Dehler Yachts - Go like stink !

[LONG_KEELER]

Why do Dehler fast cruisers sail so well ?

Damn things seem to go past all other cruisers .

Whats the build quality like etc

 

[FullCircle]

A lot of the 34/35/36 were based on the very succesful 3/4 ton IOR DB1 and DB2. They do indeed go like stink, and although not totally luxurious or particularly spacious, it may be a compromise worth making.
I loved racing on the DB2 and sailing the 36CWS

 

[cobolt]

Whats the build quality like etc

I was lucky enough to work for Dehler Yachts for a couple of years, based in the factory, first as an intern and then employed. I can honestly say the work-ethic of the team there was second-to-none. The guys building the boats were passionate about making the best product they could. That company supported a fair sized work-force in a very rural part of Germany, so to them the success of the company was vital to their well-being. Sadly things didn't turn out the best.....

The build quality is very good. They used a "monocoque" construction, where the deck was fully laminated to the hull using a sort of overlapping lip joint. It was a nightmare for the guys to do as it meant hand laminating into the most awkward positions, but it results in a mega strong hull/deck joint with no thru-bolts to leak.

As an idea of how much of a pain in the a** it was to manufacture, Hanse built boats under the Dehler brand use a glued and bolted approach.

Brilliant boats, and I hope to maybe get one myself some day

Ben

 

[doris]

I was lucky enough to work for Dehler Yachts for a couple of years, based in the factory, first as an intern and then employed. I can honestly say the work-ethic of the team there was second-to-none. The guys building the boats were passionate about making the best product they could. That company supported a fair sized work-force in a very rural part of Germany, so to them the success of the company was vital to their well-being. Sadly things didn't turn out the best.....

The build quality is very good. They used a "monocoque" construction, where the deck was fully laminated to the hull using a sort of overlapping lip joint. It was a nightmare for the guys to do as it meant hand laminating into the most awkward positions, but it results in a mega strong hull/deck joint with no thru-bolts to leak.

As an idea of how much of a pain in the a** it was to manufacture, Hanse built boats under the Dehler brand use a glued and bolted approach.

Brilliant boats, and I hope to maybe get one myself some day

Ben

Seeing as I have a 39SQ that's the best post I've seen in ages.

I spent a day at the factory when mine was in build and the
chaps were incredibly welcoming and helpful. Their preparedness to listen to
my requests resulted in a semi-custom build really.
Eight years on am still pleased.

 

[southseaian]

It is claimed the the original Dehler boats never suffered from osmosis. I believe this be true.
As indicated above thy were designed as sailing boats not marina caravans that could also sail a bit.

 

[Quandary]

There were two Dehler 34s racing in WHYW last week, they have a favourable handicap on CYCA and look convincing under way, it usually took the Sigma 33s who started five minutes later an hour or often much more to get through them.
These two were very evenly matched, they had obviously decided to cover each other and were rarely more than 3 or four boat lengths apart.

 

[lpdsn]

Certainly the Van der Stadt designed generation rate very well under IRC despite being designed in the IOR era. They have a big main, small headsail arrangement that went against the fashion of the time. It's worth remembering too that the Americas Cup style upside keel was banned by IOR as being too radical, so Dehler stuck them on the bottom of cruisers. The after sections of the hull also encourages surfing.

Another factor is the sail area and ballast. According to Sailboatdata mine has a SA/D of 22 and a ballast ratio of 43%. Bearing in mind that most of the ballast is the lead winglets on the bottom of the keel that's quite significant. (Quite handy one time when I came back on watch to find we were beating into a F6 with full sail up after the crew somehow failed to understand the instruction to wake me up if the weather started to change - were still only dipping the rail occasionally).

I'm surprised the Sigma 33s found it so easy to catch Dehler 34s, as reported above. I did a bit of racing on a Dehler 31 and it was quite common to start overtaking the back markers of the Sigma 33 fleet within the hour despite starting 5 mins afterwards.