When Alloy delivered Salperton this spring, she was the largest pleasure craft ever built in New Zealand and represented the fruitful collaboration between her designer, Ed Dubois, and her builder.
Some trivia of note: Her carbon ketch rig spreads 26,000 square feet of sail downwind, 100 kilometers (about 65 miles) of wiring runs through her innards, and she has 100,000 electrical terminations. Completing her took about 400,000 hours. More important, though, is the subtle beauty of her Andrew Winch interior. The cherry joinery warms a person’s heart and invites casual living, but it retains the elegance that goes with formal dinner parties aboard. This is a neat trick. She’s fast, too. Flying all sails, including the mizzen staysail on a reach, she’s able to exceed her 16-knot theoretical hull speed. She’s one of the most luxurious rapid-transit systems afloat.
This year, Alloy’s résumé also includes the launch of Harlequin, whose gene pool includes the stunning Kokomo, also designed by Dubois Naval Architecture and Yacht Design and built by Alloy Yachts. The builder expected to launch her in October in time for the Louis Vuitton Challenger series in Auckland, New Zealand. Dubois’ masterful blend of a sleek modern superstructure with a lovely counter stern and classical overhangs gives Harlequin an enduring charm, placing her squarely into the genre of Modern Classic. At 162 tons, she’s not a lightweight, but the designer shaped her bottom to keep wave-making resistance to a minimum. Add the 8,554 square feet of sail area to the formula and you can expect some very fast passages. Redman, Whiteley, Dixon designed the interior, placing the master stateroom aft under the cockpit. Guest quarters are immediately forward of the master, and the crew accommodations are in the bow. -D.C.
Contact: Alloy Yachts, (011) 64 9 838 7350; mailbox@alloyyachts.co.nz; www.alloyyachts.com.
