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De Jager & Simhony 40m

Wearing her flying bridge deck as though it were a crown, this 131-foot yacht from De Jager & Simhony ought to rule many of the harbors and anchorages she visits. In the rendering, the design team dressed her in dark blue pants and white top, a perfectly elegant but businesslike attire for a world cruiser.

Any critique of a long-range cruiser should begin below the waterline, because the shape of the underbody is the most important at sea. De Jager & Simhony has drawn a pure displacement hull made up of fair surfaces and smooth transitions. Hiding beneath the aggressively raked stem is a large bulb. It damps the pitching motion by increasing buoyancy in the bow, but more important, it reduces wave-making resistance by producing a wave that is counter to the normal bow wave. Reducing wave-making resistance allows a given cruising speed from less horsepower and fuel. The smaller engines and reduction in tankage decrease the yacht’s displacement, and so on.

The bulbous entry and fine waterlines forward transition to a wall-side midsections, firm bilges and shallow deadrise. From a little forward of amidships, the run sweeps up to the immersed transom. This sweep lets the water clear the run without producing a significant stern wave. The firm bilges damp roll, reducing the need for stabilizers. Although the firm bilges and shallow deadrise below the waterline quicken the rolling motion, passengers and crew aboard a yacht of this size will hardly notice. A salient keel adds directional stability.

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Above the waterline, De Jager & Simhony created a thoroughly modern look via relatively sharp edges and straight lines. The package is crisp without being harsh, elegant without the exaggerated and amorphously sculptured forms of some yachts this size.

De Jager & Simhony disguised the “stacked look” in the 40m’s superstructure in the cosmetics of angles and broken lines. The most obvious and dramatic break is in the sheerline. By raising the deck in the forward half of the yacht, the designers visually lowered the superstructure, especially as you look at her from one of the forward quarters. Although they are hard to see in the rendering, huge oval windows right forward of the rubrail break up the mass of topsides while they light the accommodations. A line of 13 portlights unevenly spaced on each side further lower the profile.

Inside, the owner’s suite occupies about a quarter of the main deck forward of amidships. A massive berth on the centerline dominates the full-beam sleeping area. The headboard, the settee on the port side and the hanging lockers at the forward end of the area join to form an elliptical space in plan view. A study, a huge head (with bathtub) and an exercise room make up the rest of the suite. Guest accommodations and crew quarters fill most of the lower deck.

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Built of steel in China by Mallard Yacht Ltd., this 40-meter yacht will please her owner for years to come.

Contact: De Jager & Simhony, (011) 31 10 470 4862; info@jensdesign.nl; www.jensdesign.nl.

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