Mirabella V

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Mirabella V is a sloop-rigged super yacht launched in 2003. At an estimated cost of over US$50million,[1] she was the largest single-masted yacht ever built.

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[edit] Ownership

Mirabella V is one of a fleet of super-yachts owned by Joe Vittoria, and used for luxury private charters.

A former Chairman and CEO of the Avis car rental company, Vittoria made his fortune when he helped organise the buyout and resale of the company in the 1980s.[2]

She is available for charter at rates starting at US$375,000 per week (high season).[3]

[edit] Design

Mirabella V was designed by Irish-based, New Zealand-born yacht-designer Ron Holland. Technical aspects of the composite construction of hull and rig were supervised by the Hamble-based firm High Modulus Europe Ltd, a subsidiary of a New Zealand company.

[edit] Brief

The owner's design brief demanded high performance, particularly to windward, with a speed of over 20 knots under sail.[3]

According to the designers, the brief was for a yacht which would combine fast sailing with the sort of luxury previously available only in motoryachts.[4]

The brief also called for a rig with a single mast.[4] This creates a less cluttered deck than is possible with multiple masts, allowing greater flexibility in the use of deckspace for the leisure activities of passengers. (see Rig, below).

The owner also specified that yacht must be built in composite materials rather than of wood or metal. (see Composite construction, below).

A further constraint was the owner's requirement that the yacht should be able to use the harbour at Palm Beach, Florida. This required the use of a lifting keel to reduce draft.[5]

[edit] Technical challenges

[edit] Composite construction

Vessels of this size are usually made from steel or aluminium, but a composite structure was chosen for Mirabella for a variety of reasons, including:

  • speed of construction
  • reduced maintenance (composite materials do not require regular repainting to inhibit corrosion)
  • improved thermal and acoustic insulation.[6]

[edit] Rig

Yachts over about 25 metres long used to be built with more than one mast, to allow the required sail area to be divided into smaller and more-easily handled units. However, new technologies have both improved the reliability of larger sails and spars and simplified their handling.

(section under construction)

[edit] Dimensions

The scale of Mirabella V lends itself to superlatives:

  • More than twice the length of the massive J-class yachts of the 1930s, she is large enough for a double-decker bus to drive inside the hull without protruding out the top.[6]
  • Her mast extends 88.5 metres (292 feet) above the waterline, almost twice the height of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square, London. The compression load at the base of the mast is over 440 tonnes.
  • With her keel fully lowered, Mirabella V's draught of 10.09 m (32 ft 10 in) is a few inches more than the 70,000 tonne ocean liner QE2.
  • With a beam of 14.80 metres, Mirabella V is wider than a Royal Navy Type 42 destroyer
  • She cannot pass under any bridge on the planet, which includes the Bridge of the Americas over the Panama Canal.[7]
  • Her UPS (Genoa) is the largest sail in the world (1,833 m² / 19,730 sp ft)
Metric Imperial
LOA 75.2 m 246 ft 8 in
LWL (full load) 61 m 200'
Beam 14.82 m 48 ft 7 in
Draught (board up) 3.9 m 12 ft 8 in
Draught (board down) 10.09 m 32 ft 10 in
Displacement (full load) 740 tonnes
Sail area (mainsail+working jib) 2385 m² 25,675 sq ft
Sail area (mainsail+reacher) 3380 m² 36,490 sq ft
Main engines (2): power at 2100 rpm 788Kw 2 x 1,056 bhp

[edit] Construction

Mirabella V was constructed at the VT Shipbuilding (formerly Vosper Thornycroft), yard at Woolston, Hampshire, England. She was the last vessel to be built at Woolston.[8]

[edit] Launch

Launched on November 27, 2003, Mirabella V's mast was stepped in December 30 2003.[9] She was sailed for the first time off Portsmouth on April 14, 2004.

[edit] Service

After an accident in the South of France in 2004, she was repaired in Portsmouth.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Mirabella on the rocks
  2. ^ Super-Sloop, Yachting World
  3. ^ a b Mirabella Yachts: Mirabella V
  4. ^ a b Ron Holland Design: Mirabella V
  5. ^ Mirabella V: meeting a superstar (BYM Nes)
  6. ^ a b Reinforcedplastics.com: Engineering a composite hyperyacht
  7. ^ Boot.de: Mirabella V - the largest sailing sloop ever
  8. ^ This is Business: Opulence on the high seas
  9. ^ Yachting World: Historic launch of world's largest sloop, Mirabella V

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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