New path to old values
It seems as if they are stretching their decks at the berth. Endlessly long teak, flush and only rarely interrupted by hatches. The freeboard is shallow, the step discreet, the design unfussy and simple. If William Fife had not designed "Moonbeam 4" in 1920, but almost 90 years later - she could have looked like "Aegir", the first Carbon Ocean 82. Now they are moored side by side in the harbour of Palma, the cruiser-racer from the Golden 20s and the performance cruiser of the carbon age. One from the sailing Mecca of the Old World, designed and built on the Firth of Clyde, the other built in Newport, Rhode Island, the long-time home turf of the America's Cup.
But while the large gaff cutter is still having its paintwork lovingly touched up by its bosun, the crew next door are already getting the boat ready to set sail. "The sun is shining, we'll get some thermals," says the skipper, while the Windex is still bobbing around unmotivated at a height of just under 40 metres.
40 tonnes over 25 metres
It won't need much wind - the pure carbon fibre construction, laminated in a vacuum and a negative mould made of prepregs, weighs just under 40 tonnes, a third of which is in the 4.5 metre deep lead bomb. Together with the fact that the design, nominated for Yacht of the Year 2011 by the International Superyacht Society (ISS), is fuelled by 380 square metres of canvas upwind and up to 845 downwind, it is hard to believe that the shipyard sees the lion's share of its usage time as cruising.
It's hard to believe because the yacht literally encourages you to sail actively. Arriving in the still gentle breeze in the bay of Palma, the sails are set. A flush-mounted Reckmann furler takes over the work on the foredeck, while a concealed three-speed Lewmar winch lifts the mainsail from the Park Avenue boom into the rig in less than a minute. The Simon Rogers design, which has been optimised in tank tests and CFD analyses, immediately comes to life and heads out into the Mediterranean at a solid eight knots. The feedback from the rudder and the response to gusts is more akin to a much shorter yacht in terms of liveliness. It's great to be able to sit relaxed on the side deck with the wheel in your hand, with the wind lines of the headsail in view and the trim elements within easy reach. It's a pity to waste every moment here letting others sail.
