PHOTOS: ALL TOM GRUITT/Y&Y* KEELBOAT ON TEST Viper 640 The Viper has a strong presence in the US, yet never really took off in the UK… Neal Pawson took one for a sail to see if that’s about to change. T Speciﬁcations Brian Bennett, Kiwi Yacht Design LOA: 6.4m Beam: 2.49m Draught: 1.37m (0.56m keel raised) Displacement: 340kg Crew Weight: 227-272kg Sail Area: Upwind 23.44sq m Spinnaker 39.54sq m Guide price: £19,950 Design: he Viper is a pure racing re-design they also opted for a carbon wheeled around by hand, an aluminum one-design, with 130 of the mast over the original aluminum, strap bar with integral mast cup offset to Sportsboats having been sold in reducing the rig weight from 34kg to allow the mast to sit alongside the keel the United States, mostly on the 17kg. These weight savings have gone holds it all together. The mast is actually a east coast. The class was marketed in into a deeper keel with the bulb two-piece section with a machined sleeve Europe a number of years ago but never increasing from 85 to 108kg, which helps at the spreaders that allows the spars to really gained a foothold. However, since with RCD compliance as well as making it ﬁt inside the boat, a great beneﬁt when Rondar became involved the boat has a lot easier to step the rig. Early shipping multiple boats in containers to undergone a thorough overhaul, the indications following the boat’s re-launch large American order numbers allowing onto the European market is that there is the development of new moulds which already interest in France and Germany gave them the opportunity to address as well as within the UK. BELOW The boat is launched by hand without a jockey wheel whilst for retrieval the trailer has a winch to wind it up. any weaknesses and optimise production in the design. A re-design took place over 2006- Concept and layout The test boat turns up neatly packaged 2007 with new moulds in constructed in and looking like an overgrown 505 or 2008 – which beneﬁted greatly from RS200, with the keel ﬁn sticking up in the having 50 ‘prototypes’ already launched top cover the only giveaway to the bulb to identify and address any issues. In the below. Unhitched the 340kg boat is easily FEB ’11 | YACHTS & YACHTING | 047 take auxiliary power although there is no secure stowage within the boat so it would have to remain raised on the stern. It also looks tight on clearance for the shaft on the aft moulding. Righting lines have also been added to give crew things to grab if the boat does capsize as the smooth hull doesn’t leave much to hang onto although I am assured that the boat will self-right. Lines have also been put at the aft end of the cockpit to aid getting back onboard should you ﬁnd yourself outside the boat. Rigging and launching The mast is simple for two people to rig; the shrouds attach to eyebolts that go through the rolled hull deck joint and through solid stainless bars to spread the loads. One person can walk the mast up into the mast gate provided a line is tied to keep the heel in place. The spinnaker ABOVE The Viper will reward hard hiking, although the curved ‘tanks’ are very comfortable and the toe straps fall immediately to the right place. or from the US. The class in the US was a weak point on the original boats, halyard quickly secures it in place and regularly run double-stacker trailers for has been enlarged and strengthened, can be tensioned to allow the forestay to transporting them around, there is also allowing a watertight hatch to be ﬁtted be attached. one triple stacker and one intrepid for servicing the rudder pintles. It is still a American even car-tops the 140kg hull ﬁxed raked epoxy foam blade similar in kite and comes down just behind the just like Uffa Fox used to with his Flying planform to a Finn rudder. There is the forestay through a stainless hoop and 15, putting the keel in the boot! possibility of developing a lifting ‘dagger’ into a sock that runs under the foredeck. style rudder to aid slip launching, It hoists to 7/8th height while the retrieval forward topped by the spinnaker chute, although in the US they mostly crane line is the other end of the halyard and with purposeful non-slip running down launch. The keel is epoxy E-glass with a comes through a block in the centre of Removing the cover reveals a ﬁne entry The spinnaker has two patches on the the cockpit. The jib is hanked on with soft The Viper is slippery as an eel, kniﬁng through the chop hanks battened in the leech with a 2:1 sheet to allow sheeting and adjustment without the need for a winch. The halyard has a ﬁne tune adjustment that works by deﬂecting the lead under the deck the 505-esque curved cockpit sides. The galvanised steel post and runs inside a negating the need for any tackles to be design is all about sailing with no messing disposable sacriﬁcial crash box. clipped onto the halyard. The sails on our around or superﬂuous details, just additions with two sealed dry stowage an open licensed sailmaker with Doyle, was a small amount of print through bins either side of the cockpit for North, Hyde and a couple of local showing in the dark grey topsides. personal belongings and sandwiches. At sailmakers listed, in Europe it will the aft end of the cockpit on the port probably be limited to three. The mainsail side there is a GRP outboard bracket to has three full-length battens but a through to the transom with a large amount of ﬂare from the waterline to the gunwale and no chine interruption. The hull to deck joint has been reﬁned to improve the bond especially at the transom, and also the structure around the bowsprit ﬁxing to ensure it remains sealed forward. Rondar have also made structural improvements to the ﬁxing of the foredeck panel over the moulded central spinnaker chute void. Updates in the cockpit include extending the kick strips forward along the ﬂoor, rounding off many sharp edges that both caused unwanted bruises and made void-less moulding difficult. Rondar have maintained the neat cutouts around the jib tracks but reﬁned the angle of the turning blocks. The rudderpost, which 048 | YACHTS & YACHTING | FEB ’11 test boat were from Hyde, the class run functional items on this Sportsboat. There The rounded hull form continues RIGHT Unlike boats such as the Melges, when powered up downwind the crew weight does not need to be stacked at the back of the boat. Rondar have made a number of KEELBOAT ON TEST noticeably a long way down when you come to sit, but the curved ‘tanks’ are very comfortable and the hiking straps fall immediately to toe. You are very close to the water when hiking and there is LEFT The lifting keel is locked down by two bolts on the top plate which also help prevent the ﬁn from moving in the box. nothing apart from the tiller to hold onto aft of the mainsheet. The Viper is as slippery as an eel, easily kniﬁng through the chop coming out of the river, the ﬂare keeps most of this outside of the boat. The revised set up allows the weight to move forward in the cockpit when sailing upwind but I was surprised that the toe straps didn’t continue further aft for keeping the bow up when blasting downwind. The combination of the full sections aft of the sharp forefoot with some rocker in the hull, the proportionally long bowsprit LEFT See-through jib panels allow for visibility upwind. giving a generous upward vector from the spinnaker and the high proportion of the overall displacement that is made up of crew weight proved this worry to be unfounded. This is quite a change from years of sitting on one another’s laps hanging off the back of SB3s, Melges, etc Despite the aft raked, unbalanced rudder the boat remains light and balanced on the helm. It does, however, mean that it quickly starts to suck air as the boat starts to heel and doesn’t give a lot of warning when it lets go completely! This was displayed when we were caught by a gust with the kite freshly hoisted, but there is the joy in having a bulb of lead relatively conservative roach proﬁle. With this all done in under an hour we and eased the keel down on the 4:1 tackle breaking the surface and coming to your that runs off a dedicated Spectra line to rescue. We hung there on our side for a were ready to get on the water. The boat the spreader root. The boat sailed around was set on a combi trailer that requires easily under headsail alone whilst we the wheels to be moved into position hoisted the mainsail and tidied up. The before launching but means that the road boom sports a gnav, which requires a little unit and bearings can be kept out of the care to slot in whilst hoisting the sail. water. This was a key requirement for the Patience is rewarded and it is a big US market that requires trailers to have improvement opening up the forward built-in lighting rather than removable cockpit space for the crew. The keel is trailer boards. The boat was controlled locked down with two bolts on the top and launched by hand without a jockey plate, these also help prevent the ﬁn from wheel although a slippery slip resulted in moving in the box. They sit a little proud a bit of a slide launch! The weight is well but there were no screams of agony from balanced over the wheels so the handle our shoeless forward hand during our test. load isn’t too high, but for retrieval the BELOW The class run an open licensed sailmaker with Doyle, North, Hyde and a couple of local sailmakers listed, likely to be limited to three in Europe. The mainsheet is in the centre of the road unit has a trailer winch to wind it up boat and is on a bridle with no traveler onto the unit. On steep slipways you system thus preventing simple sheeting might have to resort to using a winch or above the centreline. Tacking on the helm rope to the back of the car for retrieval is in the style of a Laser, crossing the boat although only one drysuit should be and ending hiking with the tiller extension sufficient! The rounded hull slips easily behind you before transferring. What into the trailer, although it can be immediately strikes you is the width of adjusted easily due to its light weight. the cockpit giving you plenty of wandering space and the boom seems On the water plenty high enough and is easy to duck The rudder is relatively shallow so could under whilst standing. The boat feels be ﬁxed whilst one person held the boat stable but is responsive to your weight on the slip before we sailed off under jib movement although the side decks are FEB ’11 | YACHTS & YACHTING | 049 KEELBOAT ON TEST bit hard to be able to really play the leech tension although maybe I just need to get down the gym more! The mainsail was very ﬂat cut, apparently for the US market where they tend to race on ﬂat water. The 4:1 mainsheet falls naturally into the cleat off the central swivel block when hiking but a ﬂick of the wrist lifts it out easily. Like a dinghy you need to keep the Viper upright compared to Rondar’s other asymmetric keelboat the K6, which is apparently more yacht-like allowing you to heel the boat a bit without losing performance. Its relatively long length allows the Viper to slice upwind although the muscles did start to burn whilst hiking to remind us that the sleigh ride ABOVE Despite the aft raked rudder the boat remains light and balanced on the helm, although it is relatively easy to stall out in gusts. BELOW The gnav requires a little patience to rig but really opens up the forward cockpit. moment before the dumping of the expected walk from one side to the other. spinnaker sheet allowed us to drop back The helm is light and has a real ﬂick down and accelerate off again – keeping between weather and lee helm depending The verdict a weather eye open for gusts but on the heel and the amount of mainsheet The Viper 640 is a clean, fun and thankfully avoiding a rather cool swim! when off the wind. The temptation is to well-sorted Sportsboat well presented by stick the boat up and expect to go faster, Rondar which can be towed behind a light pull on the hoist from a swivel cleat but you are very much driven by the wind mid-range hatchback. It is, however, very on the aft face of the mast. The tack line as all stays very quiet until BANG you much in the ‘big dinghy’ market with only is ﬁxed to the pole end reducing the have no control. I did wonder if the just over 100kg in the bulb, to make the number of control lines with just the pole opportunity had been missed in the boat self-righting. With the ﬂared hull and outhaul line needing to be tugged on the reﬁnement process to make the rudder over 200kg in crew weight all the righting hoist and released on the drop. The boat more vertical and tuck it under the hull a moment comes from the weight on the is easily gybed with plenty of space for bit but I guess that after a few times out gunwale and you can see that in a good the crew and a slightly longer than in the boat you will soon learn. ﬂeet it would reward a ﬁt crew that works The spinnaker halyard only requires a When some black clouds rolled in downwind never comes for free! hard hiking. It remains to be seen if behind us the fun really started, as we Sportsboat crews softened up from years dropped into the straps and the spray of 1720, SB3 and Melges sailing want to curled off the Viper’s bow which raised face hiking again or if dinghy sailors in easily upwards above the water surface. the UK want to have three in a boat! We ﬂew down the Solent, gybing the kite switches through easily in front of a jib that stays up in but the lightest winds. A drop is simple on either gybe, provided you dive deep AND remember to let off the pole outhaul! Turning the corner and heading back upwind the rolled side tanks remained comfortable on the thighs. The 8:1 kicker leads back to cleats either side of the boat just in front of the helm and was grunted on until the boom visibly bent allowing the mainsheet to be used to control the sail in the gusty breeze. It is a Open 570 Laser SB3 Another class that allows hiking, but the beamy Open-style hull sails heeled upwind. It has generous ﬂeets in France but limited boats elsewhere. Design Finot LOA 5.7m Beam 2.53m Draught 1.75m Displacement 510kg Sail Area Upwind 25.31sq m Spinnaker 35sq m Big domestic class and growing European ﬂeets. No hiking and relatively heavy in comparison results in more yacht-like performance. Design Castro LOA 6.1m Beam 2.15m Draught 1.75m Displacement 510kg Sail Area Upwind 27.3sq m Spinnaker 46sq m 050 | YACHTS & YACHTING | FEB ’11 ABOVE The spinnaker hoist was light work, while the tack line is ﬁxed to the pole end reducing the number of control lines. From Dave Hall at Rondar First all we would like to thank Neal and Tom for the thorough and positive test, plus their time and ﬂexibility in ﬁnding a day in the autumn when it was neither pouring with rain nor blowing a gale. It is an economic ownership proposition for those people wanting more performance than that offered by existing options. The runaway success of the Viper 640 in the USA proves this point and keeping the boat a tight one-design has ensured that the original boats can still sail competitively against the new ones.