OCEANTEC 50: WHAT A LOOKER!

There is a small but growing market for really fast long range cruising boats based on solo racers, boats able to go fast with a duo crew, or even solo if one is a very good sailor with solo race experience.

Pogo and JPK, the two main builders of that type of boat, have a waiting list of about 2 years so it is natural that other builders appear on the market proposing similar products and that’s the case with Oceantec, a Slovenian shipyard with experience building racing boats, namely 40 class racers.

The Oceantec 50, designed by Humphreys, has a more modern design than the Pogo 50 (that has already some years) with an inverted bow e slightly less beam (5.09 to 5.16m) being the hulls very similar as well as the B/D and the displacement, about 9T.

That means that the Oceantec 50 has to have an interior not very different from the Pogo 50, a very light one, even if functional and comfortable. The interior layout is more interesting than the one of the Pogo allowing for a dinghy garage where a 2.40m dinghy can be stored inflated but the Pogo layout is designed around the space needed for a swing keel and if that option is taken on the Oceantec 50 this layout will not be possible.

And the point is that a boat with a draft of 3.25m (Oceantec 50) is far from being the best choice to cruise, not being able to get a place in many small ports and not being able to get a good protection in many anchorages. In that respect the Pogo is incomparably better offering a swing keel that goes from 1.5m to 3.5m.

Pogo 50

The Oceantec 50 will not be suited for handicap racing (bad handicap) and not very interesting for cruising due to excessive draft. Of course they can redesign the keel with a 2.5m draft but in that case the difference in needed ballast (to have the same RM) will be 1T (or more) making the boat substantially heavier than a Pogo and even so not comparable in what regards anchoring and port advantages (the Pogo has 1.5m draft).

It seems to me that they should redesign that interior making it suitable for a swing keel option or a lifting keel, much more adapted for the use intended for the boat and also change that interior to one that could be modified to accept one of the keel configurations mentioned above. Producing a boat with two completely different interiors, depending on the keel choice is expensive and does not make sense.

Another point to review is the tankage. They don’t mention water tankage capacity and that’s a bad sign, but if we take as reference the diesel tank (120 liter) it will be clearly insufficient for long range cruising. The Pogo 50, with a similar 55hp engine, has more than the double and it offers a water tankage of 560L.

Also, the winches positions, in what regards solo sailing, are suitable for two tillers not for the two wheel set-up that is showed on the drawings. Something wrong there, if two wheels are used then the winch setup should be changed.

The price seems good, depending on the quality of the interiors. At 630 000 euro (without VAT) it is just a bit more expensive than a Pogo 50 (10% more) being built the same way and with the same materials (Vinylester infused SAN foam core sandwich, Carbon and E-glass reinforcements) but we have to consider that the price of the Pogo includes already a swing keel (with all ballast on the keel) and that if such a keel is offered on the Oceantec the price would be higher, probably 20 000 euros more, at least.

Pogo 50

The Oceantec 50 comes with water ballast (2 tanks with 950 liters) not the Pogo but the truth is that all fast cruising boats I have seen coming on the market with water ballast, sooner or later, opt for not offering it anymore. The Cigale, one of the first, is a good example.

I guess that they only make sense while crossing oceans with a steady wind and only with at least medium to strong winds. Too much complication, with a significant loss of interior space for a slightly better performance. Without the water ballast system the price of the Oceantec 50 will certainly come down a bit.

 Below a Pogo 50, a similar type of boat, doing a very fast ARC having as crew the owner, the designer, the boat builder...and two class40 solo racers.

The Oceantec 50 is a gorgeous boat but needs some modifications to be a successful offer on the market that intends to captivate, the one of the very fast long range voyage boats with the hull based on solo racers.

https://www.racing-yachts.com/app/web/upload/pdfs/330.pdf
http://www.pogostructures.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/UK-POGO-50-BASIC-PRICE-2018.pdf

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