A31 Djinn Offers A Real Racing Tonic
FOR THE A31, a case of right boat at the right time is just part of the story. As well as hitting the international market with a well priced smaller race boat, the A31 has been outstandingly successful since it was launched at last year’s Paris Boat Show. As this issue of YL goes to press, 23 A31s have been sold, with production sold out through to next March. So, for a Scottish Series arrival you would need to think and act quick, writes YL racing editor Andi Robertson. The new 31 has hit the target bang on, which is as well because in France boat sales are below 50% of what they were a couple of years ago. Nick and Miles Stratton have been successfully campaigning A Neet Djinn, not hard, since the boat is their demonstrator, but making good at the essential regattas around the Clyde and west coast. A potentially winning start at the Bell Lawrie Scottish Series was unfortunately scuppered due to the older member of the duo making an old school error with the mast shims which effectively bent the mast, ended the regatta after three races. Since then the A31 has won the Old Pulteney IRC Scottish Nationals, finished second in the Largs Two Handed Race by a mere 30 seconds and won the Secondary Points on the East Patch. In France the A31 has won consistently under IRC, first and third at Spi Ouest, the Obelix Trophy in Benodet, the Atlantic Cup, the SNIM in Marseille, the La Rochelle Week Regatta, etc, etc. There is no doubt so far that Joubert-Nivelt-Mercier have worked their magic on the IRC rating again and, as well as being a fun, straightforward boat to sail, it should be relatively straightforward for competent, experienced teams to sail to the A31’s rating of 0.9880 Archambault are selling boats all around the world; to Europe, Australasia and the USA, and yet they are still a relatively small company. The 31 has a clear family resemblance to the 35, which in some respects even helps it look a little bigger than it is. But without question it is a good looking, business like boat. What we like about Archambault is that they appear to be a hard working, driven company who take constant feedback from their key race teams. And so the boats seem to hit the market well developed and ready to do well on the race course. The boats, whether they are 35ft, 40RC or the new baby, are raced consistently on the French IRC regatta circuits from February to November and so there are no hiding places for faults or rating misses. LESS DRAG The lines of the 31 aft are a little smoother than the 35. According to designer Bernard Nivelt there is a gain of about 4% less drag, but with little in the way of rating cost. The particular gain is when the boat is running. They have also carried out some considerable work with the keel forms for the rating and the current thinking is to have something closer to an original semi-elliptical fin, rather than a fin and bulb. This of course produces a forgiving feel to the boat, with an easy groove… but more of that later. The obvious A31 virtues are the modern, easily driven hull which has ample power aft to develop higher downwind speeds without incurring extra drag in the light stuff, the IRC rounded bow knuckle; the trademark blister coach roof line; a big, safe and workmanlike cockpit which is very much orientated to performance sailing and excellent ergonomics. Simplicity is key in every department. Easy control of the simple non-overlapping twin spreader alloy rig. The 9/10ths rig is by Soromap and they make a smartly finished product. Primaries are by Lewmar and the deck clutches by Spinlock. The T-shaped cockpit leaves lots of space at the back of the area, with relatively short benches. Construction is the same as the 40RC and the 35 with a standard vacuum bagged resin infusion sandwich supported by a structural all composite frame. As ever they have taken exceptional care to keep the centre of gravity as low as possible and the ends light. The PVC sandwich deck is injection moulded. SWELL BOOST We had truly exceptional conditions for our test sail on the Gareloch of the UK’s first A31. With a summer NE breeze blowing off the Helensburgh shore, we had the perfect chance to sail upwind into a diminishing chop in winds of 12-18 knots and roll away downwind in a delightful building estuary ‘swell’, certainly enough to give the A31 an extra boost. The A31 was an absolute delight. Again, to emphasise, it was fun to sail in its precise performance, not in out and out speed a la sportsboat. The smile on the elder Stratton’s face was more of a positive endorsement than any test. We know Nick has raced since wood was invented, but he says the A31 is giving him as much fun as anything. Upwind the boat was indeed a pleasure. It is moderately stiff and forgiving for her size, but likes to be sailed slightly depowered and upright for maximum height. We were making 6.3 to 6.4 knots upwind in 15-17 knots TWS with the tiller remaining light and responsive. While the boat retained excellent traction upwind, even on the puffy conditions it was a more productive sail with a good amount of mainsail twist and the upper jib opened a little to gain maximum speed for height. Over strapping the mainsail leech and trying to pinch and feather forces her on ear rather too much, but when sailing a little more upright the A31 was a real pleasure upwind, especially with the light, positive helm. The layout is very much race orientated. Hence the mainsheet track and controls are behind the helm, with the block and coarse end cleat just a couple of cms back from the rudder head. On the one hand this is great for minimising clutter in the busiest part of what is after all a 31ft boat. If your tactician and mainsheet trimmer can be one and the same person then that is ideal. The mainsheet trimmer has all the speed controls with the powerful cascade backstay, coarse and fine tune and mainsheet track all to hand, which is great, but it introduces a lot of string to a small area and so he or she has to be super organised. The downside is that it is easy to let the mainsheet tail slide into the rudder head and so this tail needs to be tacked carefully each time. Also, this system does rather preclude short handed sailing where the helm looks after the mainsheet. Extending the helm’s moulded foot brace another 15cm back would create enough area for the mainsheet to lie on at a flatter angle, or alternatively a short kick bar incorporating a pair of tail bags would be just the ticket. The upside of course is that this keeps the front part of the cockpit clear and free of people and clutter, making it an excellent working area. Downwind the A31 took little effort to keep her moving at max velocity. Extremely easily worked, delivering extra speed in the rolling wind waves for an extra pump here and there and judicious work on the helm. Besides being fundamentally quick downwind, it’s great to be sailing a small, responsive boat which you are not only in control of, but can derive more for the extra finesse and attention to detail that you put in. It’s certainly not the sportboat mentality of simply careering about the ocean keeping the boat under a big asymmetric, although for the sub 15 knots breezes there is a big powerful masthead spinnaker. Down below the layout is functional, airy, simple and low maintenance. Everything is there to live on board at regattas, or indeed cruise. There is 1.82m of standing headroom and six good berths between the saloon, a good double in the open forepeak and a good aft cabin on the port side behind the galley. In essence it is a great little interior and there is still space for sail handling on the race course. The GRP moulded table support felt a little flimsy however. The full length roll style back rests can be specified so that they unclip and open out to form proper pipecot style seaberths. The functional areas are also excellent: a good galley which can take a full cooker with oven, plenty of stowage, and, opposite, a nice little nav station which is quite compact. All of the living areas have neat fabric stowage pouches. In the aft cabin these are larger and actually remove from the hull side so that they are bags you can take off the boat with you. Aft of the nav station is the WC/shower which opens back to the main, huge cockpit locker in the same way as the 35. As standard it needs a zip or Velcro divider. Otherwise it’s a bit like having your loo or shower in the garden shed! Overall the A31 is simply irresistible. So far, it seems to deliver competitive, race winning performance with a high fun factor. It will be interesting to see how the boat does when in the hands of club standard sailors, but certainly it has no vices and seems easy to get to 90 plus % of potential. Handling is refined and rewarding, the finish is excellent with a keen eye on value for money and in that context, Scottish agents Nick Stratton Yachts tell us the price tag for the basic boat is £85,000. That’s inclusive of VAT and commissioned Clyde, but excludes racing pack and sails.