Certified Unsinkable

The new ETAP 39S has been nominated by Cruising World as a candidate for Boat of the Year. It's also on Sail Magazine's short list of nominees for Best Ten awards. Reviewers from both magazines, who tested in Annapolis and Newport, have been very impressed with its performance and handling. This from a boat that most assumed would be slow and heavy. Why would anyone assume that? Because the ETAP has a double hull with foam in between the hulls, making it completely unsinkable.

Polyurethane foam with a minimum 95 percent closed cells is injected into the space between the two hulls, providing sufficient buoyancy to ensure that the boat will stay afloat even if it suffers serious damage.

Substantial volumes of polyurethane foam are located fore and aft to provide impact protection and longitudinal stability in the event of damage. All the reinforcing and mounting plates in the hull and deck are made of aluminium or stainless steel: no balsa is used.

ETAP Yachts are certified unsinkable by the French Merchant Marine, the only official body in the world authorized to issue certificates of unsinkability for sailing yachts. ETAP is the only builder of sailing yachts in the world which has received this certification. This is an exclusive engineering process, ETAP is the only builder in the world making sailboats like this.

The French Merchant Marine test is very vigorous: not only must the boat be unsinkable, but it must retain sufficient freeboard and stability to actually be maneuverable under sail or power even when filled with water.

Certification requires that the yacht must be able to recover from a 90 degree knockdown with a full crew's weight on the lee rail even when filled with water. This means that even in the event of a full hull breach which allows unlimited seawater into the interior of the hull, the yachts must be able to remain afloat, be maneuverable under sail and be able to be progress through the water to a safe destination, albeit slowly.

Because of the exclusive ETAP engineering principles applied, the positive buoyancy of the yacht is such that in a completely flooded condition, the water rises only to about the level of the settee height in the saloon (about knee level for an average adult). The rest of the boat remains above the flooded waterline. Even in this condition, a crew may be able to cook hot meals, dry out bedding and clothing and keep foodstuffs from being contaminated.

That ETAP is able to do this, and still get a boat that looks great and sails well is a tribute their design and engineering departments. Even with the hull foam, the displacement / length ratio is just 183. Designed for casual family cruising, the 39S has a sail area to displacement ration of 22.1 with the full genoa calculated, 18.97 with just the foretriangle area in the equation. This is not a racer/cruiser; the interior is available in either a 2 or 3 cabin version. The linear galley runs along the port side and includes a double stainless steel sink, gimballed twin-burner stove and oven. The settee is U shaped, with a table that will recess down, giving a sizeable berth. One could easily sleep 6 in the 39S, even in the 2 cabin version. There is a single head with a shower cabin.

Two keel configurations are available, a shoal keel draws 4'9", a standard fin that draws 6'5". The sail plan is a 7/8ths rig with twin sweptback spreaders. Roller furling on the genoa is standard.

The unsinkability of the yachts has proven very attractive to charter operators in Europe. One can charter an ETAP in the Baltic Sea, Danish Islands, Croatia, Southern Brittany, Cote d'Axur, Costa del Sol, Tuscany, Balearic Islands and Corfu. We should expect to see some in fleets in the Caribbean this winter.

Specifications

North American Importer:

Sail-La-Vie Inc.

9 Timber Ridge

Freeport, Maine 04032

Phone (207) 865-1855

Email [email protected]

Web www.sail-la-vie.com