38 Feet of Great Vacation Sailing is Launched
July 24, 2009
Sunsail 384 hulls in sling being lowered by crane into the water
Sunsail celebrated the launch of the new Sunsail 384 catamaran from the Robertson and Caine factory in Cape Town, South Africa the week of July 14, 2009. The first yacht in a major fleet to feature solar panels, over thirty of the new catamarans are heading for Sunsail destinations across Asia and the Caribbean this fall and the Mediterranean next spring. Sunsail’s total fleet purchase plan for 2010 is over 140 new yachts, demonstrating confidence in customer demand and in line with Sunsail’s strategy of continued growth with an exceptional fleet.
The Sunsail 384 has been exclusively produced for Sunsail, with the design completed by performance multihull architects Morrelli & Melvin Design & Engineering, Inc. This catamaran is a market leader, designed for high performance with a generous sail plan, yet is also highly practical and easy to sail, making it an ideal entry level catamaran.
Bright, comfortable interior
Morrelli & Melvin design a wide range of racing, cruising, and commercial yachts. Our designs have won the America’s Cup, numerous World and Continental championships, Round the World and Transatlantic records, and multiple industry awards.
Look for details and a review of this new cruising yacht in upcoming issues of Yacht World Magazine
And, find out more about Robertson and Caine and the production luxury boats they build at www.robertsonandcaine.com .
SunSail’s full announcement is available at www.sunsail.com/media/press-releases/
ABOUT SUNSAIL
Sunsail celebrates its 35th anniversary this year, offering a wide choice of sailing vacations for all skill levels, with over 900 yachts in 28 locations worldwide. In addition to bareboat and skippered yacht, Sunsail provides fun flotillas, sailing school courses, beach club resorts, corporate and incentive team building events.
Stable, easy to sail cruising catamaran
Sunsail was founded in 1974 and is owned by leisure travel group TUI Travel PLC, a FTSE 100 leading international leisure travel group. Sunsail’s Gold LEED certified headquarters is located at 93 North Park Place Boulevard, Clearwater, FL. For yacht sales information, call 1-800-817-0807. For yacht vacations, visit www.sunsail.com, or call 1-800-772-3500.
NACRA Infusion Formula 18 wins World Championship
July 21, 2009
Photo used with permission from Pierrick Contin
Coen De Koning and Thijs Visser (NED) won their second consecutive Formula 18 catamaran World Championships sailing a Morrelli & Melvin-designed NACRA Infusion Formula 18 catamaran. The Royal Belgian Sailing Club – Beachclub Duinbergen was the host of the 180 teams from over 15 countries including Australia, Argentina, the USA, Canada and several European countries.
De Koning and Visser had their work cut out for them. They won the nine-race series on countback to Rob Wilson and Marcus Lynch (GBR).
The Formula 18 is currently one of the most successful one-design classes worldwide. The Formula 18 is a “box rule” development class, which specifies basic dimensions and weights and invites designers to create unique hull shapes, daggerboard and rudder designs, and rotating wing mast shapes. Over 30% of the boats in the world championship fleet were the Morrelli & Melvin-designed NACRA Infusion F 18, which was by far the largest representation of any design.
The NACRA Infusion design has been very successful since debuting in 2006, winning two World Championships and many continental championships. NACRA has sold over 400 Infusions to date. With the Infusion winning major regattas such as Kiel Week, Texel Sailing Week and the Worlds, Peter Vink, one of the founders of NACRA Europe stated, “After sailing the Infusion for four years and seeing all the new F18 designs, I would not change a thing.”
The results are speaking for themselves. This latest World Championship is yet another success for leading multihull design experts, Morrelli & Melvin Design & Engineering, Inc. Our designs have won the America’s Cup, over ten ISAF World Championships and dozens of continental championships. Morrelli & Melvin designs have also set ‘Round the World and Transatlantic records.
Morrelli & Melvin managed the tooling design and construction of the NACRA F 18 prototypes and trained the Performance Sailing staff for the production of this World Championship-winning design. Morrelli & Melvin is committed to creating and assisting builders in bringing trendsetting designs to markets around the world.
Picture used with permission. Copyright Pierrick Contin. PierrickContin.fr
Morrelli & Melvin Design & Engineering, Inc. is one of the world’s foremost designers of multihull sail and powerboats for private, cruising and commercial uses. In business for over 16 years, Morrelli & Melvin have won numerous industry design and innovation awards, the America’s Cup, World and Continental Championships and broken dozens of World records.
Sailing Scuttlebutt researches the controversial America’s Cup rules. In the article, Pete Melvin of Morrelli & Melvin Design & Engineering, explains the details of hydraulics, equipment weight and the benefits to racing with “stored power”. For the original article see:
Transpac Targets – Multihulls
July 10, 2009
Written by Lynn Fitzpatrick
Wednesday, 08 July 2009 20:28
Los Angeles, CA (July 9, 2009) – Alfa Romeo, Neville Crichton’s Reichel Pugh 100, is on track to set a new course record for a monohull. As the team surfs closer to Hawaii, their eye will be on the clock. Their focus on Hasso Plattner and Morning Glory’s record of 6:16:04:11 may shift to two other faster elapsed times that are not touted as much as the monohull records. Those times are held by multihulls and go back to the 1995 and 1997 Transpacific Yacht Races.
In 1995, Steve Fossett and Robert D. Hanel were the first multihull owners to take the Transpacific Yacht Club up on its invitation to participate in the Transpacific Yacht Race. Fossett purchased the former Route de Rhone-winning Jeaneau 60 and worked with the Huntington Beach design and engineering firm, Morrelli & Melvin, to modify his multihull entry, Lakota. Hanel’s entry was Double Bullet. Both multihulls shaved over a day off of Merlin’s long established elapsed time record of 8:11:01:45. Lakota’s elapsed time was 6:16:07:06 and Double Bullet’s was 7:06:27:29.
The multihull contingent doubled for 1997’s Transpac Race. Four entered including Bruno Peyron with Commodore Explorer, an 86-foot catamaran that broke the mythical 80-day barrier for going around the world in 1994. The multihull race pitted the 86-foot monster cat against the 60-foot Lakota tri.
The 1997 Transpac is the year that Roy Pat Disney skippered Roy E. Disney’s turbo sled, Pyewacket, to a new elapsed time record of 7:15:24:40. In the same race, the Commodore Explorer took off two days after the sleds, overhauled and passed them. The invited multihull guest finished the race in 5:09:18:26 and claimed the new Rudy Choy Trophy for the best multihull elapsed time by averaging 17.2 knots. The much shorter Lakota also slipped in well ahead of the monohulls on elapse time also. Lokata’s time was 6:00:30:46.
Lakota sailed the first half of the 2,225 miles in less than three days. Commented Pete Melvin of Morrelli & Melvin, who was on board Lakota for the 1995 and 1997 Transpacs. “We had perfect conditions for the race. The Transpac and the southern Californian coastal races are ideal races for the multihulls because the boats are so fast downwind. Ideal conditions for the sleds are ideal conditions for multihulls.”
Morrelli & Melvin have designed record setting ocean-going multihulls such as Steve Fossett’s PlayStation and continues to do so. Recently, they have been defining and dominating the luxury performance catamaran category. Comments Melvin on the possibility of the merits of sailing a luxury performance cat such as the 65-footers, which are being built at Westerly in Costa Mesa, CA. “The large performance cruising multihulls have more than double the living space, they are comfortable and they perform right along with the 80-foot monohulls. It would be good for everyone if the multihulls participated in the Transpac.”
This article reprinted by permission. Original post http://www.transpacrace.com/medianews/general-transpac-news/184-transpac-targets-and-an-invitation-for-multihulls.html
Gino Morrelli Interviewed in Seahorse Magazine
July 9, 2009
Seahorse International Sailing writer, Rob Mundle, interviews Morrelli & Melvin co-founder, Gino Morrelli, on developments in multihull design. Rob and Gino start at the beginning with Gino in the race car pits of Texas and go all the way through his premonitions of a big foil-borne kite-driven ultra-light three-person boat. We appreciate Seahorse International Sailing giving us permission to reproduce this article from their June 2009 issue.
http://www.seahorsemagazine.com/
Huntington Beach, California-based Morrelli & Melvin Design & Engineering, Inc. have been defining and setting the standard for large performance cruising catamarans, and is watching its latest luxurious and speedy craft come to life at Westerly Marine in nearby Santa Ana, California.
Efficient from start to finish
Westerly has built renowned racing machines Rosebud, Stark Raving Mad, Locomotion, Growler and America’s Cup boats USA 49 and 61. Westerly also refit Pyewacket from a 86-foot sled to a 94 footer. The yard is on schedule to meet a January 2010 launch of the first Morrelli & Melvin 65 footer and started production of its second boat in the semi-production series this April.
Morrelli & Melvin have introduced a series of energy efficient design innovations and building techniques to its latest design.
By working closely with Westerly Marine, Morrelli & Melvin have incorporated new building efficiencies to the construction process. These innovations are proving to significantly reduce labor costs and improve construction quality. The team has achieved a significant cost savings that can be passed along to the owner.
Design evolutions, both visible and hidden, are abundant in this design. Morrelli & Melvin’s uniquely shaped wave-piercing bows and complimentary underbody save weight and windage but most importantly reduce pitching motions. Reduced pitching motions improves comfort aboard and also reduces resistance in a seaway.
Steering system improvements include an innovative dagger rudder system with simplified and lighter weight components and a special fairings to minimize speed-robbing turbulence around the rudder. By lifting the dagger boards and rudders, this design can operate in waters as shallow as 3’ (1m).
It will be more cost efficient and environmentally sound to operate the speedy sail-powered catamaran than previous designs because of the lightweight materials used and the energy-efficient systems that are being employed. Lightweight, pre-preg, vacuum bagged carbon fiber is being used for the structural components. These are the very same materials used to build aerospace parts. Nomex honeycomb has been used for the interior structures. Topping it off are IQ Solar’s custom-built, marine-grade solar cell panels combined with an advanced electronic control system.
IQ’s solar panels are smaller than those traditionally used on boats. They have a lower profile and can be shaped to the contours and outline of the cabin top. Rather than having an entire solar panel rendered inoperable because a portion of it falls in the shade of the boom or another structure, Morrelli & Melvin is incorporating the IQ system to ensure that more solar cells are working in all conditions.
Morrelli & Melvin co-founder, Pete Melvin has been staying abreast of the latest in green and energy-saving technology. For the last year and a half, he has been riding a lithium-ion battery-powered motorcycle he built that is capable of going 60 miles per hour and that has a range of 50 miles. It costs $.25 to charge his silent battery-powered cycle; a far cry from what it would cost to operate a gasoline motorcycle. All the while, Melvin has been testing Massachusetts-based Genasun’s lithium-ion battery management system. Satisfied that it is safe and reliable enough to work on his motorcycle, Melvin has specified a Gensun battery management system for the catamaran’s bank of lightweight, high-tech, lithium ion batteries.
A small and light weight DC generator is used in lieu of the typical heavier and bulkier AC genset. The system charges the batteries directly without having to convert AC to DC power, thereby reducing energy losses. Main power requirements on the boat such as refrigeration, instrumentation, and lighting are all DC – eliminating the need for large inverters to convert DC to AC power.
The steering station is located in the aft cockpit. The main and jib sheets are led aft, making it possible for a crew of one or two to reef the main and furl the headsails from the aft cockpit. The other advantage of this layout is creation of a spacious saloon and aft cockpit. This layout is perfect for plying the oceans of the world, which is the intention of the owner of the first boat to be built.
“Our performance catamarans are fast and efficient. As engineers, we are always thinking outside the box and looking to other fields to introduce weight-saving concepts, structural improvements and greener and cleaner technology to our designs. Overall, the improvements translate to building and operating cost savings and customer satisfaction,” said Melvin.
Westerly and Morrelli & Melvin also announced and started the construction of a sistership in April. The second owner was also attracted to the advanced rig, hull and appendage package and sturdy construction and quality installation systems. The cabin areas will be modified to meet this owner’s specifications.
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- Efficient manufacturing
Lightweight, strong, durable, good looks, comfortable, fast and efficient are trademarks of this new cat that is catching the attention of many prospective owners. www.morrellimelvin.com, www.westerly-marine.com
A Comfy, New Thai Vacation Fleet
July 1, 2009
The Moorings has announced a new fleet of vacation yachts in Phuket, Thailand. The Moorings has chosen to stock their new “Far East” destination with Morrelli & Melvin’s award-winning designs built by Robertson and Caine.
Moorings 4600 (46 foot, 4 cabin, sailing catamaran)
Moorings 474PC (47 ft, 4 cabin, power catamaran)
Moorings 372PC (37 ft, 2 cabin, power catamaran)
All the catamarans offer luxury and comfort — beginning with Morrelli & Melvin’s hull designs that ensure performance, stability and a great feel on the water. The interiors have well detailed cabins, bathrooms and amenities. Guests will enjoy scenic views of the Thai coast and neighboring islands, water sports, friendly people, the newest navigation/electronics and top-quality entertainment systems while on their trip.
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- 46 foot award winning cruising catamaran
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- Great boat design inside and out
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- This yacht has a comfortable ride
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- Convenience is built into the layout
The new fleet in Phuket offers a variety of vacation options from full-service boats with captains and cooks, to self-service / bareboat options.
About The Moorings Celebrating its 40th Anniversary, The Moorings is the world’s premier vacation yacht company that manages approximately 600 yachts in 30 destinations of the world’s best cruising grounds in pristine and exotic locations such as the Caribbean, South Pacific, Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, North America and The Far East. The Moorings offers crewed (with captain and chef), power and bareboat (sail-it-yourself) sailing vacations, with the largest catamaran fleet in the world.
For information, call 1-800-535-7289 or visit www.moorings.com.
For the full announcement, see:
