Design and Construction
The 590's hull is a voluminous form built as a balsa-cored sandwich with a vinyl-ester outer skin, while the main bulkhead is vacuum-infused — a construction path that keeps weight down without sacrificing the stiffness a 22.9-tonne yacht needs anchor. Ballast is 5.9 tonnes of iron, 26 percent of total displacement, carried on a 2.53-metre bulb keel with a 2.18-metre shoal alternative. The deck layout is described by the builder as revolutionary in the way it marries comfort and performance, and the cockpit is both the largest in its class and shaped for easy single-handed sailing anchor. Hanse has also paid real attention to sound separation: an optional layer of insulation matting in the technical tunnel aft quiets the generator space, and the forepeak crew cabin is acoustically isolated from the owner's suite.
Rig and Handling
Berret-Racoupeau gave the 590 a fractional sloop rig with in-mast furling and a simple battenless furling main of 81 square metres, paired with a 60-square-metre 100 percent genoa. All halyards, the outhaul, and the sheets run to two pedestals right aft, with the mainsheet and jib sheet on central winches beside the helm and the halyard winches on the coaming's aft end; the winches can be retrieved from the steering position at the touch of a button anchor. Test sailors found the central spade rudder steers very directly with light feedback, the system needing 1.75 turns lock-to-lock anchor. Under a slight sheet tweak she made just over five knots upwind in the test, and 5.3 knots under gennaker in five-to-seven-knot air — respectable given the furling main carries ten square metres less than a slab rig would. A 150 hp Yanmar pushes her at just over nine knots cruising speed.
Accommodations
Below, the low-level interior is organised around a central galley island that Isabelle Racoupeau focused on to keep circulation easy, separating the L-shaped port galley from the saloon and housing a raise-at-button TV anchor. The saloon itself is filled with full-height windows and natural light, with an optional sofa in place of the navigation corner. Layouts run from three to five cabins; the owner's berth can sit aft or forward, or be exchanged for two doubles, and a utility or laundry cabin is available. Aft cabins feel enormous precisely because the tender garage no longer intrudes as it did on the prior model anchor. Forward, options include a skipper's cabin with its own hatch access, or an owner's cabin with a centre berth and full-width head. The stern holds a 3.10-metre tender on an electric crane, and the cockpit offers a sofa group around two tables plus forward-facing seats by the wheels.
Deck and Equipment
On deck the optional cockpit-spanning hardtop covers 18 square metres — nearly double the predecessor's T-top — resting on a GRP arch forward and stainless struts aft, with an opening textile panel aft for rig visibility and solar capacity underneath anchor. Full push-button controls extend to the hydraulic bathing platform and retractable gangway, the lowering cockpit and saloon tables, and the electric sliding companionway doors anchor. Three water-cooled air-conditioning units each have their own condensate pump, and bow plus stern thrusters with infinitely variable, lockable thrust make close-quarters work manageable on a boat this size anchor.
Ownership Notes
Hanse's stated build capacity for this model is 20 to 25 hulls per year, and the show boat demonstrated that specifying nearly every option adds more than half again to the base price anchor. Customisation runs from an extra-large galley to an added guest cabin or private dressing suite, so no two owner boats are likely identical in the systems and layout they carry.
The Verdict
The Hanse 590 is a genuinely new-generation flagship: a voluminous, well-insulated hull wrapped around a flexible three-to-five-cabin interior and a push-button deck that makes owner operation of a 58-footer plausible. She trades absolute sail area for furling simplicity and leans on thrusters and electric systems to offset her scale, but the result is a polished, spacious coastal-and-offshore platform with CE Category A rating.
Pros
- Voluminous balsa-core sandwich hull with vacuum-infused bulkhead and strong acoustic isolation
- Largest-in-class cockpit with optional 18 m² hardtop and full single-handed sail control
- Three-to-five-cabin layouts including forward or aft owner's berth and non-intrusive tender garage
- Push-button hydraulic platform, gangway, tables, and sliding doors ease handling at the limit of owner operation
Cons
- Simple furling main gives up sail area versus a slab rig, capping light-air performance
- Near-full option list adds over 50% to base cost; complexity means more systems to maintain
- At 22.9 t and 17.6 m, right at the practical limit for a private owner without crew
