Yesterday, we looked at the Bugis phisini, a modern sailing ship built using traditional wood ship building methods that date back a thousand years or so. Today, a look at the other end of spectrum – wood sailing ships that use the most modern building technology.

Dream Symphony, with four masts and 462 feet (141M) long, will be the largest wooden sailing yacht ever built. It will also be among the longest wooden vessels ever built. In the early 20th century, wooden shipbuilders discovered that there was a limit how long one could build a wooden ship. Ships over 300 feet long tended to be too flexible to hold together in a seaway.

The Wyoming, a six masted schooner built in 1909 was 350 feet long on deck. Despite being built with tons of iron strapping and reinforcements, the schooner tended to twist and flex in a seaway. In March 1924, the ship foundered in heavy seas and sank with the loss of all hands.

What makes Dream Symphony so different from the Wyoming is the technology. Not much is publicly known about the construction of the yacht but it is expected to be built with a cold-molded laminated structure which results in a strong monoque structure. Cold molded yachts with may layers of laminated in epoxy are many respects more similar to fiberglass than to planked and caulked traditional wooden hulls. Wood is still a relatively flexible material, roughly 18 times more flexible than steel, so the Dream Symphony will have to be carefully engineered manage the stiffness of the hull. The yacht is a project of Dykstra & Partners Naval Architects, who have an considerable experience in the design of large sailing vessels, both modern and traditional.

On a dramatically smaller scale than the Dream Symphony, but using a similar approach to design are a series of “fusion schooners” designed by Nigel Irens. The schooners are reasonably traditional yet are built with cold molded hulls and carbon fiber masts.

The Fusion Schooner is a blog detailing the construction Glaz, of a 50′ gaff rigged schooner built in the Philippines.  The schooner is still a wooden vessel but dramatically different from the plank on frame schooners we all know so well.

Thanks to Tom Russell on the Traditional Sail Professionals Linked-In list for pointing out the new schooners.