At least I think it's exciting. We'll be launching the Bieker 53, Fujin, around the end of May. Fujin is the name of the Japanese
wind god. The image is a rendering, not a
photo as she is a few weeks away from actually sailing. Originally slated for launch this month, she has been delayed while waiting for the rig to be finished and shipped from
France. She was designed by Paul Bieker and being built by Gold Coast Yachts in St Croix. She will be based in the
Caribbean for the first couple years.
I have been
racing and cruising for 25+ years (mostly racing) and we wanted a
boat that would do both well with an emphasis on performance. We had looked at production catamarans but having sailed
race boats for years, most of the production cats were bigger, bulkier and heavier than we wanted. I approached Paul with the idea of creating a very fast 50' cruising cat in Oct 2013. The unique look is the result of Paul's view that form should follow function. The cutaway bow reduces windage and weight and in most cats, the forward space in the bows is of little use. The raised bows at the front get the forward crossbeam above the typical waves. The
galley pod has a low profile and does not span the full bridgedeck, in order to reduce panel weight and windage.
She has two double staterooms, two
single berths, two heads, a full
galley and inside seating area, two
Yanmar 3YM30s,
electric winches, a rotating
mast, lots of
solar and no
generator. She is all carbon and lightship weight will be less than 15,000 lbs. She has deep, curved daggerboards and T-rudders but is not intended to foil. The foils are intended to generate some
lift and reduce pitching at speed.
The timing kind of sucks as we're only going to be able to sail her enough to get the basics dialed in before she will be put
on the hard for
hurricane season. We considered moving her up the
east coast for the summer but with living in
Seattle and other sailing commitments this summer, it didn't make sense for us.
Exterior hulls are being painted this week. I'll post some real
boat pics after she gets painted.
-Seaguy
www.facebook.com/sailhamachi
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