At the shipyard Van der Valk has for many years joke that its founder WIM van der Valk has repeatedly tried to build a boat for his family. But every time when she is ready, the managers from the sales Department find a buyer who desperately need a yacht, and Vim remains nothing how to start all over again. Shown in the Cannes collection Explorer is one such yacht, and she was destined not only quite early to change the owner, but also grow in length.
In process inspection and tests in the open sea, the future owner of Seawolf Explorer decided that the ship they like, with only one caveat: on the lower deck he would like to have even more space to store stuff. The other would begin to assure that there will be enough space, if it competently to use, but in Van der Valk immediately offered to act radically to lengthen the body by two meters in the area of the stern.
The project is addressed to Yaron Gentoo originally konstruirovanie this model, and obtained very elegant solution which not only increased the useful internal volume, but also improved the handling characteristics of the vessel. Line of propeller shafts remained unchanged (engines were not even removed from the case), and rudders, which are now further away from the screws were replaced with larger ones. In the end, only by lengthening the waterline, the maximum speed of the vessel increased by 0.7 per node. According to representatives of the shipyard, the maneuverability is not affected, because an increased area rudder and stock with enough power to send a sufficient flow of water or to maneuver only by motors (keel remains the same length). Only, to facilitate the mooring for a boat is still a more powerful stern thruster.
Someone will ask: and whether it is necessary so to complicate your life for a customer who needed a roomy pantry? The answer is simple: in the case of Seawolf Explorer, the shipyard demonstrated a very flexible approach, saved the deal and have a new experience. All the work was done in the offseason and took about five months, and were held in parallel making interiors to customer requirements and installed transformable platform Opacmare.
It is noteworthy that the owner is the first large yacht, and his previous experience in the use of Riva showed that traveling with family is important to him is not speed, but comfort, autonomy and storage space for racing bikes. In fact, all the talk about lengthening the hull and began with his question about where bicycles can be. Besides, he wanted to own a ship of the Dutch “breed”.
Of course, the buyer was forced to pay a total of slightly more than if he ordered this boat from scratch, since a number of operations of the shipyard had to run again. But he won a year or two. It is difficult to measure the money, especially when your children grow up and parents age.
The ship is called Seawolf Explorer for a reason: it was originally built as a freight and set up for long trips in remote areas. Cruising in economy mode nine nodes here is about 3000 miles — the figure is not a record, but quite respectable. This season, the owner would be like in the Mediterranean, and next year plans to go to Norway. By the way, in conversation with the captain he mentioned the trip to Australia and New Zealand. Of course, in the other hemisphere yacht, most likely, will go on a transport ship to save life, but that doesn’t mean that she was not able to walk there on his own. Mounted on Board Caterpillar engines intended for commercial use and are quite capable of crunching all day long.
- Transitions the tender and jetski stored on flybridge. At anchor they can be kept on aft platform
- The master stateroom is located amidships
Made from a light alloy superstructure Seawolf Explorer are arranged in such a way that the pilothouse a few steps raised above the main deck level to provide a better overview, while the upper deck is entirely reserved for the flybridge with an area of about 65 sq. m. of Course, this is not the full version Raised Pilothouse, but even a removal of the cuttings in a separate area, in my opinion, it is preferable for yachts of this type.
Yes, you can blame the “wrong” vertical glazed cabin, but used here double glass, according to engineers, has sufficient strength, so the return angle is not required. In addition, the contours of the bow case is made to effectively dissipate the energy of the waves, not allowing them to “pounce” on the add-in. Another potential disadvantage of the wheelhouse is the only door on the starboard side, while all the space to the left of the captain’s “throne” is reserved for a corner sofa for passengers. Of course, the disadvantage of this considers mainly the captains, although I admit that many just use the Portuguese bridge to go to the left side, instead of having to navigate around the cabin full of passengers with nowhere to sit.
According to captain Seawolf Explorer, most of the time he drives the boat with additional stations on the flybridge and down to the wheelhouse only in bad weather or when guests want to be on the deck alone.
As for equipment, the boat was initially seriously “Packed” for their tasks, including the most modern navigation and satellite communications systems, so in the refita need to add some fundamental devices and assemblies. On-Board desalination plants capable of producing up to 8,000 litres of water a day, three fuel tank is equipped with pumps for pumping fuel between them, with all the key pumps on the vessel are duplicated. For omerania pitching provided Seakeeper gyro stabilizer in the engine compartment — the older model 35 kN suitable for vessels up to 100 tons (displacement Seawolf Explorer 90 t), and the heavier yacht Builder puts Australian Veem gyros.
- Pilothouse with a corner sofa on the port side for passengers
- Lengthening the body is not affected by the engine compartment and line shafts
Practical, sturdily built, with interior design by Guido de Groot (exterior design — is also his work) is practically devoid of unnecessary bling, demonstrating the balance between luxury and utility. During refita the owner went in a simple way and without involving third-party designers, just ask Guido to finalize some small details for his taste. Alterations were limited to the replacement of upholstery and the range of stylistic moments, and most of the trim remains the one that chose WIM van der Valk.
On the lower deck are four guest cabins and the master cabin is full width of the body (of 6.80 m) is at the midsection. Interestingly, the bathroom there is arranged along the right side and can be separated from the “bedroom” half of the sliding sections. On all doors and movable furniture elements provided by magnetic or mechanical locks open and closed positions to in a stormy sea, all this did not clap and did not shaking. Perhaps, on the background of pronounced trend of maximizing glazing traditional steel portholes with “lambs” do Seawolf Explorer bit old-fashioned, but the natural light on Board in abundance, and the rest is a matter of taste.
What’s the bottom line? The construction of such a vessel from scratch will cost about € 6 million, and this compares with the cost composite flybridge cruisers of the same length (many of them cost significantly more!). Given that Van der Valk is in its class leading position a model like Seawolf Explorer will inevitably fall to the top of the list of those who are ripe for comfort and a seaworthy hull “snail”. And most importantly, if you want a bigger boat, you can just increase the body a couple of meters!
What do you think?