YCO SIGNS WALLY TO BE THE AEROYACHT BUILDER

This is a big news for the Aeroyacht project which is now being marketed by YCO and will be built by WALLY YACHTS. The dream of Gregor Tarjan is really close to come true.



A YCO press release.

YCO signs WALLY to build Aeroyacht 110
Monaco, 12 November 2009
Following significant interest in the recently launched design of the luxury performance catamaran released by Aeroyacht, worldwide sales agent YCO is pleased to announce that Wally has been signed on as the official shipyard.
Ben Bartlett, who heads up the specialised sail division of YCO and who masterminded the collaboration, hopes the first yachts to hit the water late 2011. “The levels of interest we have received in the Aeroyacht 110 so far indicate that this is an exciting and important development in the industry. This project will set new standards for performance cruising, combining an ecologically sound approach with both performance and luxury like never before. It was clear to us from the start that the choice of yard would be crucial to the concept’s ultimate success, and the synergies between the two brands made Wally our first and only choice for Aeroyacht. I am delighted that the partnership has been confirmed.” says Bartlett.
Wally has to date built nearly 40 advanced composite sailing yachts and the new facilities in Ancona will cement their position as world leaders in this area. The shipyard is one of the best equipped Pre-Preg composite facilities in the world, and boasts an impressive post-curing oven for yachts up to 80 meters. The yard technical office is highly specialised in the design, naval engineering, interior design and structural engineering of advanced composite yachts.

Gregor Tarjan, the founder of Aeroyacht said of the new relationship, “Wally is renowned for its groundbreaking designs, which constantly reinvent and reinterpret the traditional approach. Wally yachts are world class and stand alone both in performance and style. Given what we set out to achieve with the Aeroyacht 110 I don’t think there is a yard which could be better matched to us.”

Heading up naval architecture on each project will be performance multihull specialist Morrelli & Melvin, who will work closely with Aeroyacht and the shipyard. These are the famous multihull designers of world record cats such as "Playstation" and the US America's Cup winner "Stars and Stripes" and their expertise brings further credibility to the program.

“Wally has been approached by several multihull designers but had never found a project which would reflect our concept of combining performance, style, comfort and safety” says Luca Bassani, Wally President and founder. “With the Aeroyacht 110 however, the technical characteristics and the aesthetics match those of our own yachts and I was immediately convinced that we would finally be able to apply our philosophies to this multihull.”.

AEROYACHT 110 - The World most innovative super catamaran

Multihull passionate and expert Gregor Tarjan, founder of Aeroyacht International, and renowned designer Pete Melvin sat down together to think about what their dream luxury catamaran would be. They came out with many innovative solutions, some of them never seen on a multihull of that size.

In a previous post, I introduced a list of these innovations, like the Icon A5 amphibian plane “tender”, the reverse bows, the competition wing-rig, the semi-flybrigde... Let’s complete the list to show how well the Aeroyacht 110 concept was thought out.

A “Outside-In” design process. Most of the time yachts are designed the other way around. Large multihulls are loaded with equipment, staterooms and end up with two or three decks. Gregor says: "We first have conceptualized a pure sailing machine with a beautiful streamlined shape and then estimated the weight for a high-end, open plan luxury interior. Instead of fitting 6 small staterooms we prefer to offer our clients three large VIP suites in a fast sailing machine"

“Soft-chine” hulls. Multiple Chines hull can be seen on racing sailboats, fast motor yachts and tenders. They increase the yacht structure stiffness, stability, performance thanks to less wetted surface, and improve esthetics. On the top of that Morrelli and Melvin have applied all their knowledge in fast hulls and bows out of the water design. The entire forward section of the Aeroyacht 110 hulls are forced up and will come out of the water keeping resistance to a minimum and increasing surfing capabilities

Asymmetric dagger boards. They are seen on smaller size catamarans but never before on a 110 footer. Retractable dagger boards increase windward performance and safety at sea. In the downward position, they enable the Aeroyacht 110 to sail close to the wind. In the upward position, the boat experiences less resistance and really "flies". The asymmetric boards also prevent the Aeroyacht 110 from tripping over the waves since the yacht offer no resistance and can slide sideways. They are also a great feature to reduce the draft and access really beautiful and private anchorages.

Aeronautical engineering. The design team in charge of the Aeroyacht 110 at Morrelli & Melvin is made up of aeronautical engineers and structural designers. They have made the most out of the same tools used to develop aircrafts structures like complex computers programs that model Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Elements Method (FEM). They succeeded in keeping the structure as light as possible, yet strong enough to face the roughest sailing conditions.

All this innovations were aimed at creating a super catamaran with a speed potential of over 32 knots and effortless cruising at 20 knots, in supreme yacht comfort and safety.