The game is afoot in the German town of Greifswald. The German builder Hanse, one of the world’s leading production sailboat builders, has introduced a new flagship model that the German press is calling a “small super yacht.”
Hanse has always worked hard to stay out in front of the competition with innovative designs and sail plans and thoroughly modern build techniques. They can compare in many ways to the boats coming out from Group Beneteau, Bavaria, Dufour and others, but there is something decidedly German in every Hanse yacht.
That promises to show up in spades in the new Hanse 590. So new, the design is not yet on their website. But, the editors at the German sailing magazine de yacht, who no doubt have many friends at Hanse, were given a first look and published a preliminary design review at the end of March. This article will be the 590’s introduction to the North American market so you are getting the very first peek.
A few highlights: The full-cockpit hard top, with a sliding middle section, will offer great protection for the crew and provides an excellent spot to mount solar panels. A dinghy locker has been built into the transom. The rig has Hanse’s customary self-tacking jib augmented by a roller furling reaching sail for extra power; yet, all can be managed from the cockpit.
Down below, the 590 has the accommodations and accoutrements of a super yacht because her hull has so much volume. The owner’s cabin forward is, again, a super yacht feature. And, the saloon is a proper saloon in the traditional sense, with a huge galley, a table that will seat eight or more and a proper nav station.
Sixty feet is big for a cruising couple, but Hanse seems to have created a yacht of this size that is completely manageable. She going to turn a lot of heads when she is launched later this year.
