The New Zealand mast and rigging expert Southern Spars create some of the best masts in the world for superyachts and professional racing yachts. For a long time now this company has been the first one to come to mind for sailing professionals looking for the best new rig.
Pictured is sailing yacht KOKOMO III moored in Auckland soon after her launch. Here the team for Southern Spars is working on rigging her 75 meter mast, which is the second largest carbon mast in the world.
However, Southern Spars is also working on an even larger mast which is 83m tall. The huge mast is being built for a massive sailing superyacht for an undisclosed party in Europe. The 83 m mast will be the second largest mast in existence, with the largest being 88.5m tall alloy mast on the famous S/Y Mirabella V.
For the Alloy Yacht built S/Y KOKOMOO III there was a whole team working on her new mast, boom and rigging and Southern Spars has created a new product in the process – the Element C6 rig which is made from lighter and stronger carbon fibre.
Paul Macdonald is Southern Spars rig pro general manager and he has confirmed that indeed there has been a lot of research and development had gone into the project: “The Prime Minister would be happy with the R&D spend on this one.”
Besides the EC6, Southern Spars has upgraded the rigging boom for Kokomo II as well as making changes to the yacht’s staysail stay.
The company’s next project is for a bigger, more performance-orientated yacht again.
“These big projects have never been done before, so we have to set the standard.”
Superyacht Kokomo III’s 2,500 m2 Stratis sail, which was made by Doyle Sails, is to be the largest fitted to a yacht in January.
Southern Spars Mast Work Info: http://www.southernspars.com/southern/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.buildpage&p=2
john on January 28, 2010
Anyone know what new build yacht the 83m mast could be for? That’s a seriously large yacht – or perhaps it’s for the remasting of a already launched yacht?