Experience report SRX30 -Yachtline-: Croatia & Swiss Jura Lake

This boat was exactly what we had in mind

After a hard summer of 2020 WITHOUT a boat, we take over our Sunny in Kürnach at the end of June 2021. Our anticipation was enormous, because after two previous boats we knew exactly what we needed and wanted. I looked on the SRX30 -Yachtline- on Facebook for the first time. I directly sent the link to my wife, accompagnied by the message that this boat exactly meets our ideas and that we have to have a closer look on it.

We wanted to know more and made an apppointment in Kürnach. Mr. Öchsner received us on this Saturday morning at 07:30 for inspection. Even our journey time of 4h30 did not stop us from making this appointment. The inspection of the SRX30 with the many details, such as the huge bathing platform, the room concept, the seat and sun bench, the trailerability and much more only strengthened our decision to sign the purchase contract on that day.

Luckily for us, our boat was already booked for a photo/video shoot. We chose exactly the same extras. Perfect, because this reduced our waiting time by 1 month!

The day of the delivery

It’s finally June 2021 and after an extensive and very instructive boat handover we can pick up our Sunny. I have studied all the instruction videos on the website very well and I was sure to know everything perfectly. First we received a detailed theory part from Sven Küffner. The content mainly concerned the care and maintenance of our new boat. We received helpful tips, that we can certainly implement very well.

Then it suddenly got dark in front of the meeting room (our boat was pulled up), and we became visibly inattentive and Mr. Küffner realizes that he will not achieve much with further theory 😉.
Our Sunny, which has already been labeled by the Öchsner team, was in all its glory in front of the house. Mr Öchsner hitched up his Mercedes in front of it and was willing to do the briefing on the water with us. The tarpaulin was already off, the boat was perfectly lashed to the trailer and the rear light carrier, as discussed with Mr. Küffner, was perfectly adapted to the boat. Because we already had an aluminum trailer and didn’t order it. My concern that I still have to make adjustments to the trailer or that something might be missing was absolutely unfounded…

Without a doubt, Sunny looked very good on the trailer! Thanks again for that!

Well, we hop into Mr Öchsner’s pickup and drive about 10 minutes to a ramp on the Main. Right next to it, a ferry commutes across the river. We prepare everything. Mr Öchsner gives instructions and at the same time wants to check how safe we are when slipping. We have always slipped to this day and actually already know what we are doing. But if we do that 10 times a year, that’s a lot. Mr Öchsner probably does it in two weeks 😉! We loosen all the ratchet straps and get everything ready to slip. Auch die Kids bekommen gute Tipps von Herr Öchsner. So everyone got on the boat and the professional drove us backwards into the Main.

Forward gear engaged, Mr Öchsner released the hook, hopped onto the boat and we drove off the trailer (exactly like in the video 😉) First, Mr Öchsner explained and showed me the driving behavior and all driving-related details. The handling is great! The SRX30 drives very smoothly and with a lot of power. When all the assistants such as the trim assistant, the cruise assistant and all other functions on the glass cockpit were clear to me, our son took over the helm. Now Mr Öchsner was able to explain the cabin and all the details that are not part of driving. In the cabin, we were impressed by the large amount of space in the storage compartments under the seats and the headroom. We mentally set up the boat.

Back at the ramp, I thought Mr. Öchsner would now take over the controls and “show” me how to slip! But I was wrong! Because I should do it myself. Honestly, I would NEVER have done that with our old boats. Too much respect for a collision! But since Mr Öchsner knew exactly what we were doing and he has such enormous experience with boats, I trusted him completely. He hopped off the front of the boat and gave me a perfect briefing. With the bow thruster, following the “left-right” instructions was a breeze. He waved his hand to inform me to accelerate. I did that as precisely as I could. I was as nervous as if I was taking my first boating lesson! The ferry docked next to me at the same time and also washed a lot of water against us with its bow thruster. But the maneuver was more than successful and we were secured at the front with the trailer hook and pulled out of the water again by Mr Öchsner. Damn – I was proud! Now I was quite sure that we will always do it this way. Thank you a thousand times for this lesson!!!

Back at the Öchsner company, we went to the nearby scales and weighed the boat at 3340kg. Perfect! The handover was a complete success for us. Even as experienced trailer captains, we learned a lot.

First test drives on the Swiss Jura lakes

In the early afternoon we made our way back to Switzerland with an overnight stop in order to pass the boarder on the following day. Miss Köhler prepared all necessary clearance papers for the export from Germany and we have commissioned a customs agency for Swiss customs to provide the customs documents. Everything went well with a 1 hour waiting time at customs. The boat was duly declared and imported clean into Switzerland.

On the same day we took the opportunity to test the boat on our home waters, the Jura lakes. We made a two-day trip to get used to the new, great boat. We feel extremely comfortable and are sure that we have found exactly the right boat for us. Unfortunately, heavy thunderstorms were reported the following day and we simply took our Sunny out of the water again. So, of course we wanted to use Öchsner’s tricks and we did. We loaded it perfectly the first time! The port users watched us very closely, hoping for an apparent failure with astonished looks, but didn’t get it 😉. Masterful advice is simply priceless!

Unfortunately, the flood caused our lakes (like the rest of Central Europe) to rise by 1-2m and everything spilled over the banks. So our summer holidays in Switzerland are literally in danger of falling through. We decide without further ado to go to Croatia this year. After a short preparation time (5 days) we are ready with our team to drive to Croatia. The journey takes about 12 hours with two fuel stops. Car and trailer run tiptop.

We had a wonderful time in Croatia

We drive to Punat on the island of Krk and start a circuit from Punat via Cres, to Dugi Otok, to the Kornati islands and via the island of Ugljan and Rab back to Krk. We experience a wonderful time WITHOUT any glitches. The boat runs great! We experienced everything from the smooth sea to 2m waves. We always felt very safe. Docking and maneuvering was a breeze thanks to the bow thruster. We were always classified as very experienced in the ports and piers… If they had known that this was our first vacation ON the boat 😉.

Our highlights of the boat are of course the driving characteristics (the bow thruster, combined with the steering, even allows the boat to maneuver sideways), the technology (glass cockpit), the bathing platform, the space, the workmanship, the trailerability, the sun lounger with the right sun sail, the soft top…everything!

Bying our Sunny was the best decision ever. At home we were able to go out on the lake for a few more days and enjoyed the boat to the fullest.

THANKS to the Öchsner team and greetings from Switzerland.

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