Plenty of high-volume family cruisers these days are designed for coast-hopping in northern Europe or gently cruising around the Med. They’re neither performance yachts nor designed for serious offshore work, being conceived instead for what you might call ‘lifestyle cruising’.

If that’s the sort of boat you’re after, you still have significant choices to make.

For a start, are you drawn more towards space and in-harbour comfort, or do you want a degree of sea-going comfort and practicality?

More of the former tends to mean less of the latter. Where do you set your slider along that scale?

While you can’t have everything – there’s always an element of compromise – yacht design has evolved in recent years in such a way that voluminous cruisers often sail much better than their equivalents from earlier generations.

They’re both faster and better mannered on the whole, and sometimes no slouch by most standards in the sort of conditions in which people typically want to sail.

Some will behave quite nicely in, say, between 8 and 17 knots of wind and flat water. Take them out in 25 knots against the tide, however, and it’s a very different story – not that many people would choose to be out when it’s like that.

Equally, beamy cruisers with modest rigs are prone to sticking to the water in light airs, but that’s when some owners simply reach for the engine button.

If you’re happy with middle-of-the-wind-range sailing, and confident that you will either stay in the harbour or fire up the engine if it’s fresher or lighter, you have a wider range of boats to choose from.

In contrast, if you enjoy being able to sail in a broader range of conditions, you will need to be a little more selective.

Plenty of choices on the Elan Impression 43

At a glance from some angles, the Elan Impression 43 might not look dissimilar to other mid-range family cruisers of similar size. She has high topsides, a broad stern and a modest rig.

Look more closely, however, and you’ll see that the forward sections are nowhere near as full as on many of the alternatives.

Full bows have become popular in recent years for two main reasons. One is that they help to counter the rounding-up moment induced by broad sterns. So if you balance a broad stern with a broad bow, the boat is more inclined to carry on in a straight line when it heels.

The other reason is that broad bows create bigger forecabins, so it’s a win-win on a high-volume cruising boat. Or is it?

The problem with having bows like a barge is that they can make a boat prone to slamming upwind in a seaway. You might lose a degree or two of pointing as well.

It’s different with light-displacement, scow-bowed racers like the Mini 6.50s and Class 40s. As a boat’s displacement increases, it becomes harder to get away with a full scow bow, so on a mainstream cruiser there are limits to how broad you can go.

Given the growing popularity of full forward sections, it’s notable that Humphreys Yacht Design (HYD) has gone appreciably slimmer on the I43. That’s largely because of the twin rudders.

As HYD explains, they allow ‘a greater longitudinal asymmetry in hull form, with a slightly finer entry – which promotes easier motion’.

The greater control with twin rudders means the stern sections can be broader for more room aft, both in the cockpit and below decks.

Improved form stability also creates more power in many conditions, so all these features tie in together.

Significantly, the Elan Impression 43 is the first of the Impression range to have twin rudders. She replaces the 45.1, which evolved from the original Impression, the 434.

More than 600 of the 434 and her variants were built over two decades. Yacht design has developed during that time, so it’s no surprise that HYD did a few things differently – such as adding twin rudders – when drawing the lines for the 45.1’s successor.

Features like the twin rudders and finer entry have a big effect on how a boat handles.

Twin rudders aren’t universally popular because, although they will usually keep a boat under control at higher angles of heel, they tend to give less feedback through the wheel.

Another consideration is the lack of prop-wash, making marina manoeuvres more of a challenge.

Given that most boats of this size will have a bow-thruster, that might not be an issue for everyone. The pros and cons of twin rudders are widely debated and they extend well beyond the aspects touched on here.

Ultimately it comes down to what you prefer in terms of feel and handling, though it’s also good to be aware of the wider implications, including how they relate to hull shape and the inherent nature of the boat.

Good use of space on the Elan Impression 43

Now we’ve covered some of the basics, what is the Elan Impression 43 actually like on board?

Let’s start in the stern, and with features that are rarely worthy of any particular comment: the steering pedestals.

Here they are worthy of comment because, instead of being bolted to the cockpit sole in the conventional manner, they grow out of the sides of the cockpit in a stylish design that stems from Elan’s collaboration with Pininfarina.

Importantly, the helm positions are not as far aft as on some boats, so you don’t feel as though you’re being pushed off the stern.

Forward of the wheels, the coamings slope upwards to meet the top of the semi-raised coachroof, so they’re much higher than on most boats, creating a cockpit that’s unusually secure and well-sheltered.

Inboard of the L-shaped seats on each side are drop-leaf tables on tubular stainless steel frames.

You can lower the outboard leaves to create large lounging areas with infill cushions.

If both inboard leaves are raised, they meet on the centreline to create an enormous full-width table.

Importantly, the tables are also reassuringly sturdy, so you can stand on them with confidence while stowing the mainsail.

On the day of our test, we left hoisting the mainsail until we had motored far enough downwind to give ourselves a beat back towards Portland Harbour.

Going downwind under plain sail in light airs rarely teaches you anything about a boat whereas, in this instance, motoring did.

Most noticeably, it showed that the water still flowed cleanly off the stern at 6.5 knots. That’s unusual.

Cruising yachts typically start dragging their sterns and creating turbulence as soon as they’re moving at more than 3 or 4 knots, largely because they rarely have more than a few inches of clearance between the static waterline and the lip of the transom.

That in turn is a function of the design, the total weight (often well in excess of the designed weight) and the fore-and-aft weight distribution.

The Elan’s longitudinal centre of buoyancy is well aft, but she has sufficient rocker back there for the stern to remain well clear.

Our test boat was in an unladen state because she had been commissioned only a few days earlier and this was her first outing.

Then again, most new boats I test are unladen or only lightly laden and they still drag their sterns.

As is common on newly commissioned boats with twin rudders, there was a little stiffness in the steering that, I expect, would ease after a few miles.

Powering up

Engine-wise, the I43 comes as standard with a 45hp Yanmar. We had the next option up, the 57hp, which drove a Flexofold prop and gave us 6.4 knots at a very easy 1,800rpm.

The largest engine is 80hp; rather more than necessary, I would suggest, and at a premium of nearly £10,000.

By the time we spun into the wind, set sail and turned off the engine, the breeze had kicked in and we saw about 15 knots across the deck.

The boat got straight into gear, clocking an easy 6 knots with the apparent wind at around 35°.

Over the course of the following few hours, a further increase in wind saw the anemometer registering 20 knots as we trucked upwind at a healthy 7 knots with a light helm, the AWA (apparent wind angle) at a little over 30° and the boat feeling very nicely balanced.

I wasn’t expecting this level of performance or such good behaviour.

Wide-bodied cruisers with modest, un-tweaky rigs and shallow draught rarely thank you for pushing them beyond a certain point: they tend to become hard-nosed and inefficient. You’re normally better off reducing sail and keeping them flatter.

The trouble is that there comes a time when you need more sail to drive a voluminous hull through a seaway and overcome the windage presented by the enormous freeboard, so enough sail becomes too much and the boat doesn’t have the power to carry it.

Your ‘easy-to-manage’ cruiser turns out to be harder to sail than a racing thoroughbred.

Despite her towering topsides and modest draught (1.9m/6ft 5in, with a 1.7m/5ft 7in option), the Elan seemed to relish the conditions.

To be fair, since we had a westerly wind in Weymouth Bay, the water couldn’t have been much flatter. Nonetheless, the I43 took it all in her stride even when we pushed her beyond 30° of heel.

Being able to de-power the rig would have been helpful, however: we could have done with more backstay tension to reduce the forestay sag and flatten the headsail, but without a tensioner (it’s on the options list) that wasn’t possible.

We certainly powered up faster than we would have with the standard self-tacking jib. The minimal-overlap headsail sheeted to plunger cars on short tracks.

Towing cars would be a useful extra so you can readily de-power by twisting off the top of the headsail.

I’d imagine that, in light airs, her modest rig (sail area/displacement ratio is 16.5) and the not-inconsiderable wetted area will hold her back a little, especially if you have a self-tacker and/or in-mast reefing.

If you’re really after maximising performance, Elan can feed the Elan Impression 43 on steroids and release her with a 2.5m (8ft 2in) T-bulb keel, carbon rig, foam-cored bulkheads, Dyneema rigging and upgraded deck hardware.

Alternatively, you might prefer one of the models from Elan’s sportier E range (or, for offshore cruising, the GT range).

Elan is one of the few builders (X-Yachts being another) to offer three separate ranges for different types of sailing.

I would guess that most buyers of the Elan Impression 43 will opt for a specification suitable for gentle cruising, because ultimately that’s what she’s designed for.

All the same, she really can sail.

Cracked off the wind a few degrees, she picked up to well over 8 knots.

Her speed, her pointing (she tacked through around 75° by the compass) and her balance show there’s more to her than you might imagine if you saw her berthed stern-to at a boat show and automatically put her in the category of ‘just another broad-sterned, twin-wheeled, high-volume mainstream cruiser’.

Whatever category you put her in, you will need to address her by a new name now.

Three days after I tested the Elan Impression 43, Elan announced she was being re-named to become the I45 – the same boat, but with a few modifications and additions including the bowsprit (fitted to our test boat) as a permanent feature, a sliding bench seat in the saloon and some more windows.

Let there be light

As on most modern cruisers, you find a plethora of windows and deck hatches.

At the forward end of the coachroof is the fore hatch. Right in the bow, just abaft the anchor locker, is a large deck locker.

More stowage is in the cockpit: half-depth lockers on each side beneath the seats and abaft the wheels (unless you use the port aft one for a grill and the starboard one for a fridge).

A liferaft can be housed under the sole right aft.

Rope-tail lockers are beneath the outboard helm seats, the starboard one incorporating 240V and USB charging sockets.

Immediately forward of the wheels are the Lewmar 50 self-tailers for the headsail.

The mainsheet is taken to blocks on the coachroof in the widely-used arrangement that sheets the boom closer to the centreline on one tack (starboard in this case) than on the other.

Handling the sheet is a Lewmar 46 self-tailer (electric on our test boat) on the port side of the coachroof.

There’s no German mainsheet system for control from the wheels. At the helm, the outboard seats give you a comfortable perch.

Given the width of the cockpit back here, I’d like to have a foot-brace.

For the rest of the crew, it’s very much a sit-in cockpit, because those high, sloping coamings are not for sitting on.

The tables make good bracing points and have chunky handholds on top of their fixed centre sections. Heading down the companionway steps takes you into the vast open saloon.

Here you see more of the Pininfarina influence: the use of knotty oak for the finish, which is distinctive and highly unusual.

Contrasting with this are the grey, top-hinged lockers along both sides.

This is indefinitely a ‘Marmite’ boat below decks.

To port is a linear galley, with limited stowage but useful features like a fridge that’s aligned fore-and-aft.

Opposite is the enormous table, around which you could seat eight or ten people if you bring out the folding oak chairs from beneath the forward berth.

The bench seat now fitted to the I45 will be rather more practical at sea and, perhaps, provide a bracing point when you’re in the galley.

Elsewhere you find nothing wildly out of the ordinary.

If you don’t need the enormous forecabin with its island berth, you can have an additional cabin up here to starboard.

The finish is generally tidy, and solid trim is used where it is needed.

Verdict on the Elan Impression 43

The Elan Impression 43 is no run-of-the-mill modern cruiser. She’s different in ways that might or might not appeal to you.

What’s important is to be aware of the differences and what they mean.

The structural side sounds reassuring. Elan uses vacuum-assisted infusion lamination (VAIL) in the foam-cored hull and in the floor matrix that takes the loads from the rig and keel.

Vinylester resin is used in the skin coat.

A notable feature is the independent steering from each rudder to its respective wheel, obviating – according to Elan – the need for an emergency tiller.

Whether or not every aspect of the design suits you, the result is a yacht with a spacious interior, a large, versatile cockpit and a surprisingly satisfying sailing performance.

She does what she does with confidence and conviction.