If there’s one yard on the scene that deserves to be called vivacious, it’s Ice Yachts which has just announced the design of the new fast bluewater cruiser, Ice 82 Racer – Cruiser.
The Umberto Felci project delivers a genuine all-rounder of a boat that’s fast, comfortable and totally at ease in tackling long passages in any kind of sea or weather conditions whilst still keeping a finger of the pulse of the Maxi and other long-range offshore races. The research focus was on delivering the offshore performances demanded of long ocean races, which often involve a lot of reaching, in addition to the kind of versatility that would also allow the Ice 82 to acquit itself honourably in typically Mediterranean racing conditions with very little wind and short waves.
The hull is clothed in taut lines with slightly flared flanks. It has a strikingly large stern that’s relatively low on the water.
It will fairly plough through those waves thanks to a powered-up forward section while the mid-section has been kept as compact as possible. A new generation lifting keel does the business (five-metre draught, two-metre excursion) hydrodynamically so that the yacht delivers superb performances in open sea but can also glide into even the most sheltered of bays. The central rudder is very long and makes this 80’ extremely easy to handle and responsive. Built entirely from vacuum-infused carbon-fibre laminate to keep overall displacement to under 30 tonnes, it has a double cockpit with two completely watertight, independent companionways. This allows a choice of two interior layouts in line with the whole semi-custom philosophy, so the owner gets to do a lot of personalisation.
One option is the owner’s cabin aft – this is a large suite with its own bathroom and leaves the other cabins forward with direct access from the deck for the crew.
Equally the owner can choose to stay forward with the rest of the cabins aft. This puts him even further away from the crew area which connects to the galley and working cockpit via the aft companionway.
