Performance cruiserr

This new Luca Brenta design is a perfect example of subjectivity in yacht design. Clearly this design is an offshoot of the spectacular Italian Wally boats that have become so visible. Brenta has designed several of the Wally boats, so it's only natural that the Wally approach would carry over into this design. Clearly the owner wanted a very fast and very comfortable boat with only modest accommodations. You might be tempted to look at this boat as a big daysailer. Given the objective design target, Brenta has taken this design to a subjective level of beauty that's hard to match in its exquisite execution of detail.

The hull owes its shape to the racing yachts of today with an IMS-type bulb on a fin with 11 feet, 10 inches of draft. Note how the canoe body profile is flattened in the way of the keel.

This boat has a lot of freeboard. I suppose it was either freeboard or a cabintrunk to get headroom, and in order to stay with the Wally look the cabintrunk was eliminated. Freeboard is windage, but in this case the designer has avoided unnecessary freeboard by giving the boat a very subtle reversed sheer. This removes freeboard from the ends while preserving it in the middle of the boat where it is needed for headroom. The L/B is 3.74. I don't have a DWL length, but I'll approximate it at 57 feet, 6 inches, which gives a D/L of 93.

You could see the choice of a flush deck and a reversed sheer as subjective design elements, and you would have a good argument. Given the design parameters the designer could have stopped here and delivered a pretty normal 65-foot glass/Kevlar/carbon pre-preg daysailer. But Brenta detailed the deck in a style that I can only relate to automobile styling-Italian auto styling.

Flush is the word, except for the big windows in the side of the rounded cabintrunk. Here, where you would expect flush windows, the designer has deeply recessed them about 4 inches. This recess is carried right down to the deck, where it is used to route and hide lines leading aft into the long coaming and back to the winches in the cockpit. Every effort has been made to keep the deck clean. There are pop-up style recessed cleats, and the large, fixed hull ports virtually disappear on the dark blue topsides. The detailing at the twin wheels is jewelry quality. How can you maintain objectivity when faced with a design like this?

This is an interesting interior. I see no "owner's cabin," although I do see two mirror-image staterooms aft with small adjoining heads and no double berths. There is a large stateroom forward, but still no double berth. It's my guess that the owner will either sleep ashore or aboard the "mother ship" when he is racing his Only Lu. I think these sleeping arrangements are for paid crew.

The saloon looks like a great place to relax after the race. Of course, given that this boat will be built as a semiproduction model, I'm certain you could modify your layout any way you like. Note the "garage" aft for the tender. I am surprised at the small number of deck hatches that are in this design.

The rig is a typical tall, fractional type with three sets of swept spreaders. There is a carbon bowsprit hidden in the bow. The SA/D is 28.4. The mast, of course, is carbon.

Do I like this design? How can you not? At the least it has to be seen as impressive. At the same time, however, whether or not a design pushes an individual's own set of sailing lifestyle buttons is another question. As much as I do admire this spectacular design it doesn't "speak" to me.

Don't tell my Grandpa, Angelo Dante Guiseppe Nanelli.