Sailing I

Why Not!

WORDS: SAMUEL JEFFERSON | IMAGES: Y YACHTS

Owning a yacht can be about so many things: often, the actual art of going sailing is not top of the list. Yet a boat like the Y9 demonstrates precisely why it should be. In addition to being elegant and artfully furnished, this 97’ vessel has a habit of reminding you how joyous and vital the act of unfurling sails, pointing the bow towards the horizon and leaning into the wind can be.

We’re sailing the Y9 Bella off the coast of Mallorca on a pristine June day with 15 knots of breeze in the sails. It’s an effortless, life affirming experience. The yacht was not necessarily built to win races, but she was unquestionably built to sail, and designer Bill Tripp has certainly achieved that. The boat slices through the seas with a sort of easy languor that belies the fact we are running effortlessly at 12kn.

Skipper Iloy runs Bella with his wife, Elvira: “The boat is a lot of fun and seriously fast,” he enthuses. “The longest trip we have done is down from Germany to Mallorca after she was first launched. Let’s just say we didn’t do a huge amount of motoring along the way.

“I love the boat but I’m still getting used to her size. The owner previously had a Y7 (also called Bella) so there is a bit of adjustment to this bigger boat – but in a good way.”

Y Yachts just keep getting bigger, and the Y9 is their largest offering yet. She is the brainchild of Michael Schmidt, a superlative racing sailor in his day who turned his restless mind to business and set up Hanse Yachts in the 1980s. Having made his fortune, he sold the business and retired, deciding to commission his dream yacht. He soon found out there was nothing out there quite right for him and decided to come up with his own design from scratch. This is how Y Yachts was founded: it is therefore in the DNA of the company that every boat made must meet Schmidt’s exacting needs. The key is that they need to be capable of sailing in almost no wind, but also be luxurious and easy to handle in more testing conditions.

It’s not an easy formula, but Bella certainly seems to do this. At a first glance, she’s elegant, sleek and purposeful. Tripp has married decent freeboard with a low coach roof, dreadnought bow and broad aft sections to produce a yacht that will turn heads. Add to that a light displacement and towering sail plan, and you have a
strong cocktail.

The only thing breaking up the lines is the large fixed bimini. This was actually a custom job put together by Y Yachts, who worked with the owner and skipper to find a way of keeping the mainsheet completely clear of the deck. It proved its worth on the test sail, providing welcome shade and a wonderful through breeze. The rig set up is also very well-conceived, with all running rigging leading straight back aft to the helming area, leaving the huge lounging area uncluttered and untroubled by ropes.

Down below, many of the design features from the Y7 Bella have been retained on the new boat. It is no surprise to discover that features from Danish designer Norm Architects, working with Design Unlimited, have been retained from the previous yacht. The style is simple and pared back. Yet despite the minimalist approach, the boat feels warm and homely, with dark smoked oak on the floor and a beige suede on the walls, which is complemented by oatmeal-coloured cushions on the soft furnishings.

The main saloon is huge, with dark woodwork tempered by masses of natural light flooding in by day, and low lighting bringing the space to life by night. It’s not glitzy, but it’s aesthetically pleasing and stylish. There are almost no sharp edges, with the designers going to great lengths to provide curves that they say provide ‘simpler, more coherent spaces with fluent transitions’.

Aft of the saloon is the galley, another double guest cabin and the crew’s quarters. This slightly unusual arrangement can be explained by the fact that Bella is a family yacht run by three crew who know the owner and his children very well. This underlines that each Y9 interior is completely bespoke, the owner having a carte blanche to come up with the layout of his or her dreams should they wish.

Elvira has appreciated the step up from the Y7 to the Y9, too. “The big difference is really just the sense of space,” She explains: “With this boat, the crew are completely separate from the owners. We have our own companionway which comes out just by the steering wheels so we can get to the galley and back to the sail controls without disturbing the guests.”

Both Iloy and Elvira agree that for a boat of her size and power she is very easy to handle and this is clear from the moment we leave the marina. Bella has twin engines, but they are eerily silent, and everything is calm as we ease out of the marina and hoist the sails. Underway, the boat is a revelation; with a steady 13kn of breeze, the boat unfurls its true potential and it’s effortless. She is fast but unhurried. Quick through the tacks but never rushed. The self-tacker adding to the effortless feeling of a boat that moves with power purpose and precision across the sea. Push button controls for the mainsheet keep things absurdly simple.

The notable thing is that everything is so silent. On many boats, when sailing at speed there can be an unholy racket of banging ropes and flogging sails. This is all the more surprising given that she is built out of carbon, which usually translates to a lot of hull noise going into a head sea. It’s not the case here, there’s no rush, just a sort of effortless steely smooth regal progress. The secret is that the boat is foam-cored and uses epoxy E-Glass for the outside layer of the hull, and carbon for all of the structural stringers and inside layer. What you gain in weight you also gain in that wonderful sense of silence under sail. This is a yacht which reassures and oozes power and confidence. Despite this, the boat can be playful if you wish. The twin rudders provide masses of grip but have a genuine feel that makes handling the boat a pleasure.

At anchor the fixed bimini further proves its worth, providing a platform for enough solar panels that produce 5kw of power on a sunny day: enough to run the air con all night without using the diesel generator.

The boat was delivered to its home base in Mallorca last June and has since sailed relatively locally in the Med, but the plan is to head further afield for the winter. As skipper Iloy explains, “things are quite vague at the moment but the plan is to head to the Caribbean this autumn and then onwards through the Panama Canal to the Galapagos Islands, before going up north to Acapulco and on to San Francisco.” Watch this space to read more about Bella’s adventures.