Italia 9.98 Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

The brief called for a hull under ten meters, the ability to win under ORCi and IRC, a crew-oriented cockpit, a tourable interior, and CE category A certification. The design quickly proved itself, winning world championship titles in 2015 and 2016 with two different crews.

Design and Construction

Polli gave the hull very evenly distributed volumes. Its waterline volumes remain the same whether the boat is sailing downwind or heeled to weather, so the waterlines don’t create balance problems and the boat remains easy to steer.

The stern section has an almost circular frame shape and a strongly constricted waterline aft. This form accommodates a long T-keel with a slim but strikingly long torpedo-shaped lead bomb. The keel has a long root and draws 1.90 meters. The rudder blade reaches almost as deep and sits relatively far forward, placing the helmsman nearly amidships.

The hull and deck use a GRP sandwich laminate with a PVC foam core and vinyl ester resins, hand-laminated at the yard. The floor assembly and structurally load-bearing fixtures are laminated together as a single component, reinforced with carbon fibre layers, and then laminated into the hull. The builder used this method to guarantee strong, very rigid connections and give the 9.98 a stiff backbone without relying on dry infusion processes.

Rig, Cockpit, and Handling

The mast sits well aft, allowing a larger jib and a slightly smaller mainsail. The main boom is noticeably long, reaching almost to the stern. Genoa overlap is limited to 105 percent, and a self-tacking jib was never offered as an alternative.

Standard 3D haul points allow infinite adjustment of the genoa sheet’s leading eyes, providing headsail trim across a wide range of five to eighteen degrees from the centerline. A conventional spinnaker rig, including pole and fittings, is available as an optional package for ORCi windward-leeward racing. For downwind work, the boat can also be fitted with a 1.40-meter permanently attached carbon fiber bowsprit.

The cockpit uses twin wheels, a layout the designer had anticipated. The wheel provides sensitivity comparable to a tiller while striking a good compromise between sensitivity and hardness.

On the water, the jib supplies acceleration after a tack. When a gust arrives, the 9.98 takes off; close to the wind, she picks up speed, accelerates, and holds her pace easily. In a measured eight knots of wind, she sailed at 6.0 knots just over 40 degrees to the wind, matching her VPP exactly. Her ORCi GPH of 633 and IRC TCC of 1.025 underline the efficiency Polli attributes to the harmony among hull, equipment, and sail plan.

Interior and Accommodation

Below, the interior is simple and functional, though not very cosy. The proper navigation station faces the direction of travel, while the galley includes a two-burner hob, a sink, and ample stowage.

The forward berth area remains open to the saloon. Its berths measure 1.95 meters long and 1.62 meters wide at shoulder height, while the saloon berths are 1.94 meters long. The aft-cabin berth is the tight spot: at only 1.28 meters wide at shoulder height, it’s too narrow for two.

Overall liveability is more than satisfactory, and cabin sizes are adequate, though the sleeping spaces are abbreviated. There is, however, no stern barbecue and no cockpit table.

The Club cruiser version replaces fixed panels with flap doors in the dinette and bow cabin. It also adds an oven and a slightly larger fabric wardrobe aft, yet weighs only 50 kg more than the racer while retaining the same hull, equipment, and sail plan. This conversion showed that a few modifications made during the planning stage could turn the fast racer into a fairly comfortable cruising boat, even in light winds.

Machinery and Known Issues

The Volvo Penta D1-20 is a three-cylinder engine rated at 13.8 kW / 18.8 hp and fitted with a 2-blade foldable prop. It sits beneath a light composite deck and is poorly soundproofed.

Equipment and Upgrade Options

The 9.98 lends itself to measured upgrades rather than a wholesale rebuild. Along with the optional spinnaker package and carbon fiber bowsprit, buyers could specify a CNC-milled keel when chasing the last fraction of performance. The double mainsheet “German Cupper,” with added winches, was another extra-cost choice.

Basic deck equipment already includes Ronstan fittings and Lewmar winches. An electric fridge must be ordered separately.

The Verdict

The Italia 9.98 is a genuinely dual-purpose design: a twice-world-champion racer whose hull balance and harmonious rig translate into a responsive, easy-to-steer cruiser, all supported by a rigid sandwich structure. She rewards an experienced hand and accommodates light-air cruising, but the narrow aft berth and engine noise are reminders that she was born to race.

Pros