Interview about 54ft Racer Cruiser High Performance Yacht, winner of the A' Yacht and Marine Vessels Design Award 2022
Developed for an Italian boat yard, with big emphasis to create a light, safe and fast sailing yacht, easy to handle also by a small crew. On the other hand easy to build in a series production setup. A light weight yacht, built in Full Carbon with different interior layouts, in order to suit the various needs of different clients. The deck layout features a cockpit separated into a sailing, working area and the relaxing area around the cockpit table. Powerful hull shapes were chosen to generate more stability, and therefore allows for a safer and more comfortable sailing also in rough seas.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsIn all our projects performance is a key priority for our clients. Therefore we are very weight sensitive in the whole design process. We achieve a light and stiff boat by a cleverly designed structural layout of the yacht and we are saving weight by combining the interior, like furniture, interior panels etc., with structural elements. We have chosen a full carbon structure, as the advantage of carbon in its stiffness to weight ratio can’t be overseen. Furthermore we are working since 20 years with a high profile structural engineering office from New Zealand to optimise highly stressed elements by running Finite Element Analyses in that areas. Additionally some of the interior elements are modular and can be removed easily for regattas.
We have seen over the years that the number of experienced / enthusiastic sailors in a crew has decreased. Nowadays a typical cruising crew is divided in two or three good sailors who are doing all the manoeuvres and sailing, and the other part just wants to relax and having a good time on the boat, maybe haven’t been on a sailing yacht even before. Especially for a safety reason we have separated these two areas, and because the yacht has to be manged by a small crew you need to have all your sheets and lines in close reach for the ones who are doing the sailing part.
All winches for the sheets, halyards, reef lines etc. are situated aft in the cockpit close to the steering console. For example, we have eliminated the halyard winches at the mast. Two/three people can literally do all the manoeuvers from the aft area of the cockpit, and, as a side-effect, also in safer way as nobody has to be on the foredeck especially in windy conditions.
For racing yachts and one-offs we use carbon more than two decades now. As yards use it in the series production more and more, and do have more experience with the infusion process for laminating, the switch to full carbon was easier. Anyhow the impregnating of the carbon is more difficult than with “normal” E-glass. you definitely need experienced process technicians and one/two boats to fine-tune the laminating process. Obviously the Carbon comes with a higher price tag.
After a thorough parametric study and a comparison with other yachts, we decided the parametric envelope of the yacht. We than designed several different hull shapes modifying different parameters, and had them run through our in-house velocity prediction program (VPP). Based on the VPP results we had chosen three different hull shapes, which we, in this case, also checked for the IRC rating. Based on the IRC results the final hull and the final rig and sail dimensions were chosen.
Model cycles in our business are longer than in others. A successful model maybe runs 8 to ten years. therefore you can’t design something which is outdated in two years. Something which is, and looks fast has a certain elegance, obviously the proportions have to be right. And something elegant is difficult to get outdated quickly.
We are listening a lot to clients/owners, especially how, where, how long they use their yacht, and how big are typically their crews. This differs quite a bit among them. So you need to account for this different preferences with different interior solutions, paying a lot of attention to the weight of the interior. Obviously you think twice if you want to add a furniture or not. On the other hand you can’t have too many versions from a logistic point of view in the production.
When it comes to yachts which are used also in regattas or are optimised for some rating rules like the 54ft Racer/Cruiser, other yacht design studios will look what are doing. The A' Design Award is another great impulse that others check on your design in more detail. So, you can be sure that we will see some solutions of the 54 ft Racer/Cruiser on other yachts in the future
A great part of owners we talked to at the beginning of the project have their yachts based in the Mediterranean Sea, where you typically expect light winds. Many of them were not happy with the light wind performance of their current yachts. So, we therefore focused a lot on optimising the performance in light breeze for the 54ft Racer /Cruiser, and having developed a clever hull shape, we are not compromising the stability/safety for the upper wind range.
Fore sure opting for a full carbon construction is a brave step for a series production yacht. But we will see this coming more and more also in the motor yacht industry as environmental protection, fuel consumption and therefore weight saving is a big issue now for all in the industry.
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