World famous designer Philippe Briand is these days best known for the stunning super yachts from his design office, for which he is a World leader and it’s terrific to note that he has taken a completely different tack to the other volume production builders with the new flagship Sun Odyssey 509. Rather than going down the path of a very high sided hull (difficult to get on and off!) with over the top head-room the new SO509 has little more freeboard than the SO409. The result is a yacht that looks sensational on the water, yet still has abundant headroom and a large volume chined hull for stability and performance. In fact the waterline length is 1.0m longer than the SO49i that it replaces and the performance version which features a below-deck furler has 9% more sail area than the SO49i performance, and it’s 20cm beamier which combined with the chine gives it quite a lot more form stability. What does all this mean? It sails like a dream and given that a SO49 won division 1 in the cruising division at Hamo’ this year you can expect the new SO509 to be a great performer!
However, it is also intended to be a capable passage-maker designed and built to Bureau Veritas with ease of handling in mind and lots of excellent features to make time on board a pleasure. Four different layouts with either an innovative T-shaped galley, or long galley will meet all requirements and at an introductory price Australian delivered, commissioned and tax pad of only A$447,897 it represents excellent value-for-money. Full details on request.