A (very) suitable new home
The new VPLP-designed Gunboat 68 is the first model of the brand to be launched since the company moved into French ownership
Sailing upwind at a true wind angle (TWA) of 50° in light air, then bearing off and accelerating to 15-16kt, still in no more than 12kt of true wind… These are typical performance prediction figures from the designers of the latest Gunboat and the first of its kind to emerge from its new French builders. And reaching in a good ‘working breeze’, VPLP’s Xavier Guilbaud is confident you will often see 25kt with additional potential to be realised under the big rig option. Not bad for a boat as luxurious as this? The launch of the first Gunboat
Tribe 17 years ago marked the invention of a new sailing concept: the long-range high-performance but luxurious, large multihull, a combination only made possible through borrowing the best raceboat technologies and materials. The original Gunboat catamarans
designed by Morrelli and Melvin were light and quite purist in form and with a relatively more minimalistic internal fit-out. The next-era Gunboats, designed
by Nigel Irens and manufactured in China and the USA, were more refined and luxurious, with designer interior and exterior styling and more geared for luxury cruising. The objective with this new French-built Gunboat is to combine the two philosophies and make use of the
66 SEAHORSE
best qualities of the two earlier generations of boats. Through research with owners and crews of Gunboats over the years, it was determined how people used their boats, from the cruisiest to the raciest. It was important to ensure that the new platform could fit everybody’s interior requirements and that it was versatile enough to satisfy an owner’s need for maximum living space, maximum performance and maximum luxury. A successful boat has to be
realistic in its approach to space, so the pragmatism of the early boats was preserved with easily serviced parts, good system design and use of space, yet with the fresh aesthetic touches the later models acquired; but it was essential the new designs should have no wasted volume or dead spaces. The new design was entrusted to
VPLP who already design Grand Large Yachting’s Outremer 5X. VPLP have race and cruising divisions delivering state-of-the-art solutions from the Ultims Macif and Sodebo to superyachts like the 145ft Hemisphere and popular cruising market designs for Lagoon. According to Xavier Guilbaud, this
17.8-ton (dry displacement), 20.75m catamaran has benefited from some very advanced hydro and aero studies, similar to those
Very tangy indeed... the new French designed and built Gunboat 68 further advances the aesthetic and performance development that these large cats kicked off when they first appeared soon after the millennium. The very first Morrelli and Melvin designed Gunboat 62 Tribe marked the beginning of the end in the luxury sector of the market for those giant sailing caravans that were fine for reaching around the Caribbean but ‘unduly’ dependent on Captain Donkey for going in other directions...
carried out by VPLP for their latest raceboats like Macif. The aero studies were undertaken in conjunction with North Sails’ JB Braun for global VPP simulations, as well as for CFD calculations to investigate different rig and appendage configurations. ‘A key characteristic of a boat
like this,’ says Guilbaud, ‘is to be able to achieve top speeds beyond 25kt, but also to cruise comfortably at average speeds of 12-15kt. The challenge is to maintain good performance for the occasional regatta or offshore race without penalising ease of operation in a much gentler sailing mode… ‘The hull sections below the
water are quite narrow, to ensure smooth passage-making, but not so narrow as to create excessive form drag. At rest the transoms are immersed which ensures plenty of dynamic waterline at speed. The trade-off is an excess of drag in light airs, but flotation (and displacement) has been carefully calculated so that the benefits outweigh the disadvantages over 8kt of boatspeed.’ Since the first sketches, beam
grew by some 500mm in order to increase righting moment with little performance cost elsewhere. ‘The 68,’ said Guilbaud, ‘will be relatively beamier than previous
CHEDAL ANGLAY / LE QUEMENT / GUNBOAT”.
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