Yachting-Live

Launchings
* A couple more of the old warriors are enjoying some tlc in their old age….!
You’ll have seen France 2 and 3 tearing up the solent on behalf of many corporate guests over the years - but no more…

They have been sold on to Logan Hotels who have commissioned Goodacre Boat Repairs and refits www.gys.co.uk / Ron Holland to give the old dames a full makeover and then move them down to Mexico where they will be available for joy riders from their new six star hotel at Los Cabas.

Goodacre’s are handling the refit that involves repair, faring, spray topsides, deck masts and booms, servicing/replacement of winches, engine work, electrics, new toilets. Boats are black topsides with silver style line, black antifoul and all else white Awlcraft.

* Impressed by the Nahema 120 (to be launched end of 2009), Fenomen, a company specialized in the design and the distribution of rare and exclusive products to ultra-rich individuals, approached Nahema’s CEO Pierre Lacagne to reserve a limited series of 150-footers.
Nahema’s team, together with naval architect Gilles Vaton and interior designer Franck Darnet welcomed the challenge and came up with a unique, sleek, refined, powerful mega-catamaran offering an amazing living space topped with supreme performance.

- The salon/dining room/bar with sliding windows (opened, they disappear in the bulkheads) to the cockpit makes one huge entertaining space of more than 200 square meters.

- The aft deck offers a Spa pool and a 30 square meters multifunction hydraulic platform. Up, it hosts a custom designed tender and can be used as a drop & go platform for a helicopter. Down, it becomes a bathing platform with a submersible swimming pool fitted out with side nets for the kids.

- The owners’ penthouse comes with a fully equipped office at deck level, and down the stairs in the hull, a king size bed suite with a spectacular view on the sea.

The Fenomen will be the fastest cruising catamaran in the World.

A model and a 3D virtual visit simulation program will be available for the visitors to see at the Shanghai and Moscow boat shows. — MegaYachts.ru, megayachts.ru/en/news/10/439/

* After working at length with Storm Trysail Transpac 65 (STP65) class participants, designers and Chief Measurer Andrew Williams, the STP65 Board of Directors has released the “box” rule and bylaws by which the class will be governed. The two documents, which Williams says are “beneficial in both understanding the rule and class management,” are posted in their final versions at www.stp-65.org
“Many of the questions raised recently have been regarding the accommodation requirements, so the answers to those are included in the rule,” said Williams, also Chief Measurer for the Farr 40 class. In addition, the bylaws include an update to incorporate the move to an Owner/Category 1 Driver Class that, according to Jim Swartz (San Francisco, Calif.), “will be attractive to a number of owners.” Swartz, well known for campaigning his successful Swan 601 Moneypenny, is currently building a Reichel/Pugh-designed STP65 at McConaghy’s Boat Yard in Australia. Another owner, Udo Schutz (Selters, Germany), also has begun construction of a Judel/Vrolijk-designed STP65 at Premier Yachts in Dubai, UAE, while a third STP65 — launched in June and making waves in the yachting world ever since — is Rosebud, designed by Farr Yacht Design for owner Roger Sturgeon of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. (Pictured at right, in the Derwent River on her way to victory in the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Rac! e. Photo credit Rolex / Daniel Forster )

According to the class web site, the STP65 box rule, jointly developed by the Storm Trysail Club and the Transpacific Yacht Club, is “intended to produce a class of fast, centerline keel, yachts that are capable of racing inshore and offshore,” both as a Box Rule and an IRC or ORR performer. “The speed producing facets, such as construction, length, displacement, draft, VCG and sail area, are controlled,” which means that as the class grows, the STP65s can begin racing within the box without time allowance, effectively as one-designs.

Ken Read, a professional sailor and member of the STP65 Board of Directors (once there are five owners in the class, an Owners Association will replace the Board in governing the class), has called the STP65 “a TP52 on steroids,” referring to another box-rule boat that has been highly successful. “Like the TP52 rule,” said Read, “the tight parameters within the STP65 box rule will insure highly competitive racing while minimizing quick obsolescence.”

The STP65 rule, bylaws and other supporting information is accessible at www.stp-65.org

For more information on the STP65 Class Association, contact Eric Kreuter, stp65

* The inaugural Royal Thames Mansura Trophy competition has been won by the Lagoon 420 hybrid-powered catamaran from French shipyard, Chantier Navale de Bordeaux. The ecological innovation and practicability of their design was recognised in a ceremony at London’s Royal Thames Yacht Club when the trophy was presented to M. Loic Lagrange by HRH the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

The inspiration for this competition was Mansura, a cabin-cruiser built in 1912 and driven by a petrol-electric hybrid propulsion system developed by her owner, Jack Delmar-Morgan, electrical engineer and member of the Royal Thames Yacht Club.

* The new Moody 45 DS, the first vessel of a completely new yacht generation of Moody was formally unveiled at the weekend. Several hundred sailors from all across Europe made their way to the Moody headquarters in Swanwick. There were also many members of the Moody Owners Association.

“Moody is an old, traditional English brand. Members of the English Royalty have had their vessels built here. Today we have injected new life into the Moody brand. Thus the continuation of a 150 year old yacht-building tradition with a completely new generation of vessels. THe Moody brand has always been synonymous with innovation, quality and solid craft - and it shall continue like that in the future, says Michael Schmidt of Hanse Yachts AG that took over the brand last year.

Yachting Monthly: Inevitably there will be some who look at the open transom and saloon French windows and see ‘a poopin’ from a followin’ sea!’ That’s a bit like asking where you put the shopping in an F1 car. She’s not designed to go round Cape Horn and you’d be daft to try it. If, however, you’re a couple that likes uncomplicated sailing in pleasant weather, the odd Channel or Irish Sea crossing, or a home from home in the Med, and you like entertaining a few friends in no little style, she’s yours for (ouch!) 328,885 GBP, ready to sail away. And there were two solid prospects at the press briefing. — www.ybw.com/auto/newsdesk/20080129184303ymnews.html

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This entry was posted on Sunday, March 9th, 2008 at 9:58 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.