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[Mirabella on the rocks], she was the largest single-masted yacht ever built.
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.Super-Sloop, [Yachting World]
She is available for charter at rates starting at US$275,000 per week.[Mirabella Yachts: Mirabella V]
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.
Brief
The owner's design brief demanded high performance, particularly to windward, with a speed of over 20 knots under sail.
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.[Ron Holland Design: Mirabella V]
The brief also called for a rig with a single mast. 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.[Mirabella V: meeting a superstar] (BYM Nes)
Technical challenges
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 acosutic insulation.Reinforcedplastics.com: [Engineering a composite hyperyacht]
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)
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.
- 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 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.[Boot.de: Mirabella V - the largest sailing sloop ever]
- Her UPS (Genoa) is the largestsail 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 |
Construction
Mirabella V was constructed at the VT Shipbuilding (formerly Vosper Thornycroft), yard at Woolston, Southampton, England.
Last vessel to be built at Woolston [This is Business: Opulence on the high seas]
Launch
Launched on November 27 2003, Mirabella V's mast was stepped in December 30 2003[Yachting World: Historic launch of world's largest sloop, Mirabella V]. She was sailed for the first time off Portsmouth on April 14 2004.
Service
After an accident in the South of France in 2004, she was repaired in Portsmouth.
External links
- [Mirabella V website]
- [Designer Ron Holland's page on Mirabella]
- [Yachting World magzine feature articles on Mirabella]
- [Sailing news with loads of photos of Mirabella V]
Notes
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