25 Oct
Luca Bianchi took delivery of his Solaris 40 three years ago and has since cruised the coast of Croatia and through the Greek islands, his chic performance cruiser a rare combination of style and substance.
A sleek profiled yacht emerges from the heat haze rippling off the cobalt blue waters of the Ambracian Gulf at the ancient port of Preveza, in Western Greece.
Leaving minimal wake as it cuts through the increasing wind chop, the boat’s relatively high freeboard, low profile coach roof, flush decks, and pronounced bow chine register an unmistakable aesthetic.
“I’ll bet that’s a Solaris,” Windshift remarks to a family member attempting to fix solar panels to the stainless bimini frame of our own yacht in the sweltering conditions.
Not surprisingly, virtually all our other fellow cruisers tied-up at the Preveza town quay seem to prefer to pass the afternoon in the shade of an expansive cockpit awning usually with a cool drink in hand.
A short time later the lovely Solaris 40 Fra Martina slips into a berth at a nearby marina and Windshift scuttles down the dock to seek out her fortunate Owner, who turns out to be the welcoming and gracious Luca Bianchi.
Hailing from Milan, Luca, a very experienced yachtsman, has just spent over a month cruising the Ionian Sea – consistently rated as one of the world’s top sailing destinations. The Ionian offers the ease of hopping between alluring islands with line-of-sight navigation in steady north-westerly afternoon breezes, with the attraction of swimming in the usually clean and inviting waters of a new bay or beach or alternatively exploring the enticements of a town quay at the end of a sublime day’s sailing.
Asked how his Solaris 40 with its three cabin two-head layout handled the varying demands of extended cruising, the swift reply is: “Perfect. But it depends how many people you have on-board,” Luca qualifies. “For this last trip we had one of the two aft cabins free for storage of all the things you need if you are going for more than a week or so.”
Reviews of the Solaris 40 recognise its high freeboard helps create a lot of internal volume below decks and the interior is therefore larger and more comfortable than the sleek external appearance might suggest.
In particular, the Owners cabin in the bow is singled-out: “there are few performance cruisers of this size that offer as much space here,” according to Yachting World. Luca agrees, “space-wise [the Owners cabin] it’s absolutely outstanding,” he says. But overall the aft cabins are wide and spacious too. The height is also great since I’m a tall guy,” (he’s 1.9 metres or 6 ft 3 inches).
Luca points out the cabin’s amenities such as a full-size peninsula bed with side-steps, plenty of floor space, large stylish hull windows that provide natural light and a large hatch for ventilation become even more important the longer you stay away from port. Good stowage is another priority and he’s modified the 40’s large transom storage locker with an extra separation panel to keep things tidy there.
When designing the Solaris 40 Xavier Soto Acebal has said he wanted the helmsman to enjoy the same benefits as [a]racing [yacht]; good pointing ability and sight lines forward, a nicely balanced feel and a good turn of speed.
Luca believes those design parameters have been well and truly met, resulting in a boat that is very rewarding and enjoyable to sail across a range of conditions.
“It’s an all-rounder,” Luca confirms. “Our particular boat performs well, we have good sails (North 3Di cruising), there’s no one exceptional area or angle. We have a Gennaker on a top-down furler and a high cut staysail, also on its own furler, which we use mainly as a storm jib or in strong head winds,” he adds.
A set of electric winches ensures furling is fast and hassle free, as well as being helpful in hoisting the main or getting someone up Fra Martina’s carbon rig from Hall Spars. There’s also two manual winches. The recessed traveller runs the width of deck, an option Luca was keen to have. “I’m a big fan of travellers,” he reveals. “You can play with the shape of the mainsail and you have more control.”
The absence of side decks aft of the 40’s helm stations maximises the cockpit space and according the designer the siting of the wheels further outboard than on many boats grants the helmsman “a great view to incoming waves, the tell tales on the sails and a great overall boat view.” Luca agrees and cites another advantage: “That’s good but the real benefit is the extra space in the cockpit and we have folding captain’s chairs that we put up there.”
The folding helm seat solution is a neat one and Luca says they haven’t been folded down in two years, except for cleaning.
The majority of the Ionian odyssey on Fra Martina has been short-handed thanks to the self-tacking jib, a B&G chartplotter/auto pilot and other handy labour-saving features. For Luca it’s been a chance to re-acquaint himself with some of the jewels of Med cruising.
“I was in the Ionian Islands 35 years ago and they’re still beautiful,” he says. “Places like Anti Paxos, Paxos. Even Corfu which many despise, I think is a nice island,” Luca states.
He also cites the Peloponnese Peninsula, the three fingers of land that protrude south easterly at the very bottom of the Greek mainland as a cruising highlight, “very wild but very beautiful”, and Elafonissos island and its golden sand beaches (a bit of a rarity in the Med as anyone who’s been there will know).
Fra Martina was lifted out of the water in late September and will spend the winter secured at the sprawling Cleopatra boatyard at Preveza. Spanning 11 hectares, it’s the largest hardstand storage in Greece, with a capacity for a staggering 1000 vessels.
Luca and his family will be back next season to renew for him what’s been a deep and enduring bond with nature, intrinsically present in the hoisting or unfurling of a sail as it harnesses the power of the wind.
“It’s a simple thing on one hand and on the other very challenging intellectually,” he tells Windshift. “It’s emotions, I’m a very close to nature type,” he confides.
“As a young boy I would spend four to five months in the countryside in a very wild place near Genova (Genoa), so we got used to being close to nature so on a boat there’s that but also what I really like it’s very challenging and very complex with electrical stuff, hydraulics, and you have to understand the wind,” Luca explains.
The Solaris 40 with its appealing mix of style, performance and spacious accommodation provides Luca and any other Owner with a refined and assured yacht that will fulfill their most deeply held cruising ambition.
More info at www.windcraftyachts.com/sailing-yachts/solaris-40/
