Garcia yachts

[st599]

I've been on the first 45 they built to take some video.

It was later sailed through the northwest passage. Very functional design, not necessarily pretty.

 

[Sea Change]

They also do a rather smart looking aluminium cat. One anchored next to us this year and from a distance it looked pretty good.

 

[noelex]

This is a photo I took while at the Garcia factory showing the underwater profile of the first exploration 45. Later models had a slightly redesigned cabin top.

 

[geem]

The Garcia also has an all fiberglass cabin top (which is quite a proportion of the deck). This is one of the biggest drawbacks of both the Garcia and the Allures-the beauty of an aluminium monocoque structure that is all welded together to become a homogeneous structure is lost. The fibreglass cabin top or deck needs to be glued and bolted to the aluminium structure.

It depends on the details but overall, aluminium is lighter than solid fibreglass and about the same weight as cored fibreglass (exotic layups involving epoxy and carbon can, however, be significantly lighter). The primary reason both Allures and Garcia use fiberglass is that the complex shape of the deck and cabin structure is expensive and labour intensive to construct in aluminium particularly if aesthetically pleasing curves are incorporated. If using aluminium there are a large number of parts that need to be cut, shaped and welded together, popping a fibreglass deck out of mould is much more cost-effective.

Both the Allures and the Garcia are centreboard boats. This has many advantages, but as the keel is unballasted, a reasonable amount of ballast has to be added in the bottom of the hull to ensure adequate stability. As the ballast is higher the weight needs to be greater and the overall weight is high. This is especially true with the taller structure of the Garcia. The Garcia is also built for more rugged conditions (ice, etc.), so I believe the whole construction is a little beefier.

I have sailed an Allures but not a Garcia. A friend owned a Garcia, and his cruising speed was respectable. Downwind the centreboard can be retracted (it adds nothing to the righting moment) minimising drag.

Friends had brand new Allures 45. They did the ARC to St Lucia and were disappointed with the performance measured against other boats. They also had an issue with the twin rudders gathering sagasso weed.
We were in the big lock at Milforn Haven when they came in behind us. The manoeuvrability at low speed was very poor, in the strong winds we had at the time. Even with a working bow thruster. They later sold the boat