An interesting case! Despite the instability of the weather, the months of cool, frequent rain and even snow we have in Germany, not to mention Russia, people continue to travel by car. Apparently, something attracted them in open cars, even if expensive, and the number of Sunny days in a year not so great: the specific aesthetics, speed, wind in your face… And if we admit that human life at sea is a continuation of his life on land — at least in terms of style, life, boats, convertibles (or rather, a model type open) also needs to use a certain demand. Not necessarily exclusively, on the Mediterranean sea or in Florida.
I was thinking about this at boot Düsseldorf, standing at the booth of the Italian company ZAR Formenti near new boats index 95SL, where letters have a clear and defensible explanation: S is Sport, and L — Luxury. The boat is interesting, as other models of the brand, about which I wrote earlier. But now I can only get to know her and to share information about the test results of colleagues from Italy: my own yet to come.
Now…
The overall design of the model developed by Spaniard Carlos Vidal technical aspects of the project were the Italian Francesco Ambrosini. Until I saw the boat in Dusseldorf and read what they write about it, including test reports, these names are not enough for me what he was talking about. Now I will try to remember them.
- Flexiteek on the deck — lightweight, eco-friendly synthetic material, which is not immediately distinguishable from natural teak — it looks great
- This cabin has the status of “just in case”: the night the owner of this boat is likely to be on a yacht or in a hotel
So, they came up with is very interesting in its architecture and layout model. Color palette: gray-graphite body and cylinders, red-upholstered seats in the cockpit… I’m Sure the color can be any, but why any, if there are such quite a colorful!
As for the external shaping of the lines, the eye immediately notes the camber of the upper part of the freeboard with the sheer amidships: and beautiful, and on Board convenient to go through potapkina slip flexiteek (I specially came). Looks impressive and massive console with a sharply defined outline, dividing the interior space into fore and aft cockpits. In the console on the right we see sliding door leading down. Layout ZAR Formenti is about the same as other models Sport Luxury, but this is the biggest, so there is quite bright cabin for two, and a well-equipped latrine outside the door.
The dashboard is not afraid of the abundance of dials switches: the Chartplotter displays a system status, toggle, adjustable steering wheel. Quite a ergonomic control, but… Seat at the helm with the bolster and side support — a clear allusion to the speed capabilities of the boat, when the wave to manage it better standing, and support in turn certainly can not hurt. Moreover, the shape of the windscreen promises good protection against the pressure of the air flow on the go (like in a convertible).
In fact, the nose is arranged in the anchor locker, under U-shaped seats are lockable lockers, opposite is another comfortable place for two with sloping backrests, leaning on the steering console.
In the feed — wetbar with grill, sink and refrigerator. Further — table and U-shaped sofa (and here, under seats, lockers). From the table with a sofa can be issued “Solarium”, and over the cockpit to deploy the tent: he put every decent “convertible”. And the transom is solid under engine niche, where hang two powerful Suzuki DF250 APX. While they were silent, but if they run…
When we go…
Anywhere we are, of course, we’re not, but just thinking about the behavior of boats at sea.Standing on the water body is not particularly considered. And here on the stand, clearly visible sharp facial contours, cheekbone with a strong limb, the primary task of which is bishopdale, and most importantly — cylinders. In addition to their usual functions: additional buoyancy, stability with a strong roll (support cylinder), the damping during contact with a jetty or another boat, when not required fenders, there is another one. Between the cylinder and the housing is formed a tunnel, high speed flow, which creates lift, helping to improve speed.
During the test, a boat with two Suzuki podvesnoe DF350A dispersed to 54 knots, planing took 3, to achieve the 40 knots it took less than 9 s a Big plus ZAR Formenti 95SL that the case does not seek to perk up, so visibility is expected excellent.
The water was calm so we managed to measure the speed, but not to assess seaworthiness. Not even jumped on a private Wake wave: she quickly went out astern, which is a great indicator of a trio (body and two powerful podvizhnikov). But in a steep turn at a speed of 40 knots the boat remained stable and behaved predictably.
Fuel consumption is quite acceptable at a speed of 32 knots (4000 rpm) — 80 l/h; turn the “feet”, you can save another 5 l/h. If you want to save further, minimum planning speed is 13 knots (2400 rpm) at which a consumption of 28 l/h According to the test results cruising at a cruising speed of 32 knots — 215 miles, at speed 54 node — 115 miles.
The final
Amid the many boats-RIB in this and the neighbouring exhibition halls ZAR Formenti 95SL looked yupster, brazenly flaunting its L (Luxury), S (Sport), of Italian origin, custom design inflatable elements of Hypalon, lots of other interesting engineering and design solutions and God knows what else. But she was magnitola.
“We don’t do that practice other,” said Milan Sterk, one of the leaders of the company ZAR Formenti. Looking at this boat, believe him immediately.
Says: the money thrown to the wind!.. Possible. But only spent on a lot of fun, which ensures that this large, powerful and fast boat. Moreover, the money need to be spend: the annual production of ZAR Formenti 95SL is not more than 25 such cases, and in 2019 was only one, the one that brought to the exhibition. Here is the popularity of sea “convertibles”!
What do you think?