Alekstar A-38 Express Cruiser

[AlexMorozov]

Hello all

About 2 years we designed and built our Alekstar A-38, designed by Alexander Taranenko, build by Kompan-Morozov team. Now we have passed 3 months of testing in Spain and got some positive results (I think so) – we have no competitor in non-professional regattas and still have reasonable comfort for fast cruising. So the basically we have reached our aim.
But probably other guys has another opinion, and we are very interested to hear the critics or .... from you.

Herewith some principal things of this boat:
Alekstar A-38 www.a-38.com
- Jybe-type keel, which allow to keep the keel always in line with heeled waterline and give the lower drug from keel – the main problem of other wide boats when tacking.
- The keel is lifted by hydraulic cylinders and reduced the draft to 1.5 meters for access to shallow marinas and areas.
- Water ballast tanks 2 x 400 l, pumped by engine driven pump, give more comfort and allow to keep the bigger sails on the passage.
- Drum-type twin rudders is optimized for better steering of heeled boat and partly lifting in light winds to reduce drug from rudder blades.
- Dry weight is just 4300 kilos, including bulb keel 1500 kilos, the hull is made of foam sandwich, vacuum bagged, with carbon reinforced frames and parts.
- Retractable and rotating carbon bowsprit for better performance with gennaker downwind.
- Carbon Nordic mast and carbon Kompan wide boom.

What do you think about here ?

[Alik]

Nice boat, Alex! Racing breed with luxury interiors.

[cuorefocoso]

Maybe nice boat.
But definetely not cruiser-racer, with jybe-keel and water ballast tanks, retractable bowsprit and carbon mast. It is too extreme for any cruiser except russians.

[AlexMorozov]

May be you are right, the boat is not beginners and originally for cruising on Med, but the operation of that things is very simple and by one man crew. I tested the boat with my son in different conditions and we did not need the extra crew at all.

[AlexMorozov]

Just got photo from helicopter and enclose here. Speed about 8 knots upwind tacking, not so bad for family crew of 2. This is photo from regata in Spain, where other boat had full crew of 5-7 hanging on the windward reelings, we had 800 l of waterballast instead. The IRC rating is rather high as 1.13, but she is cruiser

[Guillermo]

Alex,
I asume the boat is CE marked (A or B Category?), but I want to know if it is registered (matriculado) in Spain and if so in what "Capitanía". This is because I'm having some problems with some public servants around here to get registered recreational boats with water ballast tanks and want to be able to give them examples of such boats in Spain having ballast tanks. Particularly in Categories A and B.
Thanks in advance.

Cheers.

[AlexMorozov]

the boat is CE A certified, registered in Russia (non EU). But I registered some boats in Spain for clients and no any problems, excluding time consuming. The owner should present " Declaration of CE Conformity" from builder, this is solo document about the boat as it is. They ask normally to lift the boat by crane to inspect the bottom and keel.
Do not see any relations with ballast system, if the boat has CE mark.

[yipster]

genakker is not the most easy to sail and rudders aint dragfree
was just reading all the good things about water ballast again
dont know much bout classes but that is a nice, very nice boat

[Guillermo]

Thanks Alex.
Let me highjack your thread for a while.

Everybody: Has any of you registered a recreational boat with ballast tanks in Spain? Specially motor boats. I'd like to know about them.

Thanks in advance.
Cheers.

[Omeron]

Nice boat, congratulations.
What is a jybe type keel? Can you give more information about how it operates? Thanks.

[AlexMorozov]

Jybe(rotate) keel, rotating around vertical axis +- 0-5 degr, by hydraulic cylinder, operating by 2 wheels in cocpit. More list, need more angle, to align the keel in line with heeled WL. The keel is always with optimal angle, for better tacking ability upwind. In good condition and calm sea the boat has about 30-35 degrees tacking angle.

[Omeron]

I always thought this was against the racing rules. That is keels cannot
be moved back and forth and rotated about their vertical axis.But since you can cant them legally, i guess everything is allowed. Does that result in a big penalty as far as IRC rating is concerned?

[AlexMorozov]

We never mentioned the racing, the boat is fast CRUISER and NOT optimized for IRC rating races. From other side the rules are not allow MOVABLE ballast, but rotating keel is NOT movable ballast, as the CENTRE of mass is not changed, when the keel rotate around vertical axis. The penalty for light hull, water ballast, bulb keel, etc is high. boat has IRC about 1.13, similar to Pogo40 or other racing (not cruising !) boats. For racing under any handicaped rules you should have the boat which is build under this rules. This is not our case, we wanted to have simple fast sailing yacht for cruisers, who like it.

[Manie B]

my 2 cents for what its worth

beautifull beautifull boats

top design and build quality

BUT MUCH TOO TECHNICAL

glorified racers - not really cruisers, strokes for folks i suppose

[AlexMorozov]

Too technical ? - the boat can be with fixed keel, other things are became standard for modern cruising boats.