After the walkthrough of the Grand Soleil 52 Performance I´d like to remain within the racing-oriented end of the sailing palette. For my second Cannes-boat let´s go some bold steps more into thoroughbred serious racing, namely the ORC (Offshore Rating Congress – international) regulations. Naval architects, such as the Ceccarelli design bureau, have come up with highly specialized boat designs which adhere exactly to the rating- and penalty systems do give owners and crews the best tool for winning their races. The Neo 350 is one of those, taken out of the drawer for the sharper tools …
I am in no respect an expert nor even a rookie in box rules, rating systems or racing in general. The sailboat races I attended were more like gentlemen´s and fun regattas or VIP-events. Nevertheless, all-out racing is a fascinating thing to me as well and who is not drawn towards the crazy fast cars? After being blow away by Neo Composites´flagship, the „TP 52-killer“ Neo 570 I was happy to see the guys showing their new 430 and the smallest, 350, during Cannes Yachting Festival.
Purpose-built and accurate to the tenth
First of all it is very interesting so see so many companies unveiling smaller boat sizes in the last months after it seemed for years that there was just a commercial interest in selling the bigger units. The size-range from 30 to 35 feet is especially interesting for racing or performance-oriented boats as these are simple, easy to maintain and far more affordable to a wider range of dedicated owners than the big yachts. Even a contemporary Class 40-racer is blowing budget, so I am really excited to see so many designs from 30 to 35 feet popping up. The Neo 350 is certainly one of the yachts at the forefront of this.
Honestly, I don´t have any clue what ORC or ORCi-rules in detail mean. As I understand it, the old IOR-box rule and the IMS had been merged at some point, creating the new ORC set of rules. I also hope to getting it right when stating that the ORC set is more open and transparent whereas the IRC set of rules at least partially remain a kind of black box mystery. In any case, as Neo Composites state, the new 350 is made to not only fully comply but to squeeze out every bit of advantage from the ORCi-rules possible.
In this, Ceccarelli Yacht Design has come up with a boat that features the best compromise between weight, sails area and all the other factors which are taken into account to measure the boat in terms of ORCi penalty rating. Even the simple bare data are astonishing, numbers landlubbers like me understand at least: With a length and width of 10.80 by 3.65 meters she displaces 4.5 tons in race-mode, carrying 71 square meters of upwind sails area and 160 square meters downwind sporting her huge Gennaker. That´s an ORCi Class C rating of 9.68, they say it´s a great handicap …
For me, this boat is just a great looking, aggressive and mean sail machine. Neo Composites and Ceccarelli came up with some familar shapes which are common sense for raceboats on the one hand but also managed to incorporate desitinctive features which will make these yachts easily recognizable and set them apart from other brands over time. I especially like the sort of „classy“ look of the hull and the very signature bow section with the mighty bow sprit.
Carbon – only where it makes sense
In this, the Neo 350 has been built with highest demand for material strength, structural integrity and stiffness. Carbon is only used where it makes sense, as the guys assure me. The deck, for example, is in full carbon as well as many other details. On the other way, for not getting „punished“ by the rule, the hull did not need to be made out of carbon. On the other hand, all interior fittings like the bulkheads, furniture, seating benches and such are made of composite and synthetic foam materials, supporting the stiffness of the yacht. „Not all too many boats can go for hours or even days at a high two-digit average speed and retain their solid stiffness“, says the shipyard when showing me around.
What cannot be done in the shipyard itself, which is based between Bitonto and Bari right at Italy´s „heel“, is custom manufactured by international partners which themselves are big-time names in the racing circus. The bowsprit or rigging for example is made by the Hungarian carbon specialists of Pauger, who´s clients comprise well-sounding names like IMOCA 60 (including recent yachts designed by Sam Manuard have been built already), Black Pepper Yachts or the RC44 racing catamaran fleet.
Even without those tasty upgrades, the Neo 350 will be a serious contender in any regatta for sure, but it indeed are these „little“ nice things here and there which make walking around on her deck a very pleasant undertaking. Just look at the standing rigging! Featuring the Pauger high modulus carbon shrouds, even touching these makes me shiver: It almost seems a waste of such jewelry to show up at a simple sailboat race with them …
But that is the real destination for a boat like this. For me personally it is inconceivable to willfully make such a valuable beauty subject to aggressive infighting with potential collisions and worse, common things during a race. I remember very vividly my last race attendance aboard the Omega 42, even the hustle at the pre-start made my heart stop a couple of times. Let alone steer one of these boats into a crazy crowd with time-to-distance.
Destination race course
But well, that´s what she and so many of her sisterships are intended and built for. The guys from the shipyard say that sales are going very well, which corresponds with my general impression of the current boat market: Niche products, boats with „character“ and some uniqueness are increasingly asked for. If people decide to spend these high budgets nowadays, they tend to spend them on something special.
The Neo 350 creates a very nice working area for a dedicated crew. The layout for the running rigging is pretty classy, such as you´d expect it from a racer. No less than eight (!) winches positioned from coachroof to the coamings well abaft allow for utilization of the whole variety of sails and trimming lines. Even with a full set of crewmen aboard it seems that nobody will have to fight for his working space to grind the winches or operate the clavier of jammers.
Which is surprising because you wouldn´t expect such a full set of trimming tools and winches on a yacht that small. She is not an all-out racer in the classic sense, down below she is a cruising yacht as well as you´ll see later, but reality is that on this smallest yacht of their product range no owner and certainly not his crew will have to make any sacrifices or concessions to racing due to the small size of the boat.
Which brings us to the customization and individualization options Neo Composites offers. In a class like this, the wishes of the owners must be recognized of course. First of all, depending on your „seriousness“, the boat is offered with a double steering wheel-setup or, like showcased at the Croisette, with the tiller steering.
Although wheeled steeing will always be looking way cooler and „yacht-like“, tiller steering of course brings many more advantages in my eyes: From the simplicity of the mechanics to the speed of course corrections, instantly recognizable rudder angle indication to a much more sensitive feedback from the rudder blades down below in the water. Even more, after having sailed again with the Omega 42 a few weeks ago, I am even more convinced that tiller is the future … well, that´s a different article, I know.
A touch of comfort
But behold! The Neo 350 isn´t „just“ your weapon of choice for the racing circus! She offers some comforts down below which is nicely teased by the cckpit table (of course made of lightweight carbon). This configuration can be easily taken out of the base mountings and stowed away to make room for the crew working in the cockpit. But, as you can see, you can also enjoy a nice breakfast, dinner and sundowner before and after the races with your crew, summoned around that table.
You could even cruise around with your family: Who doesn´t like a quick weekend-cruise with some great fun planing? I can say that my kids really began to like sailing the day our GEKKO went out of the water, shook off the grabbing wake and started to surf. How much fun must that be with on the Neo 350? For an actively sailing, fun-seeking family? This could be it!
In that, the boat comes in two versions, one of which is more dedicated to offer some cruising comforts. It´s a bit hard to imagine myself and my own family aboard the Neo which is mainly due to the character of the yacht. She is held in plain white, clean and neat. No wooden details, no interior „design“ or playful things whatsoever. Of course: She is made to not carry around useless weight. Wooden coziness is such a ballst. On the otherhand: A clean white slate is best to begin a new chapter, to write onto, to paint it, to conquer it …
Two cabins fully berthed
And that is no exaggeration: The Neo 350 offers decent comforts, at least for people who fancy the „microcruising“-aspect of sailing. Done in an unusual cabin configuration, the standard fitting are twi aft cabins with a decent double berth and two large lockers. As usual, to save weight, these lockers don´t have any „hard“ flaps or closid lids but simply – but ingeniously – laminate sailcloth that is fixed with velcro. This works wonderfully and even adds to the „racy“ image of the boat. I looked that those very closely to gather some inspiration for my own new boat´s layout because my yacht won´t feature any doors or lids for the lockers as well … but back to the cabins.
Two by two adults in the standard berths plus two more if you want in single berths which can be set up at the cabin walls. These berths can pivot up to 20 degrees, which is essential for overnight-racing or racing in shifts: We all know how hard it can be to find real deep and recreational sleep in a heeled bed. So, six adults in the two aft cabins.
You may even play around with this versatility if you like: Even if you just have one single occupant down here b´per cabin, you could leave the mattrasses ashore and use the beds for stowage, spare sails and such. In this, you´d free the bow area or even the saloon area and put yourself to sleep in the much more cozier and safer pivoting berth at the wall.
The bathroom of course is the only cabin with a real dedicated door. I am pro weight-saving and certainly don´t need doors for any cabins (since you´d hear each single noise or sound generated by the bodies anyway, no matter if there´s a door, a simple drape or just nothing!) but for taking a dump I insist on real privacy. As a sidenote, that was one, if not the biggest „No-go“ of the Dehler 30 One Design. Neo 350´s bathroom has everything you want: A toilet, a large wet-hanging closet, some stowage, a sink and a shower. Nice.
A versatile bow
As for the bow area, I said this would be special, it´s a Neo Composites-signature to not fit a dedicated cabin in here. Which perfectly makes sense since this is the part of the boat where there´s most slamming, motion, up and down. Even aboard ordinary cruising yachts at ordinary cruising speeds, with even moderate seastate, front cabins just become uninhabitable. There is a reason why all-out blue water cruisers, like the Oyster or Hallberg-Rassy feature large aft-cabins for their owners and place occasional guests in the front.
Aboard the Neo 350 it is the same. The area i the bow is essentially the saloon. There´s a large V-shaped settee and a correspondingly shaped table. It´s really a nice, big free area where you can either sit down, enjoy a nice meal, healthy cereals for breakfast and discuss the latest weather forecasts for the upcoming leg or even regatta. Look at the utilization of that volume! It´s very clever not to have a classic saloon in the midship part and a fore-cabin.
By this, both the galley and the bathroom can be made much bigger than you´d expect it in a boat that size. As for the galley, it´s a longitudinal kitchen running all the way to the front on starboard side. There´s a large sink, two-burner gas stove, a fridge and decent stowage for provisions and kitchen stuff.
Vis-a-vis they even fitted a small chart-table underneath the main switchboard panel to allow at least a minimum of skipper´s duties to be carried out here whilst standing. I am not sure if this will turn out to be the Captain´s favourite spot of the yacht, but at least there´s a dedicated location with some stowage for papers, charts, laptop, boat´s purse and documents underneath.
The front area of course can be utilized in two more ways to make use of the volume. First, the table can be lowered and cushions be left ashore so that this become a staging area for spare sails, Gennaker and Code 0 and other racing-related stuff. Also, by placing some additional cushions on to of the saloon table, the whole area turns into … a full sized front cabin. Looking at the bed size created than, this could be a perfect berth for a sailing couple when at anchor or tied up in a marina. King-Size-bed for sure.
A boat fully on spot
Neo Composites once more underlines their aspiration to become a set player in the high-demand high-class racing league. The boats are indeed something special. Uniting the idea of a no-compromise racing yacht fully on spot with ORCi-rules (and even available with a special keel optimized when sailing under IRC) with some comforts for fast cruising with a very high material standard. I mean, who asks their supplier to custom make same-color idlers?
It´s a very intersting period we are in right now regarding the high-performance boat market. The Neo 350 is certainly among the products on the forefront and high-end of the palette. Soon to be joined by the much anticipated XR 41 of X-Yachts and the new First 30 by Seascape/Beneteau that had been officially announce during Cannes as well. Neo Composites, completing their attractive range of racing yachts, has their latest all-out carbon-weapon realeased right now. The new Neo 460 looks just sick! I hope they manage to show this fighter in late January in Duesseldorf …
I´d have to fly in to Bari anyway. Because seeing the workshops of these smaller, specialized and dedicated brands like Neo Composites is much more revealing and interesting. I still vividly remember how my jaw just dropped when entering the wokshop of MAT Yachts in Izmir (LINI)! This will be telling the story of dedication and building quality much better, as well as allow a look behind the scenes. For now I say thanks for the time, guys – time to let her loose from the moorings to attack the pack!
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