Elan Impression 43

High, wide and thoroughly modern, Elan's new 143 offers a remarkably roomy interior and more performance than you might expect, as David Harding discovers

- David Harding

Plenty of high-volume family cruisers these days are designed for coast-hopping in northern Europe or gently cruising around the Med.

They're neither performance yachts nor designed for serious offshore work, being conceived instead for what you might call 'lifestyle cruising'.

If that's the sort of boat you're after, you still have significant choices to make. For a start, are you drawn more towards space and in-harbour comfort, or do you want a degree of sea-going comfort and practicality? More of the former tends to mean less of the latter. Where do you set your slider along that scale? While you can't have everythingthere's always an element of compromise -yacht design has evolved in recent years in such a way that voluminous cruisers often sail much better than their equivalents from earlier generations.

They're both faster and better mannered on the whole, and sometimes no slouch by most standards in the sort of conditions in which people typically want to sail. Some will behave quite nicely in, say, between 8 and 17 knots of wind and flat water.

Take them out in 25 knots against the tide, however, and it's a very different story-not that many people would choose to be out when it's like that. Equally, beamy cruisers with modest rigs are prone to sticking to the water in light airs, but that's when some owners simply reach for the engine button.

If you're happy with middle-of-thewind-range sailing, and confident that you will either stay in the harbour or fire up the engine if it's fresher or lighter, you have a wider range of boats to choose from. In contrast, if you enjoy being able to sail in a broader range of conditions, you will need to be a little more selective.

A confusion of choices