Designing a cruising boat in the 30-foot range is a special challenge for yacht designers. The builder and their customers want everything aboard that you would find on a 40-footer but without the extra size and cost. All cruising sailboats are the results of a compromise between performance, comfort and cost so the trick is to make a pocket cruiser not look like a compromise but like a proper little yacht instead. Not easy.
But, in the Hanse 315, the designers and builders have come very close to that special outcome of making it look easy, right and having yacht-style. The hull has a plumb bow with an extended bow roller that doubles as a sprit for flying a gennaker. The sheer is flat and the cabin above it remarkably low considering the need for over six feet of headroom in the cabin. The stern is squared-off and a swim platform and ladder fold neatly out from there.
The cockpit is large and has twin wheels so access to the stern platform is not impeded and sightlines from the helms forward will be unimpared. There is a small folding table with enough room for four to dine al fresco. There is plenty of storage in the locker under the port cockpit seat for fenders, dock lines, the gennaker and small water toys.
The 315’s rig is pure Hanse with a big full battened mainsail with lazy jacks and a boom bag and a self tacking jib on a roller furling unit. Simplicity itself. For downwind sailing, when the jib is too small for real efficiency, a gennaker is the answer which can be flown from a snuffer so it is easy for one person to hoist and dowse.
Down below, the 315 has much more interior space than you would expect and has just about everything you will need for a couple cruising with friends or with two children. The interior layout can be set up with three options for the forward cabin space. You can have a full size double V-berth as a guest cabin for adults. Or it can be set up as a kid’s area with smaller bunks and an open play area. Or, you can have just one large single berth and storage.
The big quarter cabin to starboard has a large double berth and storage. The head is across to port and can be set up with a shower head. The galley is L-shaped and has a small stove and an ice box that can be fitted with a refer unit. The saloon table has two drop leaves so you can dine four or use it for playing games or working on a laptop,
The base price of the 315 is under $90,000 (Europe) but if you want to add some simple comforts of home, an electronics package and perhaps the performance package, you be looking at paying up to $110,00 so. Then there will be some delivery costs to get the boat to the US.
Still, the 315 is a nifty pocket cruiser that sails extremely well, is easy for a couple to handle and has plenty of room below decks for fun family vacations all summerlong. Read more and watch the video here.