viko yachts s 21 review

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Wednesday, may 27, 2020, a nice little cruiser at a great price: viko s21.

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from EUR 14,900

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A NICE LITTLE CRUISER AT A GREAT PRICE: VIKO S21

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Yachting Monthly

• Digital edition

Viko S35 review: the best cruiser on a budget?

• David Harding
• December 1, 2022

Designed in Italy and built in Poland, the Viko S35 looks to offer style and space together with remarkable value for money. David Harding sees if the reality matches the promise

Product Overview

• Inexpensive for her size
• Deep sheltered cockpit
• Performance potential
• Basic hardware
• Needs refining below decks
• Limited non-slip on deck

Price as reviewed:

First seeing the Viko S35 at the Düsseldorf boat show in 2019, not long after her launch, she struck me as a boat worth watching. She looked as though she might sail quite nicely and also had a price tag (just €60,000 plus VAT) that would have looked more at home on a 32-footer.

Only a few years earlier I had tested the Viko 21 and I’d come away with mixed feelings, so I was interested to see the new arrival. She too was designed in Italy by Sergio Lupoli, whose racing yachts and performance cruisers (including the Comet range) go back to IOR designs from the late 1970s.

I sailed his Comet 33 in 2007, rather liked it and was disappointed that the Comets never gained a foothold in the UK, though Viko subsequently used the hull of the Comet 31 to produce the Viko 30. This move by Viko – taking on an existing design to build under their own name – reflected a broader push by Polish builders to sell boats themselves rather than just act as contractors for yards in western Europe.

Many well-known builders have had their boats produced (or at least moulded) in Poland for decades. Some I only learned about by chance when, poking around in the back of laminating shops in the middle of nowhere in the depths of Polish winter – as you do – I found the names of some highly reputable boats attached to various moulds.

The new-generation ‘own-brand’ Polish boats have typically been very inexpensive for their size. I have, however, often found shortcomings in the equipment and fit-out. Designs that have been fundamentally sound and seemingly well built have been let down by lack of detailed thought, as though the designer has done the basics and then handed the project over to a yard run by people with limited experience of how a boat works.

For this reason, among many others, I was interested to see how the Viko had turned out when, nearly three years after meeting her in Düsseldorf, I went to sail the first boat to arrive in the UK.

The cockpit is deep and a sensible width, allowing the side decks to run all the way to the stern. Photo: David Harding

What struck me immediately was the height of the topsides. She’s quite sharp-lined, but I hadn’t remembered quite how far the gunwales were above the waterline. Otherwise there’s little out of the ordinary in the context of a modern cruiser with some sporty pretensions: a double-spreader, high-fractional rig (our test boat’s was 1.5m/5ft taller than the standard), pronounced chines running most of the length of the hull, a vertical stem, an optional hinge-down bathing platform, rectangular ports in the topsides and an L-bulb fin keel giving a draught of 1.95m (6ft 4in).

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The stern is fashionably wide, allowing plenty of space for twin wheels, and another option is a moulded bowsprit to keep the anchor away from the stem and project the tack of an asymmetric spinnaker. It’s all pretty standard in many ways, though even this taller rig didn’t look particularly tall. It made me wonder about the amount of weight in the keel, a modest rig often indicating a relatively high centre of gravity because of shallow draft and/or a low ballast ratio.

In this case, around 33% of the boat’s weight is in the keel and the draught is enough to place it reasonably low, so sail-carrying power shouldn’t be an issue.

A comfortable helming position from the coamings. If you want to sit inboard, you even have a backrest. Photo: David Harding

Onboard the Viko S35

Hopping aboard the Viko S35, you find two elements worthy of note straight away. One is the deep cockpit with high coamings, which make it feel much less exposed than on many modern cruisers, with their wide, shallow, dance-floor cockpits. For a boat sold as a family cruiser, that’s a good start.

Moulded bulwarks running the length of the boat lend security outboard. These bulwarks seem to be making a comeback and are now widely seen in place of the once-almost-ubiquitous aluminium toerail bolted through the hull-to-deck joint.

Less convincing to me was the coverage of the non-slip finish on the coachroof. Sizeable areas were left smooth. At this stage I normally like to go sailing to see how a boat behaves. If she sails and handles nicely, it’s worth looking at everything else in more detail. Otherwise you have a non-starter and nothing else matters quite so much.

We motored out into Southampton Water, pushed along by the 30hp Yanmar – an upgrade from the standard 15hp. Getting the mainsail up proved to be our first challenge because of a mast gate that wouldn’t stay in place. The gate should be easy to improve, and would need to be improved because the only way to get the reefing cringles on to the tack horns would be to remove some slides from the mast as you lower the halyard.

I would suggest that reef spectacles would be a worthwhile addition. Alternatively fit reefing pennants, invest in some extra hardware and lead them aft.

The sails on our test Viko S35 were the ‘high performance’ versions (still in Dacron), supplied as part of an optional package with the taller rig for a very reasonable £1,750.

Once under sail, we slipped along nicely enough in about eight knots of breeze and flat water, typically making just over four knots on the wind and tacking through 80-85°.

Our speed would undoubtedly have been greater had we not been dragging some weed around with us. A quick scrub from the pontoon before we set off had failed to remove much of what we could see at the bow, and we don’t know how much more was lurking out of sight. A folding prop would make a difference too.

On a cruising boat it’s interesting to see a full-width mainsheet traveller, set into the cockpit sole immediately forward of the wheel pedestals. It’s a feature of which I very much approve, unexpected though it was given that most of the hardware and systems are pretty basic. I also liked the simplicity and directness of the mainsheet purchase directly from traveller to boom.

High topsides are made higher by the generous moulded bulwarks on which the stanchions are mounted. Photo: David Harding

The problem is that it’s just 4:1 which, predictably, made it impossible to apply anywhere near enough tension when the breeze kicked in.

Our test boat had non-standard grab handles and pods for nav instruments on the helm pedestals. They would be at risk of being snagged by the mainsheet during manoeuvres, so owners might prefer to mount their instruments elsewhere.

At the helms of the Viko S35 you have a comfortable perch on the coamings, as you do further forward in the cockpit. They’re nicely angled and you can lean back against the guardwires.

The stanchions slot into broad bases, which spread the load nicely and should make stanchion replacement relatively straightforward. My only concern was that a fair bit of rust had formed already.

A full-width mainsheet traveller is set into the cockpit sole. It’s a good arrangement but both the traveller and the sheet need more purchase. Photo: David Harding

Staying on track

Slack in the steering cables between the wheels didn’t enhance the helming experience to start with. Thankfully it was a simple job to tension the bottlescrew in the linkage, reached via a hatch in the cockpit sole.

The rudder bearings were stiff, however, making it hard to feel the increase in weather helm when the wind eventually picked up to around 14 knots. And although our test boat had the bigger rig, I was surprised by how quickly we needed to start de-powering the Viko S35 to keep her on track: she would round up even at a modest angle of heel.

If you can feel the rudder through the helm, it’s much easier to know when you’re pushing the limits. If that feel is disguised by stiff bearings – and perhaps reduced further by a lightly balanced rudder blade, as I suspect might have been the case here – you’re more likely to find that you have applied more lock than you realised.  Then the rudder stalls and the boat rounds up.

As a matter of course you don’t want to sail with more than a few degrees of rudder angle. Any more means something is amiss. Easing the traveller was a quick fix. I would have liked to be able to de-power by other means first, such as removing some of the excessive forestay sag. That wasn’t possible because the rigging was under-tensioned and the leeward D1 (lower shroud) was waving around in the breeze.

Combined with the (optional) 4:1 purchase on the backstay, it meant that tensioning the forestay wasn’t an option.

Of course on a racing boat you expect to change gear all the time with variations in wind speed. On a cruiser, both the need and the crew’s interest or inclination are generally less.

I would like to sail a Viko 35 with a clean bottom, a folding prop and tensioned rigging for starters, not to mention easier rudder bearings and some upgrades to the hardware and sail-control systems.

Lupoli seems to be a designer who gets his sums right, so I suspect the boat would feel and behave in a very different manner with a little tweaking, even if the standard rudder doesn’t look particularly big. You would undoubtedly have to start de-powering earlier still if you had the 1.6m/5ft 3in shallow fin and the shallower rudder that goes with it.

The stanchion bases are mounted atop the high bulwarks. Some were showing early signs of rusting. Photo: David Harding

Viko S35 on deck

Moving to the other end of the boat, we find an anchor well in the bow. If you have the optional bowsprit, the anchor is likely to live on its projected roller and, with the windlass (included in the dealer’s UK Cruiser Pack) feeding the rode straight down through the deck, the locker itself is likely to be used principally for warps and fenders.

Moving aft again is easy given the width of the decks and the outboard rigging. The headsail tracks, mounted just outboard of the coachroof, give a reasonably narrow sheeting angle. I would want to try reefing the headsail in a good breeze to make sure that the tracks extend sufficiently far forward to maintain leech tension: with a low-clewed sail like this, the position of the cars is more critical than it is with a higher clew.

The drop-leaf table is simple but provides useful handholds and a bracing point. Photo: David Harding

I would also want to ensure that extra deck hardware could be fitted for handling reefing pennants, spinnaker gear, the kicking strap (another 4:1 purchase) and anything else one might want led aft.

Clutches are mounted on raised plinths forward of the winches, but the solid moulded headlining throughout (with just one removable panel around the compression post) provides no access to the deckhead.

Back in the cockpit of the Viko S35, stowage is limited if you have the twin double aft cabins as on our test boat. You have a deep locker each side under the helm seats and a shallower bin just forward of the transom that could be used for liferaft stowage. As on most boats these days, there’s no readily-accessible stowage for small items.

The interior is simple and mostly neatly finished in light oak, with no mouldings except the heads and the rather shiny headliner. Photo: David Harding

Below decks

Internally the Viko is simply finished in European light oak. The saloon feels nicely woody from the gunwales down. Overhead, the shiny moulded headlining inevitably looks rather plasticky.

Despite the high-volume hull, this is not an enormous boat down below by modern standards. That’s partly because the rudder is mounted well forward and the space abaft the helm pedestals is occupied by the steering linkage, so the aft cabins don’t extend as far aft as is often the case. Even though their berths are only 6ft 1in(1.85m) long, this inevitably pushes the whole layout forward.

The boat has a fairly basic forecabin, with the berth set noticeably low down in the hull. Photo: David Harding

If you have twin double aft cabins, the heads is opposite the galley, leading to a less open feel down below.

The extra cabin is a lot to fit into a boat of this size. If you have just the one double cabin in the stern, to port, it’s a good deal larger, extending across the centreline, and you can sleep athwartships. Then you have a cockpit locker to starboard and the heads moves aft, creating space for a small chart table.

Whichever Viko S35 layout you choose, the saloon berths are straight, parallel and 1.88m (6ft 2in) long.

Apart from the headlining and in the heads, Viko have used no interior mouldings, maximising stowage space and allowing access to the outer hull. Reassuringly, bulkheads appear to be bonded directly to the hull and deck.

The aft cabins are fairly compact if you have two of them; more spacious if there’s just the one. Photo: David Harding

Because the saloon is well forward, the forecabin isn’t vast. Here you will find a low V-berth and some locker space for storage. Features that might bug me include the absence of catches to hold doors open (or even positive closure for the double doors to the forecabin), the smooth, flat companionway steps (potentially tricky when wet), nothing to hold the steps up when you need to get at the engine, lack of a crash bar in the galley and a total absence of engine insulation.

It made me wonder about fire-proofing although, strangely enough, noise levels throughout the vessel didn’t seem excessive.

The Viko is an interesting mix of the basic cruisey and the slightly sporty. She has the appearance of a modern performance cruiser, statistics that tell you she should be a reasonably quick boat, and some features in keeping with this, such as the full-width traveller. On the other hand, most of the sail-control systems are pretty basic and, in some cases, barely adequate even for cruising purposes. She also seemed to prefer lighter conditions, and was less sure how to behave when the wind picked up. A performance boat needs to be tuned and equipped like a performance boat in order to handle like one. Otherwise you’re trying to drive a sports car on four get-you-home spare wheels. I believe the Viko 35 has potential. She just needs the opportunity to show what she can do.

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Practical Boat Owner

• Digital edition

Viko S30 walkaround review: Affordable Polish-built cruiser

• February 16, 2023

Jake Frith looks at the Viko S30 and wonders how far he’d cruise in this affordable Polish-built cruiser…

Following last month’s test of the Viko S21 and learning that Paul Simmonds, the 21’s owner, is upgrading to the Viko S30 Walkaround, we took the opportunity to have a peep at the latter model during the Southampton International Boat Show .

The first thing we noticed about the S30, especially this one which happened to be berthed next to an S21 for reference, was the fact that they are so clearly peas from the same pod.

Both Sergio Lupoli designs, they share a distinct family resemblance from their open transoms to their plumb stems. The 30’s freeboard is not far off that of the 21 though, so it’s a more lithe and elegant looking affair than the cute 21.

But where the 21 boasts class leading interior volume for a 21-footer, the 30 offers volume below that’s more on a par with some other 30-footers.

With a UK base price of around £85,000, for a yacht with the UK cruising pack which includes extras such as heating, hot water, lazyjacks, anchoring kit and upgraded engine size, my gut feel was it could end up being two thirds the cost of a 30ft French boat or half that of a Scandinavian boat of the same size. This for many will present a more than compelling argument in the Viko’s favour.

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It doesn’t take a genius to see where a lot of the savings are made. Being picky, some of the rigging and deck hardware looked a size down from what you’d expect to stub your toes on aboard a 40-year-old Westerly Fulmar.

More of a surprise was that, according to UK dealer Boatshed Suffolk, UK models come with a 20hp saildrive as ‘semi standard in the UK cruising pack’, meaning an upgrade that it’s anticipated everyone will go for.

As ‘standard’ standard, in Europe they’ll sell you a Viko S30 Walkaround powered by a 9.1hp saildrive with a 15hp or 20hp as upgrades. Frankly, they all sound a little on the light side for a 30ft yacht that weighs 3.5 tonnes with the heavier of its two keel options. I guess the 9.1 is aimed at the European lakes only – or those of them that still allow internal combustion engines.

RCD Category B Viko S30 can tackle some offshore sailing. Photo: Viko Yachts

The forward part of the coachroof as it descended to the foredeck had an odd rippling effect that looked as though some of the internal deck reinforcement structure was printing through the outer skin, but this was purely a cosmetic matter.

Venturing below to explore the six berth accommodation, the Viko S30 shares the 21’s moulded GRP headlining which is bright and low maintenance, but fully equipped 30-foot boats need quite a lot more electronics at deck level than 21-footers, so the inability to pop a vinyl headlining down to route a handful of new wires might become an annoyance for some owners. The S30’s aft cabin, accessed on the starboard side, was oddly massive at about 8ft square.

Such huge sleeping spaces are of course great in port but can be something of a freefall liability on an offshore passage. I’d imagine a lot of this volume could be pinched for a big cockpit lazarette on the port side aft of the heads.

Aft berth utilises the full width of the boat

The 30 is clearly going to be a more offshore capable boat than the 21, but as a CE Category B boat, just like the (Category C) S21 it would pay for those with passage-making dreams to not get too carried away.

It might be tempting to assume a Polish-built 30-footer would be hewn from metaphorical granite to master the Baltic on any given day, but at this price that would be a large ask. Category B covers offshore sailing in up to 40 knots of wind with significant wave heights up to a ‘quite scary enough’ 4m (13ft).

Realistically this puts a summer trip across Channel or a week in the Scillies within scope, but once those with longer legs start muttering about Biscay it begins to stretch the imagination.

Viko S30 specifications

Hull length:  9,27 m Max beam:  3,28 m Total mass:  from 2900 – 3400kg/2750kg Keel :  “T” shape Fixed/”T” shape Lifting Draught:  1,65 m/0,80/1,80 m Ballast weight:  900/1200 kg/750 kg Berths:  6 Engine/ Type:  Sail Drive 15 HP/Outboard 15 HP Mainsail/ Type:  25,00 m2 /22,90 m2 Genoa/ Type:  21,50 m2 /18,30 m2 Gennaker:  75,00 m2 / 69,00 m2 Designer:  Sergio Lupoli Yacht Design CE category:  B

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Castle 610 wrote: ↑ Thu Apr 29, 2021 1:44 am Toilets on boats = a toilet with sails! Major compromise. Having said that my next boat will have an enclosed head.

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hemispheremarine wrote: ↑ Fri Nov 12, 2021 2:24 am Hi Impulse Hopefully at the start of Feb, but shipping is crazy at the moment ( thanks for the post )

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Boat test: Viko S35

The viko s35 is the cheapest 35-footer on the market by a country mile. sailing today with yachts & yachting editor  sam jefferson finds out how it is on the water..

Writing about new yachts can be a funny game. I often catch myself writing that a boat a little short of £1m represents ‘very good value’.

Given my own boat cost £5k this doesn’t seem to stack up. Yet it is, of course, often true.

There aren’t that many boatbuilders out there that are absolutely stinking rich after all.

I don’t see Elon Musk quaking in his boots over the launch of the latest range of Bavaria Yachts.

Now, it’s hard not to be cynical when confronted with a price tag of this nature. I even heard someone mutter ‘what’s the catch’.

Yet I had reason not to be cynical – largely because a few years back I tested the similarly keenly prices Viko S30 and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a polished performer – yes, a little plasticky down below, but the most important thing was that it sailed really rather well in what were, from memory, rather wild conditions.

I therefore eyed the new S35 without prejudice and looked forward to test sailing the boat.

For a boat with such a low price tag, first impressions are important and the S35 certainly gives a decent account of itself; dramatic and thoroughly contemporary lines give a first impression of both speed, style and, yes, a touch of class.

There’s a reason for this, as the S35 was designed by Sergio Lupoli who is best known for his work with Italian boatbuilder Comar, whose Comet range of cruiser/racers are proven performers.

In fact, the Viko 30 shares the same lines as the Comet 30, although this experiment has not been repeated with the S35.

Anyway, Lupoli knows how to turn out a good looking yacht and the S35 features decent freeboard and a heavily rockered profile, a deep (1.95m) bulbed keel with the option of a shallower (1.6m) keel, single rudder with relatively low aspect ratio, modest beam carried well aft, a dreadnought bow with fixed sprit and a towering sail plan – with the option of a significantly smaller one for less speed obsessed cruisers.

All in all, the first impression is good as you approach the boat – it does not look particularly bargain bin, it must be said.

What must also be said is that Viko managed to get to a very keen price by making a lot of kit non-standard. This is certainly not a rarity at all but it is rather taken to the extreme here.

For example, the standard engine spec for the S35 is a 15hp diesel with the option of 20hp or 30hp upgrades.

I think it’s fair to say most boats of this size have a 30hp as standard. Nevertheless, Viko’s UK broker estimated that a decent amount of add ons still brought the price to around £100k, which remains lower than a similarly specced 35 footer from, say, Beneteau. Needless to say that the test boat was fitted with almost every option going.

Step aboard and the boat still feels pretty good. There are twin helms but these are an option – although a standard single wheel is hardly a disaster on a boat of this size.

It does however, open up the roomy cockpit which is very deep, giving a good sense of security. The boat has a decent amount of storage in a pair of   lockers under the helmsman’s seats.

It should be noted that the test boat was the three cabin version, which actually removed a chunk of that accommodation, as on the two cabin version the starboard side aft cabin is replaced with a large storage space although this is accessible only from below decks.

The sporty feel of the yacht is upheld, as the boat features a traveller situated in front of the helm, with the mainsheet on a cam cleat. There are two winches on the coamings for the headsails and a further pair on the coachroof for the running rigging.

The helm feels reasonably enclosed by the bathing platform and there is a sensibly dimensioned cockpit table to round things off.

Out on the side decks there is a good feeling of space and the boat features an unusually large raised toerail which gives an added feeling of enclosure but also seems to somewhat needlessly add to the freeboard, which seems a bit peculiar to me.

I seemed to recall that the Viko S30 was a bit plastic fantastic down below but this wasn’t really the impression I got from the S35. Judicious use of light oak made for a very pleasant vibe and the overall feel was one of light and space.

It’s only when you look a little closer that you note that the door handles look a bit, well, undersized and the sink cover is a tad flimsy. Yet the feel was good and the basic joinery was well done too.

The layout can’t be wildly radical in a 35 footer so on the Viko there is a standard L-Shaped galley to port, heads to starboard, and saloon area up forward.

There are double doors opening into the forecabin, which adds to the feeling of light and space, and the fore cabin is a decent size. As mentioned, the test boat was the three cabin version and this was a shame as the two cabin option seems more sensible to me.

In addition to more storage, you get a larger aft cabin and heads/shower compartment plus the option of a chart table. By contrast, the three cabin version offers a lot of accommodation but the aft cabins are pretty cramped and low plus the heads/ shower is a bit on the small side.

It sounds like I’m being harsh and, in fairness, I am. This is, after all, a 35 footer built to a very competitive price and the overall impression down below is very good. It’s an eminently liveable space that actually feels a bit classy.

There are some small details that betray the fact the boat is built to a strict budget but overall, the feel is good.

While the overall feel of the new Viko S35 is good, how does she perform under sail? We had a good day for a test, with conditions starting out fairly fluky and then building as we headed out of Southampton Water into the Solent, peaking at 20kts or so.

We put up a full main, rolled out the headsail and were immediately on the move at a sprightly pace. We headed out the River Hamble in company with a big Hallberg Rassy 46 of the old school and it was instructive that we promptly took large chunks out of this boat in the modest conditions.

As mentioned, this boat had the sportier rig, which is a full 3m taller than the standard so, as you would expect, the boat was quick off the mark. The helm felt reasonable but the feel was stymied somewhat by one of those old school autopilots that is built into the wheel and which you engage manually.

This seemed to add some friction to things and detracted from the feel to some extent. As the wind picked up we really started trucking along but it was at this point that the boat demonstrated that a combination of the big sport rig and the shallower 1.6m keel and smaller rudder was not an ideal mix, with the boat spinning out a couple of times.

The Hallberg-Rassy forged on stolidly and left us in its wake until we put in a reef and rolled away a bit of headsail. At which point the boat found its feet nicely and got into a good groove, hitting 7kts and behaving very well.

I would say that considering the boat started corkscrewing up into the wind fairly early, you should not bother with the bigger rig at all if you go for the 1.6m keel version. By the time we reefed down, we had the equivalent sail area as the smaller rig version anyway. On the other hand, I’d be interested to see how the deeper draft boat sails in boisterous conditions with the bigger rig.

Easing off the wind, the boat completely regained her composure and it was tempting to shake out the reef. We were now making a solid 7kts plus and the boat felt good. The mainsheet was extremely well placed from the helm and the helm position was exceptionally comfortable whether you were sitting out on the rail or reclining against the padded backrest.

This article first appeared in the November 2022 issue of Sailing Today with Yachts & Yachting. Try a single issue here .

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