For a yacht aimed to sail on both Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the shortest way to switch area is to cross through the Panama canal. The R77 has a Multiple Rotating Twin Wingmast that has an air draft of 62.5m.
With 62,5m air draft limit, very large sailing yachts have to deal with rig height restriction. This project from Mathis Ruhl arises from a concrete design brief and starts with the analysis of specific rig requirements:
– Sufficient sail area to fully power the yacht in medium wind conditions, within 62,5m air draft.
– Fully automated and safe maneuvers, emergency release ability.
– Aerodynamic efficiency to all apparent wind angles.
– Efficient reefed sail configuration, low windage when fully reefed for motoring and mooring.No existing rig solution, even the much talked about Dynarig fulfills all these requisites.
Hence the necessity to start from scratch, avoiding all preconcepts. The result is a breakthrough, patent pending, rig configuration. The new R77 rig concept requires a specific deck plan, therefore the second challenge was to design the layout and superstructure to fit with it. Following the “form and function” principle, the design takes advantage of the rig constraint to bring a totally new design, a mega sailer of its own kind.
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