French CONTENDER

When a production yacht breeds a new racer-cruiser, there is always the question: is it a cruiser that can race? Or a racer that can cruise? The Jeanneau Sun Fast 3600, designed by Daniel Andrieu, is primarily a racer.

You can take the Jeanneau Sun Fast 3600 cruising if you wish – and you will have good sailing, plenty of space for people in the cockpit and room to sleep up to six belowdecks, but you’ll have minimal storage in the galley and for personal gear. You will have a private head and a galley-saloon area that is easy to clean. So let’s start with the racing. To promote the yacht’s potential on the local club scene, Jason Snashall of Orakei Marine, which imports the Jeanneau brand into New Zealand, offered the boat to Josh Tucker of North Sails. As a sailmaker, Tucker is a core crew member of the Elliott SS 35 canting keeler Crusader which won the Groupama Race at New Caledonia last year and is soon to do the Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

So with those credentials, Tucker wants leaderboard positions and the thrill of a boat popping up on the plane in a half-decent blow. The plan for Sunfast 3600 Racing includes the 2017 Two Handed Round North Island Race.

When I joined the boat and her seven crew on a cold Friday afternoon in June, the sky was overcast, the wind around 14 to 18 knots, and there was a mild chop on the harbour. We were a crew pulled together for the day, but we had the type of bowman that yacht scenes the world over seem to produce from some mythical

bowman factory: young, keen, waterproof and impervious to cold. In our case, James Horner. Most of Tucker’s crew are graduates of the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron’s youth training scheme.

The Sun Fast’s ultra wide transom declares a racing cockpit, delineated in the current trend for hard lines on coamings and mouldings. The deckgear is Harken and runs to form: a bank of jammers on the cabintop take care of halyards, cunningham, downhaulers, inhaulers and outhaul, although on Sun Fast 3600 Racing, they’re labelled in boy language that’s unprintable here.

The primaries are on the coamings within reach of the helm; traveller and back stay controls are between mainsheet and helm position. There are no runners. With the extreme beam in the cockpit, as you’d expect there are twin rudders, twin tillers… Whoa there: did I just say twin tillers?

Yes. Tucker says that initially he found it awkward negotiating

the twin tillers in a tack, as in: step over the first tiller, move across the cockpit, grab the other tiller, move over that one – but having perfected his dance steps, he likes it. There is no need for a tiller extension – which can be unwieldy – and it’s easy for a cohelmsman to take the leeward tiller when making a fine approach on a mark, for example.

A neat trick to these twin rudders: you can adjust their angle of attack. The tillers are linked by a tie-rod in the lazarette; a turnbuckle in the tie-rod allows you to adjust the angle of both rudders, but not independently. The idea is to optimise lift of the leeward; ie, immersed, rudder, and feather the windward; ie, flying, rudder to present less drag. The trick would be remembering to adjust it for the other board after tacking. Class 40 yachts have this feature but it would be rare on club racers; the crew is yet to experiment with it.

Another great feature of this cockpit: good, meaty foot braces for helm and mainsheet trimmer. Backstay and fine tune controls cleat in the foot brace of the main trimmer. The jib trimmer has a comfortable position and can adjust the car positions remotely. A German mainsheet system and twin wheels, rather than twin tillers, are options; the L-shaped keel with lead bulb is fixed.

This boat has maxed out on electronics and sounds, with a full B&G racing kit including remote controls on the coaming near the jib trimmer, and a Fusion eight-speaker stereo, plus sub-woofer.

And so to sailing under the new wardrobe from North Sails. With mainsail and gennaker hoisted, we were ready to ride. Sunfast 3600 Racing has the 880mm carbon bowsprit for a gennaker; an option is a 470mm bowsprit for a spinnaker optimised for IRC. This was the first time Sunfast 3600 Racing had been out in some decent breeze so Snashall and Tucker were pretty happy to see speeds of around 11 – 14 knots. The boat felt totally under control, fast and fun, smiles all round. Then we wiped out. Someone yelled: “Blow the halyard!” Someone else yelled: “No! That’s a bad idea.”

Oops, too late. The tackline had let go. The issue seems to be that while cordage has got stronger and therefore thinner in recent years, jammer sizes have remained the same so cordage is sometimes prone to slipping – especially when it’s slinky and new.

With the tackline once more under control and gennaker head back at the top of the mast, we were back on our feet, but what I found interesting was that even at our maximum angle of heel, with the gennaker reaching for the sky on its long tackline, we never completely broached – partly due to quick reactions on the part of the crew, but also to the leeward rudder maintaining its grip on the water and the hard chine providing buoyancy at the right place.

The chine sweeps up at the stern which might not help the Sunfast 3600 win beauty contests but there is plenty of form stability. Although the wide beam of 3.55m (11ft 7in) extends to the transom, the waterline beam at the stern is surprisingly

narrow which in turn reduces the wetted surface area.

We were happily sitting in the 10s, which crept up to 14s and then got a squirt of around 17 knots which took us to a top speed of 18.4 knots. Tucker was rapt at how easily the boat popped up onto the plane.

Upwind, in the choppy water we didn’t try for ultra high angles but we were doing 8 knots comfortably and the boat remained fairly dry and settles at a comfortable angle of heel, courtesy of those chines. All rail crew appreciated the angled gunwales which were comfortable under the knees.

Helming was nice: the foot braces are solid areas of support, not just a token angle that makes your foot hurt. I’m a fan of twin rudders – to me, the boat feels more steady with a good relationship between helm and rudders – and now I’m a fan of twin tillers. Like twin wheels, you can easily sit outboard to steer, without the distraction of a tiller extension.

If there is going to be a massive compromise between racing and cruising, it’s most likely to happen belowdecks; on the Jeanneau Sun Fast 3600, compromise for cruising is minimal. Stowage of cruising gear has been sacrificed for easy management of sails belowdecks, and to avoid loading cupboards with unnecessary weight.

The aft cabins are spacious with queen-size squabs – they are split to allow lee cloths so you can stack two sleeping sailors to windward with privacy intact.

Instead of wardrobes,

there are fabric kit bags, hung vertically – these are light and removable so you can take them home and throw the contents in the washing machine without having to pack, although it lacks the convenience of itemised stowage.

The doors into the aft cabins are also fabric, with zip openings, which saves weight and space. They are also removable.

The nav station is to port; the galley is to starboard. At the sacrifice of more stowage, there is a wide space between them to manage sails while racing and for sailors to move past each other. The galley is basic: a small burner, small sink and some storage. A 12V fridge is optional.

Amidships has a generous single berth either side of the drop leaf saloon table. Thanks to the boat’s wide beam, it’s an easy walk for’ard past the table. The shiny, stainless steel, square-section compression post passing through the table seems odd, as though the mast is further aft than usual; in reality, the resin-infused main bulkhead is well for’ard of what we’re used to, because there is no for’ar d cabin.

Instead there is a functional, spacious head to port with handbasin and shower attachment to starboard. It’s private, thanks to double sliding doors which recede into the bulkhead either side – now that’s clever. The handbasin has no cupboard stowage beneath it which leaves the space for sails; a holding tank is installed forward of the head. There is more space in the bow for sails. The for’ard sole is a step lower than the saloon, to preserve headroom under the foredeck.

There is a watertight crash bulkhead in the bow; this is accessed by a hatch in the for’ard area.

Accommodation belowdecks achieves a balance between functionality and comfort, but what Tucker really likes is that the entire area, from the companionway forward to the bow, can be hosed out. The water drains into a bilge over the keel from where it is pumped out. Tucker regularly brings the hose in after a race; housework done. That’s an excellent feature – for racing or cruising. B