Archambault 40

 

Issue: January/February 2006

Make No Compromise

She's a fast French racer that'll blow yachties away.

WORDS + PHOTOS BARRY TRANTER

Great designers and arty types of all varieties are said to hate compromise. It's hard to know why, because the act of compromise is the way of all life. We rarely get the choice of whether or not we should compromise; if we are lucky, we may get to choose how big a compromise we make.

This little lecture brings me to the Archambault 40. The cruiser/racer-style is the staple of the modern production yacht business. Most are superb boats, but on a compromise scale of one -ten they probably score six.

And then along comes a boat like the Archambault 40, which on the compromise scale comes in at only three or four.

Archambault is a French company, which specialises in fast day-sailers, racer/cruisers and does a line of modern bilge-keelers, a style even the Brits gave up on long ago.

The Archambault 40 is meant for racing, at a reasonable price. The hull lay-up is not particularly high-tech, though the deck is injection-moulded (where the resin is injected between two moulds). The interior is simple but comfortable. The boat is straightforward on deck, too. The mast is not particularly tall (because it is almost masthead-rigged) and it has a deep chord (the section depth). The mast is held in place by two spreaders with discontinuous diagonals, and single lowers.

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The hull is classic modern; straight stem and stern, plenty of beam aft and a parallel-sided keel, slightly raked. The auxiliary is a 29hp Volvo Penta Sail-drive mounted just aft of the keel.

The boat we sailed was fresh from a second place in the IRC Cruising class at the Hahn Premium Hamilton Island Race Week — 'Hammo' to the initiated. Owner Stephen Mackay bought the boat because he has a young family and did not want a full-on race boat, but he does not intend to live aboard or cruise. "I did not want the plush fit-out of the full ruiser/racer," he says. He will campaign in local Newcastle events, some Sydney regattas and Geelong Race Week.

The fact that Pacific Yachting, importers of Archambault and Dufour, are based in Newcastle, helped swing the deal.

ACCOMMODATION
There are three double cabins and two settees so you can sleep eight. In the cabins, storage is in fabric pockets on the hull sides instead of the timber structures used on cruiser/racers, and the storage cupboards are open-fronted. For my money this simple fit-out is a good thing; all the usual creature comforts are there, but in an accessible and lightweight form. I like open-fronted lockers; I can never find anything on a boat anyway. The bathroom has a shower, the galley (forward) has a two-burner stove, there's a door on the owner's cabin forward, but not on the rear cabins. There is a nav station, but the navigator sits on the front of one of the rear berths.

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