At a “mere” 90 feet (27.4 meters), Jaruco may not warrant much attention in a world where megayachts more than double her size grab headlines. However, she’s worthy of several headlines herself. Jaruco (pronounced “ha-ROO-koh”) is the first, and therefore largest, superyacht sportfish to use carbon fiber. And, she’s about to prove her mettle on her first fishing grounds, in Central America.
Jarrett Bay Boatworks began building Jaruco in 2014. The owner, a tournament angler, selected the North Carolina builder due to its focus on fully custom, well-performing sportfishing boats. An engineer by trade, he had a number of ideas as to how his project should come to life. At first, he considered making her an all-carbon-fiber build, according to Jarrett Bay’s president, Randy Ramsey. Ultimately, though, he went with the shipyard’s traditional cold-molded construction approach employing fir, for sound deadening, with carbon fiber in certain areas. Specifically, all bulkheads and stringers are 100 percent carbon fiber, as are parts of the cabin, decks, and bridge. Titanium is present in each area, too.
Carbon fiber offers well-known weight savings and strength. The effect of its use aboard Jaruco is impressive. According to Jarrett Bay, it eliminated about 30,000 pounds over traditional high-density, hand-laminated materials in just the stringers and bulkheads alone. Furthermore, the builder says, standard laminated fir weights approximately 33 pounds per cubic foot. By comparison, Jaruco’s stringers weigh between 6.3 pounds per cubic foot and 12.5 pounds per cubic foot as needed throughout her length. (We’ll leave you metric math students to do your own calculations. Suffice it to say, you’ll be impressed, too.)
Jaruco, which went by the code name Project Ireland, will operate under Team Jaruco. The Team Jaruco owner, captain, and crew are well-known on the global tournament circuit. They’ve spent the past several years, for example, fishing from a 78-footer (23.8-meter), which was a brokerage buy. That Jaruco had a good-size cockpit, but it can’t compare to the new one: 310 square feet (28.8 square meters).
While Jarrett Bay officially delivered the sportfisherman in late November, Jaruco remained at the shipyard as of this writing. She was planning to head for the Panama Canal, after which her first destination should be Costa Rica.
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