34 TH AMERICA'S CUP ON MULTIHULLS

As you all know by now, the next America's Cup will be held on catamarans.

Pete Melvin from Morrelli and Melvin was on stage in Valencia on the 13 th of September next to Russel Coutts, Vincento Onorato and Cam Lewis to present the new cup and the AC 72.


Morrelli and Melvin are the designers of the Gunboat range including the recently launched Gunboat 90, the Aeroyacht 110 and a few 60 footers.

The team was part of the group that worked on drafting the new rules for the cup.

Congratulations to them.

MORRELLI AND MELVIN - NEW WEBSITE AND BLOG ONLINE

The california based design office has launched a new website and also, for those of you like me who are into RSS flux, a blog updated more often than their previous website and that's great news.

As I have stated in a previous post about reverse bows and the Aeroaycht 110, Morelli and Melvin have become kind of specialists in the design of such hull shapes. They recently took part to the BMW ORACLE trimaran amas design. The team contributed to Sailing Scuttlebut about the use of hydraulics and stored power in the America's cup.

Alinghy Stored Engines for hydraulics - Credit Philippe Chaplin

AMERICA'S CUP DESIGNS PROVE THE AEROYACHT® 110 IS AHEAD OF THE CURVE

The hull shapes of the America’s cup challenger BMW ORACLE Racing and defender ALINGHI didn’t go unnoticed and will make a lot of ink flow. Both are using wave piercing bows.

The radical Aeroyacht 110 catamaran designed by Gregor Tarjan and engineered by Morrelli & Melvin had, since the beginning - reverse bows. Pete Melvin, from Morrelli and Melvin, who took part in designing BMW ORACLE, and Gregor Tarjan founder of Aeroyacht International, tell us why?Morrelli and Melvin 60 ' Mala Conducta - Photo Credit Billy Black

Gregor Tarjan: “Reverse bows make the water think the boat is longer. A regular shaped bow will make the boat hobby-horse because as the boat is dipping into the sea the shape of the stem will force it back up quicker than if the stern is allowed to pass deeper and more gentler into the wave resulting in more comfort, safety and yes wetter. I think reverse bows are the future for small racing boats (where a wet ride is secondary) and large yachts over 60 foot.” Of course the potential clients for a luxury super catamaran like the Aeroyacht 110 will be interested in performance but this single argument might not be enough to convince him to go for reverse bows. That is what Gregor Tarjan and Pete Melvin both answer when a potential client asks them why his yacht should feature a wave piercing shape.

F 18 - Photo Crédit Pierrick Contin

Pete Melvin “To make it short and simple, wave piercing reduce pitching motions and hull resistance though waves. Pitching results in motion discomfort for passengers, increases hull resistance and reduces sail efficiency. We’ve been designing wave-piercing bows for quite a few years now both for racing and for cruising multihulls. It is quite interesting to see that Alinghi have developed a hull and bow shape quite similar to the A3 A-Class catamaran we developed in 2003. There were other wave-piercers prior to the A3 but the A3 has a very unique shape that has been emulated many times since then. We are involved with the BMW ORACLE team and had some input into their news floats shapes as well. Lots of R&D went into confirming what we already knew was a fast wave-piercing hull form. The shape of the bow and underbody of a wave-piercing hull is dependent on many variables so the best solution for one design may not look the same as another design. In fact, the F-18 cat is actually closer to the design requirements for a high performance cruising catamaran like the Aeroyacht 110.”



Gregor Tarjan and Pete Melvin have put all their experience, knowledge and energy to design the Aeroyacht 110, the most advanced cruising catamaran every created so far.

MALA CONDUCTA - A BEAUTIFUL MORELLI AND MELVIN 60' BUILT BY LYMAN MORSE

This great looking cat was launched in April by Lyman Morse. With its reverse bows I have to admit it is one of the most beautiful cat launched in her size. Again a great Morelli and Melvin design.
MALA CONDUCTA was designed to be fast and comfortable. The shipyard did some testing to know wether to build in pre-preg or SCRIMP infusion method. They went for pre-preg. The mock up was carefully worked through with the owners. As you can see the interior is modern with light wood.

Two other 60 footer Morelli and Melvin designed with reverse bows are currently being built by Westerly Marine in California. I will introduced them in a future post.

SUGGAR DADDY'S SPECIAL - GUNBOAT 66

I was strongly in need of some nice luxury catamaran pictures so I logged on to GUNBOAT's blog managed by Chandler Collins, Gunboat's Pr, and I found those beautiful pictures by Billy Black of their latest launches the gold gun SUGGAR DADDY A GUNBOAT 66. So lets go for it...

SUGGAR DADDY first sea trials took place in Cape Town off the GUNBOAT shipyard November the 20 th. Peter Johnstone, GUNBOAT fonder, describes the 3 days off sea trials in a nice piece of writing you will find in the Gunboat Blog. In the picture above SUGGAR DADDY is doing more than 26 knots and if you take a close look to the picture above you will notice that glasses and bottles are standing straight on the cockpit table.
SUGGAR DADDY plans to sail to the Caribbeans, then down the East Coast of South America and round cape horn. A nice journey ahead..
A typical view of a GUNBOAT salon which includes at mast food the helm station. Gunboats offer a real high level of interior finish in a whole carbone/nomex structure. You get the best of both world : luxury interior and great performance.

The master queen cabins with a huge hatch for a lot of sun and air when anchored.

Spectra is every where aboard, from the trampoline to the life-line, as well as carbon
A carbon longeron hosts the jib furler.

LYMAN MORSE - NIGEL IRENS - 82 ' ROCKETEER

Lyman Morse is a shipyard located in Maine with over a century of custom boat building. They have started to work on a 82 ' catamaran project "ROCKETEER" with the famous british architect Nigel Irens.

Lyman Morse has built and launched all kinds of yachts, from classic sturdy motor yachts to elegant sea worthy sailing monohulls and a high tech catamaran such as recently a 61 ' Morelli and Melvin design. "ROCKETTER" owner curently owns a 56' catamaran but wanted more space and confort and performance for long range cruising. Nigel Irens has designed some of the most famous racing Multihull including the last record breakers Francis Joyon IDEC 2, Thomas Coville SODEBO, and Ellen Mac Arthur B&Q/CASTORAMA. No doubt this 82' luxury catamaran will no lack performance.

No more information for this project yet but I will wach for news for you and keep you updated.

GUNBOAT 90 - TWO ON ORDER

I just received this press release from Chandler Collins, GUNBOAT's PR and Marketing manager about the amazing GUNBOAT. As I wrote before GUNBOAT are my favorite "smaller size catamaran". I look forward to see this larger one on the water.

"G U N B O A T 9 0
All New Series

Gunboat announces their groundbreaking GUNBOAT 90 series that combines both serious performance with cruising amenities that are unprecedented. Two of these gorgeous high performance world cruisers are already under contract.

The GUNBOAT 90 offers spaces and luxury that will embarrass most 180 ft keelboats. Quite simply, the GUNBOAT 90 will redefine sailing performance amongst the mega yacht fraternity. Why shouldn’t a mega-yacht sail at 20 knots or more most of the time? While the GUNBOAT 90 is exceptionally large, her spaces have been used in a restrained manner. Four luxurious en suite staterooms are on par with five star hotel rooms in the city. Crew quarters for 4 are in the bows. The hulls are a composite construction of vacuum-bagged, epoxy foam sandwich and Aramid Honey-comb Nomex with carbon fiber inner skins & Kevlar outer skins for impact resistance. All carbon spars and only the most high-tech equipment, this series is dedicated to luxury and speed.

The first GUNBOAT 90 will be based in St. John Virgin Islands with aims to sail around the world. Keep an eye out for this remarkable vessel, but with the ability to accomplish 400+ mile days, it may only be a quick peek!

For more information, please visit: http://www.gunboat.com/ and our blog: http://web.mac.com/chandlercollins"

More about GUNBOAT on the luxury catamaran blog.

If you want to see pictures of the first GUNBOAT 90 in production.

GUNBOAT 90

GUNBOAT 90 owner suite - RHOADES YOUNG DESIGN

Eight months have passed since I wrote a post about the GUNBOAT 62 SAFARI which really is a great looking catamaran. SAFARI also has a blog now. GUNBOAT is one of the most popular keyword used to access my blog. I am not suprised by the success of the GUNBOAT concept : fast, safe, top quality catamaran for owners who really want to sail far away with great daily average. Excatly my type. On the water speed is fun but most of all it means safety. Peter Johnston, GUNBOAT's boss, just sent me some news. They have sold 6 of their GUNBOAT 66 (with others sales pending) and one of their GUNBOAT 90 (with other sales pending), which is quite a success.

Each GUNBOAT can be fully customized. The first GUNBOAT 90 features four doubles suites with their own heads and direct access to the saloon. The starboard hull hosts the captain's cabin and the port side hull hosts the crew mess. The galley is up, which is great feature available on catamarans, and also functions as a bar. The view in the salon is 360 degree open on the outside. The design of the salon looks really confortable with the GUNBOAT's touch : a chart table and navstation with I guess a carbon wheel at mast foot for the view and shelter. I really like the classical interior by Rhoades Young. They have a long list of sailboats interiors references for famous shipyards as Royal Huisman ANTARES, Vitters MYSTERE, Swan ARISTICHOS. You might think the salon looks quite small for a 90 foot catamaran, well first this is a fast boat and second you have two cockpits on the GUNBOAT 90 one at the aft and one at mast foot. Boats are nothing but compromise. The aft cockpit features two tables for all fresco dining and direct access to the transom and the main dinghy platform whichs transorms to a swimplatform. The cockpit at mast foot is quite impressive it is divided into two salons located in each hull. Finally you can access the roof which makes a huge sunbathing platform. This luxury catamaran is designed to enjoy the sun. If you want to see more of the GUNBOAT 90 go on GUNBOAT's new great looking website.

I will keep you update with this project and hopefully I will manage to get some pictures of the first GUNBOAT 66.

SAFARI - GUNBOAT 62

If you want to charter a fast, confortable and safe catamaran, SAFARI is for you. SAFARI is a GUNBOAT 62. She was elected Boat of the Year "Most Innovative" by Cruising World magazine in 2004. She is available for charter in the Caribbean. She was conceived by Peter Johnstone, designed by Peter Melvin and Gino Morelli (Playstation designers), and built at the GUNBOAT shipyard in Cape Town. She was built to very high quality standards to be a "world cruiser" as Peter Johnstone says. I will write more about GUNBOAT shipyard in a future post. She is crewed by Andy Key and Melissan Van Assen. Andy hold amongst other qualifications a MCA yacht master ocean unlimited and Melissa has followed various courses with Culinary Fusion. Both have sailed together for eight years. The interior is very confortable. You will find three queen beds in three cabins and seperated crew quarters. She has lots of toys including remote controlled sailed boats !!! With her very shallow draft SAFARI can take you almost anywhere in the Caribbean and at least places where most other boats won't go. Thanks to her performance under sail you will be able to jump from one place to the other in no time. SAFARI speed limit so far reached is 30 knots sailing !!! The cruising speed while motoring is 10 knots which is great when the wind is somewhere else. Check out the Video on SAFARI's website. You don't have to go that fast but you know you can : that is luxury.