New Boats Table
in association with the Spinlock Special Projects Team Tidy (IRC) package?
They did not have the happiest of starts with their first IRC programme two years ago but Spanish yard Mestral Marine is back… and hopefully now with a vengeance
MMW 33 CUSTOM Based in Tarragona, midway between Valencia and Barcelona on Spain’s Mediterranean coast, Mestral Marine had a baptism of fire during their first IRC campaign when they launched the Nivelt-Muratet JND39 Stamina back in early 2016. This wide, flat, relatively light- displacement and as it would transpire somewhat under-powered IRC design took some time to find its feet in terms of a satisfactory optimisation, starting out as relatively ‘too fast’ downwind while upwind she was initially too twitchy even for a good Corinthian crew. Stamina was, however, a hugely fun – and competitive – boat to
race offshore in a breeze when she could sail deep and fast upwind and then reach downwind whole knots faster than similar-sized oppo- sition. Stamina’s near-sistership Lann Ael 2 also later won the 2017 Fastnet overall – so in spite of teething difficulties Bernard Nivelt’s original lighter JND39 concept cannot have been be far off. However, for Stamina’s builders, Mestral Marine, the project was
very challenging. The first boat was built on spec as the forerunner of a planned series-build programme, but no buyer had appeared by the time the boat needed to start racing; hence her first season in 2016 was badly compromised by a lack of good hardware and a serious shortage of sails, with Mestral Marine being forced to keep writing cheques until a well-known French offshore skipper eventually took over the reigns and things could start to move forward again. But for Mestral and co-founders Toni Weijl and Marc Tormo the
experience took time to get over. Today, however, the yard is all guns blazing again, with a string of interesting new IRC designs in build or development, all of which are available either in ‘IRC racer’ or ‘sport- cruiser’ mode. Having been substantially upgraded, in light of what was learnt with the first two boats, the original Stamina-derived MMW 40 also continues to be available and in both versions. In 2018 the original 40-footer has now been joined in the Mestral
line-up by the brand new MMW 33 Custom, a carefully targeted mid- sized IRC race design that, being significantly smaller, should appeal to a much wider market.
Custom builds BOAT
Trentadue
Cape40S 5G NMD 43 Multi50
Cape Fling Windfall 58 Apivia Charal
Arkea Paprec Hugo Boss La Fabrique Felci 65 Goetz 70 Maxi72 MD73
Brenta 80SRD Wally 93 Macif
Sodebo
Baltic 112 Swan 125 Wally 145
Also relatively heavier than its 40ft predecessor, at a displacement
of 4.4 tonnes, the new 33-footer carries a big rig along with sufficient (stylish) interior to meet all the necessary IRC requirements. The new MMW 33 also leaves behind another of the yard’s cash-
starved experiences with their first IRC design –MMW 33 no1 went afloat equipped with deck hardware that, unlike that first 40-footer, would not have been immediately recognisable to a cruising yachtsman from the early 1950s. Currently on the ‘drawing board’ now at Mestral are the MMW 37
racer-cruiser, the MMW 46 long-range cruiser and the interesting new ORC-oriented MMW 46 racer – the tooling for which has recently started in Tarragona. Unlike the early days, today most of Mestral’s design requirements are met in-house, with Michele Morino in charge of naval architecture and Giorgio Angeline taking care of styling. The MMW 33 is built using infused polyester resins (there is also
an epoxy option). This IRC design features twin-rudders as standard and can be delivered with either a straight IRC fin or bulb keel. There is also plenty of room for customisation in the deck layout and rig plan. The MMW 33 base-boat is priced at 128,000 euros with an
aluminium rig or with an upgrade to an Axion carbon mast for an additional surcharge of 17,000 euros. François Lange
q
LOA DESIGNER 9.8m
Carlini Design 12.13m Owen-Clarke
13.03m Nivelt & Muratet Design 15.24m VPLP
16.97m Botín Partners
17.62m McCollough Yachts 18.28m Guillaume Verdier 18.28m VPLP
18.28m Juan Yacht Design
18.28m Sam Manuard (best odds) 18.28m Finot-Conq 19.7m
Felci Design
21.8m White/Koopman 22m
Botín Partners
22.2m Mills Design 24.2m Luca Brenta 28.3m Judel-Vrolijk 30.3m VPLP 30.3m 34m
37.9m 44.2m Frers
BUILDER
Piermarine Yachts, Argentina Cape Racing Yachtss Ocean Tec Slovenia ENATA Dubai King Marine
Front Street Shipyard CDK CDK CDK!
Carrington Boats Team Fabrique Persico Marine
Goetz Composites
New England Boatworks MD Technologies
Michael Schmidt Yachtbau Wally Yachts CDK
Bañuls/VPLP/Fisher Malcolm McKeon Juan Kouyoumdjian
Multiplast-CDK Baltic Yachts Nautor Swan Persico, Italy
LAUNCH
Jan 2016 onwards June 2017 onwards Sep 2017 onwards May 2018
August 2018 July 2018
Autumn 2019 Autumn 2018 May 2019 Mid-2019 July 2018 July 2018 July 2018 Late 2018 2018 2018 2018
Aug 2018 2019
March 2019 Late 2018 2019
COMMENTS
Great-looking IRC pot-hunter with a super-stylish interior; cracking value Fifth-generation Max-RM Class40 from a relatively new yard
Tidy-looking development of the A13 Teasing Machine. The first boat quickly impressed Quite aggressive design approach – now on extended sea trials out of Lorient (of course) Expect this new IRC56 to be giving the latest Teasing Machine some competition A possible run of yet another lightweight and fast luxury cat. Lift foils and daggerboards Another Figaro frontrunner gets the big break. François Gabart protégée… Jérémie Beyou gets a new sponsor and his first brand new Imoca 60
This will be interesting, a new Imoca 60 for Sébastien Simon managed by Vincent Riou So who gets its similarly slim and fast predecessor?
Young Swiss skipper Alan Roura’s trusty 2006 Imoca is gaining foils from Mick Kermarec Whizzy IRC-targeted racer-cruiser. Looks like a mini-Cannonball Very light (17-tonne) all-carbon double una-rig cruiser-racer… Got that? The new Bella Mente should soon have a deck
Contemporary performance cruiser – with hopes of series production? There are also a 96 and a 70 on the drawing board. MSY is on a roll Smaller Wally is aggressively styled and reflects the latest Maxi72s
She’s back in the shed being speeded up… with a new boat starting in 18 months Thomas Coville is breaking with the (small but perfectly refined) herd with his new Ultim All-carbon build, hybrid power and lots of sail for this sporty little number Lots of wrapping paper needed – a first one-off custom Superyacht from Swan
The biggest yet from Persico. Very light at 171 tonnes. Hybrid power means silent running
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