After I had inspected the then-new Saffier SL 46 Med during Duesseldorf boat show last year, I named this particular article “The sailing living room”. It just felt like that. Now, this year the Dutch didn´t bring the big boats to the Rhine, but nevertheless another world premiere like last year: The all-new Saffier SE 28 Leopard. I was very keen in taking a thorough look at this little fella as you know I am a sucker for small boats, micro-cruising and the fun of carefree daysailing.
As the “sailing living room” for me perfectly sums up what the 46 is all about, I found it very fitting to call the new 28 Leopard the “sailing sofa”, because that´s what she is in my eyes. Upon nearing her from abaft, what strikes you first and the most is the huge lounge area on the stern. Covering almost a quarter of the whole boat´s length. Everything about this little boat seems to be made in order to maximize … well … lounging. So, let´s start our walkthrough …
Lots of cushions
Buying a small boat usually has mainly only two reasons: You are seeking a little toy to play with, have fun and tie it up after a few hours of dashing out, or either the sailing area or your budget permits growing bigger. In terms of budget, I´d like to comment on this later in more detail, let´s put this aside for a moment. I usually see Saffier boats predominantly on inshore sailing areas, like the Lake of Constance. Where I live, at the Baltic shore, these boats are seldom. Which supports my thesis. Of course, exceptions prove the rule here.
So we are mainly talking about the quick dash out. Imagine a nice summer´s day, a breeze of 10 to 15 knots is blowing wind from the shore – no waves. Perfect! The Saffier SE 28 Leopard has a hull length of 8.40 meters with a maximum width of just 2.70 meters. She has therefore almost the exact length-to-width ratio as my old First 27 SE. Weighing in 2.2 tons with 750 kilograms of ballast, she carries 40 square meters of sail area (main and genoa). The figures are a bit less performance-oriented than those of the First 27 SE. I´d characterize her as an agile boat, though not a downright planing boat. I guess she will be sailing very nicely upwind with good pointing abilities, but being that small, increasing wave height might become tricky for her.
Saffier´s new lines: Aggressive looks.
The 29 Leopard has been designed by renowned naval architect Kees van de Stadt and the Hennevanger-family who owns the shipyard. In recent years the Saffier-boats turned more and more out to follow current modern lines. In this, the shipyard decided to come up with a kind of signature Saffier-design language, which is aggressive, edgy and modern. The hull windows have a particular shape that is found in some other places too.
The Saffier SE 28 comes with a very sleek hull and low freeboard. Unlike other recent designs, there are no hard chines to be found, yet the stern section follows a shape we´ve already seen in Polli-designs or the XR-41 lately. This boat is a single-rudder boat, but will be steered via two wheels, more on that later. I quite like the overall layout and design which reminds of a classic sportscar, maybe induced by the fixed windshield in front of the cockpit. I can easily picture myself here at the helm, elbow on the coaming, just casually cruising along …
The most striking feature of this new Saffier design-wise is the bow section. Taking the idea of aggressiveness much further than her predecessors, the 28 Leopard comes with a very prominent negative stem which is even more pronounced in its boldness by the elongated bow sprit. I don´t know why they chose the name “Leopard”, but the decorative sticker on the exhibited boat may explain it: This boat should be taken seriously.
Gentlemen´s sailing
Of course, I haven´t sailed her myself and apart from the promo-pictures and a few sailing tests haven´t seen much live action, but I would say that the Saffier SE 28 Leopard is not a decent racer. She appears more to be a gentlemen´s sailboat – agile and fast, maybe, but certainly not as aggressive and even racing-capable as other, more pronounced performers in this sub-30 feet class. But that´s nothing bad at all, I´d say.
In fact, the Saffier Leopard may be the one and only sailboat of this size that offers so much lounge- and comfort area. That´s her main competence and she is shining like no other in this respect: For the helmsman or skipper, there is a dedicated seat to both sides of the boat. A nice backrest for both sitting in sailing direction or on the leeward heeled coaming. You can also sit directly next to the wheel on the coaming itself with winch and jammers well within reach.
Looking more closely to the skipper´s workplace, I take a seat myself and test if I can reach for the wheel and the lines. Which is indeed very well thought through. The Saffier 28 Leopard is too small to sail her whilst standing upright, so everything must be reachable sitting down or on your knees. And it works out very well. There are some displays, but no chart plotter, wich otherwise would be a bit over-specced for a mostly inshore-used boat. On the other hand, wireless systems such as the Orca work very well on small boats like this, if you need a naval chart or other information.
The Saffier SE 28 Leopard is a “push-button” sailboat, meaning that all winches can be electrified. This way, sheeting the standard sails or especially the 70 square meter Gennaker becomes an easy task. Even more: Gentlemen´s sailing! You don´t want to grind on the winch drum, don´t want to hastily pull on some halyards or sheets. As a distinguished Saffier-skipper, you just push the button. As less body movement as possible …
I particularly like how the main lounge area, which covers the whole stern section, covers not only the mainsheet but also the mainsheet track for the traveler. Even when sailing you might just fold back the little part of the cushion that covers the track, this way sailing and mainsail trimming is possible without even bothering your sunbathing guests. Simple, elegant and nicely set up.
Quite a different picture: Under deck
So, that´s for the Saffier SE 28 up on deck. She feels like an elegant sportscar with perfect looks, very well thought-through ergonomics for the skipper and care for the wellbeing of the guests. At anchor, she quickly becomes a wonderful base for sunbathing, swimming, chilling or simply enjoying a few hours till the sun sets. But, and there´s always a but, I found her quite the opposite when going down below deck.
If you check my past article on the Saffier SE 46 Med you should scroll to the interior-section. I was stunned and puzzled to acknowledge the great design, the nice little ideas here and there and the, let´s call it “difference”, this boat´s interior made compared to others. Sadly, there is no such feeling when looking at the Leopard´s interior. Maybe it´s due to the bit “boring” color choices made for the cushions, but that´s surprisingly not what her deck promised.
Simple bunks alongside the salon, a V-berth in the front. Very simply, kind of “empty” in its effect. The boat´s interior feels really … barren. The only details which my eyes find to get a hold of, were the two cabinets which are separating the V-berth in the bow from the sofas in the back. And then it struck me … the toilet!
The dealbreaker, at least for me
Okay, I may overreact now, but this is an absolute no-go for me. The pumping WC is located underneath the portside part of the V-berth. By folding up the mattress and wooden plank, you may take a seat and have a pee or a dump. We all know how important hygiene and especially relieving oneself is on sailing boats – even more when we are sailing with our partners, much more if guests and non-sailors are in board. In this, I explicitly welcome the shipyard´s option to integrate a toilet. But honestly, I´d never ever accept a free-standing WC in the middle of an otherwise completely open room!
I mean, even my (smaller!) First 27 SE featured a WC that could be separated by folding magnetic doors from the rest of the salon, the Dehler 30 OD, an all-out racer, provided more privacy than the Saffier SE 28 Leopard does. And this boat is said to be a boat for the distinguished owners. Even if I am always sailing alone, never taking any guests with me, I´d absolutely despise the idea of – sorry for my words – shitting in the salon. And even sleeping on the bowl afterwards. This is in fact a dealbreaker for me.
The fact that the boats comes with a little handwash-basin for hygiene (with a dedicated slide-out cabinet for a Nespresso coffee machine underneath!) does not make it better. I mean, there would have been more than enough space to integrate a little dedicated bathroom near the entryway down. I am not asking for much here. Sunbeam does it very well in their new 29.1, for example. A boat that is even smaller than the Saffier!
A true daysailer
Well, you could argue that the Saffier SE 28 Leopard is a daysailer and that this boat is not intended to being used as a weekender or cruiser. And rightfully so! I´d never order her with this WC-configuration. I´d rather save the money for this option and the surplus weight, keeping the salon clean. I may over react here as for some or many of you this little detail is not of such high importance. If so, I am happy for you because otherwise the Saffier SE 28 Leopard is a great sailboat. The manufacturing quality is superior, woodworks and cushion look absolutely spotless.
If you are looking for a very nice looking daysailer, this might be the boat of choice. The other little “challenge” with the Leopard is her price tag. A boat nicely equipped will easily cross the 250.000 threshold as one of the dealers told me, and that´s quite a big number! The First 27 SE with a high class trailer, full carbon rigging, laminate sails and nicely specced was last time I checked around 200.000 Euros, which is also a huge number for such a small boat. But a quarter of a million?
Anyway, the success of the Saffier brand proves that they are on the right path here, as it appears. I would have wished for a similar exhilarating experienced below deck as I had with the 46, but maybe this is just my own personal trigger that does not even bother most of you. Small boats – and with them the idea of frequent fun sailing in the afternoon, quickly replenishing one´s batteries with some sailing action – are still a growing market. That said, I am sure that the new Saffier SE 28 Leopard will surely find her fans, sailing gentlemen. With low urgency …
You might as well be interested in these articles about small sailboats too:
Micro-Cruising comforts on a small sailboat
Increasing the comfort-level on my small yacht
