NEW YACHTS

SOME EXCITING, AND VERY DIFFERENT, NEW 40-FOOTERS

Saffier SL 46

Saffier Yachts has grown to become the established name in luxury daysailers, particularly over the last decade or so. The family-owned Dutch yard has secured this market sector with its offering of both traditional, elegant lines and modern, sporty yet manageable designs, writes Toby Hodges.

But while it has done the odd larger custom project in the past, its announcement of a new 46ft performance cruiser marks a step change to its business model. The SL 46 is designed for fast cruising in comfort, and from a spacious sheltered cockpit.

It is offered as a Med or North version, the former with an open aft deck and helm seats which convert into lounge beds, and the latter with a closed cockpit and dinghy stowage.

It has a high class two or three-cabin interior and, like all Saffiers, can be sailed short-handed.

I have sailed most of its new models since 2008, including its five European Yacht of the Year (EYOTY) winners, and have written about the Hennevanger’s family story behind Saffier. But news of this biggest production model to date, combined with a move into a much larger yard, prompted a revisit to Ijmuiden to find out more.

Dennis Hennevanger, who runs Saffier with his brother Dean, gave me a full tour of the eyeopening new yard.

While this is still just streets away from their original yard in this Dutch fishing port, it has increased Saffier’s floorspace from 1,200m2 to 9,000m2. They have fitted it out into one of the most impressive production yacht facilities I have seen, while this increased capacity has allowed them to scale up in model size too.