Georgia one of the world’s largest sloops in Oz

by Jonathan Crowe on 13 Dec 2005 If you’re lucky enough to be anywhere nearly Abel Point Marina at Airlie Beach in the next couple of days, take a look at one of the largest sailing sloops in the world, just arrived. A whopping 48.5 metres long, the SY Georgia was the world’s largest aluminium sailing yacht when launched in New Zealand in 2000.

On November 29th she entered Australian waters, stopping over in Cairns for Customs and before heading to Abel Point Marina in the Whitsundays, Australia.

At 159 feet (48.5m) she is now the third largest sloop in the world. As a result all her sailing systems - from sheets and winches to furlers, foils, rig and sails - had to be custom designed, engineered and fabricated to meet her demanding load projections never before encountered in an aluminium sailing yacht.

Her mast is 60m high and her draft is 7.5m (with the board down). The flybridge, with twin helming stations forward and sun area aft, decadent heated Jacuzzi for eight, abundance of seating and entertaining areas and climate-controlled outdoor cockpit, rivals the finest 50-60 meter yachts worldwide.

Georgia has just sailed 23,000miles in the last 12 months to reach Abel Point Marina where she is staying for 15 days. She has a crew of eight and is utilising the time in the marina for a range of maintenance and repair details. Her owners will then be joining her to explore the Great Barrier Reef and the numerous Whitsunday Islands, which offer a huge variety of sheltered anchorages all within easy sailing distance of each other.

Abel Point Marina, with current expansions enabling greater capacity and flexibility, is capable of accommodating vessels up to 60m in length, and is also the home of Hogs Breath Race Week.