fenderkicker

Another day at the office, onboard Friday Star

Antoine Larricq from Fraser Yachts invited a bunch of us onboard his sales central, FRIDAY STAR yesterday afternoon for a seatrial / funsail.  She was built at CMN in 1993, and refitted completely in 2005.  With three equal masts and over 400m2 of sailarea, she was built for speed.

It was a great afternoon despite the light winds.  I can imagine the yacht being very quick when fully powered up.

Anyway, turnout was not bad, but certainly it would have been nice to see more brokers show up.  The captain and the crew did a fantastic job in preparing the yacht for our visit (THANKS) , which takes some time.  Even more so in the winter months when yachts generally are shut down for regular maintenance.

The interior design of the yacht was by the owner, which is brilliant.  Modern, artistic, all the makings of a loft appartment on Fifth Ave.

This is the Master Cabin which gives an idea.

More can be found here.

Maltese Falcon Visit

So we finally got to go around the Maltese Falcon a while back.  She is an incredible yacht to say the least.

We were lucky enough to have the owner give the tour which was best as his knowledge and passion of the yacht made it appropriate.

Let me say that she is very big, and despite the superstructure is not nearly as long as the boat, the volumes inside are fantastic.  Probably a little too much open space for a sailing boat (no rails to hang onto when healing over at 20 degrees), but the charter guests will certainly not ask her to perform as much as the owner.

Photo courtesy of symaltesefalcon.com

A very masculine interior with dark colours, high tech materials, and plenty of leather (including a shoe leather floor in the dining area).  Tom mentioned a couple of times a new material called Perkinite, a metallic honeycomb type stuff used between two layers creating a light and strong piece ideal for a table top.

The highlight of course was the bridge with a Star Trek type console for controlling the sails (and other mechanical equipment).  A number of screens, some touch screens, allow the captain (or owner in this case) to determine which sails he wants set, at whatever angle he decides is the optimum for performance.  There are safety buttons of course, and the sails or rig do not move unless the "start" button is pressed.

Once that happens, the sails can all be set in under six minutes.  (On Mariette, it would take us at least thirty to manually set the entire set, so many of the crew will be happy.)  Tacking the yacht can be done in under two minutes, which for a yacht of 88 meters is awesome!

Each mast has a series of sensors at varying points allowing the navigator to monitor the stress points, giving them more time to decide when to reduce the amount of sail area.  A much needed system as the three free standing 50m+ masts certainly require a constant eye.

Overall I was very impressed at the yacht, and very happy for the Owner received such an amazing yacht.  Also happy for Chris Gartner, the Captain, as he is finally able to set sail on a project he has been overseeing for many years.

So many sails, so NOT confusing

We asked a few weeks ago if anyone knew the sail plan for the Maltese Falcon.  To break the suspense, here's the list.

1.  Mizzen Course Sail
2.  Mizzen Lower Topsail
3.  Mizzen Upper Topsail
4.  Mizzen Topgallant
5.  Mizzen Royal
6.  Main Course
7.  Main Lower Topsail
8.  Main Upper Topsail
9.  Main Topgallant
10.  Main Royal
11.  Fore Course
12.  Fore Lower Topsail
13.  Fore Upper Topsail
14.  Fore Topgallant
15.  Fore Royal

For anyone in our area, the captain Chris Gartner said today they are expected at the International Yacht Club of Antibes on July 6/7.

As if anyone would miss her!

Rockin' and rollin'

We are in full swing as of late.  Although it is no excuse for not posting, it very well could be one of the reasons:

The enquiries for charter are rolling in fast and furious.

I'm busy selling a Sunseeker 84' Manhattan called Sibelle.

We received another photo of the Clipper Ship THE MALTESE FALCON.

[Courtesy of Bruce Brackenhoff at Perini Navi USA]

As well, to add to the fire, Colin Watson from Bogbrush asked if I would accept to sit in his Chair for a while and be pounded with some questions about me, the blog, and yachting in general.  Of course I jumped in with both feet!  You can read the interview here...
Thanks again Colin, nice to see nothing was changed... :-)

So many sails, so confusing

Here is a good game, name the sails of the Maltese Falcon:

Luckily I am reading a Patrick O'Brian novel at the moment, he is constantly referring to the sail plan of these square rigged vessels.  Otherwise I would have failed...drastically!

Here are a couple of great photos of some sail testing for the yacht, once again sent by the Captain, Chris.  Notice the size of the guy up the rig!

 
[Testing the ??? sail]

The Merging of Old and New - The Maltese Falcon

Well, here it is with all the masts stepped, The Falcon unveiled!  Thanks again to the Captain, Chris for sending photos of this incredible Clipper Ship.

So, now they will have a series of sea-trials, making sure all systems work properly, and she performs according to the build specification.

The Falcon is due to be in France the beginning of July sometime.  Somehow I do not think anyone will miss her.

The Maltese Falcon (again)

Captain Chris Gartner again sent some photos of the Clipper Ship Maltese Falcon... this time with at least one mast stepped.

Oh yeah, this is a continuing update.  Part 1, Part 2

 

That is a long way down!!!

   

Canting Keels and Daggerboards

The keel on a "normal" sailing yacht consists of a large steel aerofoil hanging vertically below the boat, tipped with a large torpedo shaped lump of lead. This keel serves two purposes - first the fin provides horizontal "lift" which discourages the boat from being blown sideways by the wind, and second the large lump of lead ballast provides a righting moment that discourages the boat from heeling over. The keel designer thus has to design it to do two different jobs - and as is always the case when something is designed to do two jobs, it does neither well. When the boat is upright, the lead ballast provides no righting moment and is just dead weight, slowing down the boat. And as the boat heels over, the fin also inclines, so reducing its efficiency at reducing sideslip.


The evident solution is to design two separate appendages to do the two different jobs of a traditional fin keel - the canting keel and the daggerboard. The lump of lead ballast is attached to the end of a slim foil, which can be "canted" towards the windward side of the yacht - thus even if the yacht is fairly upright, the ballast provides a strong righting moment, allowing the yacht to carry more sail. The leeward daggerboard - a lightweight carbon fibre hydrofoil - is then lowered through its slot to prevent sideslip. The slot is angled so that when the boat is heeled over, the daggerboard is vertical, so maximising its effect. The windward daggerboard is raised completely out of the water in order to nullify its drag. The further benefit of this separation is that the overall weight of the ballast can be lower than on a fixed fin yacht, as it is more efficiently used. Thus we have a lighter boat that can carry more sail - and that makes for a big increase in speed.

So far canting keels have mostly found favour on exotic racing machines such as the Volvo 70s. But they are now starting to find their way into more cruising orientated yachts, such as Rusalka, a Baltic 78 which BCR Yachts has just welcomed as our latest charter central agency.

The Maltese Falcon (update)

To follow on from my previous post, the captain of the Maltese Falcon, Chris Gartner (from Colorado) sent around a few photos of the new yacht coming out of the shed.

[click for larger image...just]

[Starboard Side]

[transom]

[bow]

Still far from being a finished yacht, the rigs need to be stepped, then the endless seatrials...  I am certain there will be more updates to come.  Like here!

The new falcon

"Maltese Falcon"

Occasionally someone comes up with a design for a yacht which pushes the yachting envelope.

I used to work for Tom Perkins on the Herreshoff Schooner named Mariette of 1915.  Tom is a Venture Capitalist in San Francisco, and for the last two or so years, has been concentrating on his latest sailing project, “Maltese Falcon” designed by Ken Freivokh and Gerry Dijkstra.

Based on a 35 year old German rig design called a Dynarig, wind tunnel and computer tests show the yacht will be capable of reaching 15 – 18 knots upwind, with an apparent wind angle of 25 – 28 degrees!  That’s about the norm for a modern sloop, but a square-rigged – 3 masted clipper ship?

So nice to see someone is thinking outside of the box.