FIRST TEST LINJETT 36

With just 10 new models in 52 years, the new Linjett 36 promises to be something really quite special.

- 

Civilisation gradually fell away as the road rolled onwards in the car's headlights; cities gave way to villages, which gave way to forests.

Suddenly, snuggly-lit timber cottages appeared, nestled amid modern sheds housing ranks of sleek yachts nested down for the winter. Rosättra Båtvarv is about as far from an industrial centre as you can imagine, but it's here, at the oldest working boatyard in Sweden, that a select group of craftsmen and women busy themselves with building what they believe to be the most beautiful boats in Sweden. That's saying something, as Sweden is the birthplace of some of the world's loveliest yachts.

Linjett isn't well know outside Sweden. Just a dozen or so boats are built here each year, 900 or so since the first GRP Linett was launched in 1973, yet over 200 of them return home each winter, like migrating geese, and over half are still owned by members of the Linjett owners' association and I'd wager the rest are still all sailing somewhere or other. Loyalty to the brand, once awoken, is clearly strong. The first Linjett, a 30-footer, was built just a couple of years after Hallberg-Rassy began building, but boats have been built on this site since 1886, with just two families owning the business in that time; the Janssens sold the yard to the Gustafssons in 1948, and now the third and fourth generations of the Gustafassons run the yard. They have been careful not to expand much. Building small numbers of beautiful boats, with long lead times and a strong order book turns out to be a far more sustainable way of weathering the economic storms than churning out as many hulls as possible.

It is also striking that in 52 years Linjett has built just 10 models. It's little surprise then that the design of these boats is fairly conservative and timeless. So if you think cruising yachts aren't what they used to be, then this one might just pique your interest.