Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko’s new sail-assisted motor-yacht, named simply, Sailing Yacht A, is undergoing sea trials. The $450 million yacht has a number of superlatives attached to it. At 12,700 tonnes, it is the largest sailing yacht in the world by gross tonnage. At 469 feet, she is the longest sailing yacht in existence. Its 300 foot tall carbon fiber masts are the largest composite freestanding structures in the world. And while not a superlative exactly, the yacht — a slab sided, eight decked, angular monstrosity — does qualify as the ugliest sailing vessel in the world.
Royal Clipper
While Sailing Yacht A may be the largest sailing yacht by gross tonnage, she is not the largest sailing ship in service by sail area. Her 40,330 sq ft three masted schooner rig is nothing to scoff at. Indeed, it is 8,000 sq ft larger than the rig on the tea clipper Cutty Sark. Nevertheless, Sailing Yacht A does not compare to the 56,000 sq ft of sail set by the five masted square rigged cruise ship Royal Clipper operated by Star Clippers. Even the century old windjammer Peking, bound for restoration in Hamburg in the Spring, had more sail area at 44,132 sq ft. In addition to having more sail area, Royal Clipper and Peking are both beautiful ships, something that cannot be said of A.
Now that Melnichenko has his new toy, he has put his previous yacht, a 390 foot motor-yacht also named A, on the market for around $300 million.
Right up there in the ugliest class with the new destroyer ZUMWALT.
Wasn’t it stuff like this that helped inspire the Russian Revolution – or was that the French Revolution?
The problems with big slab sided vessels can be well illustrated by a couple of oil tankers that have lost their engine power and then been driven as in one case across the Irish sea the hull being the sail. When we look at the seven mast schooner `Thomas W Lawson’ dragged her anchors and was wrecked in the Scilly Isles it was her hull that became her sail, let us hope that this Russian monstrosity `A’ and what a terrible name for a sailing vessel, it shows a total lack of imagination only compounded by the dreadful design. When `Sea Cloud’ was commissioned as the only four mast yacht ever to be built back in 1931 she was beautiful if you discount the funnel, when I sailed in her as deck crew in the 1980`s she had a fine turn of speed and handled well under a press of sail with Captain Schwarz in command. There are far too many ugly ships on the sea these days. Fortunately most hang around marinas and rarely make serious deep sea voyages.
Dunno why, but the expression “nouveau riche” comes to mind. It is sadly easier to acquire oodles of dosh than to acquire sea sense and a feel for aesthetics. S/Y “A”‘s predecessor, M/Y “A” gave a preview of what to expect.
While Chris Roche thinks that “A” is a terrible name for a sailing vessel, that is the least of my “gulps” because I can’t bring myself into thinking of this thing as a sailing vessel. I am grateful it has not been given a traditional sailing ship name such as “Sovereign of the Seas”, “Poseidon”, “Neptune” or “Romance of the Seas”, etc., etc.
On the positive side, this project has given what was probably much needed work to the Nobiskrug yard that used to build some good-looking sailing vessels in the days of merchant sail. I will endeavour to keep my old impression of that yard despite this latest achievement.
“A” is not only avant-garde and experimental in terms of ugliness, but in a range of applied technologies, such as those gigantic single-piece carbon fibre masts made in Portsmouth, a technology that might find applications that are more worthwhile. Getting those masts to Kiel must also have required advanced and possibly new transport tech.
The windows are said to be bombproof (a wise precaution) and I wonder if the hull is armour-plated. Anyway, Somali pirates don’t stand a chance with this high and smooth-sided fortress.
I assume that everything on board is automated and computer controlled. I just hope the OS is more dependable than Windows and the other OSs I have experienced. The sails are hoisted and roller-furled inside the booms by finger work on a touch screen on the bridge. Anyone who has used long enough a car with electric windows and sunroof will be praying there is manual back up! Actually, I do not think those ~1,250 m² sails could be hoisted or taken down even by putting the entire 54-strong crew and 20 caviar-eaters on the halyard or downhaul. The purchase required would involve friction cancelling out the beef, rather like trying to start a modern car with a powerful engine with a hand crank.
The 8 m draught and 100 m air draught seriously restrict the ports of call to modern commercial ports with amenities such as container storage yards, silos, sheds, refineries, storage tanks and scrap yards, and notoriously lacking yacht clubs and smart watering holes. The vessel’s helicopter will be busy ferrying the guests to more congenial shore side venues… Presumably, between technical calls, “A” will just lie at anchor some distance off fashionable destinations and I hope it has some dependable ground tackle…
When the `Eye of the Wind’ arrived at Papeete in 1997 one of our crew Ina went along to the Club med vessel the 4 mast schooner rigged `Wind Song’ where she found an officer who had been in `Sir Winston Churchill’ he was willing to show us around her, we were taken up to the bridge where we were shown the joy stick by which the vessel was usually steered, alongside this there was a computer console to control the sails on her four masts, the degree of angle of the boom is set, then the degree of sail to be hoisted is set, after which a button is pressed and up it all goes. The fly in the ointment was that the computer had malfunctioned some months earlier and had not been fixed. When we walked the tween deck and saw a wheel on Starboard side and another on the Port, `what do they do’ Oh! they are for the passengers they are not connected to anything. The following excellent song is perhaps the future.
Shantyman
(Bob Watson)
Now modern ships carry mighty funny gear,
And away, get away, you shantyman.
Ain’t seen a halyard in many’s a year,
An’ they got no use for a shantyman.
Slick new fittings are all your style,
And away, get away, you shantyman.
All very clever, but it just ain’t right;
An’ they got no use for a shantyman.
Shantyman, oh, shantyman,
Who’s got a berth for a shantyman?
Sing you a song of a world gone wrong,
When they got no use for a shantyman.
Levers to jerk and buttons to press
And real live sailors they need them less;
Pushing on the buttons and hauling on the levers
And they got no use for horny-handed heavers.
The cargo is stored in a polythene pack,
Raised and lowered by a dry bollocks jack;
Floating computer dressed like a ship,
Skippered and crewed by a micro chip.
Soon they’ll be sailing by remote control,
An’ that’ll be pleasing to the owners’ souls;
They’ll send their ships from dock to dock,
All sat upon their arses in an office block.
New-fangled gear’s no use to you
When you’re off Cape Horn with your fuses blew;
Then’s the time for to curse the day
You sent your shantyman away.
A sailor’s life it once was hard,
Laid out aloft on a tops’l yard;
Now it don’t matter if the winds blow high;
You can take force ten with your feet still dry.
Old-time ways are forgotten and gone,
For no-one listens to a shantyman’s song.
Things no longer as they used to be;
It’s the knacker’s yard for the likes of me.
Listen at night and you might hear
A ghostly sound on the quiet air;
Is it a ghost from the distant past,
Or just a breeze in the radar mast?
Bob Watson has this to say about his song:
“Somewhere about 1983 I heard Jim Lloyd on the BBC (Folk on Two) interviewing The Spinners, one of whom remarked that there was a demand for new sea songs written in the style of the old. I remember thinking; “What on earth would one write new sea songs about?” It took a year before any constructive ideas were formed, then suddenly a load of songs came pouring out of me. Amongst them was The Shantyman, although I don’t know exactly what was the inspiration behind it. Most of my songs take a long time from first draft to finished version, sometimes years, but this song progressed faster because of the interest shown by Tony O’Neil when he saw a rough draft. Tony liked the song, but not all the verses, so I went home and rewrote some of them. This led to the song making its debut at Bracknell Folk Festival in 1984, sung by Tony, and its live recording is a treasured possession. From that first performance other people heard it and have taken to singing it…”
Text and notes are quoted from The Shanty Crew’s 1989 recording, Stand To Yer
Ground (PROP 1885A)
As that British chap said “Much ado about nothing”. Who really cares about this Russian.
Good Watch