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From raceboats to Wallys America’s Cup and Maxis… now Persico enters the Superyacht field
With a well-established reputation for innovation in building high- performance racing yachts Persico Marine is poised to enter a new chapter with the build of the fourth member of the steadily growing Wally Cento series. Created in partnership with Mark Mills and Pininfarina design, this new 30m beauty, when launched in 2017, will be the absolute latest in combining style, innovation, advanced technology and design. This exciting project will add to Persico’s impressive record of producing the highest-quality composite race- yachts for the top teams in the America’s Cup, TP52 and Maxi 72 classes, Volvo Ocean Race, Imoca 60 and other grand prix fleets. When looking for the best in reliability and durability in advanced composites, the managers of the Volvo 65 one-design class approached Persico for their hulls. These boats have now raced around the world without a serious failure, with one spectacular exception: when Vestasgrounded on a reef it was Persico that took on the major rebuild to put this boat back in the race in one-design trim. This impressive feat convinced Volvo race organisers to contract Persico to build any additional boats needed for the next edition of their gruelling event. So it was not surprising that after evaluating bids from other
teams, and with performance the key criteria, the owner and project manager of Wally Cento No4 selected Persico for their project. A 22-month design and build programme makes full use of Persico’s latest equipment for the creation of the best possible com- posite fabrications, including a 2.6 x 7.2m autoclave, four modular ovens up to 45m long, three five-axis CNC milling machines up to 25m, a 9m vacuum table, a 4m-wide plotter, a finish press, a clean room, in-house ultrasound testing, a digital dimensional scanner for reverse engineering plus tooling for roll-forming aluminium and Nomex core material. Efficiently combining this latest equipment means precision tooling alignment, accurate fibre placement and quality control, and with Persico’s advanced processes the exactness of the finished hull shape along with complete weight control. Since the Wally Cento rule allows small variances in design para- meters, and with high performance expected over the range of course types inherent to Wally racing – windward-leewards in addition to coastal races – designer Mark Mills had the design freedom to
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explore a fresh approach that builds on the success of his work in the Maxi 72 class, a class that is also familiar to Persico having recently built Rán Vand Momo. Mills’s concept was for a raceboat that meets stringent Wally standards of design and comfort, rather than a Wally yacht that happens to be fast.
To achieve this high performance, the same central weight concentration was pursued as is typical of the best stripped-out raceyachts. Of course, in a Wally this weight concentration is less easy to achieve, given the large number of mandatory interior elements and many complex systems… propulsion, hydraulics, electrical, plumbing and climate control. The sail control and rigging systems are also below deck, and thus have to compete for space with these other systems. Minimising the weight of these elements and controlling their position without compromising efficiency, as well as the implications for interior aesthetics, required an enormous collaborative effort among not only Mills and the team at Persico, but with project manager Carlo Torre, the many system engineers and the Pininfarina studio responsible for the yacht’s interior. The Pininfarina team has created an interior in harmony with the onboard systems. The saloon is the most iconic space with the ‘stairs’ the central feature. The steps are like waves, continuing towards the walls and giving life to functional spaces, resulting in an environment mirroring the dynamics of the sea. A combination of clear-coat carbon and light wood will create a contrast to reflect the combination of sportiness with elegance. Fast and sporty lines, with light and dual-performing structures characterise all the spaces on and inside this new superyacht.
Besides executing a striking interior design in the lightest possible manner, Persico’s expertise in complex onboard systems is rein- forced with a recently expanded in-house team that uses state-of- the-art CAD software to precisely map out installation options within the spaces available. This new capability has been essential in working efficiently with the interior design team at Pininfarina, proof that the investment made in this talent and the latest powerful software tools helps to reposition Persico to deliver not only on performance, but sophisticated luxury as well. ‘This is the real success story in this project,’ says Marcello
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