Kokomo 58.4m Sloop, delivered to owners

“Sailing superyachts are amongst the most complex hand built objects in the world today” Ed Dubois

The latest Kokomo (Kokomo 2010 as she is affectionately known) was delivered to her owners in March. She creates a new and advanced league in the world of the super sailing yacht.

At 58.4m (192ft) she is the largest yacht (launched) designed by Dubois Naval Architects and the largest built in New Zealand.

Kokomo is the twentieth Dubois design to be built by Alloy Yachts and has every ounce of that unique experience and understanding embodied within her beauty.

Aircraft and automobiles are now built almost entirely by robots. Modern complex buildings are fabricated from machine made parts. Yachts, however, are built by hand. Craftsmen cut and bend the frames and plate to make the aluminium hulls. Skilled engineers machine stainless steel to fabricate the many pieces of equipment to enable the hydraulic sail handling equipment to function, the folding stern platforms to operate, the hatches to open and be watertight in the worst of weather, pantograph doors to open and close with perfect balance, large tender bay hatches to open effortlessly, passerelle gangways to extend silently…the list goes on and on.

Interior joining work has reached a new level of sophistication and finish because of the demands of the superyacht industry. The Victorian palaces and country houses built on the new wealth of the Industrial Revolution never saw the level of sophistication that is now evident in the best superyacht. Not only that, there is a requirement for silent staterooms sometimes situated adjacent an engine room packed with throbbing machinery. This adds another dimension of skill and understanding.

Entertainment equipment (sound and vision) is installed, and consideration given to the correct acoustics. Electronic communications and navigation equipment becomes more efficient and more sophisticated with every year and the ‘boat builder’ (what an inadequate term that is for the creators of these craft) must learn how to install it and how to best place the controls.

Kokomo has all of these pieces of equipment and all the benefits of all of this experience – much of it seen on many recent vessels. But this yacht differs in one large respect and that is her lifting keel – a lifting keel which is designed to withstand grounding impact and which can be raised and lowered whilst underway.

The requirement for Kokomo; the brief from her owners, was for as much performance as possible. As any racing yachtsman knows, draught, and the power to carry sail for a given weight, is the all important factor for monohull performance. But the draught of a yacht almost 200ft in length is the major consideration because access to harbours and beautiful anchorages would be severely limited if the ideal (for performance) fixed keel draught were constructed. Indeed it would probably not be possible to launch a yacht with over 6 metres of draught for many yacht construction companies.

A lifting keel is therefore crucial and Kokomo 2010 has just that; a 100 tonne bulb attached to a 30 tonne steel fin. The steel casing of the bulb is filled with lead and when in the fully lowered position this keel gives the yacht a depth of 8.1 metres (26.5ft). When raised, the draught reduces to 4.8 metres and allows access for Kokomo to most of the desirable harbours and anchorages of the world.

The mechanism for raising and lowering this keel was designed following information provided by Dubois regarding not only the side force from the immense righting moment provided by the keel but also the forces through collision and impact. The design was tank tested and one of the tests was to run the yacht into an obstruction; an underwater wall, whereby the keel hit the obstruction, or ‘wall’, and accelerometers on the model were used to calculate the impact.

The structure was then designed to withstand impact at speed - speeds which no yacht in our experience has ever hit an immovable obstruction - but it was felt necessary to allow for the ‘extremely unlikely’ as well as everyday sailing loads.

The keel therefore moves Kokomo into a new area of sailing superyacht performance and gives her unique ability when sailing to windward. Unlike most sailing yachts of this size, where one simply points the yacht into the wind at a certain angle, it is possible with Kokomo 2010 to coax her to windward as one does a racing yacht; to feel her wanting to climb higher and to gently resist the weather helm to keep her tracking on that delightful borderline which achieves the best ‘Velocity Made Good’ to windward. Although the steering is hydraulic, Alloy yachts have developed a feedback system which senses the load on the rudder and through a separate motor gives feel to the helm. This is another first for Kokomo 2010 and it makes steering her an especially delightful experience.

Stability, depth of keel and hull form have all been designed with performance in mind but to give the power to get the best on this unique design the rig must match the hull and it was decided to dispense with any concern for Panamax mast height or indeed for passage through the Suez Canal, under the new bridge. The rig height of Kokomo is 74 metres off the water which means that the voyage from the Pacific to the Atlantic Kokomo must sail under one or other of the Capes. However, her speed is such that this adds very little to voyage time; a matter of a few days compared to using the Canals - and what is that consideration compared to the overall performance of what is, after all, a thing designed and built purely for enjoyment?

Kokomo 2010 is large but she is, more importantly, unique in that she embodies a mass of experience from both designer and builder.

Viewed in isolation, with no scale apparent, no man on deck and no other relative object within sight, Kokomo could be 80 feet long, not almost 200; her proportions are that of a more modest creature of the sea. It is only as one approaches one can appreciate her immense size and power and only when one is sailing her, to windward particularly, can one appreciate just what an achievement has been reached.

Dubois Naval Architects Ltd Beck Farm, Sowley, Lymington, Hampshire SO41 5SR, UK

T: +44 (0) 1590 626666 F: +44 (0) 1590 626696 design@duboisyachts.com www.duboisyachts.com

LOA 58.4m (191.59ft)

LWL 52.2m (168.96ft)

Beam 10.9m (35.76ft)

Draught (keel raised) 4.8m (15.75ft)

Construction Aluminium

Engine 2 x Caterpillar diesel C18 ‘D’ rated

Gear box 2 x ZF 2300 reversing gearbox @ 4.441:1

Propeller 2 x Hundested variable pitch

Thrusters American Bow Thruster TRAC II

Generators 2 x 69kw Caterpillar C4.4

Fuel Capacity 50,166 litres

Water Capacity 12,690 litres

Sails Doyle Sails

Sail Area 1914m

Winches Alloy Yachts

Furlers Reckmann

Mast and Boom Southern Spars

Designer Dubois Naval Architects

Builder Alloy Yachts

Interior Designer Redman Whiteley Dixon

Project Manager Peter Wilson, MCM

Launch March 2010