37
SVN Solovelanet Global
I
n the nineties, industrial shipyards such as Bene-
teau, Jeanneau, Dufour, and others, built boats
of up to 50 feet. In the early 2000s, the maximum
size was 55-58 feet, then the Hanse 630 arrived
and set new parameters. At present the only in-
dustrial shipyard without an over 60 in their range is
Bavaria.
It should be noted that in the nineties, most 60-foo-
ters had at least one professional skipper on board,
70-footers employed a minimum of two crew mem-
bers, and an average crew was made up of three
professionals. In the 2000s, we began to see some
owners sail their 60-footers without any professio-
nals on board, and at present there are several 65- or
even 67-footers which can be sailed by their owners
without the assistance of a specialized crew. Consi-
der also that none of the twenty Oyster 625s built so
far employs a professional crew and that only three
of them are sailed by a professional skipper during
the charter season. The new 65-footer from Nautor
was designed with the idea that her owner might sail
her without the help of a professional crew, and the
owner of the first Solaris 64 did not request a crew
cabin, because he loves to operate the boat on his
own with his family.
Some yards are even focusing on creating large bo-
ats that do not need a crew.
by Giuliano Luzzatto
