ME & MY BOAT
Fast, tough, stylish and easy to handle, the Grand Soleil 34.1 is an impressive alternative to some of the the better-known performance cruisers in this size range, says David Harding
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Getting to know a boat you haven’t met before can be a true voyage of discovery. And in the case of Andy Iyer and his family, with their Grand Soleil 34.1, Bella Donna, it has been a most agreeable voyage.
Many of us have long known of Grand Soleil’s reputation as ‘the poor man’s Swan’. It’s not a bad reputation to have. Like Swans, Grand Soleils have never been slow, small or basic; always performance-orientated designs from the mid-30ft range upwards, and nicely finished too. The more recent models have been even sportier than their predecessors and perhaps rather more minimalistic below decks, whereas the earlier ones are more in the mould of the cruiserracer as we used to know it.
The classic cruiser-racer appeal of the 34.1 is one of the features that attracted Andy and his wife Milena when they were looking to move down from their Beneteau First 40.7. They had raced in the highly competitive 40.7 circuit in the Solent, where most of the top crews included professional sailors and the fleet often boasted more than 25 boats on the start line.
After competing for several years, winning a good many major events and also using the boat for holidays in the Channel Islands and elsewhere from time to time, Andy and Milena decided the time had come to buy something smaller for family cruising.
‘Having had a 40-footer, I knew we didn’t need another boat of that size for sailing in the Solent’, Andy explained. ‘For a start, having a draught of 2.6m (8ft 6in) is quite a restriction.
‘A boat of 33-35ft would be big enough for the three of us (the couple along with their son, Gus). It’s easier to handle and a draught of 2m or less would let us go pretty well anywhere we want to go.’
EXPLORING THE OPTIONS
The question, of course, was what to buy. Andy and Milena did a lot of research and looked at a plethora of boats, including Dufour 34s and Elan 333s. Their favourite,
