We test the beautiful new X-yacht and find a thoroughbred TESTED: X40
Light winds don’t usually make for fast or enjoyable boat tests, but most boats tested aren’t like X-yachts’ new X40. Graham Snook heads to Denmark to put her through her paces
The new yacht in X-yacht’s Xrange is not a 40-footer. Let’s get that out of the way now – she’s 37ft 8in. She’s great fun, and has the nimble feel and speed that most 40-footers can only dream of, but don’t think she has the accommodation of a 40ft yacht; the 40 in her name is her length overall, including her bowsprit. Her interior is stylish, practical and well put together, she’s easily handled by a couple and can take you cruising in speed and style.
With that clarified, I can start telling you all how good she is and, oh my, she is good. It’s rare I’ll find myself having a great sail in less than 10 knots of breeze. To be fair it’s also rare to sail a 40ft, sorry, 38ft, yacht with Technora sails and a carbon fibre mast and boom and a 2.40m draught. But sailing south from Aarøsund in Denmark in 9 knots of breeze, we were having a blast and she was romping along going to windward at over 7 knots.
X-yachts has long been a brand of proper sailing boats, thoroughbreds born to be sailed, not just comfortable yachts with masts and sails. Its boats are well-mannered
and sail fast; with its heritage in racing, even X-yachts’ cruising range has a good turn of speed.
X-yachts currently build three ranges of yachts; Xc for cruising, Xp for performance, and the latest Xrange. The boats in each may be similar lengths, but each are different from the keel up. The new X40 is not just the comfortable interior of the Xc38 crammed into the sleek hull of the Xp38. The hull design characteristics on all three ranges are different: the Xc hulls have more volume to support the extra clobber required by the extended cruising sailor; the Xp are narrower with much slimmer bow sections; and the X40’s hull has more rocker then the Xp while its broader forward sections give more space for the owner’s cabin and wider aft sections with a soft, subtle chine, giving more volume aft.
While X’s Xp yachts have gained a more cruiserfriendly interior over time, they retain weight-saving features, less joinery (although, don’t for a minute think they are stripped out racers) and a carbonreinforced subframe. The Xrange, in contrast, carries over some of the Xp’s sporty handling while keeping features reassuring to cruising sailors: lots of useful deck stowage, good headroom and a galvanised steel sub-frame beneath the sole which spreads the loads from the keel and mast.
With the average size of yachts gradually increasing to over 40ft, it is easy to become accustomed to their way of sailing. There’s nothing wrong with the feel but, like the freedom of an empty winding road after being stuck behind a tractor, sailing the X40 is a reminder of how good a sub-40ft yacht can feel. She strikes a lovely balance of nimbleness and control without being twitchy. Leave the wheel and she will veer off course, but the helm is so enjoyable you won’t want to leave it.
The test boat was fitted with a B&G hydraulic autopilot ram. In the past, when manufacturers have blamed the autopilot for heaviness to the helm, I’ve asked for it to be removed – and the autopilot wasn’t always the cause. On this occasion, without the ram fitted the wheel had the unrestricted preciseness I have come to expect from Jeffa cable steering, and it felt instantly lighter.
FAST BUT NOT FURIOUS
Even with the ram attached, the helm was light and nicely balanced. As the wind went to abeam and then aft, the weight did increase a little, but this was hull number one, and there is still a bit of fine tuning before the model goes into full production. If the feel of the helm and handling wasn’t already enough to put a smile on my face, her speed would have. It might have been a grey day, with less than 10 knots true wind speed for most of the test, but she was sailing like there was sunshine and at least 15 knots. At an apparent wind angle of 24° she was making 6 knots effortlessly. Take it down to 27° and she was making over 7 knots. She benefited from being unladen with a clean hull, carbon fibre Axxon racing
It was a flat, grey day, but she was sailing like there was sunshine and 15 knots of breeze
mast and Elvstrøm Epex Technora sails, no doubt, but even so, making over 8.5 knots in 11 knots breeze with the asymmetric was truly delightful.
Space around each wheel was good; there is plenty of room aft of the helm without feeling penned in by the pushpit and there’s room to sit astride or forward of the wheel.
The mainsheet traveller is forward of the wheels, with the Harken Performa 40ST mainsheet winches deeply recessed into the coaming. The sheet runs from the winch to the mainsheet traveller – on the cockpit sole – then up to the boom to and down to the same setup on the other side. It’s a neat system that works well, but because the mainsheet is shorter than the traditional German mainsheet system, the sheet will tend to wear in the same place.
A self-tacking jib is standard but this boat had the optional genoa and winches, as well as tracks on the coachroof. The sheets run along the edge of the coachroof – outboard of the moulded recess for the sprayhood – to Harken Performa 46ST winches on the coaming.
The deck and cockpit of this boat were covered with Flexiteak rather than real wood, which still looked good and gave reassuring grip underfoot. Deck stowage is good, too, if you can resist the urge to
fill the aft end with cabins. There’s a sail locker aft of the chain locker in the bow and a good sized cockpit locker, which houses the fuel tank and holding tank but still has lots of room. There are also lazarette lockers beneath the helms, a central gas locker beneath the sole too and there’s a short fold-down transom (a larger one is optional). The only omission was lack of dedicated liferaft stowage, which would need to be stowed in a locker or on deck.
One feature I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of are the hinged washboards that open into recesses on each side of the companionway, behind which are deep rope bins. It’s a very neat solution.
SCANDINAVIAN STYLE
In the same vein that her sailing reminded me how much I’d missed the handling of sub-12m yachts, seeing the grain detail of her beautiful Nordic oak interior brought back how much I’d missed seeing natural grain, rather than composite veneer, in yachts of this size. Many builders are using Alpi, or woods with a uniform grain pattern (like teak or mahogany), and there’s nothing wrong with that, but the oak in the X40 raises the bar considerably.
Not only does it look good and exude warmth, the detail of the grain patterning around the boat and the way it matches from locker front to locker front highlights the quality of these boats.
The design is clean, stylish and has a typically Danish feel about it; white panels surrounded by horizontally-grained golden oak. It’s all very tasteful. The galley, at the base of the companionway, had a white Corian top with the corners of fiddles rounded, which will make cleaning and wiping it down a breeze; likewise, there’s a low fiddle on the work surface outboard of the double stainless-steel sinks, a small thing but it stops any run-off making a beeline for the surround of the top-opening fridge.
The fridge wasn’t the biggest, but there is space and the option for a front-opening fridge. Without it, there is a vast aft-opening locker inboard. There is also good locker space and stowage outboard and a handy line of soft-closing drawers aft. Above these is a locker just the right size for a coffee machine.
Opposite the galley is the chart table. Although it’s a little shallow at 4.5cm, it has a line of drawers in its support and is a good rectangular size (56cm x 82cm/1ft 10in x 2ft 8in) and shape. Outboard is a decent-sized bin locker and there are a couple of bottom-hinged lockers above the switch panel.
There were a few areas where I’d have liked to have seen solid wood – just on the corner posts of the saloon table – so it matches the cabinetry of the forward cabin and as they will get battle-scarred, but also because I didn’t like the little strip of veneer on the top (although as this boat was the prototype, it
may still change). That said, these really are small details, which shows that there wasn’t much else I could find to disagree with. Quite the contrary, in fact, there was lots to like: small, neat round illuminated light switches, the white-framed BSI windows (two of which open on each side to give drip-free ventilation) that can be covered with recessed Ocean Air blinds, and the lovely laminated fiddle around the saloon table when it’s closed; when it opens the top is fiddle-free and is supported on the table column without the need for hinged supports. In the column you’ll find stowage for six bottles that are held in the bottom-hinged door. It’s all of a high standard.
MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE
There’s also much that can’t be seen. The hull, for example, is a vacuum-infused foam-cored epoxy (which has been post cured) and the bulkheads are laminated in place. All the skin fittings are recessed into the hull, as is the keel. It’s a T-shaped keel and has a lead bulb with an iron fin – the whole assembly is encapsulated in fibreglass matt and resin then faired. Inboard, the keel is attached to a large galvanised-steel frame, complete with a single-point lifting attachment.
The saloon has L-shaped seating (and the water tank) to port, while to starboard is a 2.0m long seat. Behind the seabacks is a small amount of stowage, while above them is a fiddled top and a line of optional four bottom-hinged lockers, all with gas struts and the grain of the wood running horizontally along them. There are speaker grills at each end of these, and the two central lockers lose a little space to the chainplate structure outboard. Hull windows bring light into the saloon, but they are a little low to get a good view of the horizon out of.
The mast is keel-stepped, so you’ll have an aluminium mast in your saloon if you don’t take the £54,220 (inc VAT) option of the gorgeous shiny black carbon one. The inboard leaf of the saloon table is fixed, and with the mast blocking the forward end of the seating it is a bit of a shuffle in and out of the forward seat. The support for the saloon table has a deep-fiddled section in the top; this works well as a handhold as well as a storage area. At deck level there are stainless-steel grab handles on the starboard side, and wooden handles are an option.
Headroom throughout is 1.88m (6ft 2in) or more and the only exception is the forward cabin where it’s still 1.80m (6ft). Going into the forward cabin there’s an X-yacht emblazoned tread plate. The cabin is light, thanks to the large white headboard, a deck hatch above the berth, a second further aft as well as the forward-facing window on the forward end of the coachroof, and a hull window on either side. Above the hull windows are a line of four lockers like those
She’s a high-spec cruiser that is hugely rewarding and fun to helm
in the saloon. There are also hanging and shelved lockers on either side of the door, with a bottomhinged locker beneath and a good fiddled area too. All the locker doors have a decent 2mm edging strip, which contributes to the quality feel onboard. The headlining is neatly moulded throughout the boat, and in the saloon it hides LED strip lights.
Beneath the aft end of the 2.0m x 1.5m (6ft 7in x 4ft 11in) berth is a large (77cm x 88cm x 38cm) stowage area (with a central partition) that’s accessed by lifting the aft half of the berth, with the weight taken by gas struts and the berth cushions hinged midway to make access easier, there is more stowage under the lids beneath this, but forward space was taken up by the retractable bow thruster on this boat.
IN THE DETAILS
Moving towards the stern, there’s a good-sized aft cabin with a hull window and deep, fiddled shelves. The berth was wide, even with a box 20cm x 28cm (8in x 11in) taken from the inboard foot end. It would have been nicer if the corner of this was rounded, just to make it more shin-friendly.
At the forward end of the berth, the engine is accessed via removable panels, which, along with those in the heads, gave good all-round access. Unusually, access to under the engine was excellent and a moulded tray area beneath was designed to capture any stray oil.
The heads compartment creeps under the cockpit moulding giving it a deceptively large feel, though headroom while sitting on the heads (with the Tecma electric toilet) was 92cm (3ft), which if you were any taller than me (1.78m/5ft 10in), might be a little low. It was nice to see a porcelain hand bowl, and the yard is changing the mirror so it is properly angled when standing up.
You’ll discover the shower compartment at the entrance of the heads compartment so, if it’s been used, you run the risk of soggy socks and wet footprints through the saloon if you’re next in line for the heads.
There is a fold-out partition to stop the rest of the heads compartment getting a dousing from the shower, and a moulded GRP bench seat outboard. Lift the lid of this and you’ll discover a roving bilge pump with a hose long enough to reach even the furthest forward bow compartment housing the bowthruster, which is a rare and pleasing detail.