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By
DAVID LOCKWOOD
15 May 2006
The French ocean-racing yacht designer Marc Lombard, who is
responsible for penning everything from 100-foot maxis to Open 60s
through to Mini Transat yachts, designed the beamy hull on Jeanneau's
new 42DS. Atop that platform is a raised deck or deck saloon with
signature styling from Italian Vittorio Garroni. But it's the layout
below the raised deck, which was moulded using the latest injection
methods that will woo owners aboard Jeanneau's latest cruising
conveyance.
With a full-width aft stateroom this is
very much a yacht that's been designed to assuage footloose cruising
types coveting more comforts than usual in a yacht. With just two double
cabins, each with en suites, it is the antipathy of Jeanneau's charter
boats that pack bunks aboard. Instead, there are two doubles beds for
escaping with another couple at most.
To say the yacht is easy to sail is
understating it. The boat comes standard with in-mast furling and a
snap-to-tack 120 per cent genoa. Add an electric halyard winch, which
this yacht's owners were going to do, along with electronics, a rubber
ducky and outboard, barbecue, bimini and dodger and the Whitsundays is
very much on the radar.
At rest or at sea, the Aussie-sized
cockpit has room to stretch the legs and, with boom tent and/or bimini
in place, you can stage a long lunch and al fresco dinner. With so much
leg- and elbowroom this is also a yacht on which to stay up top on
summery nights, too.
Leave the cockpit to go forward and you
will find unfettered access along wide walkways that lead all the way to
the bow. With the shrouds split you can waltz along these decks without
fighting the rigging.
Meanwhile, twin wheels afford the
helmsperson a good view forward and there's a walk-through transom with
moulded steps leading down to the ocean. But while there is a lot to
embrace on the latest Deck Saloon from Jeanneau, the biggest surprises
await.
The raison d'etre for buying the 42DS has
to be the full-beam owner's stateroom. There's headroom to dress after
you come inside and almost a metre of headroom over a massive 197cm by
196cm king-sized bed. A door leads into the portside en suite, which has
a second door back out to the saloon, thereby doubling as a dayhead.
The private guest's suite in the bow has
a deceptive amount of volume, a big vee-shaped double bed, full
headroom, sidepockets and a hanging locker with three drawers for
storage. The moulded en suite is similarly generous with vanity, manual
marine head, H/C handheld shower and plenty of storage for personal
effects.
Near the companionway steps is the
U-shaped galley conveniently located to starboard. Besides a fridge, you
get a huge sink, gimballed two-burner gas oven/stove/grill, crockery
cupboards and cutlery drawers, and a plenty of accommodating sub-floor
compartments for stowing long-term provisions. A glass splashback adds
to the style.
While predominantly teak, the satin
joinery is nice and light thanks to lots of windows and hatches. The nav
station is to port near a lounge and U-shaped settee opposite that are
both long enough to use as impromptu beds or, more likely, sea berths.
There is even the factory option of having a convertible dinette to make
a double bed should you think you'll need it.
In respect of capacities, the boat has a
separate engine-start and house battery system, 355-litre hot/cold water
system with separate tanks under the double beds - which is enough water
for more than a week thanks to the usual saltwater manual pump loos -
130 litres of fuel and a 140-litre fridge/freezer.
Jeanneau's 42 Deck Saloon is built in a
special new factory to Category A for eight persons in open seas where
the winds are greater than near-gale Force 8 and waves range to more
than four metres. Construction is GRP with a resin-infused deck with
balsa coring. The bulkheads in the boat are glassed in and there's a
full internal grid liner or moulded pan for added stiffness.
When setting sail and in heavy weather,
reefing is a snap thanks to a furling headsail and in-mast furling
mainsail. Somewhere along the way on a sprightly beam reach I glanced
down at the handheld GPS and saw it registering 7.8 knots. Besides the
five-star accommodation the yacht feels solid and its helm is so
balanced that it almost sails itself. A willing partner, indeed.
AT A GLANCE
Jeanneau Sun Odyssey 42DS
Price As Tested: About $378,456 including Yanmar 54h, bowthruster,
Shorepower and battery charger, extra house battery, Raymarine
electronics package, three-blade folding propeller. Bimini, infill and
dodger.
LOA: 12.93 metres
Hull Length: 12.59 metres
Waterline Length: 11.60 metres
Beam: 4.13 metres maximum
Draft: 2.13 metres w/std deep-draft cast-iron keel
Displacement: 8,201kg light.
Ballast: 2,553kg
Genoa area: 43 square metres
Main area: 38 square metres
Working sail: 81 square metres
Berths: 4+2
Water: 355 litres
Fuel: 130 litres
Fridge/freezers: 140 litres
Engine: 54hp Yanmar 4JH4E KM35
Drive: Shaft
Prop: Feathering three-blader
Details: Performance Boating Sales, Gibson Marina, 1710 Pittwater Road,
Bayview, NSW, 2104. Tel (02) 9979 9755, see
www.performanceboating.com.au, www.jeanneau.com
© Copyright
Marque Publishing Company
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