TImeless appeal: sailing the stunning PC47, a pilot cutter inspired cruiser with a difference

Hello, Toby Hodges from Yachting World magazine and we've got a real treat today on board. PC47, smallest yacht yet from PC Yachts, built here in Bodrum at Meta Shipyard and this is only its second day of sailing so we've poked our noses out to find a bit of thermal breeze as enjoyable to sail as they are beautiful to look at and this 47 is no different. It is slightly different in that it's set up really for shorthanding and for long weekending really. We'll go into that in a bit but in terms of actually sailing it, well we've got a bit of breeze on now. We've been sailing in typically 7 to 12 knots and it powers up really nice and easily, plenty of sail area with just white sails. You can see here to windward it's a reach here, any more heel than this and you'd want to have a foot chock in there to steady yourself to be standing or sitting otherwise you move to the favoured area which is obviously sitting to leeward here. Hand on the wheel, nice sight lines through to your tail tails on your jib. The other thing to note here as well is just how easy it is to trim. So I'll show you again from the windward side where the sheet's set up at the moment but you can have have the sheet set up on either side. At the moment we've got the main sheet and the self-tacking jib sheet. Self-tacking jib sheet on the primary here, main sheet here, the German system so easy for me to let off, really easy to let off. They're both powered, let off either sheet or trim in and just whilst having a hand on the wheel and just boat, I'll tell you a bit more about the concept of this one in particular because it's pertinent to it. PC yachts build custom boats here in Turkey and so a lot of what you can see, what you see on the boat is obviously bespoke and this project was for a Japanese couple who sadly tragically died during the build. The point of raising that is because they asked for things in particular for this boat so the owner wanted a yacht he could take weekending really that was easy to manage shorthanded and therefore the freeboard of the boat is lower because he really loved the aesthetics of it and it has a much wider stern, a beamier stern. They're Andre Hoek designs, very timeless pilot classic style yachts and this one as I say has a much more sort of more contemporary beamier stern section and that gives you this huge area behind the wheel and it's vast you could land a chopper here and then forward of the wheel you have a massive cockpit to take all of the friends you can imagine on board it's huge I mean these must be you know over seven foot long these cockpit benches with a great big cockpit table so that means when you are going like we are today day sailing essentially I want to take guests with you there's plenty of space for them to be out of the sailing systems because everything as we've seen is centered around this wheel everything bar the traveller. The traveller itself is on the coach roof and is on an Antal flat winder system which is manually controlled which does mean that to to adjust the travel and I do like having a traveller to get a good shape out of that that you know heavily roached mainsail you you need to move forward to the coach roof to do so maybe another owner might want to have a remote one which they have on the larger yachts as well so you could control that without moving forward or asking another crew member to do so otherwise though yeah it's it's a beautiful looking deck design and yeah you've got this big wheel here sunken into a well access either side of it as I said you may want to add a foot chock if you are if you are going to windward quite a lot and and heeling quite a lot because it does power up in the sort of early double figure true wind speeds and also adding some sort of tailing bags or stowage system for the line tails rather than having them hanging off the guardrails so one of the beauties of pilot classic shape is that elegant counterstern the taff rail there and it's that's really the start of the details that pc and and the yard do so well as mentioned an extra large aft cockpit area for sun lounging but also gives you a bit more extra stowage space so we'll have a look in a few few lockers including this one now as we're gently heading back towards Bodrum marina so in here essentially you can see where you do lose your volume compared with modern modern shape yachts it's a shallow bosun's locker essentially some cleaning gears and dock lines hoses that's about it and then moving forward you have the well here with drainage in it for the wheel and binnacle in front of that and you see how direct the steering is a chain is going from there and then connecting to you can see where the emergency steering is there so that actually links up through this table and goes to winches if you do need to use the emergency steering and then there's a locker on each side um aft bench cockpit lockers and those join through underneath the boat here so you can see here you should be able to see there's the quadrant and the steering and the autopilot and then in front of those that is a watertight bulkhead so watertight bulkhead in front of the uh quadrant itself and there's another watertight bulkhead forward which will show you probably notice how nice nicely finished the hull is as well so this is you can choose to have a wood epoxy or like this in composite so e-glass e-glass epoxy this one with full carbon stiffeners and stringers throughout the boat as mentioned very large cockpit big fixed cockpit table this at the moment is stowage in here which uses suckers to lift them up obviously you could have handles on there and a fridge in there whatnot then moving forward on the boat you go past the the winches and um lovely scuppers and this is a bit of the detailing I was mentioning just the fairleads and the teak tow rails there's a lot of teak on this boat and how nicely integrated the guard rails are on there and then you have this lovely flat coach roof over the this timeless coach roof shape and that just means it's easy to walk around the deck as well so you've got a nice wide area for the the traveler easy to get up on the coach roof itself to get up to the boom to manage the sails and while we're here you'll notice this is a furler boom so part of the concept of this owner wanting to be able to sail the boat easily himself having a furling boom obviously a stack pack main and a non-self-tucking jib or genoa is an option but this is this has worked very well very easy to set and trim and been jibing around using all sorts of different angles without anyone having to move on our sailing today and plenty of power off this jib so this one has a two spreader spa craft rig and uh yeah the benefit really of having a nice long bow sprit this carbon is uh as you can see how much further forward the tack of the headsail is set so you get this huge j area so plenty of power up forward and also leaves a lovely flush amount of foredeck space keeping a dinghy or lounging or whatever and then moving forward you have a nice large sail locker as well for those who do want to set in an offwind sail and ideally i would say probably a code zero the larger yachts have integrated in their bowsprit and the option for an electric code zero furler which would be a nice solution but you know a manual one at this size would be lovely too again nice detailing nice deck work look at the fairly through there and then in here it's a half uh half size locker for access into the sail locker because you have the windlass on the port side and this lovely deep sail locker so the chain locker itself to port with access into it and then that's a box for the bow sprit obviously again an option to make it easy for the owners to handle in a marina etc and that is a long deep sail locker keeping off wind sails and a watertight bulkhead here so sacrificial section forward and this watertight bulkhead aft so the thing to point out here is the flat deck furler for the jib off that bowsprit as well which also helps bring the foot of the jib down and maximize the sail area only thing is even with this cutaway guardrail here is that you need to skirt the jib so when you when you want to go hard up on the wind when you've tacked you need someone to lift the jib the foot of the jib over the guardrail moving through the cockpit here yeah you have this big wheel here hook likes likes those big wheels you can probably actually go even larger with that diameter so you could helmet you know from the windward side in this starboard side you get a vast locker so no accommodation back here just a locker that i would say is large enough to take an inflatable dinghy paddle boards fenders and you've also got the hot water tank in there and a black water tank it's uh yeah if you wanted a generator you'd probably have it in there uh this one was originally devised to have aircon running at night offshore power which would probably be the way to go at this size another thing you can see i might have mentioned this before is a bit of the structure there so all built uh to category a ocean going standards i think that's what would really separate this yacht is the the quality of construction to make it effectively very suitable for going offshore as well and then you come down the companionway steps and it's not too far to come down because as i mentioned it's not that much freeboard it's not a lofty interior by modern yacht standards at all but look how lovely light and airy it is and yeah space where this type of owner would have wanted it so if once you accept you've got a yacht designed around um short-term use day sailing weekending and maybe even a week aboard in this sort of climate um the space is reserved for the areas you want it so this owner wanted to be able to work a lot from his yacht as well so you've got a massive you've essentially got the nav station from the pc55 and you've got a big saloon area big fixed table for entertaining you know similar to the cockpit area there what you don't have is a big galley or um or accommodation you know heads and and cabin sizes really the other thing you'll probably notice over the 55 is something i really like the big driver is having a central engine section to open up that accommodation area after this obviously this size more conventional is under here we'll open that up and have a look in a minute um otherwise it's a it's a two cabin layout um again i'll emphasize um you know it's a customizable boat it's a custom boat so what you maybe can't see from this angle is uh the headroom but it is designed to be about six foot so that's maximum i mean i'm five foot ten and i've maybe got yeah just about two inches under me above me and the same when i walk through the boat here as well so that is because you know they chose to reduce the owner wanted to reduce the freeboard by 10 centimeters um to give real focus on the aesthetics the lines and look of the boat and bravo but does mean a dutch owner or a tall tall scandinavian type might not be might not be so suited to this particular boat really nice chart table area i found myself sitting here a lot uh already on the boat it's you're in communication with those around it's comfortable it's you've got views you can see what's going on and there's space and comfort enough to work in big chart drawer you know plenty of space for instruments like the uh analog switches for the tanks there and a nice switch panel for the 24 this is 24 volt boat so it's run with two ultimate alternators off the main engine yeah access to all the electronics behind there plentiful there's also stowage below the seat itself and in little lockers outboard and then behind you have the heads area so again this will show you the sort of volumes we're looking at for 47 foot a very small sink area it's functional i still have standing headroom here but i don't as i move into the heads um so yeah you would have to accept the fact that you'd be sitting down to shower and not even have full sitting room on the heads itself but nice to be done electric flush good stowage behind and that sort of thing personally if i was keeping a boat in the mid i'd be showering off the aft deck anyway and the port aft cabin what i really like about in here is the nice sculpted section here where you can sit up against that hull lining the tongue and tongue and groove on the whole lining you know to read on the berth itself so there's a good amount of headroom as you come in here again all limited to that six foot max ventilation out of there and another one further aft access to the engine room under the berth and uh yeah bank of a couple of lockers a lot of these things you know yet to be finished you can see the exposed wiring um because you know it doesn't have an owner now so a lot of the areas that you would then say well i want this this and this in certain sections yet to be done the last few percent i lock on it um but yeah i like the switches like the little details lots of power outlets usb sort of thing and again plenty of light wide open saloon and open companion weight area open style format so the galley is well it's like it's like a galley just smaller so you've got the essentials uh in a more micro format so a two burner hob and a 1.5 sink just quite small equally a small lift-top fridge and then stowage behind in those three lockers and a small bank of three drawers there's a gray water in a gray water diverting valve there and um the water pump and there'll be a large bin fitted there as well and then you can see from here a small step down into the saloon area and if i find a sucker to lift up this bilge i'll show you in the bilge itself over here so the bilge is split so you have this large carbon stringer running up through the middle and divides this bilge in half so you have pumps and build uh bilge is separated each side port and starboard other thing you notice just how clean it is it's uh lightweight panels everything is foamed caught foam cord all the furniture there's no plywood on the boat all foam cord to keep it lightweight and just nice attention to detail in there cork used around there to insulate floorboards again same with the saloon table room to customize big long fixed table you know bar and bottle stowage areas in it below the berths itself are the water tanks fuel tanks even with stowage further out that one has a compressor in big recess there for the whole window and you've got a locker double locker each side again it's the it's the natural light you really enjoy and appreciate here i think that's what's nice from this slightly lower saloon height is it's about right standing headroom to look out sightline wise when you're up here at the gallery a little bit high so you end up sort of crouching down a little to get your eye level in but again that's um that's me at my height moving forward you'll see this is where the squared off coach roof ends where the mast base is deck step master there's the support for it below and that is where your standing headroom ends as well because you move forward into the the forward cabin there's uh yeah shortens right down so you're bending basically till you sit at this berth but it is nice and wide and good stowage space in here considering the you know plan for the boat for short-term cruising it's has this recess running along here which is designed to take sliding doors so you know if you wanted to shut this off you put sliding doors in but they would take up a little bit more of this space here so the recess is there for those that do want to fit them and then yeah hanging stowage each side banked a couple of drawers below it same again to starboard and nice deep drawers below the berth as well further forward from that is the water tank and batteries as well so um hook like to because there's not much buoyancy aft they like to put the weight of the boat extra weight like that a bit further forward so it doesn't drag the aft end nice amount of natural light and ventilation coming from that big hatch and the large hull windows each side so the companionway steps lift to expose the engine room bar there to keep the lid open and nice big area forward this one has a starter battery in it has the manifolds for the two diesel tanks there and water separator for diesel and then the engine mounted a bit further aft and you can see that panel there which gives full side access and from the port side as well so if you want to get at the the rest of the engine stale drive mounted engine and muffler and that sort of thing it's getting from the sides and here we are in the locker itself showing you the access panels for the rear muffler access and the engine access panels same size again on the on the port side there modern appendages underneath so you have a t-keel and a high aspect rudder and the keel is four tons worth of ballast oval boat weight 11 and a half tons displacement and when this was commissioned it was agreed upon around 700 000 euros price now would have gone up for this build slot deliveries are 2024 now so yeah it's at least a three quarter million euro yacht what's this gonna bring another big yacht expensive high-end yacht for short daytime type sailing but yeah i knew as soon as i saw it i liked it i love the look of it and i think that's what owners will fall for and actually found myself thinking well actually because of its build because it's this solid composite build very rigid stiff hull built to you know ocean standards with watertight bulkheads laminated deckheads and laminated bulkheads in into the hull itself you've got a rigid structure that will look after you you've got plenty of accommodation space if you want it so i kind of get it now having spent time on the boat you fly in you have the boat you keep your yacht in a beautiful location where you've got especially in the med where you've got these light breezes that you can easily take it out maximize get out sailing easily and enjoy being behind the wheel and even if you've only got five or eight knots of true wind you get a really nice sailing experience from it and there is space for you and your partner or even your family or whoever's going to be your friends to be on here for a few days you know you fly out with uh just cabin baggage and spend some time on the boat and and enjoy it and know that you can take on some good weather it's got some nice deep cockpit it's well laid out and it sails really well you've got it's obviously geared to get to heal quickly to power up quickly so you would you'd need to depower it but they've done a really nice job building it i think it needs the extra few percent of finishing here and there but that will come with with the right owner it's only tragic that this owner who commissioned the yacht never got to see it finished but some lucky owner will anyway if you haven't seen our test of the pc 55 the video on that from a few years ago will link to that hope you enjoyed this one i certainly did and until next time signing out that's eight knots fetching in nine knots true wind with just white sails