Arrived at the marina at 1100hrs, murky and a bit windless. Craig of Wessex Yacht Sales greeted us, and re-introduced us to the boat. She is a Grand Surprise called "Magic Roundabout", owned by the owner of
WYS. As we were talking the sky seemed to clear a little and a light breeze was felt. Lines were readied and Craig started the little Nanni.
- First thought, the engine is a bit noisy. However this could be easily rectified by the addition of some sound insulation in the engine bay, where there is plenty of room to do so.
We
manoeuvred easily out of the berth and headed out of the marina. Claire and I trotted round the deck and stowed the fenders in the
lazerette (v neat, and plenty of room for warps, fenders and all sorts!) We both noticed at this point how much more steady and sturdy she was compared to a First Class 8, hardly moving with my considerable bulk on deck.
Once out of the marina, I was handed the tiller and I put on a few more revs on the engine, when it got somewhat quieter, and pushed us along at six and a bit knots. After some U-Boat avoidance style random
helming, I got the hang of her very responsive tiller and we came into a little bay. I pointed the boat head to wind and Claire and Craig made light work of
hoisting the
Kemps Carbon laminate main and No.1 Genoa. Claire noted how much heavier than our own sails they were, however the
Harken 40's were on hand to help. 2 speed winches! Luxury!!
I bore away slightly and Claire trimmed the No1, while Craig took the Main. More on that later... What I need to tell you now is "WOW!" In about 11knots of wind, we, easily and without fuss accelerated to 7.1-7.5Knots with the wind at about 40
ish degrees true off the port bow. She can go closer, but for the minute we were just going. Another 10 degrees off and we busted 8 knots without
breaking a sweat. The following wake to
leeward getting louder and louder and the boat "humming" to herself. Apparently, when you've got the Grand Surprise "in the groove" she develops this harmonic vibration caused by her "short" foils. It can be reduced by some offset V's on the trailing edges of the foils, but I rather liked it!
Her heeling angles didn't get to the extreme, and she
certainly felt much stiffer and more confident in the water than
Neraida. Even with the
mainsheet un trimmed (deliberate), when a gust came through, she heeled a little more (say 5 degrees) and developed a
smidgen of weather helm. As she has a balanced rudder, this is a relief, as if she developed the kind of weather helm a
FC8 does, the rudder would stall quickly and you'd have to quickly snap back to midships and start again! The only comment on heeling was the added beam made you fell a long way up over the large cockpit. Claire also has a little difficulty finding a bracing point for her legs as the cockpit is pretty wide.
The
mainsheet is a neat system. Large
Lewmar track across the cockpit floor, 5:1 coarse adjustment and a 16:1 fine tune which is
accessible from both sides of the cockpit (double ended). The
mainsheet trimmer sits just fwd of the helm, and has his or her own sissy (foot) bars to keep them planted. I suspect this is where Claire would sit!
As we cleared into open sea (where there be sea monsters) the wind picked up a little to about 15 knots. Ideally, we would have changed down to the number 2
genny, but we couldn't be arsed,
de-powered the main a little so she sat up a bit more. We tacked a couple of times to see how she turned. Do it slowly and she kept a good proportion of her way on and back up to 7+ before you really had to think about it. We were exchanging glances by now, mouthing "
fookin farst" to each other with silly grins!
After a while we were a few miles off shore and the Grand Surprise was taking the sea well, with the
obligatory "slam" over the chop from time to time. To be expected really with a light displacement boat with the hull form that she has. Even so, up with in a "4" in open sea with a dry cockpit and only a damp prow is a lot better than we are used to! No "THUNK" from the keel either!
We bore away to put her on a broad reach, she
speeded up nicely, just
touching 10 knots on a surf down the low swell. Craig was a little nervous about getting the
asymmetric kite up, but we convinced him it was a good idea and he set off fiddling with string and a big bag. We opted for the easy option and binned the
genoa and stuffed it down the hatch out of harms way. Craig and Claire seemed happy enough trotting round the deck in the little rolling we were doing. Again, a good stable boat, with friendly big decks and plenty to hang on to.
I turned her dead down wind and eased the
mainsheet ready for the hoist. Out popped the pole, Claire hauled tack so the foot was 18" from the end, and then she hauled away on the halyard. Big Kite! 77sq metres in fact. Strolled away at about 9 knots on a dead run
until we gybed and bought her up as the wind was dropping off. 11.1 knots was our top speed and easily done. We both would have quite liked another 5-8 knots of wind to see what she could really do, but we were impressed enough with what we saw!
We dropped the kite without much fuss and I pressed the "on" then the "start" button on the Nanni and it started! No faffing around with outboards! :) We dropped and flaked the main and I asked if it was
ok to take her all the way back to the berth, Craig seemed happy enough to let me do this, and I was very keen to see how she handled in close quarters.
I needn't have worried, berthing her is easy. Plenty of engine power, and she turns "on a sixpence". So no panic or bumps ensued. Victory!
Conclusion:
The Grand Surprise is all we could have hoped for and probably more. She is very fast, and easy to handle, for what is, essentially, a racing boat. We were taken aback a bit by the weight of the sheets and halyards initially, but looking at the numbers, she's got a big rig, and we'd just have to learn to use the hardware. After all the Mainsail is 1.8x the size of
Neraida's, the Genoa we used was twice the size of our normal blade and the kite was just monstrous compared to our piddly 34sq m!
The
GS's light and responsive helm was a joy, and well within the capabilities of a good autopilot. We'd want a roller jib and slides on the main for sail handling, but they are all pretty standard "wants".
The cockpit would take a little getting used to, but she is a very well designed boat. I would expect we'd adjust pretty quickly.
Great Boat. Top of the List!
Looking Aft
The "Pièce de résistance" of the Grand Surprise. Its large cockpit, in two defined sections.
Saloon, Looking directly forward.
Saloon, to port, showing "galley"
Saloon, to Starboard, showing "Navigation Area" (lol!)
The Port Quarter. 
Ok, Looks Sensible Enough
Neat and Tidy Layout
Bon!
Mama!!
Sleek and Low
Upwind Machine
Light, airy and well finished, if a little basic...
