Nick Burnham gets in touch with his inner Norseman as he joins the Viking voyage en route from Scandinavia to Brittany on the Pogo Loxo 32
Tere’s a decidedly sailing boat-esque feel to the Pogo Loxo 32. With its flat uncluttered foredeck, dart-shaped profile and upright transom it’s just a mast and rigging away from looking like just another white fibreglass yacht. Only the raised pilothouse introduces any motorboat vibe. And when you examine the background of the builder all becomes clear.
Created in 1987 and based in Brittany, Pogo only made sailing boats until this model was introduced. So what does a builder with four cruising sailboats between 30ft and 50ft plus a racing yacht in its range have to bring to the 9m powerboat market? The yard was never going to compete on a ‘me too’ basis, so instead it mines the current zeitgeist for efficiency, economy and ecology.
Choose the single 75hp Volvo Penta D2 motor mated to a sail drive and below 12 knots you’ll be burning less than half a litre per mile. Below nine knots a 50hp D2 is more economical still, albeit only slightly, and it mirrors the larger engine up to 12 knots before getting marginally thirstier up to its maximum velocity of 16 knots, 3.5 knots down on the bigger motor.
You can even opt for the reassurance of twin engines, a pair of 30hp D1 engines proving thirstier than either single set-up all the way from tick-over to WOT at 15 knots. Such is the price of extra weight and the drag of that second pod. Given this boat’s raison d’être, you’ve really got to need that second motor to accept those sacrifices.
Weight is a major part of how this boat does what it does. It tips the scales at just 1,650kg with a single engine, a quarter of the weight of the similar-length Sealine S330. Although this is an interesting benchmark, it’s an unfair comparison because the two boats are entirely different animals.
Read the full report in the October 2018 issue of MBY.