The viper is another obvious option in this 20′ sportboat segment. It’s been around for over 10 years, but they haven’t been built much in that span. Originally they were built in the US but the Viper 830 killed that business. The molds have since been bought and production is again underway in the UK.
The viper is a very fun little boat with a easy setup, carbon right and spinnaker with a retrieval line. On paper it really is the ideal boat for us. I say on paper because I’ve sailed them twice, once on LIS with medium breeze and once in Marblehead in reasonably light breeze. They are very fast fun boats. My biggest concern is the amount of hiking required. They are very light on the ballast with only 275lbs in the keel, and that’s only four and a half feet down. That means even in a Marblehead breeze it’s a lot of hiking. I’m not 100% against hiking, it’s just that trapping would be a lot easier, and I’d also like to be able to sail this boat alone. I don’t think it’s realistic to sail a viper alone, and I also think it’s a bit too athletic for my 62 y/o father and myself to sail.
It is under the magical $30k mark delivered and ready to go. It’s also a great boat to go sailing on, and I’d love to get out to some regattas with the boys in Marblehead if they ever need crew. Nothing against the boat at all as it’s a screamer, I just think it’s realistically too much boat for what we want to do (race with 2, daysail with 1). This boat with a heavier keel and a self tacking jib modification could also work very well.
Here’s a link to their class site. Here’s a 48ยบ north review as well as a charleston.net review.
- LOA 21 feet 1 inches
- Beam 8 feet 2 inches
- Draft 4 feet 6 inches
- Displacement 737 Lbs
- Ballast 275 Lbs
- SA (upwind) 252 sq. ft.
- SA (downwind) 677 sq. ft.
Back in the late 90′s I regularly sailed hull 37 in Annapolis under main and jib by myself with my 1.5 yr old daughter aboard in 3-8 knots. In lighter air 3-5 knots I’d let her hold the helm and feel like she was driving while I’d stand on the bow and steer by shifting my weight on the bow. With my wife who doesn’t really sail much we would do the same in the 8-12 knots. With just my daughter aboard I’d sail into City Dock in Annapolis, backwind the main and back into a spot between a couple of large boats so we could hop out and get her ice cream. This boat is really manueverable.
When racing in a breeze, I thought the boat was great because I could drive down through a puff and plane instead of feathering-up and bleeding speed. It looks more aggressive than it really is. Its light weight not only translates to speed in light air it translates to less load in the rig and lines when the wind comes up because you plane rather than wallow and plow. Additionally the keel lift and low trailer also made it easy for me to get the boat in the water and ready to go by my self.
Your impression is typical, though not necessarily well founded because when sailed right this boat is the most comfortable I’ve sailed. Unfortunately life got in the way, but if I can get back to sailing in the near future I hope that I can get back into a Viper.
Arnie