The ClubSwan 125, Nautor’s Swan flagship of the ClubSwan line, the high performance range of the Finnish yard, débuted remarkable success at the Royal Ocean Racing Club’s premier event, the Rolex Fastnet Race
Lining up against 337 yachts, on August 8th 2021, Skorpios crossed the start line at the Royal Yacht Squadron to begin her voyage to the Fastnet Rock, an amazing show which revealed her beauty and magnificence.
After sailing through the English Channel and across the Celtic Sea, Skorpios became the first monohull to round southwest Ireland’s most famous rock. Skorpios rounded just astern of the final Ultime trimaran, the Jacek Siwek-skippered elongated ORMA 60, Ultim’emotion 2, but of more concern was a boat less than half her length nipping at her heels.
After rounding the rock, the breeze dropped off and Skorpios extended the lead on her rival for the line honours victory, George David’s Rambler 88, previous line honours winner, along with the rest of the IMOCA fleet.
Dmitry Rybolovlev’s ClubSwan 125 Skorpios completed the 695nm course in 2 days, 8 hours, 35 minutes and 5 seconds.
ClubSwan 125 was launched last July at the BTC Yard in Pietarsaari. Designed by Juan K, with the interior design by Adriana Monk, for the construction of the yacht the yard employed the most brilliant minds in the sailing industry for a high technology mono hull, built and conceived to be faster than the wind.
‘At Nautor’s Swan we are very proud of having completed the construction of the ClubSwan 125. This is going to be a milestone in the history of yachting. We are grateful to the owner for having entrusted Nautor to build this boat, sharing with us the same values we have of innovation, technology, quality and reliability. The project has been amazing and the opportunity to work together with the greatest boat builders, designers and technicians around the globe, was awe-inspiring’, Leonardo Ferragamo, Nautor Group President says.
The Yacht, which sees the cooperation of the most brilliant minds in the marine industry hit the water in Pietarsaari, rounding off a complex and challenging project but with the end-result exceeding all expectations.
‘The brief was at first for a very fast super yacht for inshore racing, but, as we were developing the project, it changed. We all realized, the owner at first, this yacht was meant to be a record-breaking machine. And so here we are, the brief has changed, and the boat has been developed to be successful in offshore racing and intending to beat all the monohull records around the world’, commented Enrico Chieffi, Nautor Group Vice President and CS125 Project Leader, speaking from the deck of the boat right after the sea trials.
The ClubSwan 125 is designed with a deep attention to detail, engineered under DNV-GL classification, built by the best boat builders of the industry, and out-fitted with the very best equipment from the most experienced suppliers.
To achieve her extremely light displacement, the ClubSwan125 is designed with a deep draught canting keel reducing weight and increasing righting moment at the same time, while the hull, deck, and structural parts were all made from state-of-the art carbon fibre prepreg with Nomex and Corecell cores.
To create horizontal and vertical forces at the same time, a unique rotating C-foil, with an asymmetrical profile, has been developed. This foil provides vertical lift, reducing the boat’s displacement and bringing her into a ‘skimming’ attitude. Equipped with twin rudders, the leeward one is always aligned with water flow and therefore optimizing helmsman control in all conditions, including sailing at very high speeds.
‘Sailing on ClubSwan 125 makes me feel very proud of what we’ve been able to design and build. Being part of this project, which is meant to write a new page in sailing history is something very rewarding. I’ve been able to work with the most brilliant professionals and we learnt a lot from each other’, says Juan Kouyoumdjian, Naval Architect.
To marry performance and top-class sailing experience in an extreme project like ClubSwan125 is an inspiring challenge that forced the team to think outside the box collecting experience from the past and pushing frontiers.
‘The ClubSwan 125 has really been an exciting project here in Finland and for sure it now leaves a void in our lives because we had not one day without excitement dealing with, what we like to call, this beast. This yacht represents a collection of extraordinary competences coming from all over the world concentrated here at own shipyard at Nautor.
For a yacht of such technology and performance to have been entirely built here in our facility, the BTC (Boatbuilding Technology Centre), makes us very proud, and allowed us to push our limits to the extreme to create something great. In this special moment in the history of Nautor I can’t avoid to send my thought and a great thank to the international team that contributed to the building of this racing boat!
I’d love to thank once again all the team behind: Enrico Chieffi, Juan K, Adriana Monk, Bob Wylie, Killian Bushe, Richard Ghillies, Roger Sandberg, the team at Nautor yard in Finland, the team at Nautor Swan Global Service that is now taking over the assistance to the boat, the Skorpios crew and shore team leaded by Fernando Echevannri and Pepe Ribes that’s contributing to the boat set up in a great teamwork with Nautor. A huge congratulations and thanks to all of you for changing the pages of the sailing history’, Giovanni Pomati, Nautor Group CEO, states.
Photos & video Nautor’s Swan
