the dynamics – like a skater in a spin, moving her arms in and out to control her speed,’ he says. ‘Catamarans have to carry weight in all four corners and that’s why the motion of a trimaran is better, much softer, at sea.’ The pitching motion is less pronounced when sailing close- hauled and on a beam reach there’s less of a tendency for the boat to rock back and forth from hull to hull. Another advantage is better performance in light airs, Bruneel says, which directly translates to more enjoyment for the owner and crew. The combined wetted surface of a trimaran’s main hull and one float is smaller than the wetted area of a cat with both of its hulls still immersed, and the trimaran is designed to sail with a small amount of heel, rather than bolt upright, which helps the sails hold their shape in very light winds. Also, a single rudder with a simple direct linkage gives a better ‘feel’ to the helm than a twin-rudder setup, particularly upwind, and saves weight in the stern where it has a significant effect on the boat’s fore- and-aft pitching motion. Living space is also a key
Top left: the front end of a Neel 65’s bridgedeck has two separate lounge
seating areas, either side of the yacht’s main nav station. Top right: Neel’s ‘cockloon’, an original concept by Michel
Joubert, turns the saloon and cockpit into a single indoor/out- door space. Above: one of the Neel tris’ most useful character- istics is the ability to sail deeper angles downwind than most multihulls
consideration. The performance of most cruising cats is constrained by the requirement to have double island beds fitted inside the hulls, whereas the wider platform of a trimaran allows the bridgedeck accommodation to include a spacious double owner’s cabin as well as a large saloon. Other guests onboard have to make do with narrower berths in the slender floats but it’s a configuration that works well for a family living aboard long- term, or for a group of friends doing a passage race or cruising rally. The striking, distinctive look of Neel Trimarans has evolved gradually over the last 10 years of production. Under the skin, however, Neel’s design DNA was developed, refined and thoroughly proven offshore long before any of the models in the current range – the 43, 47, 51 and 65 – were launched. It’s a seagoing philosophy strongly informed by Bruneel’s own ocean sailing experience and developed in close collaboration with his longtime design partners, Bernard Nivelt and Michel Joubert. When Marc Lombard took over design duties for the range after Joubert’s death, the design brief he received was simply to carry on in exactly the same direction. ‘Nothing has changed except the name of the designer,’ Bruneel says. Nivelt, meanwhile, has been busy designing a range of remarkably fuel-efficient trimaran motor yachts under Neel’s newly launched Leen Yachts brand name, with the same parameters and long-distance cruising capability as the well-proven sailing tris. The essential ingredients of the Neel design recipe include performance heritage from Bruneel’s Trilogic racer (a Joubert design), and sea-kindly design parameters like a high bridgedeck clearance to minimise slamming in waves, and a significantly shorter-than-average bridgedeck length to keep the boats’ weight centred. The interior design philosophy is to have as much of the accommodation as possible on the bridgedeck level and as little as
possible down below, allowing the boats’ underwater shape to be optimised for seagoing performance and handling rather than compromised by the interior fit-out. Michel Joubert’s “cockloon” concept, which treats the cockpit and saloon as a single inside/outside space, has been copied by almost every other multihull brand in the market. Other key features include a cutter-rigged mast stepped amidships (long before it became fashionable to bring the mast step aft) with a big genoa and a working jib with a much lower centre of effort than the part-furled genoa of a sloop-rigged yacht; plenty of lateral resistance to ensure good upwind VMG – equivalent to a monohull racer-cruiser of similar length in almost any conditions – without needing a daggerboard; and the ability to sail efficiently downwind at deeper angles than most other cruising multihulls can manage, which is a distinct advantage for trade wind sailing.
Exotic materials are used only sparingly in the boats’ construction, for good reason. ‘We use
unidirectional carbon only in crucial places like the beams and deck,’ Bruneel explains. ‘For long-distance cruising you don’t want carbon in the hulls because even a small hit can do a lot of damage to the boat, and we don’t need it because our boats are light enough without it.’ A carbon rig with square-top mainsail is available, which gives better performance than the standard alloy rig in light airs, but Bruneel says that in most conditions there isn’t much difference between the two rigs.
Almost all part of the boats, even the interiors, are vacuum-infused GRP foam sandwich using materials that can easily be recycled when the boat eventually reaches the end of its life. Social aspects of sustainability are taken equally seriously and the gender pay gap within the shipyard is actually tilted in favour of female employees. Environmental concerns are paramount even in the new range of Leen motor yachts. ‘I couldn’t ignore that even if I wanted to,’ Bruneel says. ‘My design engineers would simply refuse to produce a dirty boat.’
www.neel-trimarans.com q SEAHORSE 69
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