SY Toroa Departs Port Whangarei
The stunning Mini-Superyacht Toroa was recently farewelled from the Port Whangarei Marine Centre, New Zealand following a 12 month stay. She was housed under cover in Bay 2, one of the marine centres extensive refit and storage sheds during which time she had extensive maintenance carried out by Oceania Marine Refit Services and specialist sub-contractors.
Toroa is a 22m custom sailing sloop launched in 2017 in Maine by Brooklin Boat Yard. She was designed by Spain’s Botin Partners, who are reputed for their classic wooden boats, the extremely high-tech vessel is designed for open-ocean cruising at the highest possible speed, but also features comfortable accommodations and cruising amenities.
Toroa is constructed out of wood, carbon fibre foam and epoxy composites. Toroa is a high performance yacht with a plumb bow, wide beam running well aft, T-bulb (lifting) keel and twin rudders. If you ignore the carbon fibre boom and black carbon standing rigging on the 28m tall mast, the boat could easily be mistaken for a classic.
This was the first complete hull that Brooklin Boat Yard built using above-room-temperature, thermo-setting resin. They invented a large insulated blanket heated with hot water running through a matrix of tubes. The blanket could be draped over the hull, and concentrated heat exactly where it was needed, while the work crew monitored the process
Racers designed by the Botin Partners commonly go faster than the speed of the wind driving them, with the boats sometimes reaching 16 – 25 knots.
The goal of all this engineering for speed is light weight, great stability, and extreme strength. The hull gets extra stability from a 4.5m, 6800kg lifting T-bulb keel and twin rudders. (the keel can be raised using hydraulics to a mere 2.75m.) There is also water ballast. A total of 1,100 litres of water, most of it direct from the ocean, some of it in the fresh water tanks, can be pumped sideways to tanks in the windward bilges. In the world of fast sailing, providing that nothing structural fails, stability equals speed.
The carbon-fibre bowsprit, which is expected to account for the strain of multiple thousands of square feet of sail, weighs in at only 20kg. The Nitronic steel bobstay takes the major vertical load.
The owners wanted a boat that did not require a huge crew. Hydraulic winches control the sail trim, while hydraulic rams provide the power to raise and lower the keel, move the traveler, and adjust the backstays and boom vang. Toroa’s hydraulics, custom-built by the Italian firm Cariboni, feature a relatively small diesel donkey engine, rather than the ship’s batteries, this drives the hydraulic pump.
Toroa is travelling to Auckland to meet the international transporter ship to make her journey back to her home port of Maine
SY Toroa – Launched and ready to depart Port Whangarei Marine Centre, New Zealand
SY Toroa – Galley
It has certainly been a pleasure to have this beautiful vessel in our yard and we wish her all the best for her journey home