IRC52 Highland Fling XII in construction at McConaghy Boats

by Reichel Pugh Yacht Design on 6 May 2011 Reichel/Pugh Yacht Design is pleased to announce that construction is underway for their latest generation of 52' IRC optimized racing yacht at the McConaghy Boats facilities in Zhuhai, China. Highland Fling XII was commissioned by Lord Irvine Laidlaw of Rothiemay and is being built using advanced carbon pre-preg sandwich construction throughout.

This is the second yacht in a row that Lord Laidlaw has commissioned from Reichel/Pugh, the first being the 82' Wally, Highland Fling XI that took second place in the Maxi Class in last month's PalmaVela Regatta. The 52' design features a modern fully race optimized deck layout, a Southern Spars rig package and North Sails sail inventory.

The design of the hull and appendages has been driven by the owner's request for a state of the art high performance racing yacht and features the latest research and design concepts in hull shape and appendages developed by the Reichel/Pugh Yacht Design team.

The design builds upon the lessons learned from a successfully launched RP design line of IRC optimized TP52s and custom IRC 50-52 footers such as the winner of the 2010 Rolex Sydney Hobart Secret Men's Business 3.5, the TP52 Pace (ex Ran, 2009 UK IRC National Champion), The Southern Cross 52s Vincitore & Vela Veloce (US IRC National Champions in 2009 & 2010 respectively) , and the CC52 Scarlet Runner (winner of the 2009 Audi Docklands Invitational in Australia), taking the design concept of IRC optimized 52' fully offshore capable racers to a whole new level of all-around performance.

Reichel/Pugh Yacht Design developed the composite structural design in-house, building upon the success and experience of the design office's engineering team in providing complete composite structural design analysis and solutions. Construction scantlings were developed to meet the latest ISAF Offshore Special Regulation Category 'A' requirements with Plan Approval services provided by Germanischer Lloyd.

The yacht is scheduled to be launched in November 2011 in Florida, USA.
McConaghy Boats Reichel/Pugh Yacht Design website