Of course, one can carry that too far. Johnson said that he recently had to
keep Vosper Thornycroft, Mirabella’s yard in the United Kingdom, from
adding tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of the project. “They
wanted to achieve the precise sound level we’d stipulated, and were going to add
another half-ton of sound-deadening material,” he says. “It was off by only one
decibel. We told them to forget it, but those are the kinds of contracts
everyone is used to now.” Joe Vittoria, Mirabella’s owner, realized early on
that the success or failure of this project would be in its fine details, and
needed the right designer. He turned to Ron Holland, a onetime ocean-racing
sailor who has made his reputation designing large sailing yachts for 30 years
from his studio in Kinsale, Ireland. His latest project was Felicita West. The
210-footer, built by Italy’s Perini Navi, was the first sailboat ever certified
for over 550 tons by the Maritime Coastal Agency (MCA), the U.K. agency that
regulates most large charter yachts. Mirabella V is the second. Both had to
meet regulations designed for cruise ships, not yachts, and still perform like a
sailboat, creating a technical conundrum. Mirabella V, for instance, would
eventually weigh in at a mammoth 827 tons, and its topside rigging, laid end to
end, would span four miles. Vittoria had ambitious plans for her: He not only
needed a comfortable cruising vessel, he wanted to race Mirabella V. Would it
come to resemble a souped-up Winnebago? Holland’s design is anything but; it
is a sleek, low-profile and elegant sailing yacht. “The size often meant going
back to the drawing board, working with first principles,” says Holland. “It was
technically quite challenging, figuring the loads and strengths.” Despite that,
he predicts the yacht will reach 23 mph under sail—5 mph faster than with her
engines. Another innovation: When at anchor, the two recesses on the foredeck,
where the tenders are normally stowed, will convert into a 20-person Jacuzzi and
a wading pool.
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