X-Yacht 3/4 and 1 ton

[smartselos]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to ask if any of you guys have any experience racing or cruising with either an X-Yacht 3/4 ton or an X-Yacht 1 ton.

What do you think about the boats and their performance? Have you ever raced any of them? When I contacted X-Yachts in Europe they didn’t have any information to send me on either boat.

All responses will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[paulk]

Both boats are older, IOR designs that did well in Europe, racing IOR. Because of the IOR underwater shapes, they can be tricky to sail fast. I believe they are fractional sloops with pretty small jibs, so mainsail trim is VERY important. Hearsay relates that they are hard to sail to their PHRF ratings. This may be because they need to be sailed like a 420, at 110% from each of the 8 crew, all the ttime. Their beam and relatively small ballast (I believe they have cast iron keels, rather than lead) make crew weight necessary to hold them flat in any breeze.

That said, the sail handling systems and rigging on X-yachts that I have seen have all been excellent . They''ve been given enough sail area to be able to move if properly attended to. They appear to hold up well and be well put-together. Layout and finish below have also been quite nice, though some of the earlier models (such as these) may be more stripped out below than others. You could do a lot worse, but line up a big list of good crew if you want to race and do well.

[Jeff_H]

I am quite familiar with the X Yachts 3/4 tonners. They were very well constructed and actually do reasonably well under PHRF. They were pretty spartan down below but so are most race boats. Like most IOR race boats they respond to tweaking up to a point and are quick to loose speed and slow to get it back. These were better mannered boats than many of their contemporaries. They are not the best light air boats but they seem to hold their own when a breeze fills in. I have always like the deck layout on these boats. An Annapolis based X-34 ton won the 3/4 ton worlds when these were comparatively new boats. I would also look at the Farr 33''s and the J-34 both of which are moderately competitive under PHRF.

As to the One tonner, I looked at one of these when I was searching for my current boat. I thought that these were far more crudely constructed than the high quality X-boats that I had previously encountered. This particular boat was a real mess. There problems with the connections between the steel frame and the hull, and large sections of the boat showed stress cracking and other forms of distress. The hardware layout was a bit strange and really seemed to rely on a large skilled crew. I would suggest staying away the One tonners as they seem to be not as robust and not as competitive as the 3/4 tonners. If you feel that you must go the one tonner route, the two designs that seem to have remained competitive and held up pretty well are the Farr one tonners like the Garratt 40 and the Soverel 39''s.

Respectfully,
Jeff

[smartselos]

Thanks a lot Paul and Jeff for your very informative responses.

I got more information from you guys than I got from months of researching on internet and contacting X-Yachts.

I saw an X 3/4 ton and I liked the boat immediately. What stood out for me as well were the deck layout and the open transom. I really liked the way it was designed. I have never sailed either one to know how they sail. I have sailed a Soling, a J24, a J29, and a Frers 33. I think they might be more similar to the J24 sailing characteristics, but I might be mistaken. As for the One Ton I haven’t seen one from up close yet to be able to form an opinion.

Thank you Paul for all your details regarding sailing the X 3/4 ton. I don’t think I will ever have 8 people as crew, I think we will be at most 5.
I am fairly new to racing so I wanted an inexpensive boat as a first boat, but also a boat that I can take out with three people for a day sail. I also agree with you Jeff on the Farr 33. I saw one boat and I really liked the design and deck layout. They are a bit pricier though, around 10K more than the X-Yacht (YachtWorld website prices and listings) so that moved me away from the Farr 33.

Any other boats that you guys might think of that fall in the same category as the X 3/4 ton, performance and price, that I should be considering? Do you also know of a different place other than YachtWorld that I could look for boat listings?

Your responses are as always greatly appreciated.

Spiros.

[Jeff_H]

When you start talking about older IOR style boats you are generally talking about boats that need pretty large crews for thier size. If they are set up where they can be end for end jibed they can be raced with as little as five people but to race them successfully they require a quite a bit of rail meat. Some of the better 33-34 IOR boats might include the J-34, Dehler DB-2 & DB-4 and besides the Farr 33, Farr also did a number of nice custom and semi-custom 3/4 tonners. Ericson also built a pretty quick Ron Holland designed 3/4 tonner. You see these boats through a very wide range of prices.

When you talk about good older 33 foot PHRF race boats, the first boat that comes to mind would be the Soverel 33.

Tartan 10''s are reasonable PHRF boats that do not need a huge amount of crew weight. Tripp 33''s are a bit fragile but they tend to be a little more expensive. If you can find a Soverel 30 they are bargain phrf racers. S2 9.1''s are good PHRF and MORC boats. If you want to get by with a 5 person crew Laser 28''s are very good boats.

Jeff

[Jeff_H]

A couple other good PHRF boats in that size range would be the J-29, Kirby 30 (both ideally masthead rig) and J-30.

Jeff

[JDAM]

Raced on an X3/4 ton and got destroyed in heavy air by both the Frers 33 and J29.

[wdefrank]

I own a X-yachts 3/4 ton. Last year one of our sister ships from the club won the Western Lake Erie champion ships in one. We placed 3rd in our class.

The previous owner of my boat has won in the Chicago NOOD, and twice in Key West, the second time with a reduced rating.

This boat can sail with 5 crew no problem up to about 12 knots. After that you need the 8 or 9 you are allowed to hold the boat down. You still only need 4 or 5 who know what they are doing to sail it well.

I our local races we race agianst a couple of j-33s, a Soveral 39 and a Henderson 30. The one boat is always in the 3. The other boat is generally mid way or better.

I would also not that these boats are fast in heavy air. I can easily do 10+ knots dead down wind in 20 knots of breaze.

That said, I really think it depends on the people sailing the boat. There are alot of good boats out there. The Soveral 33 and 30''s, Evelyn 32, J-33 and others. I have done an extensive search on race results. It turns out you can win with any boat. Some boats win more often. Some never seem to win. I have beaten boats that rate as low as 81 in PHRF with my 3/4 tonner boat for baot. I have had other owners of the same boat beat me quite soundly on handicap.

My advice, find something you can win in, that you like the layout of, and practice, practice, practice.

[wdefrank]

The MK II displaces 7260 and has 4840lbs of balast. The beam is 11ft.

Main trim is important. 4 or 5 core crew needed. Total 8-9 when it blows but the rest are ballast.

On the old boat we could not get 5 to come out all the time. On this boat I have rarely sailed with less than 6. We do twice as many races and still have crew for all of the races.

[smartselos]

Thanks to all of you for the great detail of information you have provided me with.

Thanks!