Sessa C30 - Gin Trap

[Centaur]

Well, it's taken a while but I finally managed to take a few photos of the new boat whilst down in Poole for a few days last week. As can be seen from the photos, the weather was a bit mixed and mostly quite windy but we did get to venture out - at far as Studland Bay anyway....

[mark101]

Very, very nice


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[Ianfs]

Fantastic looking boat, I absolutely adore their flare for style.
When we had money we looked at the new 38 at the boat show, very tempting.
How old is she and which engines, D3's or GXi's?

[Xboatboyx]

The boat looks mint. Looking forward to having a raft up in Studland soon.

[Centaur]

She's a 2006 boat with twin Volvo Penta D3 190's, so reasonably quick for a cruiser but nothing like the performance of the Regal. When she was launched in March, she topped out at around 34kts but with little in the way of cruising kit on board, low fuel, low water, only me on board and absolutely flat calm seas (hasn't been like that since....) Subsequently, with a full complement of crew, fuel, water and cruising inventory, plus a bit of mid-season slime, we are just into the 30+kts bracket.

At full chat, she burns about the same amount of fuel per hour as the Regal (>80 L/hour) but is traveling slower, so consumption is about 50% higher on a mpg basis. It's a similar story at cruising speeds too but trundling around Poole Harbour at 6kts she uses around half the fuel of the Regal (<3 L/hour) so, overall, she's using less fuel at a lower cost per litre (approx 85p / litre). It will be interesting to make a more meaningful comparison when we get the opportunity to make some longer passages but, so far, I'm pretty happy.

The plan was to give up trailing our boat backwards and forwards from the East Midlands to Scotland and the south coast and get a bigger boat that we could stay on that would be based permanently on the south coast. This seems to be working out as we have managed several trips down to Poole so far, although we seem to have spent a lot of time doing jobs and not a lot of time just relaxing.....

We have a couple of trips planned for August, so here's hoping for some fine, calm weather for a change!

[ColinR]

She's a lovely looking boat. I do like their styling. You must be dead chuffed.

[Ianfs]

I've looked at a couple of boats with D3's and it'll be interesting to get your first hand experience of them, as all I seem to read about them is negative comments. Having drilled down into the comments and nay sayers reports, the problems seem to be with the system electronics, rather than the mechanics.

Fuel economy sounds good for a boat with a dry weight of 3,700kgs, however as you say, fill up the fuel tank and water tank and you've added 600kgs, plus some people and boating stuff and you've nearly added a ton. So not surprising you lose 4knts. 30knts though is pretty impressive for a boat that size.

We've been having a few discussions recently about upgrading, you may have looked in on them. Colin has looked at a Sealine 24 and I've been looking at anything from 25' - 32'.

One question I have when you have filled with diesel, if you have diesel fired heating on board have you claimed the 60/40 split at the pump?

[Centaur]

So far I haven't had any issues with the motors or drives, although I did have them serviced over the winter and replaced all perishable / maintenance parts. The only issue the surveyor warned me of was to ensure that the engines get a good run every now and then - boats with D3s that are kept on rivers and don't power up the motors tend to suffer sticking vanes on the variable-vane turbo chargers. I like the EVC system too - similar to the Mercury SmartCraft system in that it gives all sorts of engine and fuel data.

One of the additions I made over the winter was to instal a Webasto diesel-fired heating system. I was told that the standard 2.0kW system would be adequate for the boat but I went for the larger 3.9kW system as I wanted outlets in the cockpit too. The smaller system would probably be fine for just the cabin as the heater warms the cabin very quickly and soon drops down onto tick over. However, the cockpit vents (2 x 90mm outlets) really pump out some warmth even in the middle of winter, so the bigger system with capacity for more outlets was a good choice.

One of the benefits of the heater is that this allows the owner to claim cheaper (lower tax) diesel for the heater element of a fill-up at the pumps. Apparently, this allows for a split of up to 60/40 between (taxed) fuel for propulsion and (duty free) fuel for heating, although I understand that the skipper is supposed to estimate the precise split according to his usage. I have only filled up once so far at Cobbs Quay and was simply asked whether I wanted to claim for heating - not having any idea of the likely split, I was automatically given the 60/40 split. This came to an average price of around 85p / litre for the 380ish litres that I got in the tank (it takes 500 litres from empty). The EVC system records fuel used by the engines and so, when I next fill up, it will be easy to establish how much has been used by the heater to give a more accurate split......

If you are thinking of a boat of around this size, I would certainly recommend the Sessa. It was not a brand that I knew much about before but I was impressed with the layout, finish, fittings and thought that had gone into the design. Little things like the twin engine hatches (one smaller manual one that I use all the time and one larger power operated one for occasional great engine access) and the opening walk-through windscreen are great touches that aren't seen on many other boats. I will have to post some more pictures of the interior shortly!

[Ianfs]

Funny you should mention the variable turbo blades, here is a quote from me in a previous post a week or two ago.

This is it though I thought, until I found that the D3 had variable blades in the Turbo Charger. Several posts went on to say that if not thrashed, the turbo seizes.

From what I can see though, this is a detail and not something which would be a deal breaker. A boat I am looking at has Webasto heating but I'm not sure of the power, it may be only the standard size.

Thanks for the info about the diesel prices. From what I have read the 60/40 was introduced because it was very difficult to split every type of boat from fuel for power to heating so they came up with an average.

I look forward to seeing more photos.

How long does it take you from the midlands to Poole?

[Centaur]

You don't exactly have to thrash the engines, just make sure the turbos start to produce some boost. Just powering onto the plane will do it but, as my surveyor suggested, if on a river simply trawl one engine and power up the other - this will work each engine in turn but won't exceed any speed limits.

Don't bank on cheap fuel for ever though, as the EU don't like it and have been trying to abolish it for years. Eventually, it will probably only be available where boats have separate tanks for heating and propulsion.

Door to door, from Rutland to Cobbs, is about 3.5 hours whilst sticking to speed limits but can take much longer on a Friday afternoon! Can seem a long while in the car but, even if only staying for a weekend, it's quickly forgotten after the first G&T!