Bavaria goes upmarket with the new Vision 40, 44 and 50, reports Bob Ross.
Bavaria's new Vision series of deck saloon yachts emphasises outdoor as well as indoor comfort, which should appeal to Australian cruisers and cruiser/racers.
The Vision 40, 44, and yet-to-be-released 50, besides having comfortable interiors maximise the use of their large cockpits with teak capping on the coamings behind the cockpit seats as well as on the seats themselves and the floor.
And so 16 people were able to sit in and around the cockpit of the 44 at a recent Bavaria raftup on Pittwater organised by North South Yachting, the Australian importer of the German-built range.
To serve any assembly, the Visions have a cockpit table, with fold-out leaves that incorporates an ice box in its fibreglass base.
All three models also have spacious interiors with more than two metres of headroom, large L-shaped galleys and dedicated navigation stations. The varnished mahogany interior furniture and panelling is of outstanding quality.
The Visions are intended to complement the established range of sturdy Bavaria cruisers rather than replace any yachts within it. They are aimed at the private owner rather than charter market with a more comprehensive list of standard equipment, greater speed potential with a lead keel and more sail area in a rig that features in-mast furling for the mainsail as an option.
Naturally, they cost more than their nearest counterparts in the Bavaria cruiser range. With options to suit Australian conditions added by North South Yachting as standard, base price for the 40 is $359,000; 44, $415,000; 50, $529,000, including a conventional Dacron leech-battened mainsail including boom furling and lazy jacks and number two genoa.
Tony Kirby, of the Australian importer North South Yachting, says: “They suit a certain person who wants to move up from an existing boat and also, we've found, retired people moving from motor boats over to yachts.”
North South Yachting has already sold the first 40, which arrived in Australia in October and two of the 50s although the first of that model is not due here until February or March.
Both boats have tall rigs with mast-furling mainsails supported by vertical battens.
Virtually identical
The Vision 44 and 40 are virtually identical in appearance with both featuring the nicely streamlined deck saloon top. Two-metre long side windows, two “panorama” windows (skylight windows) that enable the rig to be viewed from inside and six overhead opening hatches admit plenty of light below. All the windows and ports have blinds.
Innovative solar-powered vents – two of them – with panels to spin fans that stream air below are also installed over the saloon. Both yachts also have three fixed elliptical ports in the topsides.
The saloons are spacious, light and airy. Down below on the 44, you feel as though you could be on a 50-footer.
Spacious cockpits on both boats with 16 people seated in the 44 during a raftup.
The deck and cockpit layouts are near identical. Both yachts have a very neat alloy toe rail and a stainless steel capping on a substantial wooden rubbing strake on the topsides just below that.
New feature
A new feature for Bavaria is a transom seat for the helmsman that folds out and down to form an opening plus a step up into the cockpit from the aft boarding platform. A neat touch is recessing the telescoCockpit layouts are the same; the cockpit on the 40 is just narrower and the cockpit seats shorter.
Curved footrest for helmsman.
Teak also caps the helming seats, which extend well outboard and the curved foot braces for the helmsman behind the twin wheels. Standard instrumentation mounted on the pedestal is for the Raymarine Tridata ST 60 Plus (log, speed, depth), Raymarine ST 60 wind instrument and Plastimo compass. There is room also for an auto pilot.
A GPS could be fitted on a special pod mounted on a pivot at the rear of the console, so that it could be swung to face the helmsman at either steering station. The cockpit has two large storage lockers plus another forward, just behind the anchor locker, to stow the fenders. The anchor locker houses an electric windlass. A bin for rope tails sits under a teak-slatted step up into the companionway. A pair of Lewmar self-tailing two-speed winches for spinnaker gear is included in the standard inventory, as well as the genoa self-tailers and cabin-top self-tailers for control lines. All the control lines run aft from the mast under a deck garage to leave the cabin top uncluttered.
Galley and saloon on 44.
Nav station on 44 with graphic switchboard display.
Below
The inclusion of an ensuite toilet/shower compartment in the forward cabin of the 44. It has an aluminium-framed glass three-piece folding shower screen that is very neatly stowed behind a lift-up stainless steel rail. Folded out, it hooks into a slot in the floor of the moulding and is secured by a latch at the top. The toilet is manual while the one in the second toilet/shower compartment to starboard aft of the saloon, the standard one on the 40, is electric. Both have holding tanks with deck suction and over-the-side release.
The forward cabins of both boats have two large drawers under the double berths, easily reached for storing bedding, as well as hanging lockers. They have cushioned seats and steps for easy access to the berths. 
The forward cabins of both boats have two large drawers under the double berths easily reached for storing bedding as well as hanging lockers.
The saloon of the 44 has two lounge/reading seats, separated by a fiddle-topped console, to starboard opposite the familiar U-shaped settee around a table to port. The 40 has a simple bench settee, served by a fold-out leaf on the table for dining.
North South removed the central seat at the table shown in the standard arrangement drawing for the 44 to suit enclosed-waters cruising. The serious offshore cruiser would consider having it fitted for the sake of moving around below safely in a seaway, although there are numerous handholds overhead and in the furniture.
Saloon of the 40. Flat screen TV is an option.
The galleys on both boats are big and include gimballed two-burner gas stove with oven and fold-over bench top and front-opening and top-opening refrigerators operating on 12-volt power. A 50-litre freezer is available as an option. The double stainless-steel sinks in the Corian-topped bench have covers. Both boats have pressure hot water supply from a 360-litre tank. Plenty of stowage is available with double drawers and cupboards and two deep lockers over the stove with room in either one for a microwave. Sockets for 240-volt shore are provided in the galley, toilet/shower compartments and navigation station. The nav station is uncompromised, as on all Bavarias, with opening chart table and a seat. It has VHF radio and stereo-radio as standard and room for a chart plotter and repeaters for the tridata instruments. A new feature is the press-button switchboard with an outline of the boat and the rig so that if you tell someone to switch on the masthead light, it's pretty obvious where that button is.
The aft cabins have double berths, hanging lockers and seats. Access to the engine is available from either cabin and there is room in the 44 to install a generator, watermaker or air-conditioner.
The 55hp Volvo D2-55 with sail-drive and three-bladed folding propeller is standard for both the 40 and 44.
Forward cabin's ensuite head with shower.
Construction
Hulls and decks are hand-laid fibreglass/foam with solid 'glass below the waterline and Kevlar-reinforced bow sections. A deeper lead keel – 2.10m compared to the standard 1.75m on the 40 and 1.80m on the 44 – is available as an option for $1544 on the 40. It costs $1697 on the 44.
The stock for the balanced rudder has self-adjusting bearings. The steering system is Lewmar direct-drive and the two wheels have leather covers.
Performance
We sailed both boats in a wonderful 12-16 knot nor'easter on Sydney Harbour and it proved to be an enjoyable experience. The two-spreader aft-swept rigs were fitted with the optional Selden in-mast furling system for the mainsail and sails of tri-radial Mylar construction.
The main has vertical battens of fibreglass rod so that it can be vertically furled. The vertical battens support the roach area. Unfurling and furling proved to be an easy job for one man, winding a winch and adjusting the outhaul, without the need for an electric winch. Reefing with this system is efficient because proportionately more sail area is reduced at the luff with each turn on the winch than if you were dropping the sail to the boom. The furling headsail in the upgraded sail option has a foam strip attached near the luff so that the sail will still hold an efficient shape when it is partly furled for reefing.
The in-mast system and Mylar tri-radial sails in the “High-Tech” package add $11,666 to the base price of the 40 and $12,084 to the base price of the 44.
The ability to sail the boats short-handed was put to the test with just one sailor – able and very experienced – aboard each boat for the photo shoot! The sheet winches and jib furler are located within reach of the helmsman.
Three of us then sailed each boat in turn. They are easy to sail with broad side decks and good non-skid surfaces on both decks and flat-roofed cabin top which also has long stainless-steel grabrails.
The Rutgerson mainsheet system has a traveller running on a short track on the cabin top with control lines and mainsheet running to the banks of rope clutches just in front of the companionway.
Both boats were well balanced, easy to keep in a steering groove with just a slight touch of weather helm and easy to tack.
Speeds were respectable upwind: 6.5 up to 7.2 knots on the 40 in 10-12 knots of true wind on the 40 in flat water and then sitting more steadily on 7.4s and 7.5s on the 44 as the wind increased to 14-16 knots.
The curved footrests are a real positive for the helmsman, who can find a comfortable anchorage at any angle of heel. Also, opening side gates in the lifelines assisted an easy entrance from the photo boat. We reached home at eight knots, sitting back in comfort in the contoured cockpit seats of the 44 to end a wonderful day on the water.
Bavaria 44 layout.
SPECIFICATIONS
Bavaria Vision 40
Length overall … … … 12.70m
Waterline length … … 10.60m
Beam … … … 3.99m
Draft … … … 1.75m
Displacement … … 8950kg
Ballast … … … 3040kg
Ballast/dsp … … … 34 per cent
AVS . . NA
Sail area/displ . . . NA
Disp/LWL . . . NA
Engine … … Volvo Penta 55hp
Water … … … 360ltr
Fuel … … … 210ltr
Sail area:
Main and genoa … 95.80sq m
Mast height … … 19.50m
Price: $359,000.
Design: J&J Design Team.
Builder: Bavaria Yachts, Germany.
Bavaria Vision 44
Length overall … … … 13.70m
Waterline length … … 11.55m
Beam … … … 4.39m
Draft … … … 1.80m
Displacement … … … 10,400kg
Ballast … … … 3360kg
Ballast/disp … … 32.3 per cent
AVS . . . NA
Sail area/displ . . . NA
Disp/LWL . . . NA
Engine … … Volvo Penta 55hp
Water … … 360ltr
Fuel … … … 210ltr
Sail area (main and
Genoa) 112sq m
Mast height … … 20.00m
Price: $415,000.
Design: J&J Design Team
Builder: Bavaria Yachts, Germany.
Australian distributor: North South Yachting (Aust) Pty Ltd, 1856 Pittwater Rd, Church Point, NSW 2105, ph 02 9998 9600, email bavaria@northsouthyachting.com.au
