First time out!

What better way to test your brand new, highly complex, high performance 108-footer than to head from Cape Town to the St. Barths Bucket for a premier international superyacht regatta?

To win any superyacht regatta is a stunning achievement, especially when it’s at the first attempt on a brand new yacht. Yet Gelliceaux, the first Southern Wind 108 Smart Custom to leave the Cape Town yard, was overall winner of this year’s St. Barths Bucket.

However, this yacht was primarily conceived as a fast, safe and easily handled luxury cruiser to take her owners and their three children on voyages around the globe. In just the first few months after leaving the shipyard in Cape Town she sailed an impressive 12,000 miles, including a 7,500-mile non-stop delivery to Lanzarote.

That voyage gave her owners sufficient confidence in their yacht’s reliability and blue water abilities to cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean for the winter season after only a two-week stop for maintenance in the Canary Islands. Gelliceaux then completed her first Atlantic crossing, an indisputable test the boat passed with flying colours, at an average speed of around 12kts.

As standard, the Southern Wind 108 includes a number of performanceenhancing features that are far from universal on yachts of this size. The hydraulic transverse jib tracks, for instance, allow precise three dimensional control of the clew of the jib from an array of buttons next to the primary winches.

The Southern Wind 108 Gelliceaux is optimised for both racing and cruising with a relatively small crew

‘We’ve fitted these on almost all of the last five or six boats we’ve built,’ says Southern Wind’s commercial manager Jeremy Peek, who raced as navigator on Gelliceaux at St. Barths. ‘Once you've sailed with transverse jib tracks, where you can just bring the car inboard to sail upwind or ease it out when reaching,’ he adds, ‘it's hard to go back to the limitations of an old school longitudinal track with inhaulers and outboard sheet leads.’ This ability to control jib trim precisely at the touch of a button also feeds back to a better feel on the helm even in cruising mode, simply because inaccurate jib trim disturbs the balance of the sailplan.

In addition, the Southern Wind arrangement facilitates regatta sailing with a small crew. As with most of today’s performance yachts, mainsail trim including vang, backstay and sheet can be controlled from the twin helm stations at the touch of a button. But it’s a gamechanger for a single headsail trimmer to be able to tweak luff tension and the jib clew position using controls positioned right next to the jib sheet winch. This means ‘there’s no reason not to have perfect sail trim all the time,’ says Peek.

Another standard feature for all Southern Wind 108s is that they leave the yard with everything in place to run either pinhead or square top mainsails. This includes hard points in the bilges for hydraulic cylinders for backstay deflectors, as well as the associated attachment points on the rig and strong points on the transom to fit the purchase system for the runners. In addition, the winches behind the helm stations are far enough aft to be used for the backstays. The first two 108s both have pinhead mainsails, but this level of forethought helps to future-proof them and gives the owners more flexibility at a later date without the cost and disruption of re-engineering structural elements of the boat and rig.

The Southern Wind 108’s hull and deck are constructed using an advanced carbon/epoxy sandwich with a mix of Corecell core materials. This produces a very strong and stiff boat with a remarkably light displacement of less than 79 tonnes

Both the first two 108s have an optional titanium Manson underwater anchor system that launches from under the yacht’s forefoot, using a high holding power anchor that gives a flush finish on the bottom of the hull when retracted. Moving the anchor away from the bow and sprit in this manner allows for a number of performance-enhancing features to be added.

First, it enables the bowsprit to be fitted with a fixed bobstay, allowing much higher working loads on the end of the sprit while eliminating concerns about chafe arising from contact with the anchor chain. It also allows the furler for the Code Zero to be fitted further forward, significantly increasing the gap between that and the main forestay. This gives more space for the sail to pass ahead of the forestay in gybes, without needing to completely furl it away. At the same time, the greater separation between the furled Code Zero and forestay tangibly reduces the extent to which the airflow over the jib is disturbed when sailing upwind.

Southern Wind’s Smart Custom concept also means Gelliceaux’s owners could be involved in the whole design process, including technical specifications, deck layout, interior configuration and finishes. This enabled them to create a stunning luxury, high-performance superyacht that exactly meets their requirements, without a lengthy lead time. According to Peek, a further advantage is that Southern Wind’s Smart Custom boats typically work out roughly 30 per cent less expensive than a full custom project of similar size.

The first SW108 to leave the Cape Town yard was overall winner of this year’s St. Barths Bucket

To optimise performance, Gelliceaux’s owners opted for a larger keel bulb allied to a taller rig that gives seven per cent more sail area. They also chose a lifting keel with a maximum 6.2m draught that contributes in giving a substantial 18 per cent increase in righting moment compared with the standard fixed keel, while shaving two tonnes off the yacht’s total displacement. At the same time, weight aloft is minimised through the use of high modulus carbon spars and carbon standing rigging, while titanium deck fittings complete the picture.

Construction is of an advanced carbon fibre and epoxy composite, with a Corecell sandwich. To minimise weight, furniture is made of honeycomb or foam sandwich panels with beautifully finished wooden veneers. This resulted in a completely new style for the interior, creating a perfect balance between elegance and minimal weight.

Displacement is less than 79 tonnes, which is an important element in making Gelliceaux easy to handle, as well as boosting performance. These aspects are further enhanced by the twin rudders that offer easy control while reducing loads in the steering system, even when power reaching at speeds equivalent to 300 or more miles per day.

The advantages of hybrid power systems, including near silent propulsion and power generation have long been understood by Southern Wind. These markedly improve comfort on board, while massively extending autonomy as fossil fuels can be used primarily as a back-up, rather than as the primary energy source.

Nyumba, the fourth Southern Wind 96 to hit the water, already uses the same hybrid propulsion system as Gelliceaux, but the SW108 goes a stage further as it benefits from the hybrid system having been engineered into the yacht’s design from the outset.

Jim Schmicker
Farr Yacht Design

The owners of Gelliceaux made a great decision to begin her competitive superyacht career by participating in the 2024 St. Barths Bucket regatta. Choosing to compete in the Corinthian Spirit class (gennakers not permitted and Code Zero flying sails remain hoisted throughout a race) complemented the plan to sail with limited crew.

Many factors have to come together favourably to win a regatta and Gelliceaux started strongly with great preparation. The ORCsy certificate was meticulously prepared and thoroughly checked. Sails and sail handling systems performed flawlessly without any breakdowns. Two training days were instrumental in developing crew coordination and were especially important for the helmspersons’ (the owners, husband and wife) familiarisation with steering their yacht in the sea conditions typical of St. Barths.

The design features of Gelliceaux, chosen with racing in mind, shone through on the racecourse. The most noticeable design features are generous sail area for superb light wind performance, ease of manoeuvering and great acceleration; high stability generated by a deep draft (6.2m), low drag, lifting keel; and twin rudders for easy handling especially under high load conditions including power reaching.

The keys to success in the first race (first place finish) were the beginning and ending upwind legs and particularly the three-mile power reaching leg, immediately before the short beat to the finish, when we achieved speeds consistently over 14kts. On that short leg alone, out of a total 20-mile race, the deficit to the leaders was cut from over 2300m to only 950m.

Our third-place finish in the second race was a direct result of considerably slower boat traffic and significant amounts of time lost getting past them. Success in superyacht pursuit races, for a faster boat like Gelliceaux, is often based on aggressively creating passing lanes. We did not do that very well and fell short of catching the rest of our class.

In the third race we correctly headed towards an approaching squall, were rewarded with a 60-degree wind shift and gained substantial distance on our competitors. Early in the race a bad Code Zero furl made it unusable and, for safety reasons, we dropped it and used only a jib for the remainder of the race. We managed to eke out a win but ultimately received a 30 per cent penalty for dousing the Code Zero, which dropped us to equalthird in the race but, in the intricacies of overall Bucket scoring, elevated Gelliceaux to the overall winner’s position!

From the start of the project the owners were interested in superyacht competition so the design process was focused towards high-performance from the beginning. The design process is one of comparing and contrasting different versions. As performance was paramount each version was assessed using our inhouse Velocity Prediction Programme and the resulting performance characteristics presented for many wind and sea conditions. With much discussion, the owners carefully considered the results which led to further development until a version fulfilling all aspects of their design brief was achieved. Southern Wind was very flexible about accommodating the owner’s wishes and the result is a stunning yacht inside and out with an unforgettable inaugural regatta performance.

To optimise power generation while sailing, and maximise efficiency when motoring, Gelliceaux has an 80cm diameter variable pitch propeller. This generates enough power to meet both sailing and hotel loads at boat speeds of 10kts or more. At 14kts, power generation reaches 25kW and increases to an amazing 35kW at 16kts. To put these figures in context, in only two hours of fast sailing, the hydrogeneration system can produce enough power to supply a 3,000 square foot house for an entire day.

Gelliceaux’s battery bank is sized to allow air conditioning to run all night without recourse to either of the two diesel generators. The lack of noise compared with even the best insulated diesel gensets makes a significant improvement to life on board, although the size of the battery bank needed to achieve this adds weight compared with a conventional diesel arrangement. In addition, the large propeller increases drag even when the blades are feathered.

By contrast, the second SW108, that’s scheduled for launch at the end of 2024, has a standard diesel installation with a conventional Bruton Varifold propeller that is lighter in weight and has less drag when sailing. Peek says with that boat they have therefore been able to ‘reach similar performance targets with a slightly shorter rig and smaller sail plan’.

The very large, guest cockpit is ideal for cruising and also works well when racing

‘With a smart custom boat like this,’ he adds, ‘we can work together with the naval architect and the yard to hit targets that would normally only be achievable with the full custom boat.’ In a similar vein, given the lifting keel’s 2.2m stroke, owners of subsequent boats could optimise for a shallower minimum draught to give easier access to a wider range of harbours, anchorages and cruising areas.

As the first in a new era of Southern Wind’s Smart Custom sailing yachts, Gelliceaux provides the ultimate balance between customisation, innovation, reliability, sustainability and efficiency. A high degree of customisation is also possible for further examples of the SW108, with the advantage that the Smart Custom concept means these boats can be available with lead times of as little as two years.

Yet each of Southern Wind’s yachts has a unique style and profile. While every SW108, for instance, is built using the same tooling for the hull and deck, the yard has developed a robust system to create custom coachroof and cockpit mouldings. This allows owners to specify solutions that perfectly fit their sense of style and sailing programmes.

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