Italian yard Cantiere del Pardo havebeen blending performance, luxuryand contemporary style in theirGrand Soleil range for 45 years.With the new Grand Soleil 48 theyard aims to raise the racer-cruiserbar to a whole new level d.

‘Made in Italy’. Those threewords can conjure up images ofimmaculately tailored suits andexquisitely engineered cars, ofPavarotti and Michelangelo,Sangiovese and bruschetta, theseemingly effortless elegance thatis la dolce vita. Except, of course,it’s very far from effortless. The fineItalian thread running through thefabric of this nation is passion.Since its establishment in 1973,Cantiere del Pardo, based a fewkilometres inland of Rimini, hasbeen harnessing this emotionalobsession with perfection and inthe new Grand Soleil 48 it finds its latest, and perhaps mostcomplete, expression.

She was drawn by the yard’s owndesign maestro Marco Lostuzzi, thethird boat he has designed forGrand Soleil, and he worked closelywith Milan-based Nauta Design onthe styling. ‘The brief was to designa racer/cruiser that could beprepared for a racing customer orfor a cruising one,’ says Lostuzzi,whose design philosophy isdeceptively simple.

‘I design boats that are enjoyableand easy to sail. To achieve this Ifocus on the balance between sailarea, displacement and stability.

The mix has to be powerful, but notextreme. My first consideration wasdisplacement. For a racing boat ithas to be medium or light. At thesame time, on a performancecruiser the weight is increased bythe long list of optional extras thattoday’s customer wants onboard. Itwas difficult to determine the idealdisplacement – and consequentlythe right volume and shape of thehull – to balance performance andcomfort. Ultimately I went for amedium-light displacement andthen employed various designstrategies to deliver a boat that canbe both raced and cruised.’ One ofthose strategies resulted in theGrand Soleil 48 becoming the onlyproduction yacht to offer a choice of two cockpit layouts, but more on that later.

‘We worked withFluid4Engineering, a specialist CFDconsultant here in Italy, to optimisethe hull and appendages,’ addsLostuzzi. ‘They were able to analysemany different hull and appendageoptions and combinations in variousheel, trim and speed conditions,and the resulting forces andmoments of each one.

‘As well as CFD, we used FEAanalysis tools to improve thestructural rigidity and to save weightin all the composite parts of theboat. The key stage in the designprocess was comparing the resultsof the CFD analysis and the VPP tofind the best hull shape for ourtarget wind range. This was

fundamental to achieving the all-round performance we wanted.

‘The hull we chose has narrowentry lines at the bow, with roundunderwater sections and verticalhull sides. Moving aft the rockerbecomes progressively flatter withflared hull sides at the stern. Thefreeboard and beam are generous,especially at the stern, to providethe volume needed for the cruisingaspect of the brief. We went for asingle rudder, placed quite wellforward so that it’s always fullyimmersed, because the waterlinebeam of the aft sections is notwide enough to need twin rudders.’

The two-channel brief must havethrown up a lot of decisions duringthe design process. Did Lostuzziand his team make many changes?‘No, mostly refinements,’ hereplies. ‘For instance, the volumewas a bit too full in the stern so we moved the centre of volumeforward a bit compared with theoriginal design. Another refinementemerged when, together with NautaDesign, we built a full-scale mock-up of the interior at Cantieredel Pardo. After exploring the spacewe decided to increase thefreeboard aft by 3cm to get moreroom above the two aft cabinberths. This meant we could putthe headboards aft, which makesthe berths easier to use. We werecareful to check how this affectedthe lines of the hull, but it didn’tchange the aesthetics.’

How is this multi-purpose hull

powered? ‘The standard sailplan is a 9/10 fractional rig with a bigmainsail, a 108 per cent jib forupwind work and a gennaker flownfrom a bowsprit offwind. Ease ofhandling was key. The high-aspectjib tacks, gybes and furls easily,the big mainsail is powerful but it’seasily depowered with the traveller.The gennaker, in a sock or on afurler, is much easier to use than a symmetric spinnaker. It’s a sailplan that works really well on amedium-light displacement boatlike this, one that generates goodapparent wind speeds.’

Different sailplans are on offertoo. The Performance version has a pinhead main with a singlebackstay, and the Race version a square-top main with runningbackstays and a longer bowsprit,which will increase downwindperformance particularly. ‘Ouranalysis showed that theperformance gain outweighs therating penalty,’ says Lostuzzi.

The Grand Soleil 48 also has tworig options: aluminium as standard,with a carbon option. Both have rodrigging. ‘For the Race version weopted for a carbon mast with ahydraulic ram to tension theforestay, and that set-up is verydemanding in terms of structuralrigidity,’ he says. ‘In the mostloaded area of the boat we have amain bulkhead made of compositefibres and a strong grid oflongitudinal and transversal frameslinking the keel matrix with thechainplates and the mast step. We use unidirectional carbon inthese areas to improve rigidity.’

So how difficult was it to achievethat very fine balance betweenperformance and comfort? ‘That’s acombination of many elements. Forexample, the beam creates spacein the aft cabins and in the cockpit,but it also gives form stability,

SEAHORSE 65

Performance legacy

64 SEAHORSE

Over the years the builders of Grand Soleil yachts have repeatedly beenforced to enlarge their trophy cabinet... and that performance heritage stillflows through their current – and expanding – selection of racer-cruisers

The newGrand Soleil48 slots inneatly abovethe widelysuccessfulGS43 whichhas proved aconsistentlystrong performer on the racecourse underboth IRC andORC ratingsystems.Given howhard manyGrand Soleilyachts areoptimisedand thencampaignedfor events likethe classicIRC oceanraces and thebigger ORCevents in theMed andAdriatic, theoption of anall carbon rigpackage wasalways goingto be a part of the mix

Substantialbulb formechanicalstability but,without sillydraft to makeshallow wateraccess a challenge,plenty of fin area toensure ayacht with awide groovefor the helmsmanand a ‘notunpleasant’interior inwhich to winddown aftercollectingyour prizes.Of course youcould just gocruising…

which we need to achieve a goodrighting moment.’

Lostuzzi highlights how the yardapproached the project with clinicaldiscipline. ‘The engineeringchallenge is twofold: use bettermaterials, and use materials better.For example, to meet the requireddisplacement for the Race versionthe interiors needed to be madewith a lighter plywood, so we rananalyses on which thicknesses to use in the various parts of thejoinery. For the composite parts we decided to use a lot moreunidirectional carbon. We alsoscrutinised the lamination plans tosave weight where possible withoutdecreasing rigidity.’

The man charged withimplementing the engineering isbuild manager Vincenzo Candela,and he was under no illusion as tothe scale of the task. ‘This projecthas ambitious aims. We madedecisions about materials and buildbecause the boat had to belightweight to produce race-winningperformance, but it also had tohave outstanding structuralintegrity, build quality and comfortfor family cruising, because it’s aGrand Soleil.

‘We opted for multi-axial E-glasswith epoxy vinylester resin tooptimise structural rigidity and helpkeep the weight down. It’s laid up in a female mould for the bestpossible hull finish, and the core is100kg/m3 foam with PVC foamused in the slamming area forward.We use a single vacuum bag toinfuse the whole hull, which givesus complete control of the curing.

‘To support rig and keel loads thehull is reinforced with a compositeframe of unidirectional carbon fibreand E-glass, and the four maincomposite bulkheads are alsolaminated into place using carbonfibre. This gives the hull exceptionalstructural stiffness while managingthe weight to protect the all-important performance. All thejoinery is finished with Alpi veneers,except in the heads where thelaminate structure has a gelcoatfinish for ease of cleaning and

to protect against humidity.’ With over 80 per cent of their

craftsmen having been with the yardfor 20 years or more, Cantiere delPardo have a huge amount ofexperience on which to draw. Thecomplex build was handled almostentirely in-house with minimaloutsourcing. ‘Keels are beingfabricated by the SAT Foundry herein Italy, one of Europe’s leadingfoundries,’ adds Candela. ‘The fin isspheroidal graphite cast iron, whichhas much greater resistance toimpact and fatigue, and the bulb iscast in lead. The steering system,supplied by Jefa, has stainless steelcables to give the best possible feelat the wheels, to reduce friction andsimplify the system for optimumreliability and safety. To save weightthe sheaves are aluminium.’

Making this boat genuinely dualpurpose was, says Candela, ‘themost difficult part of the project. Weanalysed the market and identifiedtwo distinct types of Grand Soleilowner, one who, above all, loves towin races, and another who lovesperformance cruising with the familyand may race for fun. To give theGS48 maximum appeal for bothtypes of owner, we designed twocockpit layouts: Race andPerformance.

‘Our professional racingconsultants worked with Harken tooptimise cockpit ergonomics usingmodelling software,’ he continues.‘For the Race version they specifiedtwo Harken 50.2 Performa winchesin the pit to handle halyards, two60.2 Performa primaries in thecockpit and two 50.2 Performamainsheet winches just ahead ofthe twin wheels. On thePerformance version all the linesare ducted aft through thecoamings to two banks of twoHarken 60.2 radial winches justforward of the wheels. This leavesthe forward cockpit entirely free oflines, creating a great place torelax, while the helm has all the sailcontrols within easy reach and canhandle the boat alone.’

How happy is Lostuzzi with theGrand Soleil 48? ‘She definitely hasthe sleek modern elegance of aGrand Soleil yacht, but we’ve usedsophisticated tools, skills andmaterials to deliver a boat with bothhigh performance and comfort. Ithas the required blend of medium-light displacement and powerful sailarea, along with the generousrighting moment necessary tobalance the power of the sails.She’s a very elegant boat withdynamic, performance-inspiredlooks and a lot of interior space. So much passion went into her.’www.grandsoleil.net q