Grandezza 28 WA

The 28 WA was Grandezza's move into the Finnish all-weather cruiser class, presented at the Helsinki Boat Show in February 2007 and aimed squarely at the Targa 27.1, the Nord Star 28 Patrol and Minor. The layout is the classic type: a wheelhouse amidships with sliding side doors and walkable side decks, an L-shaped sofa and table aft in the deck saloon with two swivelling helm seats to face it, and the sleeping accommodation half a level down forward. Below are two double berths, one in the bow and one under the deck saloon, a galley with a 90 centimetre worktop, and a separate compartment with a sea-water WC, holding tank, wash basin, vanity unit and pressurised water, with a hot shower on the options list. Standing headroom in the saloon is a full 190 centimetres.

What set the boat apart from its Finnish rivals at the time was styling and one specific piece of engineering: the aft half of the wheelhouse roof is a large electrically operated sliding panoramic hatch, which the Finnish press singled out along with the boat's finish, teak on the bathing platform and side decks, cherry cabinetry and Alcantara upholstery. Grandezza positioned it as a premium product against Aquador, Nimbus and Sea Ray, and priced it accordingly; the Venemestari test called the price the boat's clearest weakness while noting all seven boats built for Finland that year were already sold.

Propulsion was a single Volvo Penta diesel on a Duoprop sterndrive in almost every case. The German Skipper test of 1/2008 gives the base engine as a D6-330 DPH and the test boat as a D6-370 DPH, recording 38.5 knots at wide-open throttle and 30.2 knots at 3000 rpm, and states the available range as up to 370 hp on one engine or twin 190 hp units. Broker listings confirm twin installations were built, one advertised example carrying two 160 hp Volvo Pentas.

The specification figures need care. Grandezza's own technical data box, as reproduced in Venemestari 5/2007, gives 8.40 metres overall, 3.00 metre beam, 1.20 metre draft, 4100 kilograms, 20-degree deadrise, eight persons, four berths, CE category C, a 440 litre fuel tank, 55 litres of water and an 80 litre holding tank. The German Skipper test of the same boat prints 8.94 metres overall, 420 litres of fuel, 120 litres of water, a 42 litre holding tank and CE category B — agreeing only on beam, weight, berths and, importantly, on the draft, which it labels explicitly as measured with the drive lowered. The factory figures are used here and the discrepancies are flagged rather than averaged. A 2008 boat in the selling dealer's own records measures 8.40 by 3.00 metres, corroborating the Finnish factory length over Skipper's 8.94; notably the dealer's records also hold a 29 WA at 8.94 metres, which suggests the German figure may belong to the larger sister rather than to this boat. The 28 WA was replaced by the 29 WA, which is already in Grandezza's 2011 brochure.