SOUNDINGS

DIARY DATES AUTUMN SHOWS

Tuesday 12 - Sunday 17 September YACHTING FESTIVAL CANNES

Friday 15 - Sunday 24 September SOUTHAMPTON BOAT SHOW

EASTERN DELIGHTS

We’re pleased to announce the expansion of our dealer network into the Far East with the appointment of Asia Yacht Services as our sales and service agents in Hong Kong and surrounding areas. We have worked previously with Asia Yacht Services’ CEO Bart Kimman and are delighted to reconnect in this new relationship. Asia Yacht Services is a high profile, multi-brand dealership with long-standing reputation for top-level service, and our Contest yachts fit well with the company’s strategic offering. As Bart says, “We have long experience with good cruising sailboats and do so like the very personal nature of the way that Contest work and the very high standards of production and customisation. We see great opportunities. For our clients, Contest is a phenomenal solution.” Nice words!

INTRODUCING LASER PRECISION BUILDING

Precision in design and build has long been a hallmark in our yachts. Always has been, always will be, and now it’s made even more certain with the implementation of new laser technology in our construction process. While previously transferring design coordinates from plans to actual physical build relied on repeated hand and eye measurement for accuracy in the positioning of everything from bulkheads, portlight and hatch cut-outs to deck hardware and ship-service installations, now this is all achieved with the pinpoint accuracy of mapped laser beam location. It’s fascinating to see in action, software-driven, linking the modelled plans with a ring of laser projectors carefully positioned around the yacht in build. Effectively, pick what’s to be fitted from the menu, be that marking out the stations, main bulkheads or the myriad fixing points for deck hardware, or whatever and however big and small, and ping, the laser beams instantly visibly mark the spots, be that individual or multiple in a highlighting, coloured display. Accuracy assured, and all repeatable for the next in build.

“A SIGNIFICANT TIME SAVING AND MAJOR ADVANCE IN PRECISION YACHT BUILDING, IMPROVING REPEATABILITY AND IMPORTANTLY RELIABILITY.”

HYDROGEN FOILING WIN WITH DELFT UNI STUDENTS

It’s a win! And now officially Open Sea World Champions with their fully carbon, high speed, hydrogen powered foiling motor launch, what a terrific victory over even industry-professional teams for Delft University’s Hydro Motion Team in the 2023 Monaco Energy Boat Challenge, Organised under the auspices of the Yacht Cub de Monaco with the patronage of Price Albert III, and now in its 10th year, the focus of the event is on alternative energy sources and sustainability in the marine environment. So, driving innovation, a great challenge. Delft University’s Hydro Motion Team, drawing on each annual intake of students, has for many years been mentored by Contest Yachts with the provision of full yard facilities for help with design and build and we’re delighted with this year’s victory for the team who are rightly over the moon! Three distinct challenges within the event include manoeuvrability, endurance and speed. In the endurance test Hydro Motion Team won not just by double the distance of others but in half the time. Remarkable, and proving the true benefits of hydrogen’s high energy density as well as the foiling craft’s design and engineering. Contest’s head of composites, Roland Kok, picks up the story, “They came in as novices on the construction side, with little practical knowledge of infusion, and left as knowledgeable boatbuilders and a well organised and dedicated team with a lot of feeling for the materials and the technology. And, of course, with a winning design! For videos and reports of the Hydro Motion Team at the 2023 Monaco Energy Boat Challenge, see… TU Delft Hydro Motion Team: ➔

GPS Aurora: ➔

Prize Ceremony: ➔

SHIPYARD’S NEW GREEN UPGRADE

As many of our visitors this season will have noticed, we’ve a great new look at the yard with the newly completed major refurbishment and upgrading of our main outfitting hall and engineering offices. Tied into our greening programme, running for several years in which we have cut emissions and increased solar generation dramatically, we have now gone much further. With a complete contemporary restyling and rearrangement of Hall 2 incorporating high-grade, thermal glazing façade, we have a much improved working and wellbeing environment with also sustainability uplifts across the entire site. Solar generation is now so plentiful and successful it exceeds our entire electrical needs in summer. We have LED lighting now throughout the yard, drawing on that solar supply, and with newly fully eco-insulated buildings, gas consumption is down 40 per cent. New infra-red heating further cuts our carbon footprint significantly while maintaining more stable temperatures. Also, in our lacquer and paintwork processes, chemical cleaning products have all been replaced with eco equivalents, and our use of teak is drastically reduced, with alternative sustainable materials now in wide use for interiors and laid decks. And again, we’re treating this as just another beginning to an ever more crucial programme.

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