The U-shaped banquette seats six at a squeeze, or four in comfort. Between the table and the galley is a twoseater fixed sofa with a storage box under.

Right round the galley edge and across the back of the midsection sofa are s/s grab rails.

The navigators position on the starboard side faces aft and utilises one of the banquette seats with a swing down back.

The table has a deep chart storage drawer and will take a folded Admiralty-size chart.

Instruments are mounted above the desk.

There is storage behind and under the saloon seating.

Aft of the galley and navigators position are the two heads-cum-shower units and the doors into the two aft doubleberth cabins. Each head is accessed from inside each of the aft cabins, which have ample storage cupboards and hanging lockers and space under the bunk themselves. Between them are the engine box and a huge locker accessed via a panel in each cabin side bulkhead. At the foot of each berth is a large hatch giving access to the stern gear and transom-mounted fittings.

Each head is fitted with mirror over washbasin and storage cupboards, with sea-loo and shower controls.

Forward of the saloon is the owners stateroom. The version we tested was called the owners version, and for charter work they can easily install a central dividing bulkhead with doors into separate double cabins. With the stateroom version the head is to starboard and the shower separate to port. In the charter version the head-cum-shower combination is added to each side.

As a stateroom its palatial.

The bed is a truly king-size affair.

There are hanging and shelved storage cupboards, deep fiddled shelves each side, and in the forrard bulkhead two shelved cupboards for personal belongings.

The main water tank is under the forrard bunk while the fuel tank and large black tank are under the aft bunks. The main batteries and switches are under the port aft bunk along with the hot water calorifier.

I was warned that Id be bowled away by the handling of this big boat. The day of the test was dull, grey, with a gently rising N to NE wind that smelled of the Arctic.

Halfway through the test trip down the Orwell from Woolverstone Marina, our view was blanked out by a wall of mist-like drizzle mixed with icy bits that quickly turned any exposed skin raw, and the wind rose to 16 knots. It cut right through us.

There is a solid aluminium toe rail each side giving good purchase when working on deck with the boat well healed.

There are forrard, midships and aft mooring cleats and hawse pipes. Guardrail stanchions are substantial s/s with personnel gates in both sides.

The topsides are quite high so for the less agile of us the secret is to berth stern-to and drop the platform for easy access. If you parallel park youll almost certainly need to add a footstep fender to the inventory. It did allow us though to get the boat up on one rudder and in her sailing groove.

Though by no means heavily canvassed she quickly, smoothly and with no fuss topped eight knots through the water and frankly shed have sat there all day eating up the miles.

She is a nimble boat to handle, although I would have liked a bow thruster as we came out of an up-tide berth with the wind pushing us sideways off the finger. Although she dropped alongside one of the outside pontoons with a by now quite strong breeze and stemming the tide without so much as a bump.

You point her and she goes; the steering is a bit dead for my liking; two rudders and the entire attendant interlinking gear no doubt acting as a massive damper. But she only needed small tweaks of the wheel to respond. Even sailing to windward she remained smooth, steady and positive. She gathers her skirts up with no fuss and gets in the groove easily and is easy to handle.

Under power she is remarkably quick and responsive. Shell spin round in a little over her own length and come to a stop in full reverse in about four boat lengths from six knots. The boat we tested had a 75 hp engine instead of the standard 55 hp unit. She cruised at a steady six knots in smooth river conditions at around 2,000 rpm. For close work in the confines of a crowded marina a bow thruster would be a sensible option, as we found that in a strong-ish crosswind her topsides and large sprayhood pushed her sideways rather quickly!

TECHNICAL DATA

Length overall 14.27 m

Length hull 13.60 m

Length waterline 12.74 m

Beam overall 4.35 m

Draught standard (cast iron keel) 2.10 m

Draught option (cast iron keel as shallow keel)

1.73 m

Unloaded weight 12,600 kg

Ballast 3,490 kg

Engine,

Volvo Penta Saildrive (Standard D2-55) D2-75

Engine power

(standard 53 hp) 72 hp

Fuel tank 210 L

Water tank 360 L

Cabins 3 Doubles

Berths 6

Height in salon 2.06 m

Mainsail (battened) and fore sail, standard 107 m

Height of mast above waterline (air draft) 20.75 m

Price: Basic boat ex-factory 158,808 inc VAT.

Test Boat 194,263 Inc VAT

Test boat supplied by Clipper Marine East Coast,

Woolverstone Marina, Woolverstone, Suffolk, IP9 1AS

Contact Ian Brockwell on Tel: 01473 780966.

Mobile: 07912 202067. E-mail: ipswich@marinesalesuk.

co.uk. Web: www.marinesalesuk.co.uk.