Dehler 30 One Design, the Shorthanded Offshore Racer Explained

Why Dehler built a 30-foot offshore one-design

Searches for the Dehler 30 almost always lead to one boat: the Dehler 30 One Design, usually shortened to 30 OD. It is the only production Dehler that carries the plain 30 name, and the nearest relatives in the brand's history are the much older Dehler 29 and Dehler 31 cruisers, which are different boats entirely. The 30 OD was conceived when doublehanded offshore racing was gaining momentum, helped by the proposal for a mixed offshore event at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and it ignores handicap rules in favor of a strict one-design class.

Dehler dates the model to 2019 and set up a class association in 2020, with regatta sailor Uwe Barthel as chairman and Karl Dehler, son of the company's founder, as technical chairman. Sailing World reported that the first production hull did not make its debut until late January 2020. Recognition followed quickly: the boat took the race yacht category in European Yacht of the Year 2020 and won the over 30 ft performance class in SAIL magazine's 2021 Best Boats contest.

What makes it interesting to American sailors is the double personality: a two-handed offshore weapon on deck, with a galley, an enclosed head and four real berths below. Yachting World's tester concluded it can be both racer and cruiser, as long as you rank them in that order.

Scow bow, chines and 200 liters of moveable weight

Judel/Vrolijk drew a delta-shaped hull that carries maximum beam from amidships to the transom, with a full, rounded bow and a hard turn of the bilge into flat underwater sections. A soft chine runs aft from the forward third of the hull and a sharper chamfer along the gunwale gives the reverse-flare look borrowed from boats such as the Fast 40+ Ran. The point is form stability without a crew on the rail, plus enough buoyancy forward to stop the bow burying on a power reach.

The keel is a deep, parallel-sided GRP fin with a lead bulb at 2.20 m (7 ft 3 in) of draft; sailboatdata lists 940 kg in the T-keel and a total ballast figure of 1,140 kg once the 200 kg of water ballast is included. The tanks sit outboard near the companionway and can be filled by gravity or an electric pump, giving roughly the righting moment of two or three hiking crew. Sailing World cited a measured stability index of about 117, just above the 115 threshold for offshore safety compliance.

Twin rudders with a single tiller linkage mounted above the cockpit sole keep grip when the boat is heeled. Owners and testers agree the boat is designed to heel early so the leeward blade does the work while the windward one rides out of the water.

The Stealth Drive and a 10 hp engine

The feature that gets the most attention at the dock is the Stealth Drive. The propeller shaft is encased in a molding that swings up into a box inside the hull, leaving a flush bottom under sail. Because the propeller disappears, Dehler can fit a fixed three-blade prop instead of a folding one, which gives strong thrust in forward and reverse. A short lever stowed in the cockpit sole spine raises and lowers it.

Power comes from a two-cylinder Nanni diesel of 10 hp that Sailing World put at 87 kg (191 lb). Yachting Monthly noted that most skin fittings, including the water ballast inlet and outlet, sit inside the same prop box. Tankage is small, about 25 liters (7 gallons) of fuel and 40 liters (11 gallons) of water according to sailboatdata, fine for races but tight for a cruise.

A deck laid out for two people and a lot of string

Everything is within reach of a helmsman sitting outboard. Lewmar primaries sit close to the tiller, a second pair either side of the companionway handles halyards and control lines, and the traveler spans almost the full width of the stern, raised slightly to clear the tiller. Coarse and fine mainsheet tackles run to a spine on the cockpit sole. Headsail sheeting uses inhaulers and outhaulers rather than deck tracks, and D-rings on the coamings take outriggers that widen the sheeting angle for reaching sails.

The deck-stepped carbon mast sits well aft, 4.3 m behind the stem according to Sailing World, with a single set of long, swept spreaders and intermediate D2 shrouds. That geometry allows a large non-overlapping jib of 28.2 m2 and a 33.5 m2 square-top main. Twin backstays exist purely for tuning. Off the wind the boat flies a 98.3 m2 asymmetric spinnaker from a carbon bowsprit fixed about a meter ahead of the stem, plus a Code 0 and a staysail on a removable inner forestay for heavy air.

Testers had two complaints: Yachting World found the cockpit quickly turns into a snake pit of lines, and Yachting Monthly warned that cruising sailors will find the boom low.

What the test boats actually did

SAIL's Adam Cort reported reaching at a steady 14-plus knots under main, A-sail and staysail, and called it one of his best test sails ever. He was also surprised by the upwind behavior in a short chop, with none of the slamming he expected. In the Solent, Yachting Monthly's David Harding logged a relaxed 10 knots under an A5 in 13 to 14 knots of breeze on the beam, more than 8.5 knots without a kite in 15 knots of true wind, and high sixes when hardened up with the apparent wind inside 30 degrees.

The UK owner interviewed by Yachting Monthly had seen a peak of 16.4 knots and quoted a typical IRC rating around 1.033, close to that of the longer Sun Fast 3300. Upwind, the same crew reported plenty of power to punch into a steep sea after a race to Weymouth, helped by the water ballast.

No independent fuel consumption figures have been published, and the small tank, not the economical engine, is what limits range.

Below decks: closer to a cruiser than you expect

Instead of a bare race interior, the 30 OD has molded wood settees, a folding table on the compression post, a small galley to starboard, an enclosable head to port, an open V-berth and two long quarter berths aft. Dehler claims the creature comforts weigh less than 100 kg. There are no floorboards, which helps produce 1.82 m (about 6 ft) of headroom under a low deck, and a raised sliding hatch adds standing room at the foot of the companionway.

The removable fabric hull lining divides opinion: it saves weight and looks smart when new, but Yachting World's reviewer questioned how it will age. Carbon reinforcement in the structure allows a ring frame instead of a full bulkhead forward, which keeps the interior open.

Racing a 30 OD in North America

One-design fleets are strongest in Germany and northern Europe, so an American owner should plan on racing mostly under PHRF or ORC. Sailing World followed Ben Corson and Marta Hansen on Chesapeake Bay, who compared the Sun Fast 3300, Figaro 3, J/99, L30 and Italia 9.98 in a spreadsheet before choosing the Dehler. Their reasoning is useful for anyone sailing in light-air US venues: the 30 OD was designed to be good upwind and in light to moderate wind while still planing in a breeze, and its hull form generates less drag in light air than wider rivals.

For cruisers, the 7 ft 3 in draft is the biggest limitation in thin-water areas such as Florida Bay, the Chesapeake's gunkholes or the Bahamas.

Buying and running one

The fleet is young, so condition depends on how the boat has been sailed more than on age. Several seasons of offshore racing can mean worn sails, a tired Stealth Drive and keel or rudder repairs. Sail inventory is the biggest price variable, because a full set of class sails including the Code 0, A2, A5 and staysail is expensive to replace.

Annual costs are moderate: slip or storage, insurance, haul-out and bottom work, service on a small diesel and the lithium battery bank that Sailing World noted as standard. Budget roughly $9,000 to $22,000 a year depending on location and how hard you race, with sails as the wildcard.