The Superyacht Circuit on SOJANA

For the past six years I have often been a crew member on board the well-known, FYD-designed, 115' superyacht SOJANA commissioned by Peter Harrison and captained by Marc Fitzgerald. She regularly competes in the Heineken Regatta, Antigua Sailing Week, Superyacht Cups in Antigua and Palma, the St. Barths Bucket, Les Voiles de St. Tropez and transatlantic races and rallies traveling back and forth across the pond. Launched in 2003 she is due to hit 100,000 miles sailed by the end of 2010. Peter and Marc are always looking to improve the performance of SOJANA having made many upgrades and modifications over the years and also serving as a test bed for new materials.

Sailing on SOJANA, as well as providing technical support to the improvement program, has allowed me a front row seat at the steady progress occurring on SOJANA and in the rest of the superyacht fleet. Of all the advances made to SOJANA over the years, two stand out. In 2007, composite rigging from Future Fibres was installed on both the main and mizzen rigs. The increase in stability was readily apparent but the reduction in inertia, improving the motion in waves, was the most dramatic. This year SOJANA has been testing the first 3Di sails made for a superyacht. Both of these technologies have a huge impact on the design of a superyacht. Being present to see the effect of all the many current advances in technology is crucial to understanding them and using them to create successful designs with precise power-to-weight ratios, stability and speed that meet the goals and desires of our clients.

The next event for SOJANA is the Superyacht Cup in Palma in June. I will be onboard in my usual position trimming the mizzen.

Jim Schmicker
Vice President & Senior Naval Architect

Sailing the Bavaria Cruiser 55 in Palma Mallorca

This week I was fortunate to have the opportunity for a bit of sailing on the Bavaria Cruiser 55, our design 673. My day for the opportunity was Monday, the 26th of April. I arrived in Palma around 11am, and after finding my hotel set off to find the boat.


Conditions were absolutely beautiful… for power boating. Palma had its typical sunshine, but was presenting us with a pretty weak sea breeze for the day. I had been excited when the plane landed because we landed into the bay which meant the sea breeze was already established. Unfortunately there just wasn’t much to it for some reason.

The sailing day was set up as a bit of a lead in to the Bavaria board meetings. On the boat for the sail we had quite a crowd onboard with the whole Bavaria board, as well as executives from Bavaria, and local support from Bavaria Spain.

Once outside the harbor area we unfurled the mainsail and jib. Windspeed was maybe 6 knots although the left side of the bay looked like it might hold a little more pressure. The guys went to work to trim up the sails and I settled in on the helm to see how the boat felt. We extended on a long port tack so I was able to get a pretty good feel for the boat. In general the boat is very easy to drive. The helm is well balanced and the boat tracks very easily. While the conditions were quite calm and the sea flat I came area impressed with the boat and feel pretty confident that it would be very rewarding for an owner. Our concern is always to provide enough helm feedback for an owner in light conditions and I think the boat delivers very well in that regard.

We had slowly gained on a bigger schooner that had left the harbor ahead of us. When we finally passed them windward they felt the need to go for all their remaining sail. The extra sail area definitely worked for them and they closed up under us to leeward. We tacked away to be polite and headed off to the right side of the bay. Andrew Burt took the helm so that I could have a look around the boat. The boat is very easy to get around on and provides good access to everything a cruising sailor would need. The standard cruising sails fit the boat well. Mainsail shaping isn’t that easy with the furling mainsail although I’m sure that the convenience factor will make the decision for most buyers. Unfortunately the breeze continued to lighten as we got to the right, and after an hour on each tack we decided to tack and bear away for home.

The wind speed was now probably down to 4 knots and while the boat was still making respectable speeds broad reaching we went for the motor early to provide a bit of apparent wind over the deck. Under motor the boat can make some pretty impressive speeds and will definitely get into harbor quickly. Good motoring speed is always a good thing when cocktails are on the horizon.

The key to docking a twin rudder of boat is to avoid very low speed maneuvers. Entering the marina we stayed fairly quick and made good use of the optional bow thruster to get back into the slip without any drama.

I came away impressed from the sail. The boat felt genuinely good in very light air. After my sail on the Bavaria Cruiser 45 in Holland (extremely windy conditions) I’ve definitely seen both ends of the spectrum on these twin rudder cruising boats. This appendage solution should give plenty of confidence to any skipper. Good feel in light winds, and incredible control in challenging high wind and heeled conditions. The sensible interior layouts, modern styling, and attractive prices from Bavaria make these pretty special boats. I look forward to a well rounded sail in some moderate breeze. Hopefully the buying public will see these new Bavaria Cruisers for the goodness they are and bring one a bit closer to home for me.

Patrick Shaughnessy

Benefits of Frequent Site Visits

When I reflect on my recently completed site visit to the Bavaria factory in Giebelstadt, Germany, the most prominent thought that comes to mind is how constructive it is to have face to face communication with our clients and product development partners. While personally this was my first opportunity to visit the state of the art Bavaria boat building facility, in the 2 years since Farr Yacht Design began their successful collaboration with Bavaria, our engineers and designers have made no less than 40 separate trips to the factory, involving 275 man days. It is true that today’s modern communication tools (e-mail, web conferencing, Skype) help to make the world a much smaller place, however one can’t underestimate the value of personal interaction. Issues that would take days to solve via e-mail and phone call exchanges can be solved in a matter of minutes when the right people are collaborating directly and personally with each other.

The frequent site visits we make are also extremely valuable for ensuring that our design and engineering intent is being faithfully reproduced by the boat builders on the factory floor. This is particularly important in areas of the assembly line that are critical to the safe operation of the yacht, such as the hull and deck lamination, bonding of internal grids and bulkheads as well as the attachment of the keels and rudders. By having regular designer presence on the factory floor, we are able to rapidly identify areas for improvement and we can intervene if something is not being done ‘to spec’. This improves quality control, results in a more integrated end-product and hopefully translates into 1000’s of satisfied boat owners around the world.

- Alon Finkelstein

KWRW 2010

Key West Race Week always holds the promise of sunny skies, good breeze and warm temperatures. As with many things, reality does not always live up to expectations. But, this year Key West did not disappoint. On the docket this year were pleasant conditions and multiple races each day of the week.

I made the journey south to do mast onboard the Melges 32, Ninkasi. This was one of my first opportunities to do mast and opened my eyes to a few deck layout and rigging issues that wouldn't be obvious when staring at a drawing on paper. It's amazing how lines never get knotted or tangled on paper, but how easily it happens in reality if blocks aren't spaced or angled correctly.

Although participant numbers are down from their peak a few years ago, the competition level has not faltered. This point was illustrated by both the Melges 32 class, where each of the top 5 finishers had at least one finish in the mid to high teens, and the Farr 40 class, where the boats seem to round every mark bow to stern with one another.

Key West also offers more than just great racing. The ability to step off the boat, go for a short ride to any one of a number of meeting places, and sit down with owners, boat captains, and project managers to discuss current issues and future plans within the industry is vital to a yacht designer. Sometimes these meetings turn out to be more valuable or more interesting than the days racing.

Not only is Key West a good place to catch up with familiar faces and meet new ones, it also presents great opportunities to walk the docks while admiring and scrutinizing all the different aspects of the fleets. The IRC-1 boats really caught my interest this year. Although the larger boats in IRC 1 are truly impressive, the four IRC52s grabbed my attention. The subtle modifications made by each of the three TP52s are quite interesting. Each had added a sprit, but retained slight differences in terms of deck and stern treatments. All in all, not too different from many of the modifications we make for our optimizations. Add in the Southern Cross 52 and you have a nice fleet within a fleet.

Whether you traveled to Key West this year for the racing, weather, or networking it was hard to come back disappointed.

Emerson Smith

Launching speech for Bavaria's new Cruiser 45

My name is Patrick Shaughnessy, and I am the President of Farr Yacht Design, and today I represent the combined design group that has produced the new Bavaria Cruiser 45.

After the completion of Bavaria’s flagship, the Cruiser 55, we were tasked as a team with producing a boat at the opposite end of the line which resulted in the Cruiser 32. With the two ends of the Cruiser line established we went about creating a third cornerstone design in the middle of the Cruiser line. The result of that work is the Cruiser 45. And with that design work we now have; a true flagship, an entry level yacht, and an anchor in the middle of the line to clearly show the world the Cruiser line’s complete intent.

The middle of any line represents a unique challenge. It needs to have the grace of a larger yacht, and the accessibility of a smaller yacht. The boat is a platform that needs to be capable of being a charter boat workhorse, and also a stepping stone toward a real luxury owners yacht.
In our other Cruiser line work we’ve clearly established a new way to link the exterior living space with the water. The enormous swimming platforms that we’ve created elsewhere in the line obviously needed to be a focal point for this middle of the line boat. That said we still faced a question of whether this boat should be a twin rudder or single rudder boat. In the end we chose the twin rudder approach. This choice allowed us to create large central storage area beneath the cockpit and to give this boat the benefit of real controllability at high angles of heel. Both of these are features that an experienced owner stepping up through a line of boats will realy appreciate in his or her next yacht.
We followed quite a bit of the design logic we’ve established with our two bookends. We created a hull shape with a long waterline and a great interior volume. We used our deck space wisely so that we can seat our whole crew for dinner on deck just like we can below deck. We created a cockpit space that is closed and secure to protect a young family, but can fully open so that we can truly enjoy the places we spend the time to sail to. We’ve worked hard to produce a boat that can be kind and forgiving for a novice and rewarding in the hands of an experienced sailor. This is a boat with 2 keel draft options at 1.72m and 2.1m, both with produce ballast ratios exceeding 28%. Both keel versions follow our logic that a true cruising boat should sail at heel angles of less than 20 degrees below 15kts true wind speed and avoid reefing until over 20 knots TWS. Even with those conservative choices a SA/Disp ratio of 4.56 ensures that the boat will have a very competitive performance in its class.

The new Bavaria Cruiser 45 is a boat which can be a great 4 cabin charter boat or a very rewarding 3 cabin owners boat. It clearly demonstrates how the middle of the Cruiser line will answer for styling and aesthetics. It does all of those things with a level of performance, engineering, and safety that has been the signature of every Farr Yacht Design product. Its not always easy to be in the middle of a family. The oldest gets the praise, while the youngest gets the attention. The middle child has to go out every day and do the hard work in order to get recognized. The new Bavaria Cruiser 45 is a boat designed to do that hard work, and to do it very well.

Patrick Shaughnessy

METS

Following a week-long trip to the Bavaria factory in Germany, I hopped on a plane for Amsterdam, bound for the Marine Equipments Trade Show (or METS, as it’s commonly referred).

I arrived in the afternoon, and spent the first evening having a look around the downtown area. This was my first time in Amsterdam, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect from the city. A couple of things became apparent; the majority of the locals use bikes as their primary mode of transportation, and there are canals which parallel almost every street. One wrong step and you’re either run over by a bicycle or swimming in the canal.

The METS is a 3-day long event which showcases over 1200 of the world’s marine industry suppliers – ranging from keel manufacturers to mast manufacturers, and everything in between. The trade show occupies eleven large halls in the RAI convention center, and the suppliers are arranged by country, rather than by product. This unique nationality arrangement makes advanced planning a necessity in order to avoid spending your day doubling back on your path as you work through the list of suppliers.

My schedule had me attending only the first two days of the show, although in hindsight I probably should have stayed for the full three days. About two weeks before the show, FYD sent an email out to our entire distribution list, letting people know I would be attending METS and would be available for meetings during my visit. Response to the mailer was surprisingly big and within days I had plenty of people contacting me to organize meetings. By the time the show started, I had meetings scheduled with suppliers, existing clients, potential clients, and old friends. In fact, my schedule became so full that I had very little time to see other suppliers I wasn’t already set up to meet with. The show was a great atmosphere for serious working meetings. Next year, I’ll have to go all three days and plan my route a bit better to make the most of this great show.

Chris Cochran

Bavaria – Project kick-off meeting

I’ve just returned from another trip to Germany. This was my fourth trip to Bavaria this year and sixth in two years! This time I traveled with Patrick Shaughnessy and Chris Cochran to attend a kick-off meeting for yet another project for Bavaria yacht builders in Giebelstadt. This will be our fourth project with them after completing the flagship 55, then the 32 and a 45. The 45 will have its first show in Dusseldorf this coming January. Chris stayed on a few days to help with the final touches on the 45.

Those previous three projects are the “cornerstone” projects which have defined the styling and features for the entire line-up. Now we begin work on our first “derivative” of those three. For our kick-off meeting we assembled some preliminary design ideas and benchmark information of comparable designs from Bavaria’s competitors. The meeting was attended by Bavaria’s Sales, Marketing, in-house design team, as well as Tom Allemeier and Tommy Forsgren from BMW’s Design Works USA. Bavaria’s Klaus Hammen led the discussion which narrowed down the product specifications based on everyone’s input. By the end of an all day meeting we had a well defined direction for the product as well as a schedule by which all teams will work together. This of course was followed by the obligatory group dinner at a traditional Bavarian restaurant featuring my favorite Schweinebraten and Weissbier. Thanks Klaus!

When launched in the early to middle part of next year we will have completed four boats in two years for Bavaria. Considering our level of detail work has been greater for this client than most others, this has constituted a colossal effort from our team. But the exciting thing is that we have had the opportunity to see not just one boat take shape from our designs but soon it will be an entire fleet of related designs - that is quite satisfying.


With each of these projects the coordination becomes smoother and work becomes even more enjoyable. By now we all understand each other’s roles and the cooperation gets better all the time. Since I’ll be the project management lead on this new project I’m hoping it goes at least as well as the last one which Chris led!

Keith Carew