Technology
Complex choreography
A synchronised ballet as Sevenstar’s tandemliftmanoeuvres 30mracers to the Caribbean
Transporting racing yachts involves complex choreography. If those racing yachts are 28.3m Bullitt, 30.5m V and 34.5m Galateia, the complexity jumps exponentially, especially when two are loaded in Genoa, and one in Palma de Mallorca. When their owners decided to take on a Caribbean season, the challenge of shipping them over was handed to Sander Speet, race yacht specialist at Sevenstar Yacht Transport. Speet was appointed for his
unique understanding of both sides of shipping operations. ‘Before I worked for Sevenstar I was a full- time pro sailor. Now 80 per cent of the time it’s Sevenstar, 20 per cent of the time I get to do some racing. It’s a beneficial combination, the clients that I have as a pro sailor are the clients that I can help with Sevenstar and vice versa.’ ‘I’ve also been a Sevenstar client
three times to load and discharge a TP52, way before I worked here,’ he continues. ‘I have a pretty good understanding of what it feels like when you show up in a commercial port and your precious race yacht is sitting on this big ocean-going vessel, and you’re watching how it’s handled by the crew.’ Despite his familiarity with
60 SEAHORSE
transporting precious cargo, this job offered fresh challenges. ‘To transport three of these yachts as one package, that’s a novelty for us,’ says Speet. ‘They’re all committed to the same racing schedule. Claudio Novi, project manager
for Bullitt, outlines the schedule. ‘The plan is to do the Nelson’s Cup Series in Antigua on 13 February, then the Caribbean 600. Two of the three go to St Bart’s for the Bucket, then all three go to the BVI for an event at the end of March.’ The BVI event is the inaugural
North Sound Regatta, as Jack Bouttell, captain of V, outlines: ‘It’s a regatta that the V team has created. This is the first event and the idea is that it becomes a regular feature in the Caribbean calendar. There’s a small number of boats this year because it wasn’t publicised, it’s by invitation or word of mouth. We finish the North Sound Regatta at the end of March, the first week of April we’re loading onto the ship to come back to Europe and two weeks after we get back we have another regatta in Italy so it’s all very tight.’ ‘Our first priority was the timings,’
Novi explains. ‘The schedule of these boats is always busy. They finish an event, then they go to the shipyard for modifications, maintenance,
Above: the larger the yacht, the more complex the task of shipping it safely across an ocean as deck cargo – especially when the mast can’t be unstepped for the voyage
upgrades. Everything needs to happen on time or the delays start to snowball. We wanted to be sure we arrived with enough time to prepare the boat.’ ‘I’ve known Sevenstar for a long
time and I chose them’, he adds. ‘The advantage is that Sevenstar owns the ships so they know exactly what they’re doing. In August they gave us a window of 27 December to 10 January and we loaded on 6 January. It never changed. Other suppliers charter ships so sometimes you’re given a window and six months later there’s a one-month delay. If the window keeps changing, we’re in trouble.’ ‘The conversations started in
July,’ Speet recalls, ‘then I sat down with the captains and owners’ representatives in September during the Maxi Worlds in Porto Cervo. We asked them to provide up-to-date technical drawings of the yachts so we can put everything in AutoCAD for our lift plan and stow plan.’ There was an added challenge:
shipping with masts up. ‘Logistically if we had to ship with the mast down it would have been a major mission at the other end,’ says Bouttell. ‘V’s mast is 48m so to deal with something that long is very difficult. You’d have to build a box, strip the
MATTEO PAOLILLO
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