Seaquest RP36 subtle changes to fast design
by Tracey Johnstone on 2 Jun 2008
Seaquest RP36 - subtle changes to deliver a fast design Seaquest Yachts Australia
www.seaquestyachts.com.au
The Seaquest RP36 racer/cruiser, designed by the renowned international team of Reichel-Pugh, is the latest hot product in the 30-foot plus yacht market to be introduced into Australia.
There are a range of yachts now being offered in Australia fitting this expanding market area. The differences between the yachts are often quite subtle. The Seaquest RP36 offers some differences which appear slight until the yacht is out on the water. Then the subtleties end and the beauty of this new yacht becomes very obvious.
Seaquest Yachts Australia national sales and marketing manager, Chris Pomfret, says the differences are in the high-quality standard equipment on the Seaquest RP36 and in the yacht’s performance.
'It’s the subtleties that set us apart. It is the Reichel-Pugh design, the sail plan, the SP Systems engineering, the grid and keel structure the builders incorporated throughout the core of the boat, the solid racing equipment while maintaining more than enough accommodation and comforts to get it over the line with the cruisers in the family.
'Anybody wanting a perfect compromise boat, this is definitely it.'
The Seaquest RP36 is a development of Seaquest’s earlier Reichel-Pugh designed SQ36 launched in 2000 and awarded Yachting World magazine’s ‘Race Boat of the Year USA 2005’. In the same year the company moved its building operations to Dubai and bought the Reichel-Pugh team back on board to work on updating the original 36-foot design.
English boat builder Mike Eaton, who started the Seaquest Yacht company in 1993, has incorporated his many years of boat building experience into this design.
The new racer/cruiser design was launched in 2007.
Subtle changes
The concept behind a redevelopment of the existing 36-footer design was to retain the excellent IRC rating the boats already had while revising the yacht’s performance characteristics and interior finishes. The design team has been able to achieve this with a light-weight design and better performance.
Changes have been made in the hull form, keel and rudder, and in the interior design. The displacement is 5100kg, the transom opened up and a roomier cockpit, rod rigging utilised, top quality deck gear included and tiller or wheel steering options offered.
Pomfret says 'there is not a lot you would do to further optimise this boat. The reason being you would lose some of the IRC benefits. Also, all the fittings and the sheeting angles, everything to do with the speed or the engine of the boat, are adequate. You have got inboard barber hauls for the jib. All the control lines are adequate and accessible. The winches will meet the loads. Everything is there.'
Many boat owners are now solid fans of wheel steering. But, for those very attuned to racing and perhaps coming from a dinghy sailing background where tiller steering is the norm, the tiller option on the Seaquest RP36 is available.
The comfortable and functional new interior has clean finishes similar in style to the European production boats. Cruisers will enjoy the accommodation the size of which is the same as would normally be found on a much larger boat. It has a forward v-berth cabin, lifting saloon seat backs to form pilot berths and two double aft cabins.
There is an enclosed head, shower and bathroom area. The saloon is bright and airy with sufficient storage when using the boat for cruising. The galley is efficient with twin ice boxes that can be refrigerated, and as a standard, a gas twin burner stove and oven. And, there is a forward facing navigation table, a feature most owners desire strongly.
The cockpit seating is more than suitable for entertaining and for giving working crew a clean area to operate. It has high sides which can help make non-sailors feel more comfortable and secure.
The Seaquest RP36 is race-ready. It has been designed and finished to meet the needs of owners who want to IRC race in short offshore style events and who may also want to race in club twilights, or just take the family cruising.
The acceleration is unbelievable
Sailing the Seaquest RP36 is really quite impressive says professional sailor Promfret. 'It just keeps going in the light airs. If you get some light spots, the acceleration is unbelievable'. He found the boat with its 2.2m draught, new foil and hull shapes and bulb, very stable.
'You feel this when you start sailing along in light air. It feels very responsive. As soon as you get five or six knots true wind the boat really starts to get some lift generated by the foil. It locks in, really stable, because of the foil shape and the hull shape. You get stability through the design work.'
In heavy airs Pomfret says it is quite responsive. 'We haven’t done really big offshore sailing on it as yet. I can’t wait. You can just tell, coming from an 18-foot helming background where you get to know the subtleties of design, you just know this boat is going to go.'
The stability of the Seaquest RP36 allows it to be comfortably sailed short-handed. Fully crewed, it will carry seven to eight crew, also comfortably.
There are three Seaquest RP36s already racing in Australia; in Queensland, Victoria and NSW.
In Airlie Beach 79-year-old Harold Menelaus took possession of his 17th yacht, the Seaquest RP36 Treasure VIII, in March 2008. This is the third of the Seaquest RP36s to be imported into Australia. It was commissioned at Hawks boatyard in Airlie Beach. The sails were built by the local Ullman sails loft.
Pomfret says Menelaus became tired of continually being beaten in his local club races so he went looking for a boat that could satisfy his needs. He wanted a boat that looked good, was manufactured to the highest standards, comfortable down below and most importantly, sails fast.
'Late April we received a very excited call from Mr Harold Menelaus to tell us he had just had easily the best race ever over his very long racing history. He had raced in the local club twilight race and in eight to 12 knots his boat finished eight minutes ahead of anyone across the line and one minute ahead on handicap. Harold said his Seaquest RP36 is easily the best yacht he ever sailed, and he has had many yachts in his time.'
Menelaus will be campaigning his new yacht in this year’s Meridien Marinas Airlie Beach Race Week.
In Melbourne airline pilot Rod Miller is enjoying sailing his Seaquest RP36, Gienah. The choice of this boat came after a lot of research by Miller. He now races the boat out of the Royal Melbourne Yacht Squadron with his family and friends. A podium finish in this year’s Top of the Bay regatta and selection as a club representative in the Associations Cup is an exciting start to Miller’s Seaquest RP36 ownership.
The demonstration model, Leewana, is currently being raced by Pomfret and Campbell Holmes with their Sydney home-club, Royal Prince Alfred. The boat’s results in the summer twilight series have been outstanding with Leewana leading Division 2 results.
Pomfret plans to take Leewana down to Sydney Harbour in the next few weeks to showcase the new boat in amongst a fleet of highly-competitive boats. 'We are going to do a few races there and show people the actual performance of the boat in comparison to the other boats on the market. There is a great division in the CYCA winter series that has all the comparable boats in it. It will be quite exciting.'
The next step with Leewana is to have the boat IRC rated. Overseas the Seaquest RP36 Spirit of Juniper has a TCC of 1.058. Pomfret expects the boats to rate just as well in the new year ratings. To assist new boat owners to optimise the boat’s rating he will also run a number of test certificates with
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