Revolutionary superyacht concept developed for sailing in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans

Naval architects Mathis Ruhl Architecture Navale have developed a revolutionary concept for the sailing superyacht R77. The vessel was designed for a clearly defined customer objective: to create a large sailing vessel capable of passing through the Panama Canal, which connects the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

The passage height for ships in the Panama Canal is 57.91 meters, in exceptional cases 62.5 meters, provided the passage is made in low water. This imposes restrictions on the height of masts for sailing yachts.

So naval architects were faced with a difficult dilemma: how to design a rig with enough sail area for a 77m yacht to perform well in moderate wind conditions while keeping the masts no higher than 62.5m?

The result is a revolutionary spars configuration which Mathis Ruhl Architecture Navale has even patented. The deck layouts had to be adapted accordingly.

The R77's sail rigging consists of two pairs of masts, each pair mounted on a circular turntable. The masts in pairs are connected by cross bars.

Mathis Rule himself thinks that the design could be especially interesting for commercial applications, where wind power could be used instead of environmentally unfriendly and expensive fuel.