sail-sheet winches, were just where they belonged to make best use of the
cockpit layout.
A boat that steers well doesn't wear out
the crew or self-steering gear. The designer's contributions and Edson's cable-
and-quadrant system gave the helm a delicate feel. Given its smallish wheel
and its skeg-hung rudder without a leading edge to balance the rudder, this
thumb-and-forefinger helm was very pleasant.
Under power,
the engine ticked like a clock. A careful installation with good sound-dampening
and a well-aligned drivetrain made powering a nice interlude for conversation
rather than a shoutfest. The 63-horsepower Westerbeke is naturally aspirated,
and the 156-gallon fuel tank is plenty for a cruiser that has enough light-air
sailing ability to keep moving in everything but the flat calms.
Any passagemaker is a tricky blend of performance and indestructibility,
and Valiant hits the compromise with the V-50.
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Substantial and Safe
The cumulative safety of any sailboat
is determined by factors that range from rugged construction that helps keep the
vessel afloat in heavy weather to design attributes as unassuming as how the crew
can move forward and aft both above deck and below. When it comes to preventing
crew-overboard situations, the Valiant 50 has a superior nonskid finish on the deck
and coachroof; a safe, ergonomic, and functional cockpit; and a deck design that
doesn't jeopardize the crew with a cabin house that bulges to the toerail. Handholds
and lifelines are heavy duty, abundant, and properly fastened to the deck.
Sailhandling, trimming, and reefing have been localized to keep
the crew out of harm's way. Winches and blocks are oversized enough to provide ease
of linehandling and to diminish the likelihood of failure. The rig, a blend of sail
power and substantial support, will stay where it belongs when the going gets tough.
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Comments from Valiant
The Valiant
50 is a more powerful and very successful "next-generation" design evolution of the
original Valiant performance-cruising concept, and Valiant takes input seriously.
Ralph's suggestion on cutting back the balsa on the portlight cutouts is a good one;
we've already started doing this on all our portlights.
The
review also addressed coating of the balsa where cutouts are made for hatches, the
preventer system, and the aesthetics of the rubstrake location. The hatch bosses are
a solid FRP part, through-bolted through the deck. Each boss overlaps the cutout,
forming the hatch FRP inside face; they're precisely cut and bonded with 3M 5200.
The hatch is then bolted to the hatch boss, becoming an integral part of the coachroof.
Valiant's preventer/vang system has a 20-year history, with tens of thousands of
ocean-passage and circumnavigation miles. The rubstrake is molded into the hull
and also acts as a stiffener. Bob Perry designed it a bit higher, but Uniflite molded
it at its present location. For looks, higher would have been better, but you can't
beat how well it works at its present location.
Rich Worstell
President, Valiant Yachts
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In the bilges, plumbing, wiring, and the propane-system installations
are first-rate and show that the craftsmen who build the boats are familiar with ABYC
and ORC recommendations and other industry standards that
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pervades both standard layouts. And since these boats aren't hamstrung by bonded-in
liners, the builder is willing to depart from the standard layout.
There's room for a big battery bank, genset, and all
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guide good boatbuilding. This combination of design-induced seaworthiness and rigged
construction give her a top-of-the-class ranking for safety.
Comfort
Crew comfort aboard a vessel is a far cry from what makes a sailboat
a superior dockside second home. The design team has never lost sight of the fact that
owners do go to sea and that a boat must include such attributes as good sea berths, a
galley that's usable under way, and good ventilation, even with hatches closed. They
seem to have expanded the layout of a 44-footer rather than to have crammed the cabin
of a 54-footer into tighter confines.
Two heads, two double berth
cabins, and a large midship saloon all finished in a splendid array of hardwoods (cherry
or teak trimmed with ash or poplar) offset the absence of wood above the deck. A light,
open airiness
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the complexity of air-conditioning,
refrigeration, and water making an owner may want.
Details
If the devil is in the details, Valiant has Satan on the run.
The builder follows a credo of "What goes in to our boats goes in correctly." An
observer can see this in such little things as how wiring looms are held in place or
in the proper installation of the engine beds.
After two days of
careful scrutiny, there were only a couple of issues that rose to the surface and left
some questions in my mind. Some are a matter of taste, such as the midway-up-the-topsides
rubrail that would be a lot more invisible, but probably not as functional, if it were
placed nearer to the shear.
The only construction technique I
would prefer to have seen done differently was the habit of simply resin-
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