“One of the most extreme yachts Baltic Yachts has ever built.” It is Raven, the 111’ with foil launched last July by the Finnish shipyard and which completed sea tests confirming all its potential. Those of the first “flying maxi cruiser racer”. (Here all our posts about Baltic).
Like an America’s Cup AC75
Raven designed for exterior and interior design by Jarkko Jämsén and for naval architecture by Botin Partner, the studio founded in 1995 by Marcelino Botin (now Head of design of Alinghi Red Bull Racing Team) and PURE Design, is 34 meters long and is equipped with two “wings” with T-shaped appendages with trim correctors on the trailing edge of the profile. The rudder is an inverted T (the so-called elevator) for control during the use of the foils which, in action, support 60% of the boat’s displacement. All the appendages are very similar to those of the AC75s which will be protagonists of the 37th Americas’ Cup next year in Barcelona.
Baltic Raven: 34 meters of lightness
Raven is entirely build of carbon fiber and Nomex and the search for lightness was a constant in all phases of the two-year construction. The result is a 34-metre vessel weighing only 55 tons which, to achieve stability in “displacement” navigation, is also equipped with a 9-ton keel with a draft of 5 meters as well as water ballast to increase stability.
A powerful sailing rig
Raven combines the particular appendages with a powerful sail plan with Southern Spars mast and North Sails 3Di sails designed for sailings which, given the speed it can reach (in the tests Raven always sailed at 20 knots), will be on angles to the wind similar to those of a multihull. The sail plan is composed of a mainsail with square top, jib, staysail and gennaker rigged on an 8 meter long bowsprit.
Baltic Raven: Innovative deck
The flush deck is particular. The central cockpit intended for guests was defined for its concave shape “bird’s nest” and has the texture of the structure that creates it with a series of Perspex windows that give light to the interior. At the stern, in the crew cockpit with the two wheelhouses set far back, all maneuvers are postponed so as to leave the entire deck free.
Minimal-ecological interiors
On Raven Jarkko Jämsén focused on minimalist interiors, inspired in some way by an industrial aesthetic that develop in a series of environments characterized by the utmost formal research.
Baltic Raven: carbon and natural materials for the décor
Always in the search for maximum lightness, the Finnish designer left the carbon of the hull, the structures and the tubes that support the elements exposed and used light rattan for the paneling of the various rooms. “There’s an aggressive, brutal side to some of the design like the carbon fibre structure itself, systems, the wiring and piping, with a thin layer of luxury in between..” explane Jarkko Jämsén.
A challenge to have fun
The interiors of Raven are also essential, with the large living room amidships, the two double rooms for guests towards the bow and, at the stern, the owner’s cabin who, according to the shipyard, thought of this boat as his pure fun and as a challenge to do something never done before. Exactly Raven.
Emilio Martinelli
