Buying a ‘Bulletproof’ Yacht: New and Used Adventure Boat Advice
As owners seek to sail more self-sufficiently, beat the depreciation associated with many production boats and explore off the beaten track, a yacht that’s very well built has become key for some buyers
Those planning to sail to inhospitable places tend to have a strong vision of what is needed from the craft that will take them there. In the case of Jean-François Delvoye, designer of the Boreal series of yachts, the vision is one of a resilient all-rounder.
“I wanted to build a solid but performing boat, a voluminous all-rounder, comfortable at sea and at anchor. A fast boat, simple to use and maintain, which makes you feel at ease in Cowes harbour, the Polynesian lagoons, or even in the Screaming Fifties,” he explained.
Boreal designs, built from aluminium in varying thicknesses, incorporate three watertight bulkheads, an icebreaker stem and a lifting keel. Both the prop and rudder are heavily protected, and the aluminium is unlikely to rupture if hit, providing a degree of protection in the event of being hit by a whale or container.
Like most explorer yachts, the Boreal series is a product of utility, born to meet the demands of those more than happy to look beyond what can be offered at a much lower cost. However, they are just one interpretation of what makes a ‘bulletproof’ yacht.
The S&S-designed Alpa 42 ketch is built of thick laminate GRP with an encapsulated lead keel.
Surveyor’s choice
Not all tough boats are built in metal. Whatever the hull material, a tough boat is likely to be built from a lot more of it. For those open to a GRP hull, construction varies enormously in quality and strength.
Ben Sutcliffe-Davies is a yacht surveyor of over 20 years’ experience and a trained boatbuilder. He looked for longevity and strength when buying his own yacht, as well as a boat that would be easy to maintain and with little to go wrong.
“When it came to my own boat, I was looking for something that had many construction attributes hard to find in a modern yacht, that also sailed well. A Sparkman & Stephens design, the Alpa Nautica 42 is a ketch. The hull is of very thick solid laminate, she has a long, fully encapsulated keel, and a skeg hung rudder.
Strong hull of the Boreal 47.2 can take the ground – note propeller protected by skeg
The keel ballast is lead, not iron, which will expand [if it rusts] and cause problems.
“Internally, the frames are physically bonded into the hull. She is over 43 years old and still structurally good. While it’s perhaps not a fashionable boat, she sails well and, I think, is essentially bombproof. The weight of the hull is offset by her Sparkman & Stephens lines, sacrificing volume for seakeeping and speed.”
Bucking modern yacht design trends can be challenging for manufacturers. More voluminous hull shapes that can sacrifice heavy weather performance, unprotected twin rudders and sail drives, thinner GRP layup, deck stepped masts… there’s a long list of less-than-bulletproof design decisions that have proven popular with the wider market.
The Kraken Yachts ‘Zero Keel’ isn’t held on by bolts – it’s integral to the hull layup
Building a ‘bulletproof’ yacht
For Dick Beaumont, not being able to find a tough boat led to him making his own, then starting a company building them.
“I actually flew to the Düsseldorf boat show to help someone else find the right yacht for them and concluded there was nothing on the market that I would choose to go offshore in.
“I had owned my Tayana 58, built in Taiwan, and knew I could find the expertise there to build something to my design. I then engaged Kevin Dibley, a New Zealand-based naval architect to work with me. This led to the formation of Kraken Yachts. We are now building from 44 to 66 feet.”
YouTubers Sailing SV Delos have ordered a tough, custom-built explorer catamaran
The customer base for Kraken has proven to be quite specific. “We don’t advertise and we’re unapologetic about what we think really matters, so people tend to find their way to us. As it turns out, well over half of our customers are engineers of one sort or another in their professional lives. That’s not so surprising. When they come to the yard, we first go through every aspect of the boat’s engineering, encouraging visitors to see what won’t be visible when the boat is fully built.
“Showing them a cutout from the hull where we’ve installed a seacock speaks volumes; a minimum of 15cm and 17 layers. At more critical points, such as the bow, even thicker.”
Right from the outset Kraken chose to veer away from convention with what they call the ‘Zero Keel’, a fully encapsulated keel with no bolts that’s an integral part of the layup of the yacht. “As for the hull, well, in places it literally is bulletproof. We’ve built Aramid fibre into all of the impact areas.”
The Sailing SV Delos custom-built explorer catamaran in build
Tough multihulls?
Brian Trautman has spent 15 years cruising a yacht long considered to be an archetypal tough cruising boat, a 53ft Amel Super Maramu ketch, as documented on his eponymous YouTube channel Sailing SV Delos. But with a growing family and ambitions to cruise further afield, he and his wife Karin decided to not only make the move to a multihull but to build their own custom, tough catamaran.
There’s a growing number of ‘explorer cats’ being launched, many – like the new Delos – built in aluminium. Delos 2.0 also incorporates features more commonly associated with monohull explorer yacht designs, such as protected skeg hung rudders, watertight bulkheads and mini keels that allow her to be safely beached.
Naval architect David de Villiers had already designed a ketch rigged catamaran with the same explorer-style features when he was approached to design for the Trautmans. “The origins of Delos 2.0 are in an aluminium catamaran, unusually rigged as a ketch, which I designed in 2009. It’s certainly not a racing catamaran, but is instead built to Lloyds Register workboat standards, so it’s a tough boat that will stand up to a lot.
“Delos has taken their boat a stage further, adding a huge solar array on an extended solid roof and an unusual propulsion system,” explains de Villiers. The new cat will feature a Parallel Electric Hybrid drive, so there will be a diesel engine in one hull driving a 25kW electric motor in one hull, while the other hull will only have a matching electric motor, meaning that, with the addition of a mechanical clutch, the yacht can run as either all electric, hybrid, or conventional diesel; increasing its redundancy in remote locations.
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