Study Study By Frances and Michael Howorth HEMISPHERE 44M Photography Jeff Brown/Nick Bailey, Pendennis WORTH THE WAIT Hemisphere is the world’s largest sailing catamaran and the story of her build is long and dramatic. She turns heads wherever she goes due to her sheer scale, but what is equally impressive is the level of luxurious detail within her interior spaces and range of onboard facilities. She may be the largest vessel of her type cruising the oceans today, but no one ever set out with this goal in mind. – 182 – – 183 – HEMISPHERE 44M > BASIC SPECIFICATIONS LOA: 145’ (44.2m) CARBON MAST AND BOOM: Lorima BEAM: 54’ 6” (16.6m) WINCHES: Lewmar DRAFT: 10’ 2” (3.1m) HEADSAIL FURLERS: Reckmann BUILT: 2011 TENDERS: Scorpion, 27’ (8.3m) - Castoldi jet 14’ 8” (4.5m) CONSTRUCTION: Aluminum CLASSIFICATION: Bureau Veritas FINISHED BY: Pendennis Shipyard Ltd, UK NAVAL ARCHITECTURE: Van Peterghem Lauriot Prévost ENGINES: 2 x 490hp Caterpillar EXTERIOR STYLING: Van Peterghem Lauriot Prévost GENERATORS: 3 x caterpillar STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING: BMT Nigel Gee FUEL CAPACITY: 8,883 US Gal 33,627 liters INTERIOR DESIGN: Michael Leach Design WATER CAPACITY: 2,642 US gal 10,000 liters CHARTER BROKERS: Burgess SAILS: North Sails CRUISING SPEED: 11-knots SAIL AREA UPWIND: 1,085sqft 866sqm GUESTS: 12 (2 master, 2 double, 1 twin) SAIL AREA DOWN WIND: 12,087sqft 1123sqm CREW: 10 The yacht’s owner, an avid diver, had first gone sailing aboard a significantly smaller catamaran in the British Virgin Islands. It was in those islands he first chartered a yacht whose master was Captain Gavin Bladen and it was during conversations between diving excursions that the plan to build the yacht was conceived. Bladen is not only Hemisphere’s current Captain, but acted as the owners representative throughout the protracted build period; “We Given the protracted build process were not trying to make a statement about size. The yacht spanning nearly seven years, it is a wonder envisaged was considerably smaller but as the design process that the owner of the world’s largest cruising progressed, things began to change.” G catamaran did not completely give up The owner gave a brief to designers Van Peteghem Lauriot Prevost on his idea of building a superyacht and in Paris who are renowned for their expertise in drawing multihulls. take up an entirely different pastime. The firm was asked to design a yacht to cater to large dive parties, The somewhat torturous process of giving one that would enable a family expedition to depart to the dive site birth to what is undoubtedly one of the world’s finest cruising catamarans began at the Derecktor Shipyards in the USA. Subsequently, a dispute led to work ceasing there and in 2009 the owners sent their partly completed yacht to the Pendennis shipyard in the UK for completion. The yacht was completed in 2011 and made her world debut at the Monaco Yacht show in September of that year to much acclaim. – 184 – – 185 – HEMISPHERE 44M When redesigning the nacelle to disperse up-draft wave motion, the designers found the perfect location for Hemisphere's unique tender garage. all together. To achieve this a twelve person tender would be necessary, so the client requested that the yacht be outfitted with a 27’ (8.3m) tender. This created the first benchmark for VPLP to work with. The second design criteria that emerged was that the client wanted clean lines, pure exterior styling and uncluttered deck space. The challenge now was to assimilate a large dive tender into the design while keeping the lines pure, clean and uncluttered. This was no easy feat! As the drawings progressed the design team created models of the yacht and studied the various elements in 3D. As they did so, it emerged that the cross-deck that forms the liaison between the two hulls, would be best formed using elles de mouette or seagull wings, a VPLP trademark. Developed by the designers to solve a technical and engineering problem, the curved seagull wing formation of the nacelle disperses the up-draft wave motion, which slams against the cross deck when the catamaran is underway. As they drew the lines, it quickly emerged they had the perfect solution to the question of where to house the large tender. At one stage there was an ‘out of the box’ suggestion of absorbing the tender into the belly of the boat, because if the gull wings were extended back towards the stern, the designers could create more space inside the cross deck so the tender could fit snugly into the gull wing form. Of course, to achieve this the yacht would have to be more than 100’ (30m). The owner thought this a good idea and so the yacht grew to over 145’ (44m). The frivolous might suggest the yacht was designed around the tender! Yet the carriage of a large tender was crucial to achieving the owner’s core desires. – 186 – – 187 – TIME WITH So you continued through the build CPT. GAVIN BLADEN as the owner’s project manager? Yes, I relocated from Paris to America in OWNERS REPRESENTATIVE September 2005 where my job was to oversee the build. The next four years became a challenge with the shipyard failing in their HEMISPHERE 44M obligations and driving themselves into bankruptcy as they mismanaged various ongoing builds all at the same time. From attain it. But we never set out to build the being a Captain sailing and diving in tropical largest sailing catamaran in the world; that waters, I was now an executive dealing with just happened. We wanted a yacht capable of lawyers, attending meetings, trying to settle worldwide tropical cruising, which could offer disputes, dealing with the shipyards the comfort of a powered super yacht, the bankruptcy’s filing while still trying to enjoyment of a sailing yacht with the added progress the dream that both the Owner and I stability and space a catamaran offered. were clinging onto. The worst things became, the more determined we were at seeing How did you select things though to fruition. who would design Hemisphere? We looked at various architect firms in early Moving a part-built project from the US How, and at what stage, did you become 2004, and narrowed our list down to five yard to Pendennis in the UK must have involved in the Hemisphere project? potential firms whose past experience meant been something of a challenge! During a charter in 2001 I began talking with they had the potential to design the yacht we Sure. It eventually became evident that a guest who wanted to own his own boat. In could see in our minds. We set each of them Hemisphere would never be completed by the fact, almost every charter guest I’ve ever the task of proposing a custom concept yacht American shipyard, so the search for a second looked after dreams of owning their own boat, that they felt met our requirements. Marc Van yard became my new priority. Pendennis was but only a handful follow through with their Petegham and his team at VPLP was selected selected. So my next new priority involved the vision. 18-months later however, the same to undertake the work and I moved to Paris to logistical challenges of how you actually guest returned and we began talking about follow, guide, direct, and make sure the move a partially built super yacht across the what he had done in the intervening period. owner’s direction was followed. Atlantic. What there was of Hemisphere was He told me he had been busy looking at a sealed up and made so she could float on her wide variety of different yachts from Was it at that stage that the enormity own twin hulls. Special cradles were shipyards like Feadship and Perini Navi. He of the project became real? engineered for lifting and engineering studies was seeking to understand what it was he I’ll admit that in those early days I didn’t were undertaken to determine how to secure liked most and just as importantly, what he appreciate how ground breaking Hemisphere her onto the deck of another ship. didn’t like at all. During our conversations, we would turn out to be. Surely if you wanted a Thirteen, 40’ shipping containers where established that his own yacht was going to yacht you turned to an architect to draw one inventoried, filled and trucked out of state for be a sailing catamaran. for you, and a yard to build it for you. But shipping to the UK. Moving Hemisphere since nothing like Hemisphere had been built involved a tug and barge and a 130-mile trip, Why a custom build though? before, every detail, plan, arrangement, then a lift of 30m into the air, before she was We did spend quite some time trying to find integrated specification, item of outfit was loaded onboard New Orleans a heavy lift an existing sailing catamaran, which provided researched, reviewed and then integrated, or vessel operated by Rickmas for her journey the space, facilities and amenities he wanted, developed from new if nothing suitable pre- across the Atlantic. but nothing came up to scratch. The quality existed. Creating, what to my mind, is the of finish and detailing was very important to perfect charter yacht has been an amazing Your stress levels subsided him, as were the capabilities for the yacht to opportunity and one where the learning curve after you arrived in the UK? undertake worldwide cruising. While I was frequently achieved the vertical.