Opc11 and I posted already about this boat. Look at this magnificent Video. If Acciona finishes the race it will be a victory and they will have proven their point: It is possible to circumnavigate using only renewable sources.
I really love these machines. They should piss any sailor in a "normal" boat Look at the difference in speed. I still remember when the first guy was doing this. Everybody was saying the guy was crazy and that it was a circus act. Well, not anymore
An interview with Kresimir, the director of Salona Yachts, by European boat builder magazine.
Well. I already knew that, but it explains why a high tech high quality brand with a very specialized construction like Sydney Yacht looked to Salona to build its boats in Europe.
Regarding what we says about having recovered to the same production numbers as 2007 (before the crisis), to understand the importance of that, well, Benetau is making half the number of boats and is not one of the brands that is doing badly.
Regarding Ballast they don’t give the number but that is not by the same reason Benetau does not include that information on the Oceanis line. I am pretty sure that this boat has a B/D ratio at least equal to the XP and probably superior. It has to have to carry all that sail area with a smaller beam.
Sail Area upwind XP- 87.5m2……Sydney- 80.6m2 (the XP with a 106%genoa the S with a iRC Jib)
Downwind Area Xp-178m2…….Sydney – 195m2
So, do you get it? This boat is going to smoke a XP 38 and it will be among the fastest boats around for its size being faster than almost all 40ft performance cruisers.
These boats have to have a hi-tech construction and normally are much more expensive even than a Xyacht. Not anymore, now, made by Salona they announce a great price:
219 000 euros with and aluminum mast and 249 000 euros with a Carbon mast. Well, that is a lot of money for a 37ft but that will be a lot less than what costs a boat with approximated performances like the Santa Cruz 37.
KER says about this design:
The Sydney GTS37 design is the fi rst of the new GTS range which we have been contracted to provide designs for Darren Williams,the MD of Sydney Yachts and a keen yachtsman himself felt that the market wanted more performance rather than just another heavyweight windward-leeward specialist, so having sailed on the Ker 53 Cruiser-Racer and experienced the genuinely high performance cruiser-racer concept Sydney Yachts asked Ker Design to put the latest ideas and technology into the new GTS range.
We first explored the low-road in weight, putting on a fin without bulb in order to reduce the required sail area and keep the rating down, but aside from being competitive we couldn’t really get excited about the concept and couldn't see why the end customers would either. We were stuck in a middle ground with a modern hull shape and form stability in spades but still too heavy to really take advantage of the advanced shape.
So, not satisfied, we threw away what we’d done and went back around the design loop, much lighter with the overall displacement,bulb keel, taller rig.
When we computed the drag with the CFD codes(we mainly used Dave Egan’s Flowlogic code, for which Ker Design recently acquired a 64 processor cluster to allow us to create a full drag matrix) and crunched the numbers in the VPP, we found that not only had we made a significant gain in speed, but the handicap competitiveness was also improved, which was later confirmed by the trial certificate.
Worrying that our in-house CFD results were too good to be true we asked Charles Crosby of Cape Computational Fluid Dynamics to compute some important drag points using different CFD software, but with the differences coming in within 0.5% of relative drag, (which typically equates to only one or two IRC “points” of performance), and in the safe direction, this just added confidence that we were on the right track. The result is the Sydney GTS37 which is able to match the faster 40’cruiser-racers around the track in all conditions, plane away from them as the wind increases and give a very good chance of winning on handicap.
An important side-benefit of this development is that whereas the narrow canoe hull forms of the contemporary IRC cruiser-racers are disliked by the ORCi rule, the more voluminous hull form type we have used in our Sydney GTS37 is well favored, as well as providing more living space below.
Aside from the general performance characteristics, other features we incorporated into the Sydney GTS37 are the ergonomic cockpit layout, twin wheels, carbon rudder stock, stainless steel keel and mast support structure for stiffness and reliability.
The Sydney Yacht brief was to provide a boat for those who have a wish to do a bit of cruising, yet sail fast and competitively, but it also works well as an option for those that want to race the fastest 40’cruiser-racers on-the-water, as well on the handicap board.
Well, Ker knows what he is talking about since its racers are winning practically everything that is to be won:
So do you get my drift on why I was happy for this boat being produced in Europe at a competitive price?
Besides the boat is beautiful:
In an interview Ker referred to the 37 and 43GTS in a slightly different way, but also an interesting one:
After a number of spins of the design loop, we have finally settled on the high-performance road for the new Sydney GTS37 & GTS43. Reducing the overall weight, maximizing the waterline length and ballast ratio. Not only does this fit well with our general design philosophy, but it also came out of our studies as being the most competitive route, something that bodes well for IRC. The hull shape is also very competitive under ORC.
The origins of the shape can be traced back to research on AC90's (2007-2008), which is perhaps the first time the full weight of AC R&D resources was applied to an unconstrained hull form, leading to some considerable advances over a six month period. Adapting and applying the lessons we learned then and since to the problem of a fair-form IRC racer, we ended up with a powerful but low drag hull form that picks up additional stability when it heels. The transom width is moderate on the sailing waterline but on deck the max beam carries aft to allow the crew to sit further outboard and also give the helmsman very good visibility of telltales and waves.
A strong characteristic of our designs has been that they are all-rounder’s, able to pick up top results whatever the conditions.
The Sydney GTS37 & GTS43 will be no exception, with a generous sail plan ensuring light air performance, good stability for reaching and upwind, while low drag is always helpful! Most of her competitors are relatively heavier.
We found through our CFD analyses that with our powerful hull form we were able to reduce displacement while still remaining competitive in windward-leeward racing but gain a lot of performance downwind as the wind increased and in light air. Of course a great side benefit of reduced displacement is that the boat will be more responsive and fun to sail, the GTS37 being over 10% faster downwind in a breeze than a 40’ racer-cruiser from one of our competitors and the GTS43 even faster!
Regarding what we says about having recovered to the same production numbers as 2007 (before the crisis), to understand the importance of that, well, Benetau is making half the number of boats and is not one of the brands that is doing badly.
btw "Within Germany, it has already been resolved to close down the production facilities for Dehler yachts in Meschede-Freienohl by the end of 2012 and to transfer production to the venues in Greifswald and Goleniow, Poland. Outside of Germany, the subsidiaries in France and Norway are also about to be closed down. Thanks to these measures, substantial cuts in costs are expected in future."
btw "Within Germany, it has already been resolved to close down the production facilities for Dehler yachts in Meschede-Freienohl by the end of 2012 and to transfer production to the venues in Greifswald and Goleniow, Poland. Outside of Germany, the subsidiaries in France and Norway are also about to be closed down. Thanks to these measures, substantial cuts in costs are expected in future."
Hi G!,
You are given me work to see what you want to say
The market climate for sailing yachts has continued to become murky in fiscal year 2011/12. The world market for sailing yachts with lengths between 10 and 20 metres has shrunk for the seventh year in a row. The main reason for this lies in the national debt crisis in Southern Europe. An internal HanseGroup market study has quantified new orders for the worldwide market for sailing yachts in 2011/12 at a minus of 8.8 % in comparison to last year.
In this connection, we are very proud to have slightly increased our turnover.
HanseGroup - Geschaeftsbericht 2011-2012
Yes Hanse is doing good but even so the results are way below from the ones of 2007 and I mean by an order of magnitude. Even with reasonable results, as you pointed out, they have to close factories.
__________________ ".. there is much you could do at sea with common sense.. and very little you could do without it.."
Capt G E Ericson (from "The Cruel Sea" by Nicholas Monsarrat)
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Look at the difference in speed. I still remember when the first guy was doing this. Everybody was saying the guy was crazy and that it was a circus act. Well, not anymore
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