No stone unturned
The sea trials of the first Advanced 80 from Italian shipyard Advanced Yachts can only be described as rigorous… three years in and counting It’s not entirely
‘After the launch in summer 2015 she crossed the Atlantic and won the ARC’s Cruising A category on elapsed time, then cruised in the BVI before coming back to the Med for summer 2016,’ explains Luca Pedol of the A80 stylists Nauta Yachts. Then she sailed across the Atlantic again in 2016 and cruised in Brazil, South Africa, Madagascar, the Seychelles and Thailand. She’s now in the Philippines, where she won the Commodore’s Regatta in April. Three years in and her sea trials continue. Her itinerary for 2018 is Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia and New Zealand. From there she will cross the South Pacific to Chile, then cruise up the Pacific coast to Vancouver, southwest to Hawaii, on to the Marshall Islands and Japan before finally reaching her home port of Hong Kong. ‘Several ocean passages and hard-fought regattas have proved the stiffness and reliability of the construction,’ says Pedol. ‘The yacht is still in mint condition and the owner is completely satisfied.’ The boat behaved beautifully on the trip to Cape Town. With the exception of 30 hours under power, the crew were able to sail all the way – a total of 21,000 miles. During the trip they faced all sorts of weather conditions, including some very tough ones, and the boat was very well balanced and easy to
68 SEAHORSE
handle, with the crew always feeling extremely safe.
Those tough conditions included three days in the Med in 40kt TWS, gusting 50, and reaching 25kt of boatspeed under triple-reefed main and staysail in 40-45kt on the passage to South Africa. The A80 is without doubt a blue water thoroughbred, so how did her story start?
When Advanced Yachts settled on the concept of a blue water performance cruiser that could eat up the ocean miles at pace as well as in comfort, safety and style, it turned to the formidable ‘A Team’ behind its A66. Jim Pugh of Reichel/Pugh Yacht Design would take care of naval architecture. Interior and exterior styling fell to Mario Pedol and Massimo Gino of Nauta Yachts, and Gurit took charge of the structural engineering. The process started with styling as the boat’s proportions and volume requirements would dictate the naval architecture. ‘Nauta Yachts of Milan were chosen to develop the concept of the exterior and interior of the yacht,’ says Jim Pugh. ‘The parameters drawn up by Nauta Yachts include the beam and draft, which then determines the displacement given the materials they would use to construct the A80. Around those parameters we developed the naval architecture, hull shape, appendages and sail
fair to describe the first three years with the first Advanced 80 Apsarasas ‘sea trials’, in the traditional sense. It’s more accurate to describe the process as a determination to get
absolutely everything right before boat no2 starts production. If you are fortunate
enough to be buying a yacht of this size, performance and comfort, it's reassuring to know the design and build are tried and tested
plan to develop a clean, fast, sea-kindly design.’
‘High performance and high volume were the targets for naval architects Reichel/Pugh in designing the hull,’ explains Pedol. ‘The rudder shape and the fin profile are the result of state-of-the- art in-house research to deliver high speed, and to give the helmsman total control of the yacht and easy handling under sail in any weather conditions. Maximum beam comes all the way aft to provide plenty of volume for interior layouts that can adapt to meet all the requirements of Advanced Yachts’ experienced and demanding customers.’ Pugh took care to avoid extremes with this design, as he needed to deliver an all-rounder, a hull that would perform well in the full range of conditions any ocean-going boat could expect to experience. The result is an easily driven hull shape with a 3.5m fin and bulb keel and a single composite rudder.
‘With a moderate all-round hull shape, twin rudders are not advantageous,’ Pugh says. ‘Twin rudders are well suited to light- displacement Open 60 or Volvo Ocean 65 wide-stern designs with submerged transoms that spend long periods at high heel angles. Even downwind those boats sail high angles so the weather rudder
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98
