History was made this month when the largest privately owned, two-masted schooner hit the water in Holland: the 62-meter (203-foot) Athos, at Holland Jachtbouw (HJB).
It’s been a long time coming for Athos, given her size and complexity. Tests that go back almost three years helped the design and build teams at HJB, Hoek Design, and Rondal (responsible for her masts and related components) all build her as she is today. In fact, in June 2007 the yard revealed it was testing 15 different sails in wind-tunnel tests on a scale model of Athos. While plenty of yachts, sailing and motor alike, undergo scale-model tests, it was particularly important in this case due to the two-masted schooner plan. Better to examine the ways the sails interact under changing conditions replicated in a small-scale environment than out in the real world, after all.
Just as the hull of Athos ventured through the Dutch countryside in February 2008, the full yacht took a trip of sorts this month, too. Back in 2008, the hull, which was built by a subcontractor in Rotterdam, arrived in HJB’s then-new assembly and finish hall in Zaandam after a one-day journey. (Interesting side note: The superyacht took up nearly all the room in that hall, as the building measures only a few feet longer and wider than her.) This time around, the yacht traveled aboard a towed pontoon for two days from Zaandam to the port of Harlingen so that she could taste water for the first time. (At 400 tons, she’s too heavy to be lifted with the existing cranes at HJB’s Zaandam location.) Remaining in the water, Athos was towed back to HJB.
Last summer, while on a tour of the yard, I showed you the deckhouse for Athos while it was being finished on HJB’s joinery shop floor. I also showed you one of the massive carbon-fiber masts that Rondal was building. You can see the gleaming wood of the deckhouse in the photo above, but not the sailing rig, as HJB is uniting Athos with that now. The next step after that: sea trials.
I anticipate getting a renewed look at the finished yacht this summer prior to her delivery, on a return visit to the yard. Stay tuned.
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