What’s she like to sail?



The Warrior 40 will give you no thrills on the wind but she is clearly a weatherly boat, carrying a lot more sail than, say, an equivalent- sized Hallberg-Rassy in such conditions. That’s because she’s heavy – 14.83 registered tons, which goes up to 16 tons when she’s in cruising mode. She sets a 135% genoa, an in-mast furling mainsail and a self-tacking staysail without a boom. Her deck-stepped mast has two sets of cross-trees and a pair of forward-facing jumper struts, tensioned via an adjustable backstay. There are Lewmar 44 winches for the sheets and 40s for the halyards. It all amounts to an arrangement that pleases her skipper greatly – and with two Atlantic crossings beneath his lifebelt, who could argue?



What’s she like, in port and at anchor?



A double bow roller takes a 45lb CQR anchor, 40m (130ft) of chain and the same of warp. She’s a heavy boat which will always need this kind of hefty ground tackle. There is also a 1,000W electrically operated windlass to haul it all back in. In fact, it proved to be so powerful that rally organiser John noticed that the foredeck was ‘flexing’, so he refitted the windlass with substantial stainless steel bearers above and below deck, which has eliminated the problem.



Despite her theoretically high form stability – and perhaps due in part to a shallowish keel (5ft) for her size, John found that she rolled uncomfortably at anchor occasionally. In Tyrrel Bay, on the Caribbean island of Carriacou, he came up with a novel idea for dealing with the problem. He tied his drogue to the boom-end, then, using a preventer, hauled the boom outboard and dipped the drogue in the sea. It dampened the boat’s motion down a treat, but was only suitable in wide-open roadsteads with plenty of swinging room to spare.



Would she suit you and your crew?



For comfort both at sea an in port, you’ll have to go a long way to find a better boat. Her six-berth accommodation is sensible and roomy, yet practical. She has the form stability and easy motion for running down the Trades but is stiff enough to bash upwind.



If you sail year round and want a boat for all seasons, she fits the bill. A portable 4kW generator, stowed neatly in a glassfibre pod beneath the skipper’s bunk, produces 440 amp hours through the inverter and gave us enough power in mid-winter to run fan heaters off three-pin plugs while under sail. In complete contrast, the lack of a fixed sprayhood – which is how many Warriors were delivered – enables the crew to create a through-draught under the bimini when she’s in the tropics.



Her accommodation is very comfortable and well thought out, without being over-the-top in luxury. A family of four could make a three-year circumnavigation in this boat and still be able to talk to each other at the end of it.