Yacht Karisma

Karisma is a Hanse 301, built by Hanse Yachts in Greifswald, Germany and delivered to her first owners in September 2001. She was first kept in Dover, before being sold on to her second owners in 2007 and kept in Plymouth. We bought her in November 2011 when they retired from sailing, and kept her in Penarth until we moved to Milford Haven in spring 2017. She is hull #160 of about 250 boats built and is the shoal-draft variant of the 301, with a lead wing keel.

She was originally named ‘Migra’- her first owners were father and son, Michael and Graham. Her second owners, Brian and Judith, liked this no more than we do, and changed the name to ‘Karisma’. This, apparently, was the result of trying to re-cycle as many of the letters of ‘MIGRA’ as possible so that the cockpit dodgers could be re-used! Despite this pragmatic origin, we like the name and have stuck with it.

Karisma has six berths: a double in her forepeak cabin, a transverse double aft beneath the cockpit sole, and two good sea berths on each of the saloon settees. In practice, we use the aft berth as a roomy single alongside some stowage, which means we can cruise with five on board. She has a small but functional heads (bathroom) with sea toilet, and a galley (kitchenette) with a two burner hob, oven and sink.

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The Hanse 301

The 301 has a long history pre-dating Hanse Yachts. The plan was drawn around the early 1980s by the Austrian yacht architect Carl Beyer, and the design was built as the Aphrodite 29 by Peer Ove Rexander of Rex Marin AB in Henan, Sweden (Aphrodite being a now defunct subsidiary of Najad Yachts). The first Aphrodite 29 was delivered in 1985 (information kindly provided by Reinhard, the first owner- see comments).

The moulds were sold in the early nineties to Michael Scmidt, the founder of Hanse, and between 1993 and 1995 the boats were built as the Hanse 291, which had a traditional interior layout with a pilot berth aft and a forward heads. The 291 sold well, and in 1995 the fit-out was reconfigured to reflect the change in trend for aft heads and double berths, then being marketed as the Hanse 292.

In 1998, some freeboard was added to the design to improve headroom and a bathing platform appeared on the sugar scoop stern, transforming the 292 into the 301, which was in production until 2002. Both the 292 and the 301 featured a choice of deeper cast-iron fin or shallow, lead wing keels.

The final variant of Beyer’s design was branded as the Hanse 300, which appeared in 2002. Hanse had now begun to commission new model designs from the architects Judel/Vrolijk & co. of Bremerhaven, Germany. As a result the 300 differs from the 301 only cosmetically, with new interior joinery intended to match the modern, ‘high gloss’ finish of the newer boats in the range. The last 300 was built in 2003 and was replaced in the Hanse range by the new and unrelated 311 design.

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Some tech specs

Name: Karisma

Flag: United Kingdom (Red Ensign)

Registered Port: Penarth, Wales

Call Sign: MFRU8

SSR: 149565

MMSI: 235019963

Sail Number: GBR3139L

Overall length: 8.99 m (29.5 ft)

Waterline length: 7.95 m (26.0 ft)

Draft: 1.2m

Displacement: 2.98 t

Engine: Volvo Penta 2020, 19 hp

Berths: 6

Sails: Mainsail with 3 reefs, c. 26 sq. m; furling Genoa, c. 22 sq. m; both in Dimension Polyant cruising laminate and manufactured by Sanders Sails of Lymington

Rigging: 7/8 fractional two-spreader ‘anniversary series’ mast by Z-spars. Furlex 100 and rodkicker by Selden. All Dyneema running rigging, with lines led back to the cockpit. Four Harken 35.2 twin-speed self-tailing winches (coachroof and primary).

Instrumentation: 2x Garmin GPS128 GPS; onboard PC with SeaTrak (Imray Raster) and PC Plotter (Navionics Vector) charts and PredictWind routing software; Simrad IS20 depth, speed, and wind instruments; Simrad NSS7 cockpit chartplotter with Navionics vector charts; DigitalYacht AIS receiver.

Safety: Broadly equivalent to the ISAF Category 3 and MCA Coding Category 2 standards (Open water operation/up to 60Nm from a safe haven). Five adult lifejackets all with sprayhood, light and locator beacon; 6 man liferaft; flares and miniflares; fire extinguishers; fitted fire, Carbon Monoxide and gas (LPG) alarms.