FIRST TEST FAURBY 360 DECK SALOON

Can a deck saloon under 40ft still be graceful and enjoyable to sail?

- Theo Stocker

The summer of 2025 may have been gloriously warm and dry (though less fun for farmers and the planet in general) but the average British summer can normally be counted upon to be mixed at best.

Cruise for more than a week and at some point you'll run into rain, drizzle, thunder, fog, hail or other tempest. Sitting out such weather in harbour aboard a boat in which you are cooped up in its arc-like bowels for days on end, before sending out a dove to see if there is any dry land left, is a sometimes less than a pleasant experience. How much more pleasant to have your morning coffee at a lustrously varnished table in the comfort of a saloon with views all round your fine vessel, taking in the beauty of the place to which you have sailed, feeling smug as the rain lashes against the windows. There is little doubt that deck saloons make absolute sense for cruising boats, but some would argue that small deck saloons with graceful lines are as common as unicorns.

Well, Danish yard Faurby (into which the Nordship brand has been subsumed) has gone further than most in proving them wrong, building a range of deck saloons they claim to be sumptuously comfortable, yet fun and engaging to sail. If unicorns exist anywhere, it'll be on the Little Belt in Denmark.

CUSTOM CRAFTSMANSHIP