Dykstra reveals design of huge three-masted modern schooner
One of the most impressive superyacht designs in recent years was announced in September by Dykstra Naval Architects and Royal Huisman shipyard. The two companies will be collaborating on the build of a new 81m (265ft) three-masted schooner, which will be the largest ever aluminium sailing yacht and the largest to be built at the famous Huisman yard in the Netherlands.
The design is not only unusual for its size and scale, but also because the shape and styling inside and out will be the joint project involving Dykstra and interior designer Mark Whiteley. It is a contemporary design, unlike previous schooners built at Huisman such as Jim Clark’s Athena or the modern classic Meteor – the brief was for a “timeless machine with a long waterline length for performance and a lot of interior space for long distance cruising in comfort,” says Thijs Nikkels, managing director of Dykstra.
“It has been different working with Mark Whiteley and the aim is to blend the exterior and interior. We just sat down together behind a computer and started sketching ideas.”
The yacht will have three enormous modern masts to be able to fit under the An impressive sight as ten new Hallberg-rassy 342s are lined up in a row. The yachts were moved from Germany to England in October following the recent decision by the UK Ministry of Defence to close the British Kiel Yacht Club after 71 years. The Bridge of the Americas, the 62.5m air draught restriction on the Panama Canal. It will, says Nikkels, “be a modern staysail schooner,” and he likens it to Vendredi Treize, the then ground-breaking 39m racer sailed in the OSTAR in 1972 by Jeanyves Terlain.
It will have a modern underwater profile, yet to be revealed, and a bigger sail area than on a comparable bermudan-rigged yacht, he says, but be built to be operated by “minimum crew.”
Work on the design and tank and wind tunnel testing has been going on for a year and the build will start shortly in time for launch in 2020.
“We are really proud and excited to be creating a yacht that maybe these days would be called contemporary but in 50 years’ time will be a classic,” says Nikkels. Club has had five fleets of new Hallberg-rassys, a total of 54 new boats since its first delivery in 1989. Its current Rassy fleet has been moved to Gosport, UK to continue in Services sail training at Joint Services Adventurous Sail Training Centre.