The 10 HR 342's ready for delivery

With military spending at a premium at the moment, the British Army orders close to a £1M on 10 Hallberg-Rassy 342's. With so many British yacht builders, the question must be here, why doesn't the British Army buy British built boats?

The buyer is BKYC, British Kiel Yacht Club, who is a private club based in Kiel, Germany. The British military is chartering the boats for adventurous sailing training. There are normally people from the UK Army sailing the boats, but also from the UK Navy and the British Air Force or private people with connection to the British Military. 5 to 7 men and women are onboard each yacht on a trip that usually takes around 5 days, goes to Denmark and covers 150 nautical miles.

The yachts are used extensively from early March until the end of November. Each boat is sailed about 7000 nautical miles per year, which corresponds to roughly seven years of sailing for an ordinary sailor. The club changes boats about every three years and this is the third time the order goes to Hallberg-Rassy. BKYC has previously had a fleet of twelve Hallberg-Rassy 29 and another fleet of twelve Hallberg-Rassy 31.

For BKYC it is important to have boats that are built to last and coops with tough conditions. The Army states that "Resale value is also a very important factor", interesting point as we see French built boats used by charter companies at a greatly reduced premium when on the resell market, not boats given a hard time by Army personell. However the Army does state that spare parts supply and value for money were also taken into consideration.

HR 342, the Rolls Royce of yachts

This season Hallberg-Rassy builds and delivers 72 HR 342. The ten BKYC yachts are collected at the Hallberg-Rassy yard in Ellös, Sweden, early March 2007 and the naming ceremony is in Kiel 23 March.

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