Gaia Kingstown, a 100 ft superyacht designed and built by Spirit Yachts Ltd - the company which built the 54 foot yacht which starred in the recent James Bond film, Casino Royale - has just been launched.
The Ipswich-based company, renowned for its elegant yachts, built in wood along classic lines, but using modern methods, claims that the Spirit 100 is the largest single-masted wooden yacht to be built in Britain since the Second World War.
The £4 million yacht weighs 42 tonnes, and has a 40 metre mast - which will just clear the Orwell bridge when she sets off on her maiden voyage.
“It's a very beautiful and very significant boat,” said Sean McMillan, managing director of Spirit Yachts. “She's the first superyacht ever to be built in this area and is the result of 18 months of extremely hard work from a very talented team of people.”
Gaia Kingstown was commissioned by a British businessman who lives abroad, and has been registered in the Grenadines.
What is most unusual about the new yacht is that she is essentially “a 100-foot dayboat,” as Sean put it.
Built along classic lines, with long overhangs fore and aft, she has relatively little space inside for her size. So Spirit Yachts is also providing a tender - “but not just any old tender.”
The 35 foot retro-style planing powerboat will provide everything the Spirit 100 lacks in terms of tankage, facilities and accommodation.
“One might think that the average 100 footer would have enough room for everything, but Spirits are not average. To maximise performance, we capped the design at 42 tons - not much for a 100 footer. Given that 16 tons of this will be the ballast keel, the hull will weigh ten and the machinery another two, there's not much left for the rest of the yacht, not to mention the rig and assorted paraphernalia associated with large scale sailing,” explained Sean
“So the really clever bit is that the tender will carry much of the weight that would normally be in a yacht of this size. Large fuel tanks with a transfer pump will enable the yacht to exist happily with only a couple of hundred litres or so on board while the tender can go and refuel while the yacht's off racing - or having lunch.
“The tender will have large water tanks supplied by a watermaker ready to transfer as much as necessary to the yacht when required. Also on board the tender will be excellent galley facilities, generator, the washing machine/dryer etc. so after a full day of hassle-free pleasure the yacht returns to fresh laundry, enough water for plenty of showers and a full dinner!
“Crew accommodation is split between the two craft to create a truly flexible approach to running a large yacht.”
However, Sean says that despite the 'day-boat' tag, the Spirit 100 will be capable of crossing oceans and able to function without the tender if required: “All the essential equipment is duplicated to some degree on the yacht.”
He added that building a 100 foot yacht to the Spirit formula created special problems for the design team.
“As wooden yachts get larger, the framing begins to be so heavy in order to be strong enough that it ceases to be viable in relatively lightweight building. The answer is the composite of wooden frames kept very light but supported by steel backing as practised by all the great designers from Watson and Herreshoff onwards.
“Being a Spirit the 100 has beautifully sculptural laser-cut stainless steel ring frames forming a perfect load bearing core for the mast, stays and keel - knitting them together as an entity without needing a huge timber structure.”
Vital statistics
- LOA 100'0" 30.6m
- LWL 70'7" 21.6m
- Beam 19'0" 5.8m
- Draft 11'5 3.5m
- Displ. 42 tonnes
- Ballast Ratio 35%
- Sail Area 4,566 sq ft. 427sq.m.
