30m Steel Ketch “Spirit of the East”

A stunning superyacht for the charter market

I was very pleased to have been invited by the British owners of “Spirit of the East” to provide design and consultancy services to this project. This fabulous 30.5m (100ft) LOA, 100 tonne, steel yacht was completed and launched at Aegean Yacht Services of Bodrum, Turkey in the spring of 2006. She has a beautifully smooth hull and a superb interior finish, as well as many innovative features.

The yacht has been designed and built to the classification standards of RINA (Registro Italiano Navale) and the construction work carried out under their supervision. The yacht also has charter certification for Category 0 (unlimited) usage for 10-12 charter guests plus full crew.

“Spirit of the East” has the ability to make fast passages under sail or power. The yacht has a long slim hull with a tight turn of the bilge to enhance the transverse stability and sail carrying power without requiring excessively deep draught.  The keel and rudder are aerofoil sections for good efficiency and the rudder is a partially-balanced spade type providing good control and manoeuvrability. The propeller is a 4-bladed Varifold unit for optimum efficiency under power and low drag when under sail. The powerful ketch rig features high-tech sails and running rigging controlled by Harken hydraulic winches and headsail furling systems for ease of operation.       

With accommodation for up to 10-12 guests in suites, comfortable lounging cockpit areas, a luxury finish down below, stunning chestnut joinery and full air-conditioning, this yacht is proving to be very popular with charter guests.  More information is available at  www.spiritoftheeast.net .

My contribution started with the design of the hull, rudder and keel to suit the original concept and preliminary general arrangement developed by the client.  Then I was asked to design a sail plan and to assist with the deck plan and the accommodation layout, in addition to providing technical advice at all stages of the project. Particular emphasis was placed on the aesthetics of this yacht.

Although the construction detailing was all carried out in the design office at the yard in Turkey, the naval architecture work including stability calculations, performance prediction, rig loading calculations and checking of the detailed mass estimates was carried out in the UK with design drawings and technical information transferred electronically between the two design offices.