A custom catamaran
The French sailor Marc Pajot, Olympic medallist, winner of the 1982 Route du Rhum and two-time America's Cup semi-finalist has just unveiled a project for a 110-foot custom catamaran. The Eco Yacht was designed in collaboration with Nicolas Fauroux, engineer and naval architect and Franck de Rivoyre and Christophe Larose, structural and mature engineers, who participated in the construction of the multihulls Foncia and Groupama. The team is already in talks with several boat builders.
This catamaran has an aluminium hull and nacelle structure for lightness and ease of use for the shipyards, with a composite roof and flybridge superstructure and a carbon rigging featuring numerous innovations. Starting with a boomless mast.
A mast without a boom
The 181 m2 horn mainsail is easily hoisted on a boomless mast, which allows simple and safe adjustments, especially during gybing manoeuvres. To stow it, it descends by itself and simply folds flat on deck into a mainsail locker on the flybridge without human handling. Guided by lazyjacks that are unfolded when the locker is opened. She is hoisted with a single halyard on an electric winch to lock on a hook. Once the locker is closed, the sail is protected from UV rays and bad weather, and leaves room for a large sunbathing area.
The adjustment of the double-stranded sheet tension is done by 2 standard single-acting jacks and the sheet bar will be continuous with a "push, pull" jack, 2 buttons are enough for the adjustments. The headsails - a 110 m² jib, a 264 m² genoa, and a gennaker up to 790 m are mounted on electric furlers and sheets on captive winches located in the side lockers of the Fly. The mainsail will be set up or lowered in less than 4 minutes from the integrated helm stations at the front of the catwalks where all the controls are located. An interior lookout station is also designed around the chart table.
Comfortable navigation
With a gondola height of more than 1.60 m above the water to avoid impacts when closed, tapered bows and relatively narrow floats, the Eco Yacht should provide a smooth and smooth passage through the sea. With the two pivoting daggerboards, the hull will be able to ride upwind well, reducing water drag downwind and under power.
With a low hull drag, the sailing catamaran will be fitted with a hybrid engine to optimise energy efficiency and limit CO2 emissions and noise pollution. The generators and battery banks will be installed in the centre of the boat, while the shaft-line electric motors will be located in the aft skirts. Hydrodynamic generation using retractable pods will become an important source of charge for the battery banks, while a system of more than 35 m² of solar panels will ensure the consumption of life on board.
A custom layout
The ground floor layout is fully customizable. The main deck area of 100 m² provides a large lounge, dining room, bar, separate kitchen and panoramic owner's suite. The crew cabins will be duplex thanks to the nice headroom, with an independent crew quarter offering direct access to the galley and engine rooms. A total of 8 to 12 guests and 4 to 6 crew members can be accommodated on board.
Thanks to the high freeboard, the VIP cabins will have an opening on the same level as the aft skirts, accessible through a large glass door. These skirts form with the hydraulic platform in low position a huge bathing platform never before seen on a catamaran of this size and which can accommodate a Williams 625 tender. A counter-current swimming pool allows him to bring all the equipment of a large 40 m monohull yacht.
A very large outdoor space
The flybridge is larger at the front of the mast and offers plenty of living space: bar, sunbathing and dining area, without being hindered by manoeuvres. The beach accessible from inside through side doors is also very spacious and can be equipped with a jacuzzi.
In addition to access to shallow areas due to the catamaran hull, the boat can also be set ashore on the daggerboard salmon without the need for bers or special dunnage.
