Boat International US Edition - June 2018

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ON BOARD

PHOTOGRAPHY: MAURIZIO PARADISI; SALIH HUSMEN SEVIM; TUNCAY OZDAL; SECORE INTERNATIONAL/BARRY

BROWN

RIPPING UP THE RIG RULEBOOK

The sailing world is conservative. Just

look at how little evolution there has

been in masts and sailing plans – until

a young designer came up with a

concept for the Aero sail.

Mides Design’s solution, trademarked

last year, is an A frame structure

(anchored on either side of the boat)

supporting one (or several) booms with

an automated furling system that

rotate(s) from a central point. The design

frees up interior accommodation space

from a fixed mast and decks from

hardware, making room for a helicopter.

An 18ft prototype has already put the

Aero Sail to the test and a 63ft carbon

sailer is under construction. With

multiple A frames, added spreaders and

with computer simulation to support the

claim, the designer believes the system

could be adapted to super-sailing yachts.

The illustrations above show the

concept applied to a 230ft sailer and

how to lower the rig to pass a bridge or

to reduce air drag while the yacht in

under engine power. mides-design.si

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GO ANYWHERE

GOLDEN TOY

Sailing designer Vlad Murnikov (the lead designer behind the innovative SpeedDream that

aims to be the world’s fastest monohull) faced a challenge: he couldn’t talk his wife into sailing

anymore. In 2016 he came up with the design for a lightweight two-passenger powerboat he

can trailer to his favorite lake. He designed the 21ft boat with a slender hull, sponsons aft and

a wave-piercing bow and had a prototype built at IMX Composites in wood and epoxy.

Powered with a single 115hp Yamaha outboard, his 1,200lb (dry weight) Golden 21 can reach

45mph (or 35mph with a 70hp outboard). “It’s fun and people can’t stop grinning,” he says.

“It’s like a little convertible or a British sports car.” Murnikov is now looking to build more as

custom yacht toys for discerning thrill-seekers. vladmurnikov.com

UP FOR THE CUP

Europe’s longest running superyacht

regatta, the Superyacht Cup, returns

to Mallorca, Spain, from June 19 to 23

with a line-up of competing yachts as

diverse as it is impressive. Among 17

names on the provisional entry list at

the time of writing are modern carbon

cruisers and J Class veterans. The

121ft Bliss (pictured), built at Yachting

Developments in 2009, is making her

Superyacht Cup Palma debut after

spending the past four years cruising

the Pacific and South East Asia.

thesuperyachtcup.com

CUP CALLING

Bliss is swapping

the Pacific for

Palma and the Med Superyachts could be used to reverse

the trend of coral reef degradation

by spreading concrete tetrapods

impregnated with genetically-selected

super-corals. This is according to

conservation organization Secore

International, which believes that the

current method of manually planting

new corals is too slow and labor

intensive. “If we want restoration to play

a more meaningful role in coral reef

conservation, we need to think in new

directions,” says executive director Dirk

Petersen. “Our sowing approach is an

important step as it will allow large

numbers of corals to be planted in

a very short amount of time at

significantly lower costs.” Trials are

currently taking place of Curaçao

and, if successful, the method could

be quickly scaled up. secore.org

SOWING THE

WAY FORWARD

JUNE 2018

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