As owners seek to sail more self-sufficiently, beat the depreciation associated with many production boats and explore off the beaten track, a yacht that\u2019s very well built has become key for some buyersThose planning to sail to inhospitable places tend to have a strong vision of what is needed from the craft that will take them there. In the case of Jean-Fran\u00e7ois Delvoye, designer of the Boreal series of yachts, the vision is one of a resilient all-rounder.
\n\u201cI wanted to build a solid but performing boat, a voluminous all-rounder, comfortable at sea and at anchor. A fast boat, simple to use and maintain, which makes you feel at ease in Cowes harbour, the Polynesian lagoons, or even in the Screaming Fifties,\u201d he explained.
\nBoreal designs, built from aluminium in varying thicknesses, incorporate three watertight bulkheads, an icebreaker stem and a lifting keel. Both the prop and rudder are heavily protected, and the aluminium is unlikely to rupture if hit, providing a degree of protection in the event of being hit by a whale or container.
\nLike most explorer yachts, the Boreal series is a product of utility, born to meet the demands of those more than happy to look beyond what can be offered at a much lower cost. However, they are just one interpretation of what makes a \u2018bulletproof\u2019 yacht.
\nThe S&S-designed Alpa 42 ketch is built of thick laminate GRP with an encapsulated lead keel.
\nSurveyor\u2019s choice
\nNot all tough boats are built in metal. Whatever the hull material, a tough boat is likely to be built from a lot more of it. For those open to a GRP hull, construction varies enormously in quality and strength.
\nBen Sutcliffe-Davies is a yacht surveyor of over 20 years\u2019 experience and a trained boatbuilder. He looked for longevity and strength when buying his own yacht, as well as a boat that would be easy to maintain and with little to go wrong.
\n\u201cWhen it came to my own boat, I was looking for something that had many construction attributes hard to find in a modern yacht, that also sailed well. A Sparkman & Stephens design, the Alpa Nautica 42 is a ketch. The hull is of very thick solid laminate, she has a long, fully encapsulated keel, and a skeg hung rudder.
\nStrong hull of the Boreal 47.2 can take the ground \u2013 note propeller protected by skeg
\nThe keel ballast is lead, not iron, which will expand [if it rusts] and cause problems.
\n\u201cInternally, the frames are physically bonded into the hull. She is over 43 years old and still structurally good. While it\u2019s perhaps not a fashionable boat, she sails well and, I think, is essentially bombproof. The weight of the hull is offset by her Sparkman & Stephens lines, sacrificing volume for seakeeping and speed.\u201d
\nBucking modern yacht design trends can be challenging for manufacturers. More voluminous hull shapes that can sacrifice heavy weather performance, unprotected twin rudders and sail drives, thinner GRP layup, deck stepped masts\u2026 there\u2019s a long list of less-than-bulletproof design decisions that have proven popular with the wider market.
\nThe Kraken Yachts \u2018Zero Keel\u2019 isn\u2019t held on by bolts \u2013 it\u2019s integral to the hull layup
\nBuilding a \u2018bulletproof\u2019 yacht
\nFor Dick Beaumont, not being able to find a tough boat led to him making his own, then starting a company building them.
\n\u201cI actually flew to the D\u00fcsseldorf boat show to help someone else find the right yacht for them and concluded there was nothing on the market that I would choose to go offshore in.
\n\u201cI had owned my Tayana 58, built in Taiwan, and knew I could find the expertise there to build something to my design. I then engaged Kevin Dibley, a New Zealand-based naval architect to work with me. This led to the formation of Kraken Yachts. We are now building from 44 to 66 feet.\u201d
\nYouTubers Sailing SV Delos have ordered a tough, custom-built explorer catamaran
\nThe customer base for Kraken has proven to be quite specific. \u201cWe don\u2019t advertise and we\u2019re unapologetic about what we think really matters, so people tend to find their way to us. As it turns out, well over half of our customers are engineers of one sort or another in their professional lives. That\u2019s not so surprising. When they come to the yard, we first go through every aspect of the boat\u2019s engineering, encouraging visitors to see what won\u2019t be visible when the boat is fully built.
\n\u201cShowing them a cutout from the hull where we\u2019ve installed a seacock speaks volumes; a minimum of 15cm and 17 layers. At more critical points, such as the bow, even thicker.\u201d
\nRight from the outset Kraken chose to veer away from convention with what they call the \u2018Zero Keel\u2019, a fully encapsulated keel with no bolts that\u2019s an integral part of the layup of the yacht. \u201cAs for the hull, well, in places it literally is bulletproof. We\u2019ve built Aramid fibre into all of the impact areas.\u201d
\nThe Sailing SV Delos custom-built explorer catamaran in build
\nTough multihulls?
\nBrian Trautman has spent 15 years cruising a yacht long considered to be an archetypal tough cruising boat, a 53ft Amel Super Maramu ketch, as documented on his eponymous YouTube channel Sailing SV Delos. But with a growing family and ambitions to cruise further afield, he and his wife Karin decided to not only make the move to a multihull but to build their own custom, tough catamaran.
\nThere\u2019s a growing number of \u2018explorer cats\u2019 being launched, many \u2013 like the new Delos \u2013 built in aluminium. Delos 2.0 also incorporates features more commonly associated with monohull explorer yacht designs, such as protected skeg hung rudders, watertight bulkheads and mini keels that allow her to be safely beached.
\nNaval architect David de Villiers had already designed a ketch rigged catamaran with the same explorer-style features when he was approached to design for the Trautmans. \u201cThe origins of Delos 2.0 are in an aluminium catamaran, unusually rigged as a ketch, which I designed in 2009. It\u2019s certainly not a racing catamaran, but is instead built to Lloyds Register workboat standards, so it\u2019s a tough boat that will stand up to a lot.
\n\u201cDelos has taken their boat a stage further, adding a huge solar array on an extended solid roof and an unusual propulsion system,\u201d explains de Villiers. The new cat will feature a Parallel Electric Hybrid drive, so there will be a diesel engine in one hull driving a 25kW electric motor in one hull, while the other hull will only have a matching electric motor, meaning that, with the addition of a mechanical clutch, the yacht can run as either all electric, hybrid, or conventional diesel; increasing its redundancy in remote locations.<\/p>\n
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The post Buying a \u2018Bulletproof\u2019 Yacht: New and Used Adventure Boat Advice appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As owners seek to sail more self-sufficiently, beat the depreciation associated with many production boats and explore off the beaten track, a yacht that\u2019s very well built has become key for some buyersThose planning to sail to inhospitable places tend … <\/p>\n