aluminium exploration sailing yachts

EXPLORING ULTIMATE LOCATIONS IN STYLE

The extreme exploration superyachts by naval yachts.

NAVAL SERIES

GREENAVAL 60

Aluminium hybrid yachts.

eXtreme eXploration Passage Maker

WHY NAVAL YACHTS?

FEATURES OF OUR YACHTS

WHERE YOUR DREAMS COME TRUE

Aluminum explorer & expedition yachts, exploring boundless horizons with aluminum explorer & expedition yachts.

At Naval Yachts , we specialize in crafting aluminum or steel vessels designed for long-range journeys, unmatched durability, and eco-friendly performance. Our commitment to reducing maintenance while maximizing adventures sets us apart. Our yachts are built with aluminum or steel for strength and corrosion resistance, ensuring resilience in any environment. They're engineered for fuel efficiency without compromising power and require minimal upkeep, allowing you to focus on exploring the world's most remote corners. Join us to redefine exploration, embark on unforgettable journeys, and create lasting memories with Aluminum Explorer & Expedition Yachts . Naval Yachts Passage Maker Yachts offer a unique "passage maker" experience in the explorer and expedition yacht categories.

Aluminum Strength

With the up front caveat that there is no one “best” material to use when building a boat as they all have their own lists of pros and cons, when you set about building a boat to take on the extremes that Mother Nature can throw at you when crossing the world’s oceans “short handed” with just 1 or 2 people and doing so with the highest safety and comfort, the choice becomes more clear. As with many other choices when designing and building such a boat, this is an extremely personal decision and what counts the most is that YOU have the highest possible confidence in your choice and can set to sea knowing that your boat will be able to endure much more than you.

The reasons of choosing aluminium as your hull material

Fuel Efficiency

Fuel efficiency has become one of the most important subject for boat owners and sailors not only because of high expenses but also they pay attention to the environment and nature. Naval Yachts sees these facts and concentrates in new Technologies and engineered studies together with the technical universities and institutions to find and offer solutions.

We use aluminum. A superior material. Light and 100% recyclable. ( Aluminium Yachts )

We have hybrid solutions in powertrain. We have serial hybrid boats launched already with the latest technology.

We use light materials in interior. We make our calculations to reach a light but stable boat in the end.

We design and use the most efficient hull forms in order to get best results with minimum water resistance under the waterline.

Earth is a great planet to discover and experience on a boat. As long as you can. As the sailors would like to discover and see more places, they need enough speed, consume less and bigger fuel tanks.

Our boats can give the chance the sailors to cruise faster and longer without refueling.

Long Range Yachts : Exploring the Naval Yachts XPM Series

Mission Safety / Safety First

At Naval Yachts, safety is our paramount mission. We prioritize safety first in every aspect of our aluminum yacht production. From design to construction, our unwavering commitment to ensuring the security and well-being of our passengers and crew is at the core of our values

Full Customisation

Naval Yachts is specialised in custom boat building. All our boats are unique and can not be repated because every owner has his own dream on board.

Thanks to our design and engineering team, we can make modifications easily and our experienced production and assemly team can produce and apply these modifications.

With the up front caveat that there is no one “best” material to use when building a boat as they all have their own lists of pros and cons, when you set about building a boat to take on the extremes that Mother Nature can throw at you when crossing the world’s oceans “short handed” with just 1 or 2 people and doing so with the highest safety and comfort, the choice becomes more clear.  As with many other choices when designing and building such a boat, this is an extremely personal decision and what counts the most is that YOU have the highest possible confidence in your choice and can set to sea knowing that your boat will be able to endure much more than you.

The reasons of choosing aluminium as your hull material;

• Extremely easy to work with using regularly available tools such as carbide tipped saws and router bits and to fabricate with readily available welding and bending equipment.  CNC cutting with plasma, waterjet or laser works particularly well with aluminium which allows custom designs to be as affordably built as production boats with the dramatic savings in labour time and costs.
• On a like to like boat comparison aluminum boat hulls weigh about 30% less than steel and less weight means a more easily powered hull which pays us back in reduced fuel costs for the life of the boat.
• Our previous all steel sailboat taught us the valuable lesson that robustly built metal boats do not flex or move under the stress and strain of the seas and everything and everyone onboard benefits from boat parts that stay water tight because they don’t move and from the quiet of cabinetry that isn’t being flexed.
• eXtremely low exterior maintenance time and costs when left unpainted down to the waterline as we will do.  Left unpainted, bare aluminium quickly forms a hard outer layer of aluminium oxide which prevents any corrosion which will be a major cost savings throughout the life of the boat.
• Highest strength to weight ratio of any boat building material other than composites.
• Future modifications or repairs of damaged parts of the hull can be easily done with either onboard equipment if you know how to weld or by pretty much any welders you will find in any country.
• While steel may have higher puncture resistance in some situations, aluminium is the most pliable and ductile of any other boat material meaning that when (never if) we hit something the aluminium will bend but not break or crack.  By using gradually thicker aluminium hull plating from the 6mm we have on our decks to ultimately 16mm below the waterline and 25mm thick at the keel our hull will most likely see us through pretty much any scenario.
• Relatively easy to control corrosion or rot compared to steel, wood, fiberglass or composites.
• Aluminium is very “transparent” in terms of letting  you see any damage that does exist as there is nothing which hides below the surface of unpainted aluminium.
• It varies somewhat between different world markets but aluminium boats tend to have a higher resale value than other materials because of all the advantages above.

We use aluminum. A superior material. Light and 100% recyclable.

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• Yachting World
• Digital Edition

Garcia Explocat 52 review: A go-anywhere aluminium catamaran

• February 23, 2021

The new go-anywhere Garcia Explocat 52 offers an enticing combination of space, pace and rugged construction. Rupert Holmes tested the new boat for Yachting World and felt it's clear she has the potential to make easy 250 mile days in the right conditions.

Product Overview

Manufacturer:, price as reviewed:.

In recent years there have been two clear trends in serious long-term cruising yachts. Firstly catamarans have become mainstream, to the extent that professional racing sailors talk of ‘buying a catamaran’ for cruising with their families – a monohull doesn’t even enter the equation.

This trend can also be seen in ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) entries, where multihulls are increasingly common. In 2020 they accounted for 28% of the total fleet and a much higher proportion of new boats and more recent designs.

The second trend is the rapidly growing popularity of rugged metal expedition yachts. Aluminium is favoured for this as it offers good strength and stiffness without a weight penalty, especially for yachts over a critical size. That’s why many top-end racing yachts were built of aluminium before composites dominated that scene.

This is a boat that’s capable of effortlessly eating miles on a long passage. Photo: Jérôme Houyvet/Garcia Yachts

It was, therefore, surely only a matter of time before someone married these two concepts to create an aluminium expedition catamaran. Cherbourg-based Garcia Yachts has been building metal boats for almost 50 years, including Jean Luc Van Den Heede ’s 36.15 MET, in which he scored a podium finish in the inaugural Vendée Globe Race in 1989.

Equally Garcia needs no introduction as a front-runner in the development of expedition yachts, thanks to the success of the Exploration 45 that was developed with ARC founder Jimmy Cornell eight years ago. What’s less well known is that the Explocat 52 is by no means Garcia’s first aluminium catamaran.

A pair of 43-footers 15 years ago were followed by the SC48, one of which consistently posted some of the fastest passage times in the 2017/18 World ARC .

As part of the Grand Large Yachting group Garcia was also able to draw on considerable expertise from Outremer and Gunboat for its latest model, while naval architecture is by Pierre Delion, who also drew the SC48.

The Explocat 52 is therefore the product of a highly knowledgeable development team and has already attracted plenty of attention, including nomination for the 2021 European Yacht of the Year awards.

The core concept for the Explocat 52 is a robust, safe long-range yacht that offers good passagemaking speeds. A high level of comfort, both at sea – even in inclement weather – and in harbour was also a key requirement, and the boat had to be capable of being handled by a couple.

Go anywhere?

While a key marketing message for Garcia’s monohulls is ‘Nowhere you can’t go’, the company accepts this won’t apply as literally to the Explocat 52, even though the boat’s impressive speed potential will enable routing around a lot of bad weather.

Explocat 52, the ultimate aluminium exploration catamaran by Garcia Yachts

The problem is, unlike being knocked down in a monohull, capsizing a multihull is always catastrophic. There are parts of the world, especially at high latitudes in the southern hemisphere, or out of season in the north, where it could be impossible to route around potentially dangerous weather. Nevertheless, the boat is intended to stretch the boundaries that are sensible for exploring the globe with a catamaran, allowing owners to sail a lot further north and south than might be prudent with existing designs.

Rugged construction is also a benefit when venturing off the beaten track in tropical waters. If anything goes wrong while exploring a poorly-charted lagoon, for instance, a fibreglass boat may be in grave danger. Many foam sandwich hulls have surprisingly thin outer skins, which can make the structure vulnerable to abrasion, whether from coral or a concrete quay.

By contrast, the thinnest plating of the Explocat 52 is 5mm, which increases through 8, 10 and 12mm thicknesses, before reaching an enormously reassuring 14mm at the bottom of the hulls. The boat has framing of up to 14mm and is structurally engineered to eliminate flexing between the hulls.

A substantial keel with a long chord length is welded to the bottom of the hulls. They are marginally deeper than the rudders, which offers some protection, as well as providing a firm base on which to dry out on a beach. At the same time the key elements that have made Garcia’s Exploration monohulls so successful are incorporated.

These include fore and aft watertight bulkheads and upstands for through-hull fittings that enable all seacocks to be above the waterline. A skeg ahead of the saildrives and rudders provides good protection, while the rudders are large enough to offer redundancy in the event of one being lost. In addition, the top aft corner of the rudders have a sacrificial zone designed to eliminate risk of the blade puncturing the hull, or becoming jammed, if it hits an obstruction with enough force to bend the stock.

What about weight? Are metal multihulls uncommon because they’re simply too heavy? As with aluminium monohulls, where the material offers better strength/weight ratios for larger boats, around 14m/46ft overall length seems to be a transition point for catamarans.

Below that composite boats will always be lighter, but above that length aluminium is lighter for equivalent rigidity than a composite structure that doesn’t use exotic materials. At 18.9 tonnes lightship displacement the Explocat is therefore in the same league as other cruising catamarans of a similar size and indeed lighter than some.

Substantial built-in attachment points for shorelines are found at the waterline of each bow for use in extreme conditions, plus attachment points aft for a drogue

Interestingly, it’s also a similar figure to that of the Exploration 52 monohull, yet the Explocat offers a large amount of extra space and 35% more sail area. Maximum payload is a useful five tonnes. But how does that translate on the water?

Rapid exploration

Our test took place from Cherbourg on a gloriously sunny late November day, with a gusty and shifty southerly breeze varying from 7-19 knots.

It’s immediately clear the Explocat 52 picks up and sails at speeds that belie its displacement, putting it in a different league to other expedition yachts of similar length, especially when reaching.

Broad reaching at 120° TWA with full main and Code 0 in 16 knots of true wind we cruised comfortably at 10 knots, reaching an unfussed maximum of 11.8 knots, with the boat still feeling rock steady.

When the breeze picked up to 19 knots, at the design limit for the Code 0, we furled it and continued with the Solent jib instead, losing only a couple of knots of boat speed. By the time we turned upwind the wind had eased significantly, which gave a good test in conditions that can challenge cruising yachts.

Article continues below…

Boreal 52 boat test – The sailor’s off-roader

If ‘off-road’ or ‘off-piste’ were categories in sailing, the Boréal 52 would be among the top contenders. From the brushed…

Garcia Exploration 52 test: The sailing equivalent of a 4×4 off-roader

If you were to take your partner or family to some of the world’s most remote waters, exploring the oceans…

In just seven knots of true wind we made 5.3 close-hauled, rising to 6.2 in 9 knots of breeze. Maximum upwind speed was 9 knots in 15 knots of true wind. However, these numbers can’t be achieved if pinching – the boat likes to be sailed fast and free, with tacking angles of at least 105°. This is hardly a surprise for a boat of this style that’s sufficiently fast to have a big impact on apparent wind angles.

Even in light airs the Explocat is surprisingly nimble in tacks, showing no hint it might miss stays, or slow enough for steering to be difficult until speed is regained on the new tack. Obviously the steering has less feel than a lightweight monohull, but there’s enough feedback for it to feel reasonably responsive and enjoyable to helm.

The shifty and gusty offshore winds were ideal for figuring out the boat’s capability across a range of wind strengths, but the mostly flat water meant we didn’t see the boat performing in a more agitated sea state.

Pete Goss – another massively experienced high-profile Garcia owner – has sailed the boat in more lively conditions. Even fully powered up he reported the lee shrouds remaining tight and there was no telltale creaking of furniture below decks, indicating no deflection of the structure despite the high loads. “It’s incredible how fast she is,” Goss says. He was also impressed by how nimbly the boat tacks.

Cockpits and steering

Much thought has gone into optimising the deck layout. The core vision is for key operations to take place in the safety and shelter of the aft cockpit. The only exceptions are preparing the main for use and hoisting/dropping spinnakers and reaching sails.

We conducted our test in south-east to south-west winds of 7-19 knots, in flat water

As standard the helm station is offset to starboard at the front of the aft cockpit. It has a two-position swinging wheel, which provides an all-round view over the top of the coachroof in its upper position. When swung inboard and lower, the helmsman gains shelter from the hard top, while being able to see forward through the bridgedeck cabin windows.

However, at the request of the owner the first boat has twin outboard helm stations. Before sailing it I’d expected to prefer this arrangement, but didn’t warm to it. Granted, you can steer from the windward side, with a good view of the jib, but the headsail luff will also be visible from the higher of the standard steering positions.

The key problem with the twin wheels is the coachroof creates a large blind spot on the other side of the boat. This has potential to create issues when manoeuvring in confined quarters such as a marina or when bailing out of an anchorage in an unexpected squall.

Mainsheet and traveller are handled right aft on the crossbeam, while the headsail, staysail and kite sheets, plus furling lines, are handled by electric Lewmar 65 winches on each side of the cockpit. Plenty of large rope bins and bags help keep lines nicely ordered.

The rig has twin headstays, with a marginally overlapping furling Solent jib on the main forestay, plus a self-tacking furling staysail. This runs on a neat Dyneema strop, instead of a more conventional but unnecessarily expensive and heavy track.

Combined with furling spinnakers and reaching sails it’s an excellent configuration that takes the hassle out of changing gear to suit widely different conditions.

The square-top mainsail has a Dyneema strop that pulls the ‘gaff’ forward to the mast track without any need for complex hooks, making it as easy to use as pin-head sails. A fuse attaching one of the mainsheet blocks to the boom is intended as a capsize prevention device if the boat is over pressed.

When the fuse blows the strop joining the block to the boom extends by two metres, immediately depowering the sail. The idea of the forward cockpit is to provide a protected position for a lookout when sailing in ice and for anchor handling. It also doubles as a well ventilated area for relaxation when at anchor in warmer climes.

It’s generally easy to move around on deck and there are decent steps at a gentle gradient between the various different levels. I also liked the cork deck – it looks surprisingly good, has great grip and is a more environmentally friendly option than teak.

There’s plenty of stowage, both in small lockers in the cockpit benches and in cavernous sail lockers at the front of each hull.

Davits are rated to take a 500kg RIB, allowing a substantial, powerful tender to be carried.

Temperature control

Alongside the rugged exterior is supremely comfortable and well thought out accommodation.

This, of course, isn’t a boat where it would be appropriate for the distinction between interior and exterior living spaces to be all but eliminated, as it is for many recent designs intended solely for hot climates. Nevertheless, the standard specification has a drop-down window each side of the door between the saloon and aft cockpit. This will help to open the saloon to the aft cockpit and improve ventilation in warm weather.

The saloon is comfortable, bright and airy, yet also has practical sea-going elements

For colder parts of the world an air extraction system vents moist and stale interior air without needing to open hatches.

The main forward saloon windows are also equipped with demisters. In the same vein, dedicated lockers for foul weather gear and boots have mechanical ventilation and heating. These features make sailing in cold and damp regions far more civilised, yet are addressed by disappointingly few manufacturers.

The aluminium shell is lined with up to 76mm of high density foam, which provides excellent thermal and acoustic insulation. As a result the boat is impressively quiet inside when under way – in the saloon you can barely hear the engines, even at cruising speed, and the high bridgedeck – it’s 85cm above the water – means we experienced no slapping of waves.

Insulation of this standard is expensive to install and doesn’t show up on photographs. Yet yachts create a cacophony of noise in heavy weather. Effective sound proofing is therefore a critical element in creating a comfortable environment, while the thermal insulation will be a benefit whether in the tropics or the Arctic.

As you’d expect, the saloon is very bright and airy, with a good almost all-round view.

The navstation forward on the port side, next to the watertight door to the forward cockpit

The biggest drawback in this respect is at the navstation, forward on the port side, as the mast support and starboard forward mullion obscure some of the view.

Also to port is a big galley that offers plenty of secure worktop space, with low fiddles, and masses of stowage. The test boat had additional fridge and freezer space in the starboard hull. Garcia says more than half its customers choose electric cooking and this boat has a microwave, electric oven and induction hob.

The company has its roots in custom boatbuilding and offers several choices for fitting out the hulls, with options for 6-10 berth arrangements, including a classic owner’s layout. The aft cabins have natural light through two hull windows, a wide aft window to the cockpit, plus opening ports aft and overhead.

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Garcia’s longstanding knowledge of creating rugged go-anywhere yachts has enabled the yard to produce one with a very enticing combination of space, pace and rugged construction. It also benefits from a high standard of finish, attention to detail and many neat touches. It’s clear the boat has the potential to make easy 250 mile days in the right conditions. At the same time it has sufficient tankage and stowage for supplies, spares and tools to give a high level of autonomy for extended periods. The owner of the first boat intends voyaging to Svalbard and, with another seven boats on order, it’s unlikely to be long before we see Explocats in many more far-flung and interesting parts of the globe.

GARCIA 60 Exploration: the all-terrain vessel of the sea

Garcia is fearless in its path; its distinctive aluminium cruising yachts have gained a strong reputation over the past 50 years. The latest model, the Garcia 60 Exploration , is a shoal-draught expedition yacht that will take you anywhere around the globe. As I discovered, sailing in more confined waters, she is also responsive and incredibly fun.

“Nowhere you can’t go” is the philosophy of the French shipyard Garcia. Jean Pierre and Jean Louis Garcia in 1974 founded the brand for bluewater aluminium yachts. In 2011 the new Exploration yacht was the result and influence of a long-distance navigator Jimmy Cornell and the passion of the Garcia team.

Jimmy Cornell , Yachtsman and bestselling author of World Cruising Routes , said, “I was looking for a sailing boat adapted to my trips that combined sailing at high latitudes and in the tropics, but was unable to find a solution on the market. I decided to design a new boat that would come close to being the perfect cruising sailboat. I was immediately very enthusiastic; they were the best builders of aluminium yachts in France, and they had with them one of the greatest naval architects Olivier Racoupeau. Without a doupt they were going to build the boat of my dreams.”

Discovering the Garcia 60 Exploration

It’s mid-March, and a few storms have hit France, so when Grand Large Yachting invited us to test the Garcia Exploration 60 , we were excited; it’s not often you get to try a sailboat in moderate wind.

We arrived bright and early in Cherbourg, France, jumping at the gate to climb aboard and get underway. What struck me first was the size of this aluminium beast; she’s 19.5 meters long by 5.4m in the beam , an absolute monster and by far the most significant sailboat I have tested to date.

I spent some time with the skipper familiarising myself with the technical workings of this Garcia 60 Exploration before we set off; it is something I like to do on all sailboats. It’s an excellent task, but Garcia has made this easy with its intelligent systems and ergonomic cockpit design.

All systems can be operated from both port and starboard helm pedestals. The central hydraulic servo system runs your forward sails fullers, windlass, centre board, genset, and vang. Time to go; we expect winds from the southeast between 15-20kn gusting to 28kn, so a good breeze to get this 33T lady moving. Manoeuvring out of a marina with twin rudders is not my favourite sport. Still, with the bow and stern thrusters, my five-year-old would make it look easy. If you’re worried, The aluminium hull is 5 to 12 mm thick. It is charitably dimensioned right down to its ribs and stringers, assuring foolproof impact resistance. For even more peace of mind, the structure includes a watertight bulkhead at the front and the rear, upstream of the steering system. A fin protects the shaft. The rudders are made of aluminium and preceded by a protective skeg; They also have a composite sacrificial zone in their upper part. In case of a violent shock, if the rudder stock should bend, the hull is protected, and the rudder remains functional. you don’t pierce your hull if you hit anything, don’t forget this is a first-class blue water sailboat, after all.

I appreciate with a potential shallow draft of 1.50 m; shallow anchorages stay accessible to such a sailboat. Moving away from tourist areas and choosing less frequented zones is possible. Going up rivers or rias is also likely. And most explorers will also be able to adventure into areas that still need to be appropriately mapped. It is reassuring the possibility of being able to reach shelter zones. With its modern and stable hull – designed by “ Olivier Racoupeau ” – and its generous sail plan, the Exploration 60 has high average speeds that shorten distances. The centring of the weights (chain wells at the foot of the mast, centred tanks) limits the Boat’s pitching and supports its seaworthiness and sailing comfort. Sailing downwind with the centreboard up, speeding up on the wave remains safe, and the movements are smoother without any hooking effect. Similarly, I expect the Boat to move freely between the waves in extreme sea conditions, less exposed to their power, but I have yet to find out.

While we are on the subject of stability, The Garcia 60 Exploration holds up to 800 litres of fresh water and 2,200 litres of diesel, and all the tanks are fixed centrally in the hull. You add 450KG of Anker chain by the mast and spare parts and copious amounts of stowage; all the technical equipment is grouped in a dedicated area, a properly Soundproofed engine room, easily accessible for maintenance and any repairs. This provides comfort for those living aboard.

The Garcia 60 Exploration also has an actual workshop. The tools and spare parts storage area is spacious enough to work in and care for the Boat. With its many interior storage spaces, large sail compartments and voluminous exterior storage spaces, the Exploration 60 has an exceptional carrying capacity of 4 tons. Water sports equipment such as paddle boards and scuba tanks can be taken on board for leisure or exploration.

Below decks

As she settled into her rhythm, it was time for a well-earned cup of tea and a little poke around below decks to see what this lady had to offer.

Moving forward, I found my spot for passage-making. In the raised salon (port side), you will find one of the USPs of Garcia, The chart table; it is like a wheelhouse, with all your instruments and engine controls. I have a 270° view here looking straight out the Double glazed windows. Whatever the weather conditions, the boat can be piloted from the inside, and the inverted shape of the roof prevents reflections. I can feel myself daydreaming about all the possible places we could adventure with this sailboat. I have never liked the cold, but imagining the look on my daughter’s face seeing an iceberg for the first time makes me smile and think of the possibilities and destinations. 

This full-width cabin can be set for two classic cabins or a double cabin and a technical area. You can customise this area as much as you like, but I would like it like this. There is more storage than you need, and every drawer has a sea bar lock so that nothing will open by itself. This owner had asked for an on-sweat head fitted to the starboard side of their cabin with a separate rain head shower. The volume of the boat is impressive, with a minimum under-ceiling height of 2 m everywhere. With portholes more than 40 cm high around the roof, light is everywhere inside the Exploration 60. The materials are chosen with taste and assembled with care.

Below the saloon, a double cabin can complete the sleeping space for guests or be reserved for a crew member. The owner can thus accommodate a skipper or a crew member to accompany them on their voyages. 

Time to get some sea air again

The cockpit is protected by the elegant hard-top that runs far aft, which is my second favourite spot on this boat; as it started to rain, I can tell you it was out of the weather, but you feel part of the action, especially as once again you have a dedicated area to starboard with all your instruments so keeping watch hear will be a dream for most sailors like me.

Our cockpit area was fitted with side covers for added protection and insulation, making it feel more cosey; It is an additional living space, a natural second saloon, with a neat design, accessible by only three steps from the interior space. All too soon, it was time to gybe and head back to port. I feel robbed as we change course; this boat invites you to daydream about what might be possible on your adventures through life and unlimited destinations.

Garcia 60 Exploration: in Conclusion

This is a boat-borne of considerable experience and attention to detail , taking a proven concept and refining it to a new level . There are many small but clever touches that may take time to be noticeable but make a difference to life on board. So it offers a big step forward compared to the other blue water sailboats on the market. In particular, the more significant owner’s cabin makes living on board for extended periods more civilised. At the same time, the more oversized cockpit will work just as well in the tropics as at high latitudes. It’s a supremely capable yacht with long legs that effortlessly puts in good daily mileage when crossing oceans. Yet, it will also be fun to sail in your home waters. However, what’s unique is the combination of Garcia’s Four signature features:

• Rugged aluminium construction.
• Shoal draught with the ability to dry out.
• The protection offered by the cockpit area.
• Compleat autonomy on Expeditions

This latest edition to the Garcia fleet is a credit to their passion and expertise in building ultimate explorer sailboats. I am sure other shipyards will watch Garcia closely and adapt their sailboats to catch up.

This boat has left me wanting to sell everything I own, pack my family on board and see where this magnificent blue water sailboat will take us.

Having read closely this article written by a sailor with passion I am in a dream like state. This wonderful yacht is just that, a floating home to claim ones wander lust. This is undoubtedly the finest yacht to fulfil those aspirations. I concur with the writer. Sell up and explore the world. One has one life , just do it. .

Thank you, Mike; I am glad you enjoyed the article. Yes, the Garcia 60 is a real game changer; if it were within budget, we would be planning our world expedition. We feel very privileged to have had the opportunity to review this magnificent sailboat.

Great boat great article. Some errors in the copy possibly due to language not fully translating. I can find nothing regarding the power source. Is it a gen set powering electric drivetrain. Is it a normal engine driven prop. Does it regen using the prop to generate electricity to replenish battery banks? Where exactly is the laundry room?

Great review of an amazing boat – this ticks so many boxes for remote exploration and diving trips, both tropical and high latitude. Thanks!

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Garcia Explocat 52

Description

If you have your heart set on long voyages, you will be looking for a cat that is capable of knocking out high miles-per-day averages. And if you want to go off the beaten track into higher latitudes, you will need a yacht that is rugged and capable of taking knocks.

Aluminium yachts are nothing new in the monohull world, so I guess it was just a matter of time before someone launched an aluminium catamaran capable of exploring most corners of the planet safely and comfortably. Lucky for us, that someone is Garcia Yachts from Cherbourg, France and Pierre Delion who are the team behind the Explocat 52 . This yacht is competing with the likes of the Windelo 54 , but it promises safety in higher latitudes.

Garcia (part of Grand Large Yachting Group who also own Outremer and Gunboat) developed the Exploration 45 with Jimmy Cornell. The Explocat is their follow up on 2 hulls to this successful monohull.

The idea? A comfortable, safe long-distance catamaran that can be handled by a couple and that cruises at above average speed. And all that with a finish that you might expect on something out of the Privilege catamarans range.

Photos: Garcia Yachts and Jermoe Houyvet.

Construction

Let’s talk about how the Garcia Explocat 52 is built as this is one of her key USPs.

She’s built in aluminium of course. This material gives you better strength/weight ratios at this length – she comes in at 18.9 tonnes light displacement – slightly heavier than a Fountaine Pajot 51, for example, but you end up with a stiffer, more robust boat with a more powerful sail plan: the Explocat prioritises seaworthiness over flybridges.

You will squeeze more performance out of an Outremer 51, but the Garcia 52 is the more robust yacht. We are talking fibreglass versus aluminium, remember? The Garcia Explocat will always be heavier than a comparable fibreglass or carbon catamaran (read our Balance 482 review as an example). that is your trade off for strength, durability, sustainability and resale value.

The thinnest plating of the Explocat 52 is 5mm, which builds to 8, 10 and 12mm, reaching 14mm at the bottom of the hulls.

Fixed keels are welded to the bottom of the hulls (another safety feature for when you are off the beaten track). They are deeper and protect the rudders, allowing you to dry the boat out at low tide like a Prout.

Other safety features include fore and aft watertight bulkheads and skegs in front of the saildrives.

• Aluminum structural bulkheads
• Aluminum forward beam, composite forward longitudinal beam
• Chain plates and reinforcement plates welded directly onto the hull and deck structure
• Watertight forward and aft bulkheads welded directly onto the hull and deck structure

The aim on the Explocat 52 is to average 250 nm a day in decent conditions and with a steady breeze you should be hitting double figures with her powerful sail plan.

Even in lighter airs, the Explocat will get going quickly with a Code 0 or gennaker up. You won’t be matching TWS like you would in a Marsaudon, you’ll be around 2 knots slower, but this is still a nippy yacht.

Options of the rig include:

• Carbon mast with kevlar rigging
• Furling boom
• Lighting in spreaders

This means the lines are shorter and there is less friction from being routed around blocks. Simpler is better in this case. There is also an option to run these back to the helms if you prefer.

There are options on the helm position. One owner has gone for twin aft helms, while the standard set up is a swivel (pendulum) helm at the main bulkhead- a configuration that first came to market on Balance catamarans.

The Mainsheet and traveller are handled on the aft crossbeam, while the genoa, solent and gennaker/code 0 sheets, plus furling lines, are managed with electric Lewmar 65 winches on either side of the cockpit.

Garcia have done a great job of helping you to keep the working areas tidy with big bags for your ropes to keep the yacht ship-shape. Reefing lines come back safely to the helm, (there is an option to manage these at the mast if you prefer shorter lines).

The rig has two headstays, with an overlapping furling jib on the main forestay, and a self-tacking furling solent.

Add the furling spinnakers and lighter wind sails, and you have a flexible package that will optimise your sail plan in most conditions with minimum fuss. There is a safety fuse on one of the mainsheet blocks to the boom. When this blows, the mainsail is depowered.

The forward cockpit is a safe area to work when working on your halyards, topping lift and lighter wind sails (gennaker, Code 0 etc), and it offers great visibility for ice or reef spotting, and for working the anchor windlass.

And just like a Gunboat, if you throw the door open in warmer climes when you are on the hook, the breeze flows nicely through the boat. It also makes a great spot for a sundowner.

Living Space

This catamaran has a lovely finish inside and down below thanks to Darnet Design. This is the same team that is behind the interiors of the Privilege Signature 580 and there are a lot of similarities in the look. It’s warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

If you are heading into the higher latitudes, you will appreciate the air extraction system that cycles air from the living area without having to open hatches.

The forward saloon windows have demisters, and there are lockers for your wet weather gear with ventilation and heating.

Up in the the saloon, the visibility is impressive and the whole area is bright. It’s a comfortable design with a sofa tucked in starboard forward and a galley with plenty of storage aft port of the saloon.

In pride of place is an ample forward facing nav station- this is a sailing boat after all.

Down below, various option are available on this semi-custom cat that boasts 2m headroom throughout.

There is space for one master cabin and two guest cabins in the standard version. Or go for the four cabin version.

Another option is to convert one of the forward cabins into a skippers cabin.

The aft cabins are soaked in natural light thanks to two hull windows, plus a wide aft window and opening ports aft and overhead.

Standard Specification

• Aluminium hull and deck
• Forefoot chain plates for towing, also works a a bumper and ice breaker
• High bridge deck clearance for heavy seas
• Forward and aft watertight aluminium bulkheads
• Seacock valves above waterline
• Rudders have sacrificial end-fittings
• GRP coachroof and hardtop bimini gives you thermic and acoustic insulation
• Thermic and acoustic insulation thanks to foam panels above waterline, and insulated floor
• Swing helm with 2 steering positions : a high position for the marina and fair weather,  a low cockpit for rough weather
• Optional inside steering, within the saloon
• All sheets controlled from the aft cockpit for safety
• Sail handling area (halyyards, reefing lines) in forward cockpit
• Solid watertight door gives you access the forward cockpit

This is a robust catamaran designed for sailing and living onboard in both higher latitudes and tropical waters.

With it’s powerful sail plan and safety features, she’s been designed for sailing safely with a high degree of comfort in the roughest sea conditions. This is a catamaran that sits on its own in the market- there’s not much competition.

Is this the best aluminium catamaran on the market? Probably.

How much does a Garcia 52 Explocat cost? What is the price of this catamaran? With our usual disclaimer that it depends on your options, you will be starting the conversation off at around €1.3 m. Add more budget for a carbon mast with kevlar rigging, furling boom, light wind sails plus fittings, hydranet mainsail, tempered glass, joystick on nav station, updrade to 75HP engines, genset, hydrogenerator, solar panels, lithium batteries, water maker, and so on. There are a lot of options to choose from. Fire up your spreadsheets!

Technical Specification

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EXPLORER expedition, adventure and world travel

e X plorer 54

The Explorer 54 is a strong all aluminum sailboat for expedition, charter, adventure and life aboard. The pilot house concept brings protection from the sea and the sun for the crew with panoramic views at 360 ° from the watch station and galley.

While primarily designed for exploration and far away travels the Explorer made no compromise on sailing performance.  The modern and powerful hull from the naval architecture office of Bernard Nivelt allows for high daily mileage on ocean passages.

The NACA profile swinging center board opens endless possibilities of exploration in poorly chartered waters as well as beaching the boat. The ballast has been placed in a “bustle” below the hull which lends a particularly low center of gravity for a center boarder.

"Stout aluminum construction assembled from CNC panels will make for a very strong boat. While production boats try to be everything to everyone, this boat does not. The Explorer 54 is simply a well-designed offshore sailing yacht.

Bob Perry - Sailing Magazine

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Together with Stok-electric, we offer completely custom-made solutions for converting sailing yachts into electric or hybrid sailing yachts. We have a suitable, custom-made solution for almost every sailing yacht: from 10kW to 200kW. Prepare your sailing yacht for the future by combining a refit with the installation of an electric or hybrid system. 

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Professional BoatBuilder Magazine

An aluminum expedition catamaran.

By Dieter Loibner , Apr 5, 2022

With 110′ LOA, a 35′ beam, and 45′ (33.5m, 10.6m, and 13.7m) of bridge clearance, the H-2 catamaran seeks to make a case for U.S. custom boatbuilding.

Hauling toys beyond the horizon is the raison d’être for a rugged go-anywhere catamaran designed and built in the U.S., a notable exception in the world of big yacht projects.

Gunboat might have left town, but there’s another big catamaran under construction in its old facility in Wanchese, North Carolina. It’s called H-2 , short for Hippocampus 2 , a stout 110-footer (33.5m) that liberally and intentionally quotes from the expedition/workboat vernacular. It’s built from aluminum and was conceived to go to the back of the beyond, where adventure beckons and Vessel Assist doesn’t operate. Aside from commodious and cushy accommodations, the boat offers grid autonomy, ocean-crossing range, and cargo capacity to match the mission of hauling a 26 ‘ (7.92m) tender, a 17 ‘ (5.8m) skiff, a two-person submarine, a four-seat ATV on the main deck, and a small helicopter on the flight deck aft.

The boat was commissioned by Brian Schmitt, 67, a real  estate executive in the Florida Keys, who pilots his own plane to commute to the Bahamas, where he keeps Hippocampus , his current 57 ‘ (17.37m) cold-molded wood/epoxy catamaran. I asked him about the jump from 57 ‘ to 110 ‘ . “I never thought I’d have the ability to do that in my own boat until probably the last few years,” he replied, adding that “it would be 120 ‘ [36.58m] if I had to do it today.”

Its predecessor, Hippocampus, built in wood/epoxy, was launched in 2003. At 57′ (17.37m), it is about half as long as H-2, but with 22,500 miles under its keels, it was a useful starting point for designing the new vessel.

Wearing shorts and a shirt with the new boat’s name and logo to our meeting, Schmitt talked openly about his project, which he manages as attentively as his real estate brokerage with 130 agents. Communication is his thing, responding to e-mail questions in near real time (in ALL CAPS) and talking to contractors directly. No project manager.

A passionate diver who habitually explores remote and exotic locales, Schmitt said he was happy with the first Hippocampus , which has three staterooms and cruises at 15 knots on twin 370-hp Yanmars. “It was the vehicle that got our 17 ‘ tender wherever we needed it.” But running the little boat 60 or 70 miles a day lost its charm. “One of the things I wanted was a twin-engine tender that would have more room for dive gear. That ended up being a 26 ‘ Calcutta, so I needed a bigger mother ship.”

With accelerating climate change, the carbon footprint of ships and large yachts is under scrutiny, but hydrocarbons still win when speed, range, and payloads are priorities. While H-2 doesn’t break the mold there, Schmitt pointed to the project’s virtues as a U.S. domestic build. “You can’t complain about global warming when you’re flying around in your G500 jet that’s contributing more CO2 emissions than anybody else in the world,” he said. “You can’t complain about all the boats being built in Germany, The Netherlands, and Italy, and then go buy a boat [there].” Schmidt wanted to build locally, keeping jobs and money in the U.S. Besides, he noted, this approach simplified communications and enabled him to personally check on progress during COVID. Perhaps most importantly, he could pick a team of trusted and compatible mates to turn his dream into a boat.

The vast build hall left vacant when Gunboat left Wanchese, North Carolina.

He selected John Marples, a fellow pilot, inventor, and multihull specialist for the design and Felix Herrin to build H-2 . Both men had worked for him on Hippocampus , and their familiarity helped when meeting today’s challenges, such as damaging trade tariffs that drove up aluminum prices, and a pandemic that killed millions, wreaked havoc on global supply chains, and caused labor shortages in industrial sectors. These factors have conspired to delay H-2 ’s launching by roughly two years and counting.

Advantage Aluminum

A key decision early on was to build in aluminum, which promised a robust structure but required extra steps to deal with corrosion and noise mitigation. “Construction was reduced to something simple—a V-bottom deadrise model, stretched out,” Marples explained. “There wasn’t any benefit to round bilges on an aluminum boat. You’d have to add internal structure to support the flat panels, and it drives the cost and difficulty of construction way up. We’re talking about a speed-to-length ratio of 2 or less, which is not a big deal. His current boat would do a speed/length of about 3, so the extra length means that you’re never really pushing the boat that hard, so shape was not a huge consideration.”

Marples and Herrin go back at least three decades to their mutual acquaintance with naval architect and boatbuilder Dave Dana, who assisted Marples with the hull design for Admiral Pete , a catamaran passenger ferry still serving Puget Sound. Herrin works with different construction materials, but having built crew boats for Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) at Sea Force in Palmetto, Florida, he has spent considerable time with aluminum.

Taking a break during IBEX 2021 are builder Felix Herrin (left) and owner Brian Schmitt. H-2 is their second joint project with designer John Marples.

The structural components on H-2 are 5083-H32 alloy aluminum plate and extrusions of 6061-T6 alloy. Scantlings, materials, and weldment comply with the American Bureau of Shipping’s (ABS) 2016 design guidelines for pleasure motoryachts. Hulls and wing structures have transverse frames and bulkheads spaced on 36 “ (0.91m) centers. Those frames are supported by substantial centerline vertical keels (CVKs) welded atop twin 3 “ x 8 “ (76mm x 203mm) solid extruded-aluminum-bar keels. Intermediate subframes in the forward and aftermost hull compartments strengthen the hulls for operating in ice. Schmitt indicated he wants to traverse the Northwest Passage. For the same reason, there’s 3⁄8 “ (10mm) plate running the length of the boat above and below the waterline.

The topside and underwing plating is primarily ¼ “ (6mm), with areas of 5⁄16 “ (8mm) to strengthen slamming zones in the bow. The main deck plating is also 1/4 “ while the foredeck plate is specified at 5⁄16 “ . The bottom plating is 5⁄16 “ in the aft two-thirds of the hull and 3⁄8 “ forward. “We built all the frames and bulkheads first, then scarfed together the keel sections [and] lined those up on the bunks that we built on,” Herrin explained. “We welded the CVK on top of the keel, then started installing frames.”

Hulls and wing structure have transverse frames and bulkheads on 36″ (0.91m) centers. The hulls are supported by centerline vertical keels.

Herrin said he changed aluminum suppliers midway through the project, sourcing from Bayou Metal Supply , an ISO 9001:2015–certified distributor in Slidell, Louisiana. “We sourced the material from Greece and from domestic suppliers,” said Taylor Smith, who handles Bayou’s sales. Tariffs, he said, did not slow down business much, but the aluminum cost more. “Felix sent cut files. We had the material in inventory, we cut it, processed it on a router, and shipped it on time. Everything flowed well.”

Naval and structural engineering and detailing was contracted out to Van Gorkom Yacht Design in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. “My first responsibility was looking at structures,” Geoff Van Gorkom said. “Given that this is an aluminum yacht, we can do literally all the structures in 3D and have all the metalwork precut before it came into the yard. All the frames and longitudinals and all the primary structure were precut, which saved huge amounts of time.” Van Gorkom said he uses Rhino 3D and some of the numerous modules such as Orca 3D for hydrostatics and hydrodynamics, and 2D AutoCAD to produce construction details.

Helping save time and money, 3D-modeling allowed frames, longitudinals, and the primary structure to be cut before being sent to the building site.

Van Gorkom observed that H-2 is not a fussy high-performance vessel that needs minimum weight to achieve maximum speed. Besides ABS guidelines that address torsional loads in catamaran structures, he also consulted A.L. Dinsenbacher’s paper “A Method for Estimating Loads on Catamaran Cross-Structure” ( Marine Technology , Vol. 7, No. 4, October 1970) to estimate load conditions in beam and quartering seas. “This is going to be a very stiff boat. It’s going to be a very strong boat simply because it has to be, and that was one of the criteria that Brian put out there right from the very start of the project. The boat is sturdy and stout, a strong expedition yacht.”

Van Gorkom also engineered the setup for a folding deck crane housed under a flush hatch in the helideck on the port side to launch and retrieve the two-man submarine or the ATV. “It’s basically an enclosure that opens up, so the crane extends out,” he explained. “It comes up on a telescoping pipe to swing out and pick up something from the side of the boat.” It required support from beams on each side of the crane and cutting a slot in the helideck for the lifting bridle so the loads can move inboard or outboard. On the starboard side, the 5,500-lb (2,492-kg) Calcutta tender is an even heavier load moved by twin overhead beam cranes. The 17 ‘ Twin Vee is launched and retrieved from the foredeck with a 2,500-lb-capacity (1,153-kg) crane.

Catamarans are known to be weight-sensitive, so how will H-2 handle the weight of all the toys and high superstructure? The arch over the flybridge is 33 ‘ (10.05m) above waterline, Van Gorkom confirmed. “Add another 10 ‘ [3.05m] for the radar, mast, etc., so a comfortable bridge clearance would be around 45 ‘ [13.7m].” Marples conferred with Van Gorkom about the effect of the added weight on the center of gravity, which was deemed “almost imperceptible,” Marples remembered. A quick calculation suggests that a 5,500-lb deck load is equal to only 1.57% of a full-load displacement given as 350,000 lbs (158,550 kg).

High Power, Low Noise

Van Gorkom hired engineers at HydroComp to evaluate the design’s hydrodynamics and propulsion systems, including the influence of hull-shape parameters and demi-hull spacing on resistance. HydroComp also offered a speed-power prediction to aid with engine selection and recommended optimum shaft rpm and propeller parameters. Technical director Donald MacPherson, who prepared the report, outlined the process and findings: “Particularly interesting for this project was the use of its novel analytical distributed volume method [ADVM] for the vessel’s resistance modeling. This 2D technique (between parametric methods and CFD) uniquely allows for assessment of the influence of local sectional area curve regions (such as ‘shoulders’ or inflections) in wave-making drag. It also directly evaluates the effects of catamaran hull spacing.” HydroComp helped optimize the hulls by identifying the regions that contribute most to wave-making drag, and securing a 3% reduction in total drag at the design speed by making what MacPherson called “very minor changes to the immersed volume distribution.”

Rob Ayers works on the installation of the starboard engine’s Evolution Marine Shaft System that will be fitted with a 36″ (0.91m) five-blade propeller.

That simulation was mapped to benchmark performances of four similar catamarans, and the process was run for two design variants, followed by a propulsion simulation for partial-load conditions. The hull-spacing study concluded that the originally designed 35 ‘ (10.7m) beam remained suitable despite the boat being 20 ‘ (6.1m) longer than originally drawn. The chosen propulsion system comprises two MTU 10V 2000 M96, 1505-mhp diesels with ZF 3000 flange-mounted marine gears, providing an estimated top-speed range of 20–22 knots, cruising speeds of 12–15 knots, and 10–13 knots for long-range voyaging. Actual performance will be established during sea trials.

The recommended propeller specifications developed by HydroComp were for five-blade models with 36 “ dia­meters. HydroComp applied Prop­Elements, a wake-adapted propeller-analysis tool, to determine the advisability of installing a nozzle or shroud to restrict transmission of pressure pulses to the hull and to create a more uniform inflow. This would reduce interior noise but would increase appendage drag and power demand. Schmitt said he will wait to see if cavitation or prop noise is an issue before making a final decision.

He invested heavily in noise and vibration mitigation, knowing that an aluminum boat won’t provide the natural sound-dampening of a wood/epoxy structure like that of his first Hippocampus . Consulting with Soundown of Salem, Massachusetts, Schmitt wanted to replicate what worked well on his old boat, starting with the Evolution Marine Shaft System, in which the prop shaft runs in an oil-filled tube and uses roller and needle bearings instead of standard water-lubricated bearings. “You have a lot less shaft noise, but one of the primary benefits of an integral thrust bearing is that it transmits all the thrust directly into the hull, as opposed to pushing on the gearbox or the engine and gearbox combination,” said Sam Smullin, Soundown’s marketing and quality assurance manager. “It allows for a much softer engine mounting, so you reduce the noise from the shaft itself and get a much quieter engine installation, which reduces structure-borne noise.” Because of the relative weight sensitivity of catamarans, Smullin said, “it’s particularly important to do a really good job on the driveline.” His father, Joseph Smullin, president of Soundown and J&A Enterprises Inc., an engineering firm for noise and vibration control, estimated that this could reduce driveline noise levels by 5 dBA to 10 dBA compared to a conventional system.

Clemente Perez, one of Herrin’s build crew, works on the interior. The extensive sound and thermal insulation includes foam sprayed into the cavities.

Soundown also looked at the two 38-kW Northern Lights gensets, which have double-isolation mounts to reduce structure-borne noise. The firm also recommended structural changes to ensure that the mount foundations were as stiff as possible.

Energy from propulsion or generator engines invariably transmits to the boat structure and then resonates through big, flat panels like bulkheads, decks, ceilings, and liners, causing the familiar vibrating rattle. To dampen those vibrations, Herrin said he used Roxul, a lightweight, semi-rigid stone-wool insulation for fire resistance and sound control. His crew also sprayed cavities with Dow Froth-Pak, a quick-cure polyurethane foam for thermal insulation, and installed Sylomer (a microcellular PUR-elastomer) between the structural components and the floors, walls, and panels. “We glued the Sylomer, which is kind of a spongy foam, to the structure of the boat, and then the plywood of the subfloors and walls are glued to that,” Herrin explained, adding that this created a floating interior without any fasteners.

The plywood, called QuietCore, is a composite sandwich panel comprising marine plywood skins and an acoustic damping layer that converts acoustic energy into small amounts of heat that are dissipated. Soundown claims that an 18mm (0.7 “ ) QuietCore bulkhead can reduce noise transmission by up to 10 dBA, an audible reduction 50% greater than with regular marine plywood of equal thickness.

Electricity for a Small Town

Going off grid on H-2 does not mean anyone will suffer, as long as the electrical system keeps powering the boat’s myriad house loads—hydraulic Maxwell windlasses and thrusters; a Webasto air-conditioning system; two full-size stand-up freezers, two refrigerator freezers, and two under-counter refrigerators in the galley, all by Vitfrigo; Krüshr compactors for recyclables and garbage; Headhunter sewage-treatment system; Alfa Laval fuel-polishing system; two FCI watermakers; a complete set of Garmin navigation electronics with full redundancy; and a Böning vessel control and monitoring system.

Two Northern Lights 38-kW gensets are the heart of H-2’s AC system, which also includes a 37-kW Atlas inverter to connect to shore power in foreign ports.

Much of the AC side was designed and specified by Ward’s Marine Electric in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in cooperation with OceanPlanet Energy of Woolwich, Maine, and principal Bruce Schwab, who helped design and integrate the DC components. “Today there’s a big trend in the industry to use shore-power converters as inverters and superlarge lithium-ion battery banks to provide power, at least temporary power, for major loads like air-conditioning, chiller plants, and things like that,” said Ward Eshleman, chairman of Ward’s Marine Electric. “So, rather than using only smaller inverters and synchronizing them and stacking to get additional kW, the trend for the larger vessels is to use shore-power converters as inverters. There is an inverter bus in the main switchboard.”

True to its go-anywhere mission, H-2 was fitted with an Atlas 37-kW inverter to connect to shore power in places that do not serve 60 Hz, 240V single-phase power. “We can take anything from 90V to 400V and pretty much anything from below 50 Hz to the 60 Hz and single- or three-phase,” Herrin explained.

Eight GTX24V315A-F24 lithium-ion batteries from Lithionics are split between a house bank that can run all DC loads for at least 24 hours, and an emergency bank to operate critical DC loads—display screens, radios, nav lights—for 24 hours. The boat is equipped with 10 Solara Ultra-S 160W panels paralleled in two groups of five each, connected to two Victron SmartSolar MPPT 100/50 solar controllers to charge the house bank. Given enough sunshine, solar and battery power should be “capable of running lights and refrigeration but not air-conditioning or heating,” Schmitt said. “Since we will likely spend most of our time in the tropics, we did not believe that solar power alone could do the job we needed.”

OceanPlanet Energy specified four Victron Buck-Boost DC-DC converters, two for each engine, to help charge the house bank from the starter batteries without having to modify the engines’ stock alternators, which would have voided the warranty. “The converters activate based on the input voltage from the starting batteries,” Schwab explained. “With lower rpm, the alternators would not produce enough current to feed both converters without the starting-battery voltage dropping, turning the converters off. Then the voltage will rise, the converters turn on again, drop the voltage, turn off…over and over. Staggering the input voltage cut-in, hopefully starting the converters one at a time, will more smoothly supply power to the house bank across the engine/alternator rpm range.”

OceanPlanet Energy specified the DC system including DC/DC converters and hefty battery banks to power house loads and critical electronics.

There are two 4,500-watt 240V split-phase engineroom-ventilation fans connected to two Victron Quattro 5-kW 24V inverter-chargers configured for 240V/120V split-phase AC loads. They can accept AC inputs from two sources (shore power or generators) and automatically connect to the available source. “In the event of a grid failure or power disconnect, they take over the supply to the connected AC loads by inverting from the Lithionics house-battery bank,” Schwab said.

“It’s more complicated than that,” according to Herrin. “Typically, we’re going to be operating with the A-bus and the B-bus tied together, so we can power everything with one generator. The B-bus actually passes current through the Victron inverter-chargers on its way to the load. We have the ability to split the A-bus and the B-bus and run the A-bus on one generator and the B-bus on the other in the few instances we’re exceeding the capacity of one of the generators. If we lose both generators, then the essential loads are still going to be carried,” meaning engine vents or water pumps.

Redundancy and emergency backups also figured largely in the deliberations of John McKay, manager of the Switchgear Systems Division at Ward’s Marine Electric and point man for this project.

One of his challenges was limiting the voltage drop in the estimated 53 ‘ (16.2m) cable run between engines, which in an emergency allows the starboard engine to be started from the port battery and vice versa. “For a starter group, you can allow a 20% voltage drop,” McKay said and noted that starting the engines requires 720 amps, while the gensets needed only 200 amps. “I was keeping the 720-amp current between 7% and 11% voltage drop, getting up to some pretty good-sized copper. Some sections of the run were 240mm2 [500MCM] cable.” Knowing that the boat is capable of going to high latitudes, McKay recalled his youth and the frigid winter mornings in Massachusetts, “where you can crank a diesel all day long at a low rpm, and it’ll never start. You just need to turn it over one or two times at a higher rpm, and it’ll be running. So, I was making certain that the starter was going to crank at the highest rpm possible and not lose it all to voltage drop.”

Protecting Assets and Finishing the Job

No matter how fast or how far H-2 will travel, corrosion caused by galvanic current between dissimilar metals, by stray currents or by electric fault, is an enemy that needs to be kept in check. That’s the calling of Ted Schwartz, who runs Electro-Guard (Mount Shasta, California). He’s one of the country’s foremost experts on cathodic protection, and also served on ABYC’s E2 Cathodic Protection Project Technical Committee.

“We designed the system and supplied all the equipment and steered them through the installation,” Schwartz said. It’s a 15-amp impressed-current-cathodic-protection (ICCP) system, model 715 A-2, with three anodes and two reference cells. Regarding the boat’s Evolution shaft system with driveshafts running inside an oil-filled tube, Schwartz said: “It was a real challenge because you can’t actually make contact with the propeller shaft on the inside of the boat.” He consulted with Soundown and found a solution. “At the coupling on the inboard end of the tube, a bit of the shaft stuck out through the seal,” Swartz said. “There’s this coupling that Soundown built that fastens to the shaft, and we asked them to provide a surface on that coupling where we could put our silver slip rings on [to provide an electrical connection] to protect props and shafts.”

Every anode can deliver up to 5 amps of current using its own current controller that receives a signal from the main controller, which determines exactly how much current each anode will put out. The entire system consists of three anodes, three current controllers, the main controller, and a separate monitoring station connected to the controller by signal cable. Later, Schmitt also ordered a backup system employing aluminum sacrificial anodes.

On catamarans, the company installs a reference cell aft near the prop of each hull, and an anode on the aft section of each hull, and one anode amidships on the inboard side on one hull.

Chromate, two layers of epoxy, copious amounts of fairing compound, and various primers rendered the surface fair and ready for a yacht-quality paint job.

At the time of this writing, the vessel had been shot with chromate and two layers of epoxy before approximately 500 gal (1,893 l) of fairing compound and 325 gal (1,230 l) of various primers rendered the surface fair and ready for a yacht-quality Alexseal paint job with 35 gal (132.5 l) light ivory, 24 gal (91 gal) stark white, and 2 gal (7.6 l) cordovan gold. Parallel to the exterior, construction was on the home stretch with installation of the crew quarters and the saloon overhead. On the systems side, pressure checks were performed for hydraulics and plumbing.

Since H-2 is a much larger and more complex vessel than the original Hippocampus , with a multitude of systems that need to be managed, monitored, and maintained, I was curious how many crew Schmitt was planning to hire to help run his new boat. He said he consulted with captains and headhunters, and “the consensus is three or possibly four at most. I just completed my 100-Ton Masters and will build time on the new boat as well. We won’t charter and are not accustomed to being cooked for or served or having our beds made and all that. So mostly I’m looking for a qualified captain and engineer to maintain the systems.”

Little surprise that a hands-on operator like Schmitt does not want to cede too much of the game he loves to play. But as big, bold, and broad-shouldered as H-2 will be when she finally emerges from the old Gunboat shed in Wanchese, the proud owner is quick to remind anyone that it’s still “a vehicle to get the toys wherever.”

H-2 : The Designer’s View

H-2 ’s owner, the adventurous Brian Schmitt, has dived into deep caves to see submerged caverns, hand-fed large sharks that would normally view him as food, and spent years in his off-time exploring Caribbean archipelagos in Hippocampus, his current 19-year-old 57 ‘ (17.4m) power catamaran. Nearing retirement age, he gave the order for his “ultimate” yacht.

The foldable hydraulic deck crane to launch and retrieve a two-man electric submarine or an all-terrain vehicle required cutting a slot in the helicopter deck for the lifting bridle.

The first talk about the new design was between the owner, the builder, and me. As we discussed the mission of the boat, it became clear that it would fall into the category of expedition vessel with more guest staterooms, more range, and more room for equipment than his old boat. Brian defined the function of the vessel as a carrier for a 26 ‘ (7.92m) twin-outboard catamaran, an outboard skiff, a small car, and a small helicopter, which needed a flight deck. This vessel was to be used with family and guests while also serving as an operations base for outbound travel by air, land, or sea.

Aside from commodious accommodations, a key requirement was comfortable motion on rough seas. This was to be a catamaran, like his current boat, which offers extensive real estate afloat in a seagoing vessel. The only restriction for the new design was a beam no greater than 35 ‘ (10.6m) to fit the largest Travelift.

The trade-off for overall beam width involves room versus roll motion. A wider catamaran responds more quickly to roll in seaways but with less amplitude, whereas a narrower beam rolls more slowly with slightly more amplitude. The slower roll is preferable as long as overall roll stability is maintained. Roll in catamarans is unlike roll in single-hulled vessels. Because the vessel is supported by two buoyancy chambers (hulls) with distance between them, motion has little to do with roll inertia, but rather with response of the hulls to the seaway. Each hull responds to a passing wave independently by heaving (up/down) and rolling, which is a circular motion around the center of gravity (CG) that translates to lateral motion when standing above the CG, especially high up on the bridge. Power catamarans, unlike sailing catamarans, do not require wide hull spacing to generate righting moment (to support a sail plan), so they can have closer hull spacing, which still preserves sufficient stability, slows wave-response roll characteristics, and takes up less space in port.

One of the expected routes for this vessel is the Northwest Passage over the top of North America. Boats venturing there can expect floating ice, so we added thicker hull plating at the waterline and an ice-separation chamber on the cooling water intakes. We also designed the hull to give the propeller protection by positioning it behind a deep canoe-stern afterbody with no exposed shaft. A rudder horn, below the propeller extending aft from the hull, adds support for the rudder and protection for the prop. This configuration is useful as a hedge against the possibility of grounding. In fact, this boat can be careened on the beach between tides if necessary for repairs. The hull includes a strong, deep, vertical keel structure that allows for blocking anywhere along its length.

Speed and range became the largest determinates of the design. A maximum range of 4,000 miles at 15 knots (enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean) was proposed. Catamarans are easily driven at modest speeds due to lack of significant wave resistance by narrow hulls. A preliminary speed prediction analysis showed that we would be in the ballpark with about 1,400 hp (1,050 kW) and 5,000 gal (18,925 l) of diesel per hull. The final installed fuel capacity is 12,500 gal (47,313 l).

The general arrangement plan shows crew quarters in the hulls, three guest cabins, office, saloon, and galley on the main deck and owner’s suite on the bridge deck level.

A totally new design normally goes through a lengthy proposal and critique cycle between designer and client, especially if the client is knowledgeable and involved. The vessel’s first iteration started at 90 ‘ (27.43m) LOA, but it became evident that it needed more length to relieve a number of ills. After adding 10 ‘ (3.05m) we saw improvements, but it wasn’t until the 110 ‘ (33.5m) length proposal that we felt all the requirements had been satisfied: more slender hull shape, more open interior space, and better placement of machinery and tankage. The flight deck for the helicopter became larger, and the forward superstructure fairings gave the boat a sleeker look. And at 110 ‘ we achieved an efficient length versus waterline beam ratio that reduced wave drag and fuel consumption at the target cruise speed.

While beam remained at 35 ‘ , lightship displacement increased significantly to 230,000 lbs (104,190 kg). Accommodations now include crew quarters for four persons in the bows; three double guest cabins and a ship’s office forward; a large saloon amidships with adjacent galley, and a dive and a storage locker aft on the main deck. The upper deck is arranged with a full-width-bridge steering station forward, protected by a Portuguese bridge, and a master stateroom with en suite bathroom aft. The flight deck extends aft of the master stateroom. Access to the upper deck is by either a staircase from the foredeck, an interior staircase adjacent to the ship’s office, or by stairs from the starboard side deck.

The largest variable weight on the boat is fuel, so the tankage is located amidships to minimize its influence on trim. Engine and machinery rooms aft of the tankage take up the remaining spaces all the way to the transoms. Other amenities include a utility area aft of the crew quarters port side with storage and washing machines, and a walkway through the tank spaces and enginerooms to the boarding decks at each transom. Another late addition is the flying bridge to aid with shallow-water operation by improving the vantage point to see coral heads and other obstructions. Its protective bimini serves as a mounting platform for lights and antennae.

—John R. Marples

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