Hallberg-Rassy 34

 

Issue: October 2002
Manufacturer: Hallberg-Rassy

I have never understood why the Devil is in the detail. Production yachts these days have good hulls, so it is the detail which distinguishes one yacht from another. Detail is nearer to God than it is to that of the Devil.

The boatbuilder’s attention to detail is what determines how you will live with your boat, especially if you are cruising far from the marina and far from the bloke who will come and fix whatever has broken. For a large amount of money and only after a lot of persuasion.

Australia is home to 20 Hallberg-Rassy yachts all privately imported, according to agent Peter Hrones of Sydney’s Windcraft. But I had never spotted one until I was walking through an Italian marina with a friend who is a notorious Swan snob. The only non-Swans for which he showed respect were Hallberg-Rassy, the only boats we saw that he judged to be in even the same league as his beloved Swans.

The only other thing I knew about Hallberg-Rassy was that, when I checked the list of entries in the ARC (the Trans-Atlantic race/cruise) the most popular yachts were Swan, Oyster and Hallberg-Rassy. This is worth a separate discussion, but I reckon I’ll save it for my PhD.

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Hallberg-Rassy is a Swedish yard which has been around a long time. The story goes that Harry Hallberg had been building in wood for decades (including a series of Folkboats) when in 1963 he started working in glass, a very early practitioner. The year before, young German Christoph Rassy had moved to Sweden to get into boatbuilding. In 1972 Harry Hallberg retired and Christoph Rassy bought the business, retaining the Hallberg name because it had a good reputation. The two were never partners. Since 1988 German Frers has designed all boats in the range, which cannot be a bad thing. The HR 31 and 34 have aft cockpits; the bigger boats, the HR 36, 39, 40, 43, 46, 53 and 62 have centre cockpits.

The first thing you notice when you step onto the 34 for the first time is the fine detail. The second impression is that there is a lot of good old-fashioned salty tradition in that detail.

The HR 34 has shallow bulwarks, capped by a domed teak toerail, which help keep water off the decks and help keep the humans on the decks. Every other boatbuilder in the World would cut scuppers into the bulwark, flush with the deck, to drain the decks. Not Hallberg-Rassy.

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