Royal Cruiser I (Storö I)

Information

The Storö I was a natural continuation of the Solö series and the basis for a number of pleasure boats with the classic name Storö. She was a very sturdy boat whose seaworthiness was proved by Tore Comstedt by winning the "Pavillon d'Or" with a Storö I in 1964.
Unlike the previous Solö boats she was not designed by Einar Runius but by Otto Scheen jun..

On special request two boats with aft cabin were built in 1960. While the Swedish-language catalog does not show any difference between the two versions, the English-language catalog mentions a Royal-I and Royal II (with aft cabin) which, however, is not to be confused with the Storö II. The Royal II is indicated with a hull length of 30 feet (at the same width like the Royal I), which is two feet more than the Royal I without aft cabin.

From the start of production, the Storö was mainly delivered with Volvo Penta BB70 petrol engines with 48 kW (65 hp). At that time, petrol engines were significantly more powerful than diesel engines. The available Volvo Penta MD4 engines with 29 kW (39 hp) were somewhat underpowered for achieving fast planing speeds.
Later, the more powerful Volvo Penta BB100 (74 kW/100 hp) and the diesel variant MD19 (50 kW/68 hp) were installed.

A trend at the time towards economical driving was the use of paraffin engines. These were engines that ran on petrol when starting and then switched to cheap paraffin while driving.

When looking at the performance data for the engines, it should be noted that SAE horsepower was often used at the time to give the impression of higher performance. See also "Engine power".

At least the prototype had a one-piece cabin windscreen and side windows at the helm. Later, the boat got a split windscreen and the windows at the helm were replaced by a wooden panel.

Technical development