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Any reasonably knowledgeable yachtsman to
name all the New Zealand boatyards that come to mind and the list will
surely include internationally-known superyacht builders, such as Alloy
Yachts, Marten Marine, Sensation and McMullen & Wing, but few of the
country's many smaller yards will get a mention.
New Zealand has a large number of small, talented boatbuilding
companies, many of which specialise in custom builds, and this inspired
Mike Relling and Dave Lewis to set up MD Marine, an independent project
management company aimed at introducing UK designers to such yards and,
subsequently, overseeing any resulting builds on behalf of the yacht's
owner. A new commission was Hanseat IV, a world-cruising cutter from the
board of Dixon Yacht Design, based in Hamble on England's south coast.
At MD Marine's suggestion, Austral Yachts, a custom yacht builder and
refit specialist based in Whangerei, New Zealand, was added to the list
of potential builders and, following a satisfactory quotation and
inspection of the yard's facilities by Bill Dixon, the yacht's owner and
anischer Lloyd classification society, Austral was selected as
the builder.
At 24.6m, Hanseat IV is one of the rare breed of moderately-sized,
strongly built and superlatively equipped yachts intended for
short-handed ocean cruising. With just two professional crew and a
maximum guest capacity of seven, this is clearly a yacht where guests
are free to lend a hand.
However, fitted with every conceivable item of labour saving equipment,
both on deck and below, this will hardly be onerous work, while the
luxurious accommodation bears comparison with any sailing superyacht.
But Dixon's aim was not just to produce an easily manageable cruiser,
but one also with a classical hull form, whose performance matched or
exceeded the accepted norm.
No one would dispute her beauty - a perfect bow angle with an
unobtrusive yet ready-to-use anchor, long, low freeboard with pretty
sheerline and an attractive counter stern.
To achieve a hull with a high strength to weight ratio, the designers
opted for a wood-epoxy composite construction. Built under Germanischer
Lloyd rules, this utilised a strip-planked core of 45mm western red
cedar (less absorbent than balsa in case of skin puncture) with concave
and convex edge profiles, pre-soaked with epoxy and pinned with
composite nails. Few would doubt the robustness of the hull, especially
as it is decked from strong PVC, foam-cored composite and stiffened with
five watertight bulkheads.
Other advantages offered by this construction system include good
thermal insulation, poor transmission of sound and a slightly larger
internal volume than that offered by a steel or aluminium hull.
A deck saloon, distinguished by its curved, glass windscreen and
decorative, moulded air vents, tops the low coach-roof that runs for
most of the deck's length. In fact, the designers have done an excellent
job in integrating this layout with that of the interior, positioning
the raised deck saloon over the engine room, while the cockpit, with its
sole at deck level, is situated over the guest cabins.
Filling the stern of the yacht, the owner's cabin has a slightly higher
floor level to take the rise of the hull into account, but ample
headroom is maintained by extending upwards into the coach-roof abaft.
The cockpit, with its laid teak sole, seats and folding dining table, is
spacious and, without doors in its coaming, is also particularly safe
for young children. Twin pedestals carrying the hydraulic steering are
positioned aft, their console-style tops displaying every instalment,
control, navigation aid and communication device that a helmsman could
possibly want, including engine throttles, propeller pitch, bowthruster,
autopilot, depth, radar, wind instruments and buttons to trim the
mainsheet traveller, while the mainsheet winch and primaries are nearby,
just aft of the cockpit coaming.
The low deckhouse allows clear sight lines forward from the steering
cockpit, while the twin wheels not only enhance visibility to windward
when the yacht is heeled, but also ensure the instruments and controls
are positioned where they can immediately be seen and easily reached by
the helmsman.
Four steps take one down and forward from the cockpit into the deck
saloon, where the navigation and communications station occupies the
starboard side and. to port, a curved settee surrounds a dining table.
Such a saloon would be envied by any world-cruising yachtsman, being
close to the helmstation, supremely comfortable and providing almost
360-degrees of visibility from either a standing or sitting position.
The icing on the cake is the high quality craftsmanship invested in the
yacht's interior, designed by Dixon and built in-house by Austral. Of
particular note is the cherrywood raised and fielded panelling and the
teak and holly flooring throughout the yacht, including the crew
quarters.
Two stairs descend forward from the deck saloon into the full-beam
saloon.
Daylight pours through the deckhouse windscreen into the deck saloon and
with a pair of deck hatches and two wide portholes on either beam, a
pleasantly light and bright atmosphere with fine exterior views is
created in the dining saloon. Hanseat IV's saloon echoes the layout in
other yachts of this size, with a formal dining table to starboard and a
lounge with two settees and coffee table to port, in front of the real
flame fire place, the two areas being partially divided by a cabinet,
concealing the keel-stepped mast.
Forward of the saloon is a small lobby which opens into a guest day
head, while the remaining volume in the bows is devoted to crew and
services.
Everything one would expect in a much larger yacht is there in compact
form:
a laundry with washer and dryer, dinette mess, one double-bunked crew
cabin with adjoining head and shower and a small but well equipped
galley. The galley is panelled in cherrywood and decorated with blue and
white Delft tiles and includes a hob, oven, double sink, two freezers
and a fridge.
The owner's cabin and two guest cabins are in the stern of the yacht,
where they open off a short passageway at the foot of a flight of stairs
descending aft from the deck saloon. At the end of the passageway, the
owner's cabin is especially roomy and sumptuously decorated in a rich
mix of cherrywood, white wool carpeting and a cream suede headliner. At
the push of a button, a flat-screen television drops down from the
deckhead to provide optimum viewing from the centrally-positioned
king-size bed that is flanked by a pair of comfortable settees, while
the room is adjoined by a pair of 'his and hers' shower rooms in true
superyacht style.
To port and starboard of the passageway, the two guest cabins are fitted
with double berths and en suite shower rooms while, for flexibility of
accommodation, one of them has an additional Pullman berth.
In a comprehensively equipped, long-range cruising yacht of this size,
there is inevitably going to be a squeeze on machinery space. In an
ideal world, an additional three feet added on to her overall length
would not have gone amiss, but the owner was adamant that a policy of
'enlargement to meet the need' was not an option as, however justifiable
some additional length might seem, this can lead into a spiral of ever
increasing demand.
Despite this, the designers and builder found room for an excellent
workshop, positioned between the crash bulkhead just aft of the bow and
the forward bulkhead of the crew compartment, which is conveniently
accessed through a watertight door in the crew cabin and through a
sizeable deckhatch.
While there is an entry to the engine room through the floor of the deck
saloon, opening this while at sea somewhat disrupts movement through the
yacht, so the main entrance to the machinery is through a hatch set in
the port side deck which, although well sealed and secured with four
dogs, cannot be too convenient to use when on starboard tack and dipping
the rail!
An engine room of some 3.3m in fore and aft length and spanning the full
beam of the yacht might seem rather luxurious to the crew of a racing
yacht this size but, in spite of its high standards of layout and
installation, this one is totally packed with the same sort of machinery
one might find in a much larger motor yacht, much of it only slightly
smaller in size.
Hanseat IVs 300hp Lugger diesel will provide a continuous speed of ten
knots and the 3,950 litres of tankage will allow a range under power of
some l,600nm. The performance of this yacht amply demonstrates she is a
real sailing vessel rather than an engine-assisted motor sailer.
She sets some 339m2 of fore and aft sail, divided between mainsail,
staysail and genoa, on her carbon fibre rig from Marten Spars which
extends to 30.9m from the waterline. In average trade wind conditions -
with a 20-knot breeze on the beam - she is capable of 11.5 knots boat
speed, while 9.0 knots is a good planning figure for windward work when
she sails close enough to the wind to tack through an angle of 80
degrees.
Handling is straightforward in view of her Marten Spars/Leisurefurl
furling boom, hydraulically-powered sheet winches, furlers on both
headsails and a self-tacking staysail whose sheets require no attention
when going about. In the right conditions, a MPS can be flown, tacked to
the bow.
A carbon derrick in conjunction with a halyard and captive winch to
launch her Zodiac 350 waterjet-powered RIB tender. This is neatly
stowed, in deflated condition, in a foredeck locker, with the only
indication of its presence being a raised blister that accommodates its
console.
Graceful, with good performance, plenty of luxury accommodation and
loaded with all the machinery and time-saving equipment that one could
wish for, Hanseat IV is a very attractive and compact vessel with an
excellent capability for short-handed sailing. Add to this her sweet
lines and bulletproof hull design from Dixon Yacht Design, Austral's
high standard of construction and the valuable input from Mike Relling
and Dave Lewis from project managers MD Marine, the result is an
extremely enviable, world-roaming cruiser.