{"id":44267,"date":"2020-07-24T18:22:05","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T22:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=44267"},"modified":"2023-05-06T17:46:29","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T21:46:29","slug":"neel-47-boat-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/story\/sailboats\/boat-review-neel-47\/","title":{"rendered":"Neel 47 Boat Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\"Neel <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n
\n Neel 47 trimaran<\/span>\n Jon Whittle <\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t <\/figcaption>\n <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no question that the Neel 47, designed by the ubiquitous, \u00adperformance-oriented French naval architect Marc \u00adLombard, was an outlier in this year\u2019s Boat of the Year contest. \u00adAfter all, it was the lone trimaran in the fleet of a half-dozen multihulls, the other five being cruising catamarans. But it was also a winner, named by our judging panel the Best Full-Size Cruising Multihull for 2020<\/a>. When the votes were tallied, it truly proved to be in a class of its own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

A big reason for that was its stellar sea trial. Eric Bruneel, the company founder, earned his boatbuilding stripes as a longtime top executive at cat-builder Fountaine \u00adPajot, but in his spare time, he \u00adcampaigned fast offshore \u00admultihulls on solo transoceanic yacht races. Superb sailing prowess isn\u2019t a passing interest to him; it\u2019s the primary point of the exercise. And it\u2019s the reason, when he struck out on his own, that he went into the trimaran business. The fact is, a well-executed cruising tri will outperform a fully loaded cruising cat. There. I\u2019ve said it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

With a fitful Chesapeake Bay breeze fluctuating around 8 knots, give or take a knot or two in the lulls and puffs, it wasn\u2019t a particularly windy day. But that was more than enough for the Neel 47. Even with a reef in the big, roachy square-topped mainsail, there was plenty of grunt in that \u00adprimary under-sail powerplant. You steer the Neel from an elevated helm station to starboard, and the view is panoramic; sightlines and visibility could not be better. The boat is close-\u00adwinded, tacking through 90 degrees with ease, and there\u2019s never a moment of hesitancy like there is on some cruising cats, where you\u2019re left wondering if the bows will spin across the breeze and complete the tack. I made a point of it in my notebook: \u201cTurns on a dime, feels like a monohull.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

As for speed, given the \u00adconditions, there was plenty of it. In fact, both upwind and on a reach\u2014the latter while flying a sweet asymmetric cruising chute off its integrated sprit\u2014boat-speed figures basically matched the true-wind number: In 7.5 to 8 knots of breeze, we easily knocked off 7.5 to 8 knots. And the helm was as light and feathery as could be. It was truly a great sail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Now, of course, every boat is a compromise, and the challenge with cruising tris, when compared with cruising cats, comes with the interior layout and accommodations. Cats are big platforms, and it\u2019s actually quite easy to spec one out with a huge owner\u2019s cabin in one hull, and a pair of comfortable bedrooms in the other, not to mention a good-size living room and kitchen on the central deck between them. But what do you do with a trimaran, where the outer hulls need to remain light and \u00adrelatively unencumbered for performance purposes, not packed with palatial cabins and heads?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Well, the answer to that on the Neel is to make the central hull as comfortable as possible for the couple who owns it\u2014in other words, to maximize the space for two people. It makes the Neel 47 a unique creature in the current fleet of contemporary cruising boats, where multiple sleeping quarters often seem to dictate the design brief. But with that two-person premise firmly established, the results are interesting and largely successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

The Neel marketing \u00adpeople like to call the open, single-\u00adlevel layout in the main hull the \u201ccockloon\u201d: part \u00adcockpit, part saloon. Yes, it\u2019s a little hokey, but it actually is an apt description. Most everything happens on this main floor: a nice back porch with seating and tables, double \u00adsliding doors to enter the \u00adinterior space, another good dining \u00adarea, a fine navigation station and adjacent galley, and a comfortable double cabin with wide windows offering \u00adsensational views. There\u2019s also a huge technical locker beneath the floorboards. Note: no head. No, that\u2019s forward, down a few steps in the bow, and includes a separate wash basin and shower. It\u2019s innovative, a little strange\u2026but it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

There are a couple of basic guest cabins in the hulls, accessed separately (not through the cockloon). The message seems to be: You\u2019re welcome to visit, but not forever!<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

In summation, the Neel 47 is a distinctive, inventive boat<\/a>. It\u2019s not for everyone, by any means. But it\u2019s a yacht that will strike a chord for some cruisers, especially those drawn to the sea by the pure joy of sailing. Those folks? They\u2019ll love it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

Herb McCormick is <\/i>CW\u2019s executive editor. <\/i><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Neel 47 trimaran is unique in the world of multihulls: a three-hulled bluewater cruiser that’s optimized for an adventurous couple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Herb McCormick","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"20200724","hydra_display_updated":false,"_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":"167","_yoast_wpseo_metadesc":"A boat review of the Neel 47 trimaran.","_yoast_wpseo_title":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","arc_story_id":"QXSNAYLP3NCE5GO3ZK5Q632C5U","arc_website_url":"story\/sailboats\/boat-review-neel-47\/","custom_permalink":"story\/sailboats\/boat-review-neel-47\/","arc_subtype":"right-sidebar","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"sponsored_image":0,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_is_hidden":false,"apple_news_is_paid":false,"apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_sponsored":false,"apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":"\"\"","apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[167],"tags":[245,243,1323,1389,242],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44267"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}