Leopard 45 review

[yeloya]

We had a chance to do some works on this boat and I had chance to sail with her Marmaris-Athens-Marmaris (600 nm) a week ago. I want to share my view on her for those who are interested with Leopard 45.

The boat is from 2023, and was delivered to Marmaris, sailing all the way from Cape Town.

In terms of overall build quality it's comparable to Lagoon or FP's but some details are better. She has a front cockpit not as large as the ones on Bali, but OK. She also has a moderate flybridge again a bit lower and smaller than those of Balis, but better than the ones on FP and Lagoon. She was an owner version with starboard hull dedicated to the owner with the head on forepeak. Cabins are OK in size, WC and showers pretty large. She has 3 fridges , two in the saloon, one smaller in the cockpit. All lines are coming to helm station and semi elevated helm station on the starboard side offers an excellent view of all corners except the port aft quarter. We had installed a water maker, 5 KW Victron combi, A/C and 640 W solars. The engines are Yanmar 45 HP. She has enough space in the galley, plenty of drawers and lockers everywhere. As a sailing performance she was much better than my expectations particularly upwind, she points quite high up to 40 degrees AWA with marginal leeway. The boat didn't have yet the folding props, obviously this affects negatively the performance , more so on light winds. The yard installs 27 kg Delta anchor with questionable holding power, we replaced it with Ultra 35 kg which is now rock solid. The mainsail in my view is not the best part of it, lit's a brand that I never heard of, low quality dacron, no traveller on the mast, just sliders that are not working well. So, hoisting and taking down the main is challenging, you need to climb a bit on the mast and pull for the remaining half or 1/3 of the sail, an exercise that I didn't enjoy much.. The owner said that the yard is offering as an option better sails but I don't know what are those and at what price. There are only two reef points , both are single lines. They don't work well and are chafing the buttom of the main sail. Otherwise the running rigging is pretty well. Genoa is 120 %, about 40-45 sqm. The boat has some cute options, you can pump from one fuel tank to the other one either automatically or manually. Fuel and water tanks are quite large. The electrical switch panel is one of the best I've seen. The dinghy hoisting and launching mechanism is electrical and very easy to use. The boat in overall is well thought and well designed. Pricewise I think she is parity with FP Elba or Lagoon 46. The problem is that she has to be delivered from Cape Town either by sailing or by ship to the south of France which could add to the final price. Overall, I think this boat is worth to be considered if you are looking a cat in the order of M 800 €..

Cheers

Yeloya