100' Super Maxi Comanche Thread

[PD Staff]

What's 100' long, displaces 30 tons had a canting keel in the mid 20' range and designed to smash monohull records around the 7 Seas?





All images Onne van der Wal

Jim Clark's newest project, currently under construction at Hodgson’s Boatyard in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, the "NEWCUBED" is still in the layup phase. Sailing World's
Sean McNeil provides some details on the latest go fast creation Right Here!

[cartman]

http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/20...rust-comanche/

Kenny Read talks about Comanche

[Panama Red]

What ever happened to the original wide bottomed carbon fiber super maxi Speedboat?

[Photoboy]

Comanche On CNN

(CNN) -- With $100 million, you can make an almighty splash.
Comanche, arguably the world's most hotly-anticipated yacht, has finally taken to the seas and for its billionaire owner Jim Clark, it's a chunk of money that could land him a place in the record books.

The 100-foot monohull vessel is the brainchild of high-school drop-out Clark, who made his fortune in computer science -- co-founding Netscape and making timely investments in Apple, Facebook and Twitter.

Clark, valued at $1.4 billion by Forbes, likens the project to "building a Formula One car from scratch although hopefully not quite as expensive."

The sleek black and red vessel is at the very cutting edge of its sport with a top speed expected to approach the 40mph mark.

"I feel like an expectant father," says Clark, whose Australian wife Kristy is a model and television host.

"The whole thing when your child is about to be born, you just want it to be healthy. It's not unlike this. You're just praying the boat stays in one piece and that's a realistic fear with such a cutting-edge project like this."

The 70-year-old's appointed skipper is Ken Read, of North Sails, the world's leading sailmaker, who has overseen the project since its inception three years ago.

Read, a two-time skipper for Dennis Conner's Stars and Stripes in the America's Cup, admits to sleepless nights in the build-up to its first foray on water.

Clark likes to talk about how the team behind his creation "is pushing the envelope" with Comanche, which lends its origins in part to the yacht Speedboat, which was launched in 2008.

Designed by Van Peteghem Lauriot Prevost (VPLP) and Guillame Verdier, Comanche's creation has been fast track, the build itself usually expected to take two years but, in this instance, crammed into just one with up to 40 workers on hand.

It is one of the world's largest single infusion hulls and was built at Hodgdon Yachts in Maine. Its facility was effectively transformed into an oven bigger than Commanche itself so that the fibers of the boat could be baked during the construction process.

Clark admits that his creation, "lost value the moment it hit the water."

So why spend one fourteenth of your personal fortune on what many people would label a vanity project?


"People spend money on sports and I just don't do golf, I hate it," says the 70-year-old. "But I love sailing and the technology aspect."

Born and brought up in the arid landscape of Texas some way from the nearest coastline, Clark's background does not immediately lend itself to a nautical life. But he joined the Navy and, after three-and-a-half years on the ocean, it became a part of him.

"It was in the late 1980s that I bought my first sail boat and, from there, you always want to get something bigger," he says. "Then you get to a point where you want to downsize."

Which is what he plans to do after Comanche. His other yacht, Athena, is currently moored in Monaco and up for sale at $75m.

Full Article

[Photoboy]

Morgan Trubovich produced short but sweet video...

[Photoboy]

im Clark and Kristy Hinze Clark's newly-launched 100 foot Super-maxi 'Comanche' has left Charleston, USA, on a ship bound for Australia to take on the blue water classic Down Under

Comanche, which was sailed by Ken Read and the crew from its base in Newport (RI) to Charleston (SC), is currently on a ship to Australia with the intention to compete in the SOLAS Big Boat Challenge in Sydney Harbour on December 9th, followed by the Rolex Sydney Hobart on December 26th. The boat boasts a 150 foot mast constructed by Southern Spars and huge sails from North Sails, including a spinnaker of more than 11,000 square feet. The send-off on Boxing Day from Sydney Harbour is always a spectacle and 2014 promises to be one of the greatest showcases of big boat ocean racing!

All photos © Onne van der Wal Nautical Photography









Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race crew list for the 100 foot Super-maxi 'Comanche' ...
1 Ken Read, USA, skipper
2 Kelvin Harrap, NZL, tactician
3 Stan Honey, USA, navigator
4 Tony Mutter, NZL, watch captain
5 Morgan Trubovich, NZL, trim
6 Sean Clarkson, NZL, main trim
7 Ryan Godfrey, AUS, pit
8 Casey Smith, AUS, boat captain
9 Joe Fanelli, USA, grind
10 Brian Macinnes, USA, grind
11 Jon Von Swartz, USA, grind
12 Keats Keeley, USA, pit
13 Warwick Fleury , NZL , main trim
14 Chris Maxted, AUS , floater
15 David Rolfe, NZL, trim
16 Richard Clarke, CAN, strategist
17 Kimo Worthington, USA, runners
18 Ben Bardwell, USA, bow
19 Julien Cressant, FRA, floater
20 Greg Gendell , USA , bow
21 Louis Sinclair, Virgin Islands, floater

[Buzz Light Beer]

I wonder if Jim plans on demolishing a couple West Coast records when they get finished down under?

[Rainier]

Surreal....