Ultra

Trovna is currently fitted as a mast head rig with mast furling main. The charter life has stretched and flattened the mainsail and she is definitely tipped in the direction of cruiser over performance. Her 2.1 m keel is fine for Croatia’s abrupt coastline and the engine is well maintained and in perfect order.

The nav instruments are misaligned in that the windex doesn’t repeat properly to the transom and the speedometer, although spinning isn’t properly connected. Although the lack of high accuracy charts is not as much of an issue in Croatia as many places, having merely the base layer of GPS card is enough for me to be thankful I already had my own charts.

The safety was never in question and she is a very stable and adequately equipped vessel (within the rules). I would like to see a better attention to the safety structure although, as a skipper, that is my responsibility and I adapted it to suit.

Comfort on board is pretty top notch for a vessel this length. Three heads – two en suite – and ample space for stuff and things makes the experience of living aboard rather pleasant. As you’d expect of a yacht this size. My crew of 6, two of which were novices felt, suitably lavished.

The shore crew were, in general, very good and I would recommend them over others in the area as they lack the standard Croatian attitude that can sometimes be interpreted as rudeness or lack of caring. All issues were fixed and cleanliness was second to none – I would be interested to hear if the windex issue was rectified and if the manager (who was excellent) held the same view as the staff member that these things were ‘always dodgy’.

Overall I’d say she is probably just suffering late charter season wear and tear. In my experience I would prefer not to hear how incompetent and under qualified many skippers are in the charter world and hence she is holding up well. Don’t charter her if you want to sail fast, but if you want a very good level of accommodation for the price and aren’t focused on sailing as a purist then you can’t do better.