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Please remember that the boat model described in this article
could be no more available and its price, if indicated, could be outdated
as it refers to the Nautica Magazine paper issue
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YACHTING CATALOGUE Search also the Text and photographs by Corradino Corbò Nautica Magazine |
NAUTICA SALPA - LAVER 31.5
Italian Yards are well respected all around the world, mainly due
to the high quality output of the companies who build big yachts
destined for the most exclusive markets. However, beneath this
image of prestige, the same degree of excellence can be achieved
by those people who work on a smaller scale, both in terms of size
and price. One of the yards that best represents this school is
Nautica Salpa, which, after having experimented with all that
could be done on a wide range of open boats, has finally decided
to transfer this valuable experience to the production of small
and medium size cabin cruisers.
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The opportunity to experience
first hand this new direction came with the début of the
Laver 31.5. The hull is pleasing to the eye at first sight but
even more important are the innovative contents. First of all, we
are confronted by possibly one of the most highly engineered
products ever seen in the whole of the Italian nautical scene. If
you consider that this cabin cruiser was born from something like
seventy-one separate moulds (eight for the roll-bar alone), this
means approximately ten times more than the quantity used in all
other traditional yards to produce a boat with the same
dimensions. What is impressive about this figure is the extent of
the planning carried out before the workers begin to apply even
the first layer of fibreglass. The results are visible throughout,
even in the most inaccessible parts, such as the internal surfaces
of the hatches where, instead of showing the typical coarse finish
of fibreglass, they are as smooth and perfect as the external walls.
Naturally, there would not have been much sense in this huge
production effort if there were no demand. Salpàs technical
studio produced a work of art: a gliding deep-V hull, with
transverse sections running to the extreme aft, designed by Renato
Sonny Levi. It can be assumed that this geometry was developed for
very high power and, in fact, much of the yard's testing has been
carried out using a pair of Mercruiser 5.0 petrol engines,
developing a total of 560 HP.
Apart from the obvious considerations of fuel costs with these two
brilliant engines, equipped in this way the Laver 31.5 will in
fact reach up to 42 knots. Therefore, we were interested to
evaluate the behaviour of the hull with the engines in our test
boat - a pair of Volvo Penta Kad 32 170 HP Diesels. Numbers speak
clearly: the two Swedish engines, equipped with a double system of
supercharging, push the hull to a maximum speed of 32.5 knots,
giving the boat a cruising speed of between 25 and 28 knots.
High-level performance, then, for a cabin cruiser with two
Sides to its personality: a sporting one, able to satisfy those
who love a sparkling drive even on waves; and a more leisurely
one, for those who enjoy weekend breaks or long relaxing holidays.
Let us not forget, though, that the Laver 31.5 is a cruiser with
two separate cabins, a large well equipped saloon as well as a
bathroom that would be exceptional even on a cabin cruiser 10ft longer.
TECHNICAL DATA
Designer: Renato Sonny Levi (hull); 
Cruising speed: 28.5 knots
Deck: Well protected by a solid stainless steel pulpit
which runs the full length of the side decks.
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