Elena

Written by Ferran Alaman / Photos: Concept Works. ranslation: Marco Benevento.Issue Nº 48

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Craftwork and art with Spanish flavour

Marin LuxurYachts recovers the legend of the schooner Elena, a replica of a design by the legendary naval architect Nathanael Herreshoff, who broke all ocean going navigation records in the early twentieth. The new Elena will have a new mixed use both for luxury charter but also to race on classic yachts regattas. 

The Factoria Naval Marin shipyard, owners of the Marin LuxurYachts yachting make, presented last July the schooner Elena, the first large sailing yacht from the Spanish manufacturer and has raised great interest worldwide, because it is a replica of one of the most important racing sailing yachts of all times, which had its splendour days in the early twentieth century, in the frantic competitions crossing the Atlantic bringing together America and Europe.
The new Elena, 42 meters long, was presented in Spain coinciding with the 80 years of the greatest feat of the original sailing boat, which in 1928 ended the hegemony of the legendary three-masted Atlantic during the transatlantic race from New York to Santander. Elena broke the 23 years of records of his opponent and became famous beyond the sailing world. The original yacht was designed by the one known as the ‘wizard of Bristol’, the mythical Nathanael Herreshoff, famous for having designed several boats that won the America’s Cup along the twentieth century.
LuxurYachts Marin is the leisure yachting division brand of the Factoria Naval Marin. The company was founded in late 2006 by Pablo Comesaña and businessman Jose Maria Suescun, president of FNM. The Galician company, began its operations in 2007 in its three operating divisions, - industrial , leisure yachting and repairs - has invested over 12 million Euros to adapt the shipyard to build custom made mega yachts, with some protected areas with a special micro climate which controls the levels of airborne dust, the temperature or the humidity. The modernisation of the building slipways has given to the shipyard the capacity to build mega yachts up to 150 metres. With half a dozen of large projects in their portfolio, the Marin based shipyard places Spain in the world of custom made mega yachts, where Dutch, Germans and Italians compete.

Construction

The construction process has been very complex from the beginning given the requirement for accuracy, which led to investigate numerous documents, mainly over 300 drawings and handmade plans that were provided by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They also used the designs obtained from the Herreshoff studio itself, now run by his grandson, Halsey Herreshoff, and old images taken by photographers such as Rosenfeld and Beken of Cowes that were thoroughly studied to ensure that every detail was reproduced with the maximum perfection. All this detailed documentation includes the dimensions and the characteristics of the masts, the sails and the interiors. The material recovered was processed by the Dutch company Mastership, allowing to create a first computer generated virtual model. The destination of this digital material was the Spanish design studio Acubens, led by naval architect Iñigo Echenique, who developed the final plans for its construction at the Factoria Naval Marin under the Marin LuxurYachts brand.

History

In the fall of 1910, the millionaire Morton Freeman Plant ordered the Herreshoof Construction Company to build a new yacht for him. Plant’s premise was very simple: “Build me a schooner than can win!”. And the choice was to build a copy of the schooner Westward build by Herreshoff a year before. The reference vessel had a famous and successful victories curriculum. Above the waterline the two yachts were identical, but Elena had a keel that brought the weight of the ballast slightly lower and therefore its centre of gravity and improved its close hauled performance.
Elena was launched the following season and since her departure from the shipyard premises it was expected that she would compete face to face in the U.S. east coast competitions. As her sistership did during the previous season, Elena immediately began to achieve excellent results in many of the races of 1911 competing with the most prestigious fleet of schooners at the time, including Westward.
After 17 years of successful racing in American waters with owners such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and William B. Bell, the moment of greatest glory came in 1928 when Elena won the transatlantic race from New York to Santander.
When the technical team responsible for Elena was given the challenge of building a new modern classic schooner, they did not need to look far as they had a previous experience with Elenora on board of which they raced during 2005 and 2006 in the circuit of regattas for classics.
Eleonora is an exact replica of Westward built and launched by Ed Kasteleien in 2002.

Elena’s rigging

The original sail plan of Elena, designed by Herreshoff in 1911, was tested through a computer program by the Dutch mast company Brasken Masts. Surprisingly, the results confirmed that although the industry has enjoyed over a 100 years of continuous technological developments, the original mast designed by the wizard of Bristol can not be improved in strength and lightness. This conclusion was reached after calculating hundreds of different weather situations and testing various sail plan combinations with computer software.
On this project, were indirectly involved companies of more than ten countries. The sails are from the U.S. manufacturer North Sails and for the rigging they had the expertise of the Dutch company Brasken Masten, specialising in custom masts. The smaller masts were made of Douglas fir, whereas the larger spars and the spinnaker pole were made in Sitka spruce (Alaska). The main mast is 42 meters over the water.

 On board

The accommodation on board of Elena has been designed to ensure the maximum comfort and privacy for its guests, while maintaining a high level of efficiency for its full time crew. The interior distribution is faithful to the original Herreshoff drawings although some small modifications have been made to meet the standards of a luxury charter yacht of the twenty first century.
The schooner offers accommodation for ten guests in three cabins with double bed and two with single beds. All guest cabins are finished in mahogany, whereas the interior decoration details have followed meticulously Herreshoff’s original drawings. The varnished mahogany panels contrast with the white ceiling and the beams. The bathrooms have a separate shower and toilet and are finished with elegant accessories of that time. The natural interior illumination is fully guaranteed by three port holes in each cabin, except the owner’s cabin that has four. Each cabin has its own private air conditioning system as well as a television and a CD player with speakers that are hidden in the bulkheads.
The owners of Elena, a British couple, will maintain the sporting spirit of the original vessel and for several months each year they will dedicate her to compete in the very hard classic races such as the Antigua Classics or Les Voiles de Saint Tropez. The rest of the year she will be available on the market for private luxury charter. For this purpose the crew of Elena is made of eight members.

Schooner Elena in figures

On a deck length of 42 meters, the overall length being of 55 meters, the schooner Elena is able to set 1.200 square meters of sail area upwind and 1.800 metres downwind. Its displacement is of 215 tons and has an auxiliary MAN engine, granting a range of 3.000 nautical miles at a speed of 10 knots. The hull has been built on high modulus AH36 steel and the deck is in stainless steel. For the steering, the boat offers a choice of manual and hydraulic helm. To make life on board more comfortable, the boat has water makers and water treatment systems capable of generating 4.800 litres per day, in addition to its tanks with a capacity of 10.000 litres of water and 15.000  litres of  fuel. <<

 Specifications and Equipment

 Contact : ANCASTA yachts