FIRST TEST BAVARIA C46

Massive bow sections create a huge amounts of space on board, and in theory, a powerful hull to give lively sailing. Theo Stocker pushes the boat to see if the reality matches up

- Theo Stocker

There’s no denying that this is a beast of a boat. Bluff bowed, big and powerful, the Bavaria C46 has more volume than almost any boat her size. In some ways, it’s no surprise as this is the direction boat design has been going for years, underlined by Bavaria’s motto of ‘Further and more’. In the C46, then, we’ve certainly got the ‘more’, but the question I was keen to answer when I headed down to Hamble one beautifully blustery autumn day was whether this boat also has the ‘further’. Has she sacrificed sailing ability for her size, or have Bavaria pulled off the trick of also making her a better sailing boat?

Alongside the continuing move to ever greater volume, there has been a more recent and more subtle shift in naval architecture – one that explains why bows are also getting fatter. It’s not just a grab for accommodation space, though they help of course, but a bluff bow also helps make a beamy boat more balanced to sail.

Much like the development of scow bows trickling down from development race classes such as Mini Transats and IMOCAs, ultra-wide and flat-sectioned hulls offered steroid-boosted amounts of righting moment and power, allowing them to ditch a whole load of ballast. But if you don’t want your flying saucer to nose-dive, you need to inject some volume hormones up forward as well.