Shape of the future

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Marc Lombard Design Group’s highly successful Lift Class40 designs have now evolved into a racer-cruiser… built in the UK at SR Structures in Lymington

The Lombard Lift 45 scow bow cruiser-racer promises to be one of the stand out new designs in 2025. At the same time, it’s also a project that will put the young yard chosen to build it, SR Structures in Lymington, UK, firmly on the map. It speaks volumes about the firm’s background and skill sets, that an experienced French owner, along with one of the top French design offices, would choose a young British company for a such a complex and cutting edge build.

The first example of this performance cruiser based on the new Lombard Lift V3 Class40, is scheduled to launch in April 2025. An ambitious programme that will see the boat cover impressive mileage in her first year is already planned. In addition to cruising in comfort, the owner intends to compete in the 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race, plus the attendant qualifying races, before sailing to Malta for the Middle Sea Race, followed by the RORC Transatlantic from Lanzarote, the Caribbean 600 and then a return to Europe in 2026.

SR Structures is based in the former Green Marine premises that saw the build of multiple America’s Cup class yachts, Mini Maxis, TP52s and Volvo Ocean Race yachts, along with hundreds of other successful projects. SR Structures was founded by Sam Pellow and Ross Hotchkiss, two highly skilled boatbuilders with deep roots in the industry. Sam began his career as a boatbuilding apprentice in the same premises where the company is now based, while Ross honed his craft with significant stints at the former Green Marine site.


The Lift 45’s rig is taller than a Class40’s. It carries a bit more sail to account for the extra weight and reduce the boat’s reliance on a code zero when sailing upwind in light air

A six-figure investment in new infrastructure and equipment, including a 10-tonne gantry, has seen the site brought fully up to date. Equally, the 15-strong team has an extensive background as highly skilled composite boatbuilders, and benefits from experience gained in other sectors such as aerospace, renewables and automotive, including Formula One. Amongst the team is Ellie Driver, 2022 BYA Pantaenius Sailor of the Year and upcoming British solo offshore sailor. After finishing her Masters of Maritime Engineering at University of Southampton, Driver has taken on the role of draftsperson and naval architect, as well as competing in the French Elite Offshore Circuit of Figaro 3. SR Structures and Driver are developing plans for a new British manufactured Class40 that will first compete in the 2026 Route Du Rhum and subsequently run a four-year campaign. The SR team is currently seeking partners and sponsorship collaborations in this ambitious sailing campaign to increase UK presence in offshore sailing, while creating a new pathway for young people from all walks of life to experience and grow in sailing.

Co-founders and joint managing directors Sam and Ross also have extensive CVs, encompassing aviation and naval defence projects, as well as periods with multinational industry leaders in the wind power industry. In this sector Hotchkiss integrated a robust track and trace ethos into blade production development that helped reduce build times of internal structures by a whopping 75 per cent.

So why was SR Structures chosen for the Lift 45? ‘It was a combination of factors,’ says Pellow. ‘A key aspect was that, if the owner went to a bigger, but extremely busy yard, this would have been a secondary project relative to the large custom yachts or Imocas and Ultimes they produce.

‘Instead we were able to offer a service where he is the primary client. It was a huge plus for him and a great opportunity to showcase what we can offer. Another important factor is that the boat is being built under the UK Government’s Sail Away Boat Scheme, which is an attractive proposition for international clients.’


The first Lift 45 is due to be launched in April

SR Structures opened for business in February 2023, with early projects including a naval defence demonstrator vessel, a large water ballast installation for Sir Peter Ogden's 77ft Maxi Jethou, commissioned by the team’s operations manager Stuart Branson, which included manufacturing the relevant composite structures and managing the installation in France. At the time the Lift 45 owner first visited SR Structures, the team was working on projects for two TP52s, including pre-preg carbon ballast components for Karl Kwok’s Beau Geste. In addition, last summer they manufactured a series of structural bulkheads for Clarisse Cremer’s Imoca 60 L'Occitane en Provence, ahead of the current edition of the Vendee Globe.

At the time of writing, the bulk of the primary structure for the first Lift 45 had been completed, including the bulkheads and longitudinal stiffeners. The sandwich construction uses a three-stage process and is therefore different from that generally used for performance cruisers, where the outer laminate, core and inner skin is all infused in a single hit.

However, Hotchkiss points out this process can be problematic: ‘You can't guarantee that your core will fit really well,’ he says, ‘so you might have large gaps that will end up being filled with resin, creating a heavier and weaker product.

‘Instead, the process we use is exactly the same for a grand prix raceboat,’ he adds. ‘We infuse the outside skin and let that cure. Then we fit the core, pre-forming it to the shape of the hull where necessary, before gluing in with a Gurit core bond adhesive. Once the core is detailed, the inside skin laminate is applied, then infused.’

This more involved process allows precise control of the weight of materials used at each stage, making it more appropriate for a design such as the Lift 45. ‘We know how much resin we're putting in the fibre on the outer and inner skins,’ Hotchkiss says, ‘and we know exactly how much core bond adhesive we're putting on per square metre – we can control it down to the last 10 grams.’

‘This type of infusion is our bread and butter,’ he continues, ‘even if it is seen by some as a mystical art. We understand the process extremely well and in a lot of detail, so we are constantly refining the percentages of the fibre fractions, the resin wastage, the curing processes and even different flow mediums. With the average fibre fraction in pre-preg manufacturing at 35 per cent. We are constantly testing for what works best and developing our infusion processes, so that we can achieve an optimal saturation of the fibres of 37 per cent, while using less resin and ultimately producing a lighter boat.’ While building the Lift 45, SR see’s their development of infusion processing to be transferable to classes like Imoca to build more economical raceyachts and reduce the carbon footprints of each build, which the Imoca class is determined to achieve.

Marc Lombard Design Group: ‘A dream of a design brief!’

Xavier Bellouard came to us with a clear idea of the purpose of his new boat, but an open mind regarding the design. She had to be a pleasure to look at, measuring about 13m long by 4.5m wide, with a Britany harbour compatible draft with the keel up. Xavier wanted her to be fast and a pleasure to race offshore, easy to handle by two people and without focusing on any racing rule optimisation. In a few words, a dream boat for sailors who seek line honours when racing without compromising comfort and cruise ability between the races.

General philosophy
The overall philosophy was to start from our last generation Class40 and use the added length to improve comfort, behaviour in waves and ability to carry a bit more weight. Water ballasts are designed to provide a righting moment close to the last generation Class40s without requiring hiking from the crew. The sail plan is taller to account for the additional weight and also be less dependent on the code zero when sailing upwind in light conditions. The pivoting keel is optimised for hydrodynamics and centre of gravity by using a mix of high-tensile iron cast and lead for the lower part. The keel top shape and the hull/keel junction have been carefully designed to minimise drag. Down below, the boat is very spacious with her voluminous hull shape and sleek coach roof. Interior layout philosophy is simple, easy to maintain yet functional. It provides everything required to prepare nice meals while racing fast (one of the owner’s pleasures!) and comfortable berths for eight people, plus four additional sea berths or stacking area.

Hull shape design
The hull is largely inspired by our work on the Class40s, especially the latest LiftV3 on which we invested a very important CFD effort with more than 120 different hull shapes drawn and analysed one by one. The very extensive CFD campaign carried out for the V3 ended up with a new generation of hull shape with several concave areas. This geometry allows a bow up attitude at speed while further increasing hull efficiency at all speeds and heel angles compared with the previous generation.

The immersed stem, combined with a pointier bow, will provide a smoother and drier ride downwind with more progressive decelerations when catching up with steep waves.

Slamming upwind and when motoring will be significantly reduced thanks to the deeper forward sections, presenting much more curvature than the very flat Class40 bow shapes.

As a result, the hull is narrower in proportions than a Class40, meaning higher length/beam and draft/beam ratios, which will also provide a livelier boat in the light, choppy conditions.

First CFD runs showed that these changes in the proportions shifted quite remarkably the optimum shape for the expected speed range. Entry angle, rocker and concave positioning required several iterations to match our expectations in terms of righting moment, drag and dynamic trim at speed. The final shape shares some evolutions with our latest LiftV3, but is far from just a scale up version.

A study is underway, based on this version of the Lift 45, for a full IRC version (IRC sail plan + bulb keel).

A standard in the industry when infusing yachts, is to aim to produce parts to within 10 per cent of the specified design weight, however, SR achieve weights well under five per cent of engineered expectations, while maintaining the designed structural integrity. The processes needed to achieve this are meticulous, with the success of the methodology borne out by R&D testing. Each manufactured part has a strict and specific operating procedure, so no matter how little or how large it is, all the details and all the parameters to create exactly the same part every time are documented.

Knowledge gained from working in other industries has also enabled the SR Structures team to extract aspects of quality control from those domains and implement them into their own processes.

‘We're really strict on quality control, which also keeps evolving,’ says Hotchkiss. ‘We keep on improving how we monitor weight, how we do our quality control checks and how we manage our stock flow, while keeping the projects on schedule and budget. We're always striving to get better at what we're doing and a lot of this knowledge has come from our experience outside the marine industry.’

As a result of the skill and attention to detail at the Lymington yard, the finished weight of the boat has been revised downwards from initial estimates to the tune of around 400kg. Although fibreglass is predominately used for the structure, the keel box and matrix for the deep swing keel both have carbon reinforcement, as do the rigging chain plates and a carbon fibre bow sprit.


The scow bow creates a lot of internal volume. There’s room for a full-size rectangular double bed in the forecabin

Below decks there is a comfortable lightweight carbon interior, with a lot of clear semi-gloss, lacquered carbon, plus white finishes, proper floorboards and so on. The weight of these elements is almost negligible in terms of the boat’s overall displacement. However, the systems required for comfortable cruising represent a key difference compared with a pure raceboat and add a significant amount of additional, yet unavoidable, weight. For instance, a standard Class40 has a 28hp engine, whereas this boat has a 60hp unit. There’s also a pressurised hot and water system and refrigeration.

As with Class40s, the Lift 45 also has a split water ballast system, with midships and aft tanks. At 805-litres each side, total capacity is marginally greater than that of a Class40, giving huge performance and stability gains, while the high-modulus Axxon carbon mast is slightly taller than a standard Class40 spar.

Other changes include a slightly elongated bow compared with the Lift V3, hence the longer overall length. This gives a softer aesthetic, as well as an easier motion at sea than the all-out raceboat, where the bow shape is constrained by the maximum hull length allowed by the box rule.

The Lift 45 is one of the first of a new generation of scow bow ultra-fast cruising yachts boats for owners who also want the option of getting to the finish line of races quickly. These designs also tend to be very dry boats and, of course, they offer a lot of internal volume thanks to the beam being carried so far forward.

This gives room for a spacious three cabin layout, with large berth sizes and an owner’s cabin forward with a full-size rectangular 140x200cm bed. There’s also a full saloon with pilot berths, plus large L-shape galley, a proper forward facing nav station and separate shower stall in the heads compartment.

SR Structures is set up to be able to build more Lift 45s, alongside its other projects. Carbon sandwich an option for those seeking maximum performance, while a more cruising oriented specification with a fixed backstay and pin-head mainsail is also possible.

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