Wow! This family of unique new eXtreme Passage Makers I’ve been writing about seems to be gaining new members every day.
I had no sooner finished writing up yesterday’s “Canadian Kissin’ Cousins” posting about the recently announced Tactical 77 when Andy, one of our most enthusiastic followers reminded us of the new “Circa 24 meter (78ft) Expedition Yacht” which Circa Marine has recently announced and has on their drawing boards/screens.
As many of you reading this would know, Circa Marine in Whangarei NZ is the very talented engineering firm and shipyard which worked with Steve Dashew to design and build all of the FPB series of boats which totals about 20 boats all together I think.
With the Dashew’s recent decision to very deservedly retire themselves so they can finally spend time enjoying their very own FBP78-1 “Cochise” and their decision to also retire and end the Dashew/SetSail/Circa alliance, Circa is now developing their own version of these new type of passage makers.
Christine and I were fortunate to spend a day with the great people at Circa back in November 2016 when we sailed our previous boat down there and they were extremely generous in answering the hundreds of questions we put to them as we made our way in and around the FPB78’s and FPB70 they were building at the time. As we discussed the four different size FPB’s they had built, 64/115/78/70 we got the distinct impression that the FPB70 was their favorite and they had many of their own ideas they’d like to incorporate in the future. Of course we didn’t know then and neither did they that the FPB series was going to end and so not too surprising to us that they have decided to create their own new Circa version and take advantage of their deep experience in building these kinds of boats. Clearly these boats will benefit from what is now about 20 years of experience in building these types of boats, let alone many other boats they have been building for even longer and that this new Circa 24 will be an incredible boat.
Looks like our intuition when we were visiting them was right and like us Circa has decided that the 24m or 78ft size is the sweet spot or Goldilocks just right size for these kinds of boats and owners so we take that as great validation for our coming to the same conclusion with Möbius several years ago. This makes sense as well in that the FPB70 was the last of the FPB’s to be designed and therefore the one which benefited the most from what is almost 2 decades of gathering such a plethora of real world data from all the previous boats, all those years and hundreds of thousands of nautical miles of owner experiences and all of Circa’s experience in building these boats. Steve was extremely diligent at collecting and curating all this data, sharing it so generously and articulately on the SetSail blogs and learning from it all and the results certainly show this evolutionary journey. Everyone from Steve to all the talented people who worked with or at Circa over all those past 20 years certainly deserve a great deal of credit and a huge amount of gratitude for developing this new style of boat and putting them on the marine world map.
New Zealand is certainly a hot spot in the marine world in general and especially so for these new kinds of eXtreme Passage Maker style boats and the “family tree” has very deep roots there. Back in the early 2000’s, prior to the FPB’s, Kelly Archer another very talented Kiwi, had designed and built his personal boat “Ripple” which obviously caught Steve’s eye at the time and Steve and Kelly went on to have a long partnership designing and building the FPB’s.
Oh, and I might add that Kelly chose to put a horizontal version of the same Gardner 6LXB main engine in Ripple. Brilliant!
No coincidence then that we found our own “just right” designer for Möbius in New Zealand when we met up with Dennis Harjamaa at Artnautica Yacht Design. Dennis had designed AND built a boat for himself based on the same DNA I’ve been outlining of long, lean, low all aluminium low maintenance boats for couples with the shared passion for crossing oceans in extreme safety, comfort and efficiency.
These boats known as the LRC58 and there are now four of them out exploring the world and a fifth beginning it’s build phase at Aluboot in the Netherlands. Good article here on the three LRC58’s which Dickey Boats in NZ have built and you can follow along with Rob at Artnautica.eu while he was building his LRC58-3 “Britt” at Aluboot.
Thanks to all our “Giant Teachers”:
Since I was very young I’ve always been fascinating by the way in which we humans are able to continuously learn, innovate and advance by “standing on the shoulders of giants” which Wikipedia nicely describes as:
“… expresses the meaning of “discovering truth by building on previous discoveries”.
This concept has been traced to the 12th century, attributed to Bernard of Chartres. Its most familiar expression in English is by Isaac Newton in 1675: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.”
Christine and I are retired teachers as are most of our siblings so we have that in our DNA as well and we see these “giants” as the great teachers in our lives. We do our best to be very highly motivated learners and we certainly want to add our deep gratitude and appreciation for the many giants whose shoulders we humbly stand upon, learn from and leap forward.
Currently we find ourselves standing upon the shoulders of several other such giants and teachers such as Dennis at Artnautica and Dincer and Baris here at GreeNaval who have been instrumental in transforming our vision into the reality that is Möbius and we can’t wait to launch her and join this growing family of eXtreme passage makers out exploring the world one nautical smile at a time.
I think these boats are worth mentioning here and having a look:
http://dieselducks.com/Idelwild.html (and everything coming from late Mr. Buehler as well)
http://www.lymanmorse.com/boats/barbara-41
http://www.vripack.com/portfolio/ned-70
Very different design, but same end goal.
I have also done lots of searching about a long distance powerboat the founder of Nautor Yachts Mr Koskenkyla, maker of Swan sail boats, made for himself. It was around 24M LOA motoryacht with range and all the equipment including paravanes and everything to cross oceans easily and quickly under power. It was called “Voyager” and he circumnavigated multiple times with it, but unfortunately I have been not able to find much, even no good photos. But he definitely was ahead of his time, decade or two before Dashews.
Thanks for adding these additional boats Andy. Each very different as are their owners and use cases. George Buehler is certainly one of the early champions of passage makers and both Christine and I have been on several boats of his design. All super seaworthy vessels and very much favoring the expedition and exploration type of owners. The Idelwild story certainly provides a great example of this. These boats obviously suit a large segment of the passage making population with the number of boats which have been built, and continue to be built but they take a very different and more trawler like approach to my mind. However, some of the key characteristics which set the new type of boats I’ve been highlighting apart include long, narrow (high LWL/BWL), low D/L ratio hulls with high hull speeds, low maintenance exteriors with rich interiors, self righting and an aggressive modern quasi military look. So in that sense they are the antithesis of trawlers.
The NED70 is a boat we investigated thoroughly several years ago and spent a long time considering and learning from. She ticked off a lot of the boxes I noted above but was designed for somewhat shorter runs at higher speeds of a semi displacement hull and more in the “super yacht” camp in terms of styling and materials. But she’s a beauty. So much so that when we were out searching the world for our just right designer and naval architect we had several very good meetings with the head designers at Vripack. They are a very innovative and forward looking company but in the end the fit with us and them just wasn’t there. The NED70 was a great example of a boat which fit them very well and is a great boat to be sure but their goals and ours just didn’t match up and we kept on looking.
Warning!!!
Learn principles and apply to the specific case.
DO NOT COPY anything without knowing the function and how that function is to be done on your boat and how your boat all works together.
A key stone looks an awful lot like a tomb stone.
Swish – Bonk is NOT a design process.
Just cause it looks like doesn’t mean it works like.
As a beginnig:
https://www.setsail.com/the-concept-explained/
Wise words of warning John and ones which we have learned very well long ago. As you note there is no learning and much potential danger in copying and rather the key is to learn as much as possible from what others have done, figure out the logic and reasons behind any solution and see how well this aligns with and fits your own set of principles and priorities. Being a great learner is largely about curiosity and ours is insatiable and one we feed as much as possible. The Dashew post you referenced was very well done and was of great interest to us when it was first published. It was very timely as we had spent the previous two years or so putting together our overall mission for the new boat and articulating our set of principles, priorities and key characteristics which we in turn used in our search for the just right designer, naval architect and builder. So we read Steve and Linda’s version with particular interest. I did my best to write a synopsis of what we came up with in the “Project Goldilocks” post.
I think you will see how we have based all our decisions around our very specific use case and our unique set of priorities as we were designing Mobius. This continues to serve as very well now as we dive deeply into the building phase with its seeming infinite details, changes and decisions throughout the process which only serves to confirm to us the value of having put all that work into clearly defining the just right boat for us.
https://www.boatinternational.com/yachts/news/new-england-boat-works-launches-dana-yacht-contraband–37967
A bit bigger but still in the family?
Is one high probability ingrediant that the owners are ex sailors (rag flappers) vs power boaters (stink potters)?
The Canadian product doesn’t meet that criteria but a lot of the rest of the boats do.
Hi John, thanks for sending this link to this newly launched mv Contraband boat. Too bad there is so little information available on this intriguing boat but based on what little info I could find I would say that she does fit into the same family tree as the XPM/LRC/FPB type of boats. The one picture seems to show her to have the requisite high Length/Beam ratio and then the short description the shipyard provided pretty much makes the case when they say she is a “durable, rugged, world cruising vessel” which “takes advantage of NEB’s many years of expertise in aluminium construction.”
Again very sparse data but they also mentioned that she features “tugboat engines” and is set up to be handled by a minimal crew and she will have a long-range capacity and a cruising speed of 13 knots.
These types of fundamental features goes to your question I think about the high probability of owners of these new kinds of boats coming from a background of more sailing than power boating. The common factor which is at the root of this correlation though is the desire for a “durable, rugged, world cruising vessel”. Historically, the domain of people and boats crossing oceans and doing world cruising have been and still are, doing so by sail. So in my estimation this is why there is such a high probability of owners of these new style of boats being former sailors who have been doing long range passages around the world under sail. As is the case with Christine and I a big part of the attraction to this change is that we are intrigued by the very different challenges and adventures of continuing to cross oceans and cruise the world but do so under power rather than sail.
Our initial curiosity which led to us designing and now building Möbius came from our growing awareness of how few power boats which can be run by a couple are able to cross oceans and do full time world cruising, safely and comfortably. The more we discussed this as we were sailing around the South Pacific on Learnativity, and played around with these new scenarios the more we realized how completely different the experiences and challenges would be and how many new opportunities voyaging under power opened up for us. And so here we are! It has already been an unending stream of challenges and adventures and fun these past three years and we haven’t even hit the water yet!
“durable, rugged, world cruising vessel”
I’m not sure your definition esxcludes the “Explorter Yacht” excerpt maybe by being owner(s) operated.
See the following definition of Explorer Tacht
By: John DeCaro, President, All Ocean Yachts
The first question I often get when speaking or writing about EXPLORER or EXPEDITION YACHTS is, What Are They?
Expedition Yacht Click for More An EXPLORER Yacht is a purpose built or converted vessel that is created for long distance cruising to remote areas of the world. The purpose (mission profile) may be varied; extended family exploration, worldwide big game fishing or fly fishing, remote dive expedition, a desire to expand your cruising area, a wish to be more autonomous when you are cruising, or a combination of these or many other reasons.
The features needed to meet the mission profile is what separates the true EXPLORER yacht from a “Big White Yacht” or even one of the many “Trawler” designs on the market which are more coastal or near coastal cruisers . There are “long range Yachts” and other yachts that meet some or a lot of the features and qualities found in an EXPLORER yacht and depending on your mission this maybe all that you need for your voyage of exploration.The features and qualities that set an EXPLORER yacht apart are many and I am just going to touch on a few key points.
First and foremost they must be designed and built to handle extreme weather conditions, i.e. very sea worthy. Safety and comfort of the passengers and crew should always be at the forefront of the design and purchasing criteria. An EXPLORER yacht should have a very efficient and sea-kindly hull form. Please note that I am use “sea-kindly” here and “sea-worth” above, these two terms are not the same, you can have one without the other which can make for a safe but uncomfortable vessel or a comfortable vessel that has reduced sea worthiness. To obtain this criteria the vessel should be a FULL DISPLACEMENT hull form. The high efficiency hull form should be coupled with good fuel volume to obtain at least a 4000nm range at 10 knots, more is better. All Ocean Yacht is always looking at new high efficiency propulsion systems and energy systems like the new batteries, chargers and converters that are being developed.
Expedition Explorer Yacht
An EXPLORER yacht MUST be very easy to maintain and operate. This is important in a number of ways and is a key difference between many long range yachts and trawlers being built and a true EXPLORER. Every feature and item on the exterior and interior of the vessel should be considered against this criteria. An EXPLORER yacht can look like a white yacht by replacing teak rails or decking with stainless or cutting edge deck systems like Stone Decking. EXPLORER yachts do thousands of miles a year and up keep and the quality of materials and systems are critical to simplify upkeep.
ABD 90 Explorer Yacht
The engine room is of key importance and the KISS principle should always be in play. Using proven high wear equipment in a large well laid out engine room designed for ease of service by crew is a MUST. An engineer must smile when he walks in the engine room.
Thanks for the copy of this very interesting perspective from the CEO of All Ocean Yachts. I had not read this before but we clearly have the same thoughts on these type off boats and that’s what has led me to the XPM for eXtreme eXpedition Passage Makers name. As he notes Exploration and Expedition are very similar and he seems to use them interchangeably which I can understand and often do myself. He certainly seems to hit on all the same key features and first principles and only adds to my sense that there is a growing market out there for these types of boats and so we will continue to see more and more of them out there exploring the world. Can’t wait to join them!
Talking about giants, what about a motorboat from Skip Novak?!
http://www.pelagic.co.uk/yachts/fleet_motor.asp
http://www.pelagic.co.uk/yachts/philosophy.asp
Skip is a giant indeed and someone whos high latitude sailing adventures I’ve followed for many years now. While his more charter oriented use case is quite different from our private one, we share the same deep love of exploring the worlds most remote locations and in that sense the use case for our boats is very similar. So it is very interesting Skip and his partners now also looking to broaden their experiences on a exploration power boat and passage maker.
Really appreciate you highlighting this and I will try to find some time to write and post an article featuring Skip’s new explorations of power boating.
Obrigado Virgulino!
Yes, exactly my impression: a charter boat design. In stark contrast with his new sailboat designs (56 and 63), which I quite like.
Still, I would very much like to read your take on this – as usual.
By the way, nice homage to João Gilberto in yesterday’s video.
Abraços.
Well I have been known to have an opinion or two and I do intend to write an article highlighting Skip and Tony’s fascinating design for their new exploration passagemaker powerboat. I am hoping that they will soon add more information on this new design as there are no numbers or details to go on right now beyond the renderings and GA General Arrangements drawings. I will say that based on the images on their site that Tony has done a masterful job of combining a very modern look to what, given Skip & Tony’s experiences, is sure to be a very robust expedition power boat with some very nice lines. I’d go as far as to say that this is an example of the direction I see for trawlers to go in the coming years as their traditional look makes way for a more modern one.
Thanks for catching and commenting on the indirect tribute to João Gilberto. He was and still is a phenomenal jazz musician whose presence and leadership will be missed but his music will remain for all of us to savour all the more now.
One more, the same conception: https://www.deepwateryachts.com/our-yachts/korvet-18-long-range/
Thanks for the link Alex and this Korvet 18 certainly embodies a few similar design elements. It has most similarity to my eye and thinking to boats like the LRC58 which our brilliant designer Dennis Harjaama at Artnautica Yacht Design in Auckland NZ came up with several years before we had him work with us to design the XPM78 we are building now.
As per several others here who have noted other boats that share some of the same use cases and design principles there is definately some common trends and a “look” that is emerging of a much different design esthetic for long range passage makers. Most of the same themes are clearly stated in the description of the Korvet 18 on the Deep Water Yachts website; “….. true long range passage maker with ocean crossing capabilities. Built under the demanding CE-A standard in high tensile aluminium, she provides performance and comfort in all climates and under all weather conditions. Safety is always at the forefront with redundancy of propulsion and systems. We customize this yacht to meet the rigors of your home waters or the endurance required for circumnavigation. The Korvet 18 Long Range, designed to be the ideal cruising platform from the equator to the poles.” She is a semi-displacement hull so under the water quite different but still shares most of the same design principles as the XPM series. It will be most interesting to see how the Korvet performs and what her real world data is like but the proposed design and renderings are indeed interesting.
I will try to write up a post in the coming weeks that features some of these new boat designs that have been announced so far this year and how they compare and contrast with each other and thanks for adding the Korvet 18 to that list.
Wayne