Exhibition of outrage (continued)

The outdoor (water) part of the St. Petersburg exhibition promises to be more interesting. At least it was supposed to be so. And we must say that to a certain extent these expectations were justified. «Also» one ought to say thanks to the Poles for that, whose overall contribution to the organization of the outdoor part of the show is almost crucial. Simply by the number of exhibits.

Undoubtedly, the star was the newest Polish sailing catamaran Wave 58 which came to St. Petersburg on its own. It was the biggest boat of the exhibition and attracted a lot of visitors, even if most of them would not dream of such a boat in real life. The boat is built (single specimen so far) on the famous and well known to Russian yachtsmen yard by name of Leonid Telgi in Schengen (Germany). (even if today it has little in common with what we knew at the time of Navimore and Sportjudoimport).
The Wave 58 is a very expensive boat that has been positioned by her builders a bit higher than the expensive French Privilege series catamarans and has a layout that is not common on such boats with two cabins positioned transversely in the bow. «With this layout, the hulls are more spacious (one of the hull cabins moves» into the bridge) and consequently, the right hull is fully dedicated to the owner's suite: apart from the cabin and a fairly spacious lavatory in the bow, there is a small study. This will be used as an office or a workshop, depending on the owner's preferences. However, this is only one of the possible layouts for such a boat, since her almost 60-foot size gives the designers a lot of freedom in choosing the layout (for example, one of the options is to place the galley... in the aft part of the left hull. But the interior saloon is huge).
«Last fall the authors of itBoat had a chance to sailing this catamaran along the Polish coast (it was almost a maiden voyage» ), there were noted both good sailing characteristics and certain drawbacks that are almost always typical of a new project. It was encouraging to learn that in the sketches of the second hull that we were able to see, a number of our comments had already been taken into account.
Some unusual architecture of the catamaran (its hulls in vertical section have an elliptical shape with narrowing to the upper deck), associated with high-speed record sailing multihulls, makes Wave 58

sharply stand out from the range of similar catamarans.

The lack of publicity about the yard and the company that designed it makes it hard to market this boat in today's market - maybe you should have started with something

more modest?

The second most interesting water exposition was also «live» Polish sailing yachts of Flabria shipyard. This young company is practically unknown in Russia, but has already managed to win recognition in such a difficult market as Germany. Nevertheless, we cannot say that both Flabria (33rd and 40th models) did not provoke our criticism. On the one hand the boats had a pretty aggressive modern look and extremely high quality workmanship in both plastics and wood, but some decisions seem a bit strange. For example, the Flabria 33 has a very large (perhaps the largest in the 33-footer class) C-shaped galley and also an extremely roomy wet-clothes closet. However, the navigator table is made in such a way that it is almost impossible to use it. It is long, but very narrow. Not only is it impossible to lay out a map in any way, but even a navigation laptop (which more and more often occur on yachts as the main navigation tool) is difficult to put on it. Unless it's a netbook with consequences in form of productivity. However, practice of using this boat will show who is right here.
We also did not like the banks in the cockpit: it is almost impossible to remain seated on the leeward side (and sometimes the helmsman has to do it). And, as it seemed to us, it takes place (probably, because of small experience of the designer) not clear understanding of yacht purpose and, as consequence, the attempts to please both ours and yours. The boat is positioned as a comfortable cruiser and not a racer (the huge galley and rather rich outfitting clearly show it), but then excuse me! Why would a boat of this type need an open race pod and a huge steering wheel recessed into the deck, as on the First 35? This is good for pure racing boats but a cruiser owner would prefer the space in the cockpit which the Flabria 33 lacks. Against this background, the forward V-bed is seen as too small and fuels the flames. You can't tell anything about the boat's performance.
On this background Flabria 40 didn't cause any arguments - rather stereotypical 40-footer, no special revelations in the layout, if not to count one more (the fourth in a row) cabin.

An important point of the show was the presence of relatively large motor yachts.

The tendency of gradual displacement of relatively inexpensive domestic producers and replacement of their stands and boats by beautiful dealer expositions of expensive vessels is a common practice of all Russian yachting exhibitions.

Which gives rise to complex feelings. For some time there was a hope that the Moscow and St. Petersburg exhibitions would be like Dusseldorf/Hamburg: the first ones are big shows with big and expensive boats, the second ones retain their status of «exhibitions for practical yachtsmen». Alas, it does not work out that way yet. Once again Russia has decided to take its own route. How far will it lead?
« I personally think that the show in this format is already dead», - says Denis Denisov representing on the Russian market already well promoted and again Polish brand Delphia. - «I think that in a year or two, this particular exhibition will no longer exist, but there will be something else under different management. And the timing, I think, is wrong. The season has already started, the goods are in short supply with the dealers and many have simply nothing to exhibit here. Since the Moscow expositions are held in the late winter (when the customers have a chance to get the vessel they need for the season), the St.Petersburg exposition is to be held after the season ends - probably at the end of September». Well, such opinion of quite an important player of St.Petersburg yacht market is one more signal to the organizers of the show.

At the booth of Denisov «The First Yachting Company» «presented three yachts live at the stand headed by Denisov : sailing yacht» Delphia 26 and two motor yachts - Delphia 1050 and Delphia 800, a novelty of the yard and a Russian premiere at the show. The last one attracted much interest because the price of the boat was much lower than the price of larger yachts 9 m long (or even more). The quality of Delphia has already been appreciated in St. Petersburg (which, in fact, allows the dealer to exhibit several boats at a time).
Delphia 26 is a light and quite sporty boat, which may be equipped both with a fixed (long) and a hoist (rotary) keel to reduce draught. Its low price, good sailing characteristics, reasonable habitability and ability to navigate shallow waters have made it one of the company's bestsellers, even in the domestic market.

That's where the sailing part of the show ends. For the first time it has been clearly dominated by Polish companies and brands that have finally deigned to pay attention to Russia (but is it too late?). The initiative of the Poles who attracted the Polish Chamber of Marine Industry and Water Sports

to organize their visit is almost unprecedented for the St. Petersburg exhibition.

However, in St. Petersburg their efforts to worthily present themselves ran into a response and so will do . Perhaps this is just another mise-en-scene of a long-standing spectacle called «» «Russian-Polishrelations»?

The Poles should not encounter another Susanin

in their search for ways into the Russian market.