MORE 55: TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE?

The More 55 was one of the boats that I was more curious to visit at the Dusseldorf boats show. I had done several posts about the More 55, accompanied the Atlantic crossing of several of them on the ARC, where one of the boats was very fast, being the others reasonably fast and with one of the them losing a rudder.

Regarding that rudder it seems that the problem was only with the rudder blade that delaminated and was gone, they say, after having hit something. All steel structure remained in place and they were able to repair it with some floor boards.

They also said that on the Caribbean they had hit a reef hard and that the boat had not sustained any damage on the keel structure. Fact is that the keel structure, a huge massive steel grid that, on Dusseldorf boatshow, was visible through a plexiglass that substituted the floor boards, is an impressive one.

This is a new brand, owned by Swedish with boats built in Croatia, with the "savoir faire" of Salona, from where many  workers have come, including at high level, over a very good design by Cossuti. An improbable and curious story that started when a charter company, specialized on the charter of performance boats (More charter, that used mainly Salona yachts), decided to build their own boat.

The More 55 offers a dinghy garage of good dimensions and an interior very similar in quality to what Salona used to offer, even the design and choice of woods is similar and that means a good quality interior.

Unfortunately the layout is far from being the best for a boat with those dimensions and the saloon has much space wasted. It has a galley all along one side and a seating area and table on the other, resulting on a large space unused between the two sections. Worst, that large space makes it difficult to use the galley at sea, since no body support is possible, at least in one of the tacks.

Three layouts are offered (all with the same saloon), two for charter and one for private ownership use, that one with a big forward cabin and a  large sail locker that will provide the needed storage.

The big disappointment came when I was trying to understand what kind of core they use on the hull and after  a lot of confusion they said to me that even if this is a vacuum infused boat, they use a monolithic hull. Hard to believe in all those claims that they make regarding a very stiff hull with great resistance against torsion with a single skin hull!!!

It would help to explain how they manage to propose these boats at a very attractive price, being the one of the More 55 - 387 000 euros and the one of the new More 40 - 185 000 euros.

It would, but does not explain, because the boat, after all, and contrary to all information I received, has a sandwich hull!!! I am modifying this post after exchanging some emails with Leo Curin from Pulse Yacht design (that was an ex-Salona top technician). He has done the  production management on the More 55 and now he is behind the Bavaria revolution, in what regards the building process that is new too, namely the boat structure.His firm developed also the interior layout.

The More 55 has a sandwich hull with PVC closed cell core except on the place were stainless frame  is located  and on the engine area as well. Other small areas are also monolithic as the areas where there will be high slamming loads. There, a high-density core is used in combination with single skin laminate. Single skin laminates are also used in areas of through-hull fittings.

Comparing the More 55 with a Jeanneau 54 we will see that the Jeanneau is almost 2T heavier and costs about the same. The Jeanneau has an infused balsa sandwich hull on the sides, a monolithic hull below the waterline with an interior "contre moule" as structure on the bottom. The More is a technologically more evolved boat, with a PVC core instead of balsa, a fully sandwich hull (except on highly stressed areas) and a big steel structure that takes the loads from the mast, shrouds and keel and transfers them efficiently to the hull. The only point where the Jeanneau 54 is better is on interior design.

Jeanneau 54

The More 55 is a very impressive yacht that has made already several transats on the ARC with flying colors in what regards performance. Among the several More 55, that are used in charter, 3 have been violently grounded (one at full engine speed) to the point that the keels had to be changed but on two of them no damage occurred on the boat structure and on the other just an easily repairable small secondary  delamination happened.

Regarding that rudder problem on the ARC Leo Curin says: "About the rudder, it was a big shock for us too, but when the boat was out on Carribean it was visible that the rudder was damaged, probably before start of ARC, rudder shaft is still here in the factory and the lower first angled bar was twisted in one side, probably damaged in some marina on the way from Croatia to Las Palmas, thus the blade was opened and it was just delaminating during regatta, by the way all rudders are produced on duplex shaft, blade is made with epoxy and glass/carbon fibres, when closed filled with epoxy foam 170kg/m3 (not PU), front edge overlaminated before fairing, better than we did in Salona".

So, bottom point, the MORE 55 is not too good to be true....it is just a great boat at an incredible price. I certainly would prefer it to the Jeanneau 54: much more boat for the money even if I would have a big difficulty convincing my wife. The Jeanneau has just a better designed interior and even if the quality of the one on the Moore is as good or even better, the comfort, functionality and coziness has no comparison.

More about the More 55 :
http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/2015/11/more-55-incredible-boat.html
http://interestingsailboats.blogspot.pt/2016/11/more-about-more-55.html

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