ARCONA 435

THE TEST VERDICT

There are few boats that offer both speed and a genuinely quality interior, but the Arcona is one of them. She was a joy to sail for the helm and comfortable for the crew. The sail handling is well thought out and works whether you’re sailing fully crewed or short-handed.

Arcona are owned by Orust Quality Yachts, the same owner as Najad Yachts and as you’d expect from a company of this pedigree, the quality is very high both in terms of workmanship and the materials used.

The UK spec boat has a host of extras like 3Di sails, a spray hood, sail cover, an electric halyard winch, asymmetric spinnaker and is very close to the boat that was tested. It’s not necessary to have all of these, and any owner can of course spec the boat to suit. This doesn’t do much to reduce her price, but you don’t buy a Ferrari to put on cloth seats and remould tyres.

WOULD SHE SUIT YOU AND YOUR CREW?

While one might expect passage times to be reduced in a yacht like the Arcona 435, I fear, however, that won’t be the case, and why would you want that? Anyone buying such a boat will be sailing her further, faster and make any trip last as long as possible — just for the sheer pleasure of sailing her. She really is a delight.

Where many performance cruisers try to save weight with the quality of the interior fit-out, no such economies are visible on the 435, except, perhaps for the lack of locker door supports. If you want even better performance there’s the option for her hull and deck to be built in carbon with a carbon rig, and you can also have a deeper keel too, but you’ll have to find an extra £96,000 for that luxury.

Even without these, the Arcona 435 is a performance cruiser in every sense. If you want to cruise with speed and style, she delivers. But should you wish to throw her around the race course, then relax in comfort afterwards, the Arcona will take it all in her stride — she is all you could want her to be, and more.