FIRST TEST HANSE 508

Hanses new 508 brings its contender in this critical size range right | up to date. We head out on the water to see if it cuts the mustard |

Looking at today’s production cruising yachts, it can be hard to imagine where their design might be going next.

For decades, the trend has been for each new generation to be beamier, higher in the freeboard and with more volume than thé one before, and there’s only so far you can go downthat path. At the same time, rigs have become gasier to manage and manoeuvrability under power is better than ever before. On top of that, advances in electronics have made possible things that would barely have been imagined by designers and sailorsalike only a few years ago.

These trends are all very much in evidence with the latest generation of Hanses. Take the new 508, for example. Her predecessor, the 505, was introduced in 2011. By 2018 she had become the oldest model in the range: it was time for a replacement, and the 508 was the result. Almost inevitably, the new arrival is higher and more voluminous. Bigger windows and hull ports make for an interior that’s lighter and brighter as well as roomier, so creature comforts have been looked after. Significantly, however, performance has not been ignored. In fact it was a priority for Hanse and for the designers, judel/vrolijk & co. When you have such a high-volume hull, you need a sizeable rig to drive it and that calls for decent draught and a good amount of low-down ballast.

The 508 has all of this, making her — on paper at least — a more powerful boat than her predecessor. Her statistics also point to more performance potential than some of her competitors. In theory, Hanse has done it all with the 508, creating a 50-footer that’s up to the minute yet without looking so trendy that it will be dismissed as last year’s model in 12 months’ time.

MAINTAINING A PERSPECTIVE