Southern Wind 108: Family fulfils a dream with 36-metre carbon construction

Building a 36 metre sailing yacht is an unparalleled feat of strength. Although there is far less "real estate" to design compared to motorised formats, individual decisions beyond the interior affect the rig, keel and co. With the building site at Southern Wind Shipyard (SWS) in Cape Town, the clients - a German-born family living in London - opted for a highly experienced shipyard that maintains an outpost in Italy. What better way to celebrate the completion than by taking part in a regatta together in the Caribbean? And then with a victory for the St Barth's Bucket 2024! So the owners invited the team on board, who had got to know each other very well during the construction phase.

The "Friends & Family" regatta on "Gelliceaux" was sailed by project manager Sebastian Allebrodt, designer Jim Schmicker from Farr, designer Massimo Gino from Nauta, charter broker Youri Loof from Bernard Gallay and Andrea Micheli and Jeremy Peeks from SWS. In addition, Captain Clive Walker brought in some acquaintances with regatta experience. The pair of owners took turns at the helm and steered more than 95 per cent of the races. "We had been able to gain experience with the handling during the Atlantic crossing; the first regatta then caused considerable stage fright despite low expectations in advance." Sebastian Allebrodt was also delighted: "I am very happy that I finally managed to win the Bucket after many years, especially with a new boat 'out of the box'. We seem to have found the perfect combination, and a bit of luck was also involved." The champagne bucket called the Bucket is won by whoever triumphs in the class deemed most competitive by the organisers.

Smart Custom: complete refinement

The "Gelliceaux" owners, for whom it was their first yacht of their own, came to Southern Wind after careful consideration. They knew what they wanted: a sporty cruiser-racer with hybrid propulsion that allows comfortable blue water cruising and has a smart, modern interior design. In her youth, she was an enthusiastic dinghy and keelboat sailor with her own Laser. He learnt opti-sailing as a ten-year-old, but switched to windsurfing and later kitesurfing. He says of the discovery process: "We had been chartering sailing yachts in the Mediterranean every summer since 2013 and the children developed a passion for sailing. This gave rise to the idea of buying our own yacht. A comprehensive study of existing boats showed that only a few fully met our expectations. And we realised that the operating costs would be at least as high as the loss of value in the long term; we wanted to do something that we liked 100 percent."

The family spoke to several designers and shipyards and liked the rough draft of the SW108. The smart custom concept appealed: the hull shell serves as the basis and is fitted with a new deck, rig, different keel or laminate structure; the basis is always carbon fibres and a sophisticated vacuum infusion process as well as an individual interior design. "We were convinced by the almost complete freedom in the design, but at the same time the use of tried and tested concepts where innovations do not bring any added value," says the committed owner. "Our research has shown that not all full-custom projects achieve their original goals; this is often due to a lack of integration of individual aspects/trades and the weighing up of conflicting objectives."

The most important adjustments made by the owners

So they worked intensively with Southern Wind and the designers and made extensive refinements. A whopping eight per cent more sail area was added to the tableau. "Sebastian Allebrodt and I were heavily involved in the specification of the rig. As an engineer, I was also very interested in bringing all subsystems up to the state of the art and further developing the controls and networking." The reason: the diesel-electric drive with controllable pitch propeller brought many advantages, but also added weight and additional resistance in hydrogenerator mode.

More sail power was not enough, the ballast also increased by around 15 per cent and the lifting keel extends from four to 6.20 metres. The hull, deck, bulkheads and standing rigging were made from carbon, the mast and boom from high-modulus carbon fibre and the deck fittings from titanium, bringing the displacement down to 78.9 tonnes. The rig was fitted with halyard blocks and is designed for a square-top main and deflectors on the backstays. Code, J2 and J3 are furled hydraulically, the J4 runs via a swivel. Even in eight knots of wind, "Gelliceaux" runs at twelve knots. With a little more pressure, the first SW108 can reach an impressive 20 knots and more on the mainsheet.

Southern Wind once again used the HybriGen system from the British conglomerate BAE as a basis. The fully hybrid drive, hydraulics, air conditioning and lighting are controlled by independent circuits to maximise reliability and keep the overall complexity under control. In contrast to the South African shipyard's electric premiere, the SW96 "Nyumba GT", the sub-areas are now networked. "This makes it possible to read out data and, in some cases, control it across subsystem boundaries. That was a big step for SWS," says the owner, pleased with his input. The big sister also received a drive motor with greater torque that no longer requires a gearbox.

During power harvesting under sail, the angle of attack of the blades changes automatically, but can also be adjusted manually using the joystick. In practice, the hydrogenerator from "Gelliceaux" is particularly useful on long trips at speeds of ten to twelve knots. It then produces over ten kilowatts, which is more than enough for the on-board systems and the galley located in the crew area. At 14 knots, 20 kilowatts flow into the batteries and only around 0.5 knots of boat speed are lost.

The exchange was intensive, the family came to Cape Town twice during the construction process and travelled to Nauta Design in Milan several times to discuss the photos of houses and yachts they had brought with them. What was required was a bright, modern interior with a Scandinavian touch that was elegant but exuded a summery holiday atmosphere.

Private "Gelliceaux" used for parts of the school holidays in the Mediterranean, long weekends and two to three regattas a year. Approximately every second year, the yacht is to go to the Caribbean in winter - in keeping with the yacht's name. The yacht was inspired by a stretch of beach in Mustique, which the family used to visit over Easter for many years. As they often swam with wild turtles in the harbour there, a stylised turtle became the yacht's logo. They can now be reached by jumping from the large bathing platform. The idea for the two-part folding mechanism came from the owner: "We had spotted the concept and the technical realisation of the transom on another yacht and introduced it to Southern Wind."

Technical data "Gelliceaux" Southern Winds SW108

• Overall length: 35.51 m
• Length (without bowsprit): 32,87 m
• Length (waterline): 29.78 m
• Width: 7.51 m
• Draught: 4-6.20 m
• Displacement: 78.57 tonnes
• Material: Carbon sandwich
• Hybrid system: BAE Systems
• Generators: 2 x 112 kW
• Sails: Doyle Sails
• Rig: Hall Spars
• Mast length: 52 m
• Navigation: B&G
• Construction: Farr Yacht Design
• Exterior design: Nauta Design
• Interior design: Nauta Design
• Class: CE "A"
• Shipyard: Southern Wind Shipyard