The latest collaboration between Baltic Yachts and Malcolm McKeon Yacht Design puts equal emphasis on performance, elegance, efficiency and easy handling, with some unique and interesting features

What happens when an experienced, knowledgeable couple of ocean cruising sailors complete a full circumnavigation and then spend about 10 years developing and refining the concept for their ideal high-performance world cruising yacht, before finally getting Malcolm McKeon to design it and Baltic Yachts to build it?

This is the result. Currently in build and due for delivery in 2023, the Baltic 110 is an impressively elegant full custom design with serious performance potential, state-of-the-art systems and some interesting features. It’s quite different to the recent McKeon-designed Baltic 112 Liara, which is more of a racercruiser. And while it shares a broadly similar ethos in terms of performance and blue water cruising with the Baltic cutters designed by judel/vrolijk, such as Baltic 112 Canova and Baltic 146 Path, the new 110 is primarily a sloop and will be distinctly different not just in style but also in functionality.

Below: The hull and deck have been joined and fitting out is under way. Note the elegantly shaped, fully integrated bowsprit

‘The McKeon pen can certainly be seen in some of the external styling features, otherwise the big differences are in the systems design with an electric drive and high-voltage battery banks,’ says Baltic Yachts’ executive vice president Henry Hawkins. One benefit of this project’s 10-year gestation period, he explains, ‘is the possibility to take advantage in the advancement of battery technology and electric motors.’

The owners of the 110 carefully weighed up the pros and cons of full custom and semi-custom yachts, with support from the highly knowledgeable team at A2B marine consultants, before deciding to have this one built. ‘The tipping point was to be able to build exactly what they wanted without compromising in any area – a once in a lifetime project,’ Hawkins says. ‘Baltic’s experience on the hybrid technology side through our recent builds was also a deciding factor. This boat will be larger than their previous yacht but will have within it all their ideas developed from their previous boats.’

Below: The deck, like the hull, is a foam-cored carbon fibre composite construction

Concept
Before commissioning a naval architect to design the yacht, the owners appointed a land-based architect, Andreas Martin-Löf Arkitekter, as their interior designer and general style consultant. Renowned for his warm minimalist aesthetic and innovative use of light, Martin-Löf brings a unique perspective and fresh ideas to the project because this was the first yacht design commission for his Stockholmbased design office. It wasn’t his first yacht design project, though, as Martin- Löf had recently designed the superstructure and interior for his own 11-metre boat.

‘For us it was crucial to work with an interior designer with land architecture experience, the Baltic 110’s owner explains. ‘Together we could challenge ourselves and the way of thinking when building our new yacht.’ The owners and Martin-Löf visited 15 yachts of a similar size from various shipyards and naval architects, interviewing their owners and crew to refine, focus and develop the concept for the 110.

‘Andreas and his team have played a very important role throughout our 110’s development,’ the owner says. ‘With their curiosity, professional approach and sensitivity to the yacht builder’s experience we have found a way to create the “warm minimalism” we were aiming for.’ This research led them to choose McKeon Yacht Design and Baltic Yachts.

‘What appealed to me about Baltic when we were looking at builders was the company’s approach to fully custom interiors and that the solutions we were proposing were being taken very seriously,’ says Andreas Martin-Löf. ‘Baltic is curious about testing things and appreciates the aesthetic in design. We also liked Baltic’s attitude towards sustainability with the issues about emissions giving way to electric propulsion, for instance.’

‘The design brief was for a performance cruising yacht capable of world cruising with the owner’s family in comfort and safety,’ says Malcolm McKeon. ‘Another key request from the client was to design and build a yacht that can run as efficiently as current technology will reliably allow.’

‘High on the list of priorities was performance as the owners are keen sailors and very much enjoy sailing in all conditions. At some point the Baltic 110 will partake in some of the Bucket regattas but initially world cruising in a comfortable and reliable yacht is their priority.’

‘The 110 will cruise worldwide and to remote destinations,’ Hawkins says. ‘The owners will be on board for longdistance passage making. She will not charter and most likely will operate with four or five crew.’

Hull, keel and rudders
‘The Baltic 110 is overall a new concept however there are certain elements that have evolved from our earlier designs,’ McKeon says. ‘The hull shape is an easily driven form with relatively broad aft sections to enhance reaching performance. Twin rudders will make the yacht easy to control and still light on the helm in the more extreme conditions.’ Like nearly all Baltic yachts there will be a direct connection between the wheels and rudders, precisely balanced and engineered to deliver the optimum ‘feel’ and feedback at the helm.

Below: Baltic’s construction method allows most systems to be installed at an early stage

The decision to build the yacht in hi-tech carbon composite, rather than aluminium or GRP, reduces the weight of the hull by about 20 tons – which is around 22 per cent of the total light ship displacement – while also giving it more structural stiffness. ‘Building in carbon to save weight wherever possible is key to building a performance sailing yacht,’ McKeon says. The keel will be made by APM to a design developed in collaboration with Baltic Yachts. ‘A lifting keel is paramount for performance sailing as it provides a relatively deep draught with the keel down but does not limit cruising areas when the keel is retracted,’ McKeon says. ‘The Baltic 110 has a telescoping lifting keel which does not impact on the accommodation spaces as the keel head is contained within the engine room.’ This neat and efficient solution provides 28 tonnes of ballast and a variable draught of 3.95m to 6m but it does create an extra challenge for the builder, as Hawkins says: ‘As always the biggest challenge has been to fit everything into the engine room.’

Deck plan
The foredeck is completely flush with seven skylight hatches, the low-profile deckhouse has a glass roof and the large passenger cockpit has tapered coamings that provide secure seat backs for the forward lounge area and a more open aspect for the twin sunpads aft. The twin helm pedestals are set outboard and slightly lower, aft of the working area for the crew where the mainsheet traveller runs almost full beam beneath the deck and four primary winches for headsails, code sails and gennakers are mounted on the gunwales, two on each side.

Interior design

The upper and lower saloons feel connected to each other and the glass coachroof floods the deckhouse with natural light
Even the crew’s mess is finished in Martin-Löf’s signature warm minimalist style

Throughout the interior a two-tone palette contrasts pale tones above waist height with dark tones below

In the galley stainless steel worktops match the appliances and are offset with white surfaces and headlining

One upshot of Martin-Löf’s visits to other yachts was a determination to create a less busy interior by reducing the clash of materials, textures and colours that are typically used in a large yacht interior. ‘I started by questioning some quite basic things that have been done the same way for decades,’ he says.

The result is a lot less visual clutter and a 30 per cent reduction in joins and connections between different parts of the interior fit-out. Where these are needed, they are exploited for other uses – for example lighting fixtures are set into the joins between headlining panels. The mainsheet tie-rod running through the navigation area is disguised with a blackened steel tube aligning with a panel divide.

Other defining elements of his work include careful selection of hardware, with hinges, handles and taps in bronze or similar dark treated metals, and a two-tone colour palette throughout the yacht with dark walnut on the sole and the lower halves of vertical surfaces contrasting with pale surfaces above. Sinks and showers are clad in limestone veneer with shadow gaps to give fixed units a free-standing impression, and Japanese rice paper is used with strips of solid walnut to create lanterns set into the corners of interior spaces to brighten up the parts of the interior that are usually dark.

Nearly all interior structure and furniture is super-light honeycomb construction with thin veneers of wood, paper and stone bonded on top. The doors, however, are milled from solid walnut. The main saloon in the deckhouse has very large through-hull windows with wide, cushioned 1.8m long sills beneath them, offering guests a comfortable nook to lie down and relax with a spectacular view. In the galley, stainless steel work tops match the fridge and freezer doors and combine with a natural cork sole and white headlining for a simple, clean overall effect.

‘The deckhouse is a new and contemporary concept,’ McKeon says. ‘The drive was to keep the profile as low and sleek as possible whilst still allowing a light and airy feel to the interior. This is achieved by the continuous saloon window and largely glass roof which runs the length of the cabin top and connects to the saloon doors. The cockpit and saloon spaces will feel connected through the full width glass sliding doors. We have also developed a stylish cockpit enclosure arrangement which connects the dodger and bimini so that the whole cockpit can be enclosed for the more extreme north and south cruising latitudes.’

Rig and sailplan
The rig package is a collaboration between McKeon and Southern Spars. ‘We have worked closely with them on several projects to develop high performance rigs while maintaining good safety margins and ease of handling for cruising use,’ McKeon says. ‘For this project in particular, the option to fit a square top mainsail and running backstays for future racing was important and allows the best of both worlds. However, with the heavily raked mast spreader arrangement the running backstays are not super critical in a tack or gybe so shorthanded sailing will be easily manageable.’

Below: The hull shape has some modest rocker to improve motion comfort at sea

With a light ship displacement of 91 tonnes and 638sq m of upwind sail area in a 365sq m pinhead mainsail and 273sq m blade jib, the Baltic 110 should be a powerful performer even in cruising mode. Its sail area : displacement ratio (SA/D) of 32 in that configuration is already more akin to a racer than a cruiser and a square top main will give an extra 55 square metres, boosting the boat’s SA/D to almost 35. Downwind, 1,255sq m of sailpower (or 1,310 with the square top mainsail) will ensure fast ocean passages.

Despite the focus on performance, this yacht is conceived as an all-rounder that can be easily handled by a small crew. ‘When designing a yacht that is to perform well across the wind range, it is important to make sure that there is sufficient sail area to maximise light air performance whilst tuning the yacht’s stability, so reefing is not required in normal trade wind conditions,’ McKeon explains. ‘We will expect to start reefing in around 16/17kts of true wind speed which is around 25/27kts apparent wind speed.’

The sailplan aims to combine the advantages of a pure sloop rig with the benefits of a cutter. ‘There is a single fixed headstay which makes tacking the yacht simpler and more enjoyable when sailing shorthanded,’ McKeon says. ‘The working jib and staysail are hoisted on soft stays from a large foredeck centre line deck locker which will make hoisting and stowing sails much quicker and easier. These two sails are then connected to under-deck furlers with internal tensioning rams.’

‘The headsails sheets are led to the aft deck winches through a deck bridle arrangement which allows for infinite sheeting angles for all points of sailing. Whilst the bridle system is a benefit when racing it also makes shorthanded cruising all the more enjoyable as the sails can be trimmed easily using the under-deck hydraulic rams connected to the bridle. The mainsheet and main halyard are on captive winches as this is the most efficient way to integrate the handling with a boom furling system.’

Below: The twin rudder configuration leaves plenty of space for a large tender garage

One notable feature of this yacht’s aesthetic is at the sharp end, where the gennaker and code sails will be flown from the end of a bowsprit that is fully integrated and carefully styled. ‘Bowsprits are not normally the most elegant part of the bow design so we have paid special attention to blending the sprit into the shape of the bow and minimising the size of the sprit head,’ McKeon says.

Next level efficiency
The 110 will be the third Baltic yacht with an electric propulsion system using the well proven Danfoss Editron motor, this time driving a conventional shaft, with Esoro lithium-ion batteries (120kWh gross / 110kWh net output) and twin 129kW Cummins diesel generators that are designed to meet IMO Tier 3 emissions regulations. Under sail, the freewheeling propeller will regenerate a useful amount of power.

This setup, already deployed in the Baltic 142 Canova and Baltic 117 Perseverance, is highly efficient and much quieter than a conventional diesel engine with a lot less vibration. It also meets another important requirement in the owners’ design brief, to create a reliable and failsafe ocean cruiser. ‘There have been no major steps since Canova,’ Baltic’s electrical system design engineer Kim Kolam says. ‘But the details in many parts of the control and distribution have been improved.’

Below: Broad aft quarters above the waterline add form stability when the yacht heels

There is more redundancy built into this hybrid system than a conventional diesel drivetrain, Kolam explains. ‘At sea, power can be taken from any of the two battery banks or two generators – four sources in total. The electric drivetrain is divided into two identical halves, each of which can propel the yacht at half speed as the motor itself has double windings connected to double inverters.’

The high-voltage system also powers the pumps that drive the yacht’s hydraulic sailing systems but it’s stepped down through inverters to supply the yacht's hotel loads.

With just one generator running to conserve fuel, the Baltic 110 is expected to have a cruising range of about 2,000 miles at nine knots with full hotel load. On battery power alone, assuming 8kts boatspeed with a power consumption around 50kW and an additional hotel load of roughly 15kW, the yacht should be able to run for at least an hour and a half, quite possibly two hours, before reverting to diesel-electric mode.

‘All manoeuvres can be done with battery power only,’ Kolam says. ‘At cruising speeds above about eight knots at least one generator must be running. So as a whole, the system basically has full redundancy.’

Even without any regeneration from the propeller while sailing, in typical cruising use with hotel systems running the Baltic 110 should be able to operate autonomously for an estimated 28 days before needing to refuel. ‘But if the winds are good, in theory no refuelling is needed,’ Kolam says. It’s very difficult to calculate regeneration capacity under sail, he explains, because the friction in the system is an unknown factor. This will also be the first implementation of the system with a folding propeller for Baltic, so Kolam is wisely unwilling to give specific figures for regeneration at this fairly early stage of the project.

What carbon emission reductions are expected? ‘You would normally have a big main engine running at roughly 40 per cent load together with a generator running at about 60 per cent load,’ Kolam says. ‘Compare that to our serial hybrid system, with only one generator running at optimal load. Without calculating any CO2 numbers this is easy maths to understand that we will have less fuel consumption and lower CO2 emissions.’

Still under discussion at the time of writing, Baltic and McKeon have also developed a solar power solution in which photovoltaic panels are slid into pockets along the full length of the yacht’s over-the-boom sun awning, and potentially also in the bimini. ‘Whilst the yacht is stationary for extended periods the sun awning would be able to generate around 10kW of energy,’ McKeon says.

Another advantage of Baltic’s serial hybrid system is much lower levels of noise and vibration. ‘The big difference is that there is a sound shield on the genset and its rubber mount can be much softer than on a main engine,’ Kolam says. ‘Also one generator is much smaller and lighter than the main engine which means less vibration.’ ‘Noise reduction is an ongoing challenge that sees each yacht get quieter and quieter, which we achieve through attention to detail,’ Hawkins adds. ‘Having an electric motor on the end of the shaft as opposed to a diesel engine is a good start and a sound deadening pad inserted in the hull skin above the propeller helps reduce the prop wash noise under the hull.’

Sailing performance
It may be some time before the 110’s full potential is revealed on the racecourse but McKeon predicts excellent performance even in cruising mode: ‘The Baltic 110 will sail comfortably at speeds in excess of 12kts in light winds and easily exceed 20kts of boatspeed in a breeze.’

Click here for more information on Baltic Yachts »

The classic and legendary Transpac Race is a challenge in three stages with an epic ride downwind to the finish line

For more than a century the lure of sailing to paradise has inspired thousands of offshore sailors to take on the 2225-mile challenge of racing to Hawaii. Since 1906 the Los Angeles to Honolulu Transpacific Yacht Race (more commonly known as Transpac) has been organised by the Transpacific Yacht Club to give offshore sailors the opportunity to realise this dream.

The 52nd edition of this classic ocean race will have its first starting gun fired on 27 June 2023. On this date and two successive dates – 29 June and 1 July – waves of monohulls and multihulls will set off from the start, off Los Angeles’ Point Fermin. From here they will sail upwind 26 miles west to clear the first mark of the course at the west end of Catalina Island with the next mark being the finish line buoy off Honolulu’s famous volcanic crater at Diamond Head – 2,200 miles to the southwest.

How they get there is the challenge of this race. Each team needs to do a careful analysis of weather forecasts that, when combined with the performance of the boat, are used to develop an optimal routing strategy around the ever-present but always changing North Pacific High. Rhumb line or great circle tracks rarely work: the light air of the High can be a trap with lessons in drifting. Sagging south from the rhumb line gets you trade wind breezes that bring speed, but at the price of sailing extra distance. The trick is finding the best balance between the two, and most of the best navigators in offshore racing history have come to race Transpac to meet this challenge.

Clever navigation and routing alone will not guarantee success. You need a well-prepared boat and a crew who can race fast and safe in highly varied conditions.

These conditions are in three distinct categories, the first being high-speed headsail reaching to exit the California coast where the water is cold, the skies are overcast and the waves are high. It’s cold, it’s wet and all you do is hike on the rail.

The second category typically comes after a few days when the wind direction starts migrating aft, sheets are eased and one headsail turns into two. The skies start clearing and the talk on board starts to turn towards spinnakers as the boat heels less and the sea state becomes more favourable. Waterproof outer layers of clothes start being shed as the on-deck experience becomes less of a fire hose and more like an adrenalinefuelled joy ride.

Then the last phase of the race has the signature conditions of the Transpac: reaching turns to VMG downwind sailing, including surfing down waves and frenetic spinnaker trimming. Everyone wants their turn at the helm to enjoy the fun, which varies depending on the boat type. Clothes reduce to lighter weight t-shirts, shorts and big hats while everything that was wet now dries out in the subtropical sun. The water colour turns from grey to clear deep blue, and flying fish and flying squid land on deck. Periodic rain squalls are first welcomed to get a fresh water rinse but then are used as slingshots to harvest their puffs and wind shifts to reduce the distance to Diamond Head which now lies only about 1,000 miles away.

The final approach racing downwind towards Oahu is often bittersweet: the team aboard is now well honed with effortless gybes and sail changes, the nights are lit by the stars and the moon and are warm and comfortable. No one wants this to end, it is truly champagne sailing.

Yet landfall awaits, first with the volcanic outcrop of Coco Head where the northern horizon that was endless sea forever has transformed to steep green topography accompanied by aromas of tropical vegetation. The finish line, a compass bearing taken from the Diamond Head Lighthouse through the bell buoy that warns of the inshore reef, lies just minutes ahead.

Centuries ago, Polynesians used to greet visitors at landfall bearing gifts to demonstrate their spirit of hospitality. TPYC replicates this Hawaiian tradition with parties given ashore for every entry soon after docking, day or night. There is no better finish to an offshore race than the warm embrace of friends, family and supporters at a Transpac Aloha party.Transpac is on everybody’s bucket list. Come and see what Aloha is all about and be part of this classic and legendary offshore race.

Click here for more information on Transpac 2023 »

Next year’s Rolex Fastnet Race will be the last edition before the ‘big one’... when the 100th Anniversary event starts off Cowes in 2025, so a good time to look back at the journey to date

On Saturday 25th August 1925 seven yachts set off from Ryde, exiting the Solent to the east, past the Forts, rounding the Isle of Wight bound for the Fastnet Rock off southwest Ireland where they turned on their heels for Plymouth to be finished by the Royal Western YC. First home and overall winner, Jolie Brise finished in six days two hours and 45 minutes. This was the first Fastnet Race, known at the time as the Ocean Race, and it would strongly speed up its evolution from being merely a fresh challenge for more adventurous cruising folk into becoming today’s highly refined sport. Famously at a dinner in Plymouth at the race’s conclusion, the Ocean Racing Club was created, with Jolie Brise’s owner Cdr EG Martin its first commodore.

Certainly there had been offshore, even oceanic, races before this. Notably the brave and by today’s standards foolish transatlantic races contested by the brash young millionaires of the New York Yacht Club, the first in 1866 won by a 25- year-old James Gordon Bennett Jnr (from where the English expletive comes), the race best summed up by its departure from New York in December. Remarkably only six died. This was followed by the fourth race of its kind, the more grown-up and part-politically motivated Kaiser’s Cup in 1905, famously won by the 69m three-masted schooner Atlantic.

In fact, it was a reaction to offshore racing apparently only being for the uber-wealthy in giant yachts that promoted the first of the classic 600-mile offshore races: the Bermuda Race. At the time Thomas Fleming Day, editor of The Rudder, was outspoken in extolling the merits of racing small boats offshore. To counter the guffawing, he proved his point by organising the first Bermuda Race, starting from Brooklyn, New York in May 1906. Three boats entered and the 38ft yawl Tamerlaine arrived in Bermuda five days six hours later. Job done.

Main picture: Edward Heath sailed in the 1973 Fastnet Race in 1973 in his S&S-designed Morning Cloud III while serving as UK Prime Minister.
Below: sailing instructions for the second Fastnet Race in 1925

After a hiatus from 1910 to 1923 the race resumed, starting from New London, Connecticut and it was in 1924 that Weston Martyr, a British WW1 veteran, yachtsman, adventurer and sailing journalist, at the time working as a ship broker in New York, competed aboard the schooner Northern Light. For Martyr this was life-changing and he returned brimming with enthusiasm, writing a seminal letter to Yachting Monthly: ‘It is without question the very finest sport a man can possibly engage in: for to play this game it is necessary to possess in the very highest degree those hallmarks of a true sportsman, skill, courage and endurance…’ He made comparisons with hunting big game, where the sea was the enemy and requiring as great nerve as when climbing mountains. But he also riled the British yachting establishment, throwing down the gauntlet with the observation that no British boat could compete successfully in the Bermuda Race, because of their lack of experience.

It was Martyr who suggested the present-day course to the Fastnet, of a similar distance to the Bermuda Race – 615 miles. This established a trend in offshore races of that length, spawning the Sydney-Hobart (1945), China Sea Race (1962) Middle Sea Race (1968) and more recently the RORC Caribbean 600 (2009), the Aegean 600 (2020) and this year’s Roschier Baltic Sea Race.

Martyr’s assertions about lack of British experience in offshore racing were certainly correct. At the time UK sailing/yachting was polarised. Racing inshore was highly developed. This was the era of Sir Thomas Sopwith’s Shamrock challenges for the America’s Cup while yachting for the royalty and the ruling classes was inshore in the metre classes. In an attempt to ‘get things back to normal’, in 1920 King George V had Britannia refitted for the umpteenth time and reignited the UK Royal Regattas. This was a huge programme, spanning the four corners of his kingdom, from the Royal Regatta in Cowes to the Clyde Fortnight. Royal attendance at these events were followed with the same verve as when the Queen in recent years has attended Royal Ascot or the Epsom Derby. Just as King Juan Carlos 1’s participation bolstered Spanish sailing from the 1980s on, so King George V’s initiative revitalised British sailing, bringing pre-WW1 racers like the 23m White Heather, the Fife gaff cutter Moonbeam and the giant Herreshoff schooner Westward out of retirement and causing new boats to be built.

Meanwhile in another corner, the cruising fraternity’s opinion was most loudly voiced by Claud Worth, president of The Little Ship Club and vice-commodore of the Royal Cruising Club, but, most importantly, author of the seminal book Yacht Cruising (1910). His opinion was that while cruising offshore in small boats was one thing, racing them was quite another. ‘In bad weather would they be able to judge when to run before it or even heave to?’ he reasoned. Conversely in the US Herb Stone, editor-in-chief of Yachting magazine in the early 1920s, was breathing life back into the Bermuda Race, arguing that racing offshore does develop sailing and navigation skills and encourages seamanship.

In the UK specialist offshore races were some way from being created, unlike the US where there were craft like the Alden-designed Malabar IV, winner of the 1923 Bermuda Race and the Herreshoff 40ft Memory, the first yacht in the race fitted with, appropriately, a Bermudian rig, which won both line honours and on corrected time in 1924.

In comparison, back in the UK the first Fastnet Race attracted a motley collection. The rules created by the organising committee of three (Martyr plus Martin and Malden Heckstall-Smith, editor of Yachting Monthly) permitted the entry of any “fully decked” yacht of any rig with a waterline length of 30-50ft. They had to be in cruising trim and a carry a lifeboat. Even then there was a restriction on professionals sailing on board, limited to those that could be “normally accommodated in the fo’c’sle,” though these professionals were less Olympic sailing medallists and more salty commercial seamen and fishermen.

Of the 16 entered only seven started; all British save one Spaniard Ingo Simon albeit on a Bristol Channel pilot cutter. At the time pilot cutters were perhaps the most appropriate offshore raceboats in the UK as back to the mid-19th century they had become well-developed for speed and seakeeping ability as their crews raced out into the Western Approaches to be first to intercept ships that might wish to employ their services. But by the 1920s such competition had ceased just as their sailing pilot boats had been replaced by steam-powered alternatives.

Above: the 50th Rolex Fastnet Race will start on Saturday 22 July, before rather than after Cowes Week. Berths should be more widely available in Cowes prior to the start. With Covid-19 restrictions now eased, it will also be easier to come ashore in Cherbourg to rest and recuperate, sample the cuisine and enjoy the hospitality after finishing the race.
Below: the first Fastnet winner Jolie Brise also won in 1929 and 1930, and competed again in 2013

American dominance would last for some time in the race’s early history: notably the back-to-back wins of Rod and Olin Stephens on Dorade in 1931-33, then similar consecutive victories of Richard Nye’s Carina in 1957-57 and Dick Carter's Rabbit in 1965 and Red Rooster four years later.

While next year’s race will the 50th edition of the Rolex Fastnet Race, it is almost by luck that it nearly coincides with its 100th birthday (due to be celebrated in 2025 alongside the RORC’s centenary). The first editions of the race were held annually until 1931 when it adopted its present biennial arrangement, alternating with the Newport-Bermuda Race. The race did not take place over World War II but restarted in 1947, a decade before it became the decider for the first Admiral’s Cup between UK and USA teams (preceded by the Channel Race and the Royal Yacht Squadron’s Britannia Cup and New York Challenge Cup during Cowes Week). For the next four decades the Fastnet Race would become better known as part of what at the time was international grand prix yachting’s premier event, which peaked in the late 1970s when 19 three-boat teams regularly competed.

Sadly the decline in Admiral’s Cup participation as well as Fastnet Race fleet size (by then up to a staggering 303 yachts) coincided with the 1979 Fastnet disaster, which resulted in 19 deaths. Attempts to revive a flagging Admiral’s Cup saw the Fastnet Race dropped from it in 1999, before the event ended fully in 2002, but this enabled Rolex to step in as sponsor of the Fastnet Race from 2001 to this day.

It was not until 2011 that the Rolex Fastnet Race passed its previous record participation which has continued to grow rapidly since, reaching a record 388 in 2019. The RORC confidently expects it to exceed 400 for its special 50th edition in 2023. None of the other classic 600-mile offshore races come anywhere close to such numbers, which is at least in part thanks to the RORC’s early embrace of French professional classes such as the Ultimes, Imoca and Class40s which in 2021 added more than 50 boats to the main IRC fleet.

Meanwhile the race record to Plymouth has been whittled down with the Ultime trimaran Edmond de Rothschild reducing it to a mere 28 hours two minutes and 26 seconds.

The race’s finish has now outgrown Plymouth and moved to Cherbourg and with this Fastnet has perhaps come full circle: from the first race having been won by a French boat in British hands, so the 2021 winner of the Fastnet Challenge Cup was another French boat in British hands, Tom Kneen’s JPK 11.80 Sunrise.

Click here for more information on Rolex Fastnet Race »

Bigger yachts, greater loads, fewer crew yet easier sailing. One reason that in 2022 such a bizarre and seemingly conflicting combination of features is possible can simply be described as ‘Reckmann’

There is a long-term trend in sailing and especially in cruising. Boats are getting bigger and crews are getting smaller. It’s now quite common for a novice sailor’s first yacht to be more than 50ft or even 65ft long. Most new cruising boats in that size bracket are designed to be sailed by a couple who may not have a lot of experience, without any other crew on board. Even with the full benefit of today’s technologies, this style of short-handed, push-button sailing can be extremely dangerous if you don’t have totally reliable, guaranteed failsafe sail-handling hardware and systems. And that’s where Reckmann comes in.

‘When you sail offshore in a large yacht with a shorthanded crew, your life quite literally depends on a complex, integrated system of mechanical, electric, hydraulic and electronic components,’ says Marcus Schuldt, chief executive of Reckmann. ‘For previous generations of sailors that would have been unthinkable but the solutions we offer make it feasible today.’

Reckmann’s headsail furlers are widely regarded as the best on the market and renowned for their rocksolid reliability. But they are just one part of a broad and versatile suite of sail-handling and rigging hardware – hydraulic cylinders, electric pumps and valves, MCUs, boom drives and more. Each of these is designed and manufactured to Reckmann’s exacting standards and can be relied upon to deliver extremely high levels of performance and reliability.

Hydraulic cylinders have an essential role on many large cruising yachts. ‘Our cylinders are made to work with pressure up to 440bar to achieve very compact and lightweight products,’ Schuldt explains. ‘All other brands go up to 350bar maximum. We also produce custom cylinders to meet special requests in addition to our standard range.’

Reckmann has developed a range of electric pumps specifically for its cylinders and drives, with manual pumps for backup. ‘The HPS is very quiet, very fast and compact,’ Schuldt says. ‘The good thing is that it is made in a modular design. This means you can add an HPS200 to an existing HPS200 and you have a HPS400 with double the performance. You can even make a HPS600 to operate bigger boom vangs.’

Boomfurl drive units for in-boom mainsail furling are an important part of Reckmann’s product suite. ‘The new front drive motor has many advantages over drives that are mounted in the outboard end of the boom,’ Schuldt says. ‘Our drive units were designed to achieve four main goals: reliability, better weight balance, a weight reduction within the structure of the boom and a reliable, high-load clutch integrated in the furling unit. Some of the leading brands of furling booms have already installed our drives and they are happy with the performance and service.’

A front-drive motor can make the boom effectively stronger. The most common cause of boom damage is an accidental gybe, when all of the boom’s kinetic energy is transferred as a shock load to the gooseneck. By relocating a significant weight from the outboard end to the inboard end of the boom, the torsional force on the gooseneck during an uncontrolled gybe is reduced.

Mounting the drive at the inboard end also allows the construction of the boom itself to be lighter and less complex. There is no need for oil supply tubes to run all the way through the boom, for example, which saves weight and reduces the risk of oil leakage inside the boom. The integrated clutch again saves weight, and the boom does not have to withstand torque loads at the shelf. Removing weight from the boom – and especially at its outboard end – can also improve the set of the mainsail in the often troublesome combination of light wind and ocean swell.

Assembly and maintenance costs are reduced because both the aft bearing and the front drive are easy to fit and service. A further benefit is that the forward end of the boom can be left open, allowing the crew to visually monitor the furl as it happens.

Reckmann boom drives also have an integrated cunningham function, which brings its own benefits. ‘The trim of the reefed mainsail comes very close to that of a slab-reefing system,’ Schuldt explains. ‘There is no need for extra lashings through the luff of the sail and it allows the skipper or helmsman to control the cunningham from the helm pedestal.’

While all of these products can and often do operate as stand-alone devices, they deliver further benefits when installed together in a fully integrated sail-handling system. Reckmann has market-leading expertise in delivering integrated solutions as well as manufacturing components.

Above: Reckmann’s new Boomfurl drives have the motor near the gooseneck to minimise its pitching moment and reduce the shock load of a crash gybe.

Some of the leading spar makers use Reckmann furling hardware in their in-mast and in-boom furling systems, but Reckmann also offers its own range of integrated mainsail furling solutions. These include the RMR in-mast furling system, which has been refined over four decades and is built from the same key components as Reckmann’s renowned RF90 headsail systems.

‘Our drives offer an easy-tooperate manual backup system by inserting a standard winch handle from the outside,’ Schuldt explains. ‘This special clutch system disengages the hydraulic motor from the luff rod system with no load on the winch handle from the sail at any time. The second gear step makes the manual backup three times faster. This means a quick and safe emergency manual backup system.’

‘A gooseneck bearing takes the entire load of the luff rod system. This means the hydraulic mast drive, which is connected with a universal joint, works with no pull or bending loads from the sail/luff rod system.’

Reckmann supplies its electric and hydraulic Boomfurl drives to spar makers, but also sells them direct, pre-installed in a Furlerboom or Mainfurl boom. These can then be integrated with Reckmann’s Furlfind automatic boom positioning system which prevents the common scenario of a jammed mainsail caused by a poorly aligned boom.

‘For an experienced crew there is nothing wrong with operating sail-handling hydraulics separately,’ Schuldt says. ‘But an integrated system, where a single button is pushed to operate an entire installation such as a mainsail handling system, is a real advantage and safety factor for a short-handed crew with less experience. These systems allow people who might struggle with the complexity of separate hydraulic functions to operate a large vessel safely.’

Furlfind has benefits for experienced sailors too. ‘At night, it is an advantage for any sailor to push one button and bring the boom into precisely the right position to furl the mainsail,’ Schuldt says. ‘A green light indicates when the boom is ready to operate the mainsail. This is far easier than to visually check whether the boom position is right.’

Above: Reckmann hydraulics enable small crews to fully control their sails and rig from the helm.
Below: HPS pumps are very quiet, fast, compact and can be installed as a modular system

Furlfind is used on a wide variety of yachts, including Swan and Solaris, Y-Yachts and X-Yachts, to name just a few. The mainsail furling system operates in conjunction with a main halyard on a captive winch. ‘Reckmann deck gear is commonly found on board our yachts due to its functionality and reliability,’ says Baltic Yachts’ EVP Henry Hawkins.

The Baltic 67PC is specifically designed for fast, short-handed ocean cruising. Its key features include top-down furling code and A sails with captured luffs, aft swept spreaders to avoid the need for runners, low rig loads for such a large, high-performance boat and a deck layout set up for easy sail-handling. Most lines are led aft and the deck winches are controlled from the helm pedestals. Remote controls allow movement around the deck whilst trimming and handling the sails.

When reefing the mainsail, Hawkins explains, ‘the most important action is to ensure that the boom is at the right height before furling to ensure that the sail rolls onto itself perfectly without the luff pushing forward or pulling aft. This can be measured physically on the vang or by way of a sensor. Furlfind takes the guesswork out of it and allows the sail to be furled or unfurled with a single joystick.’

Reckmann sail-handling systems are also ideal for retrofitting on large classic yachts, making them easier and less strenuous to sail. For example, Boomfurl and Furlfind systems were recently installed on a vintage Swan 65. ‘The main advantage is that it is still possible with these reliable systems to sail a boat of this size short-handed,’ the owner says. ‘We can sail our 65- footer with just two crew now, which saves us one or two additional crew. We get older and can still enjoy a comfortable yacht of the size we like.’

‘We do prefer Reckmann products because they are proven, powerful and of high quality,’ he says. ‘We have known the people at Reckmann for decades and have a good and trusting relationship with them. They support us promptly whenever needed. The excellent worldwide service is very important for us.’

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