Over the last decade Sirena Marine has established itself as Turkey’s leading production boat builder. But its learning curve has been a steep one, matched by improvements in quality and management.

This was the third time we visited Pendik, on the southern outskirts of Istanbul, to test an Azuree. Each time the experience has improved markedly.

Sirena’s original Azuree 40-footer was a fun design, a little ahead of her time perhaps, somewhat quirky and cumbersome for a production yacht – see the video here.

UK designer Rob Humphreys took the wide aft beam, hard chine, twin rudder theme of that Ceccarelli-designed hull as a starting point. He went on to produce a more user-friendly, aesthetically appealing and all round better product in the Azuree 46 – see video here.

And now, as we can see from this Azuree 41 video, we see the fruits of yet further refinement.

Humphreys, who joined me for the test sail, is particularly pleased with improvements in weight control. Sirena is building stiffer hulls with as much weight as possible concentrated deep in the bulb of the T-keel. This new Azuree 41 is a consummate cruiser-racer, a yacht that has been refined to be a cut above its competition.