The luxury and performance of the new Persico Cat 72′ catamaran from Persico Marine
The new catamaran excels in performance, reaching up to 40 knots downwind, and in onboard comfort. Designed for skimming, it has advanced lifting foils that activate in just 9 knots of wind, allowing the boat to reach speeds of up to 20 knots in just 13 knots.
A Persico Cat 72' is under construction at the new Persico Marine shipyard in La Spezia, the high-performance luxury catamaran with elevated on-board comfort designed by sailing and motor multihull specialists Morrelli and Melvin.
The performance of this innovative foiling sailing catamaran – explains the shipyard, builder of high-performance sailing and motor yachts for racing and cruising – is comparable to that of a pure racer and its onboard comfort is worthy of a cruiser; in fact, it has a cruising speed of 25 knots and a high-performance navigation speed of over 36 knots in just 18 knots of true wind.
The Persico Cat 72′ is produced with advanced technologies and equipment, typically used in the aerospace industry and the same ones used for the foiling hulls of the Imoca ocean racing class and for the Ac5 of the 37th America's Cup.
“With the Persico Cat 72′,” said Marcello Persico, CEO of Persico Marine, “we continue to build the Persico brand in the high-performance maxi cruiser sector, drawing on our experience in creating the most advanced high-speed racers, particularly in the foiling class.” “We are very fortunate that this project has given us the opportunity to explore new boundaries of performance,” emphasized Pete Melvin, naval architect and CEO of Morrelli and Melvin. “Our client encouraged us to set aside convention and develop an innovative yacht that is not only high-performance but also luxurious, a cruising yacht capable of sailing in style on the seas of the world.”
At 22 meters long and 9,50 meters wide, the catamaran is built from a high-modulus pre-preg carbon sandwich with a Nomex core. Carbon was also chosen for the extremely lightweight, high-tech interiors, designed by the award-winning British yacht design studio Design Unlimited. Once rigged with a Southern Spars rotating mast and a Torqeedo Deep Blue electric motor (two 25 kW units), the Persico Cat 72′ will have a total weight of approximately 20 tons, including the battery pack.
The mast will be completely customized to meet the specific needs of the PB72, using Southern Spars' latest design, engineering, and manufacturing techniques. The mast and boom will be made of high-modulus carbon and will incorporate ECsix and AEROsix composite rigging technology from Southern Spars' sister company, Future Fibres, to create a fully integrated package.
A custom wing mast tooling was manufactured for this project. “Production of these elements will begin at the end of May from our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Auckland,” Southern Spars reports.
To develop the flight system, the owner and designers turned to the simulation software that helped design the AC50 and AC75 boats of the America's Cup-winning New Zealand Team. Gomboc optimization software was instrumental in the creation of the AC75 foiling monohull and is now widely used in the IMOCA foiling class. The Persico Cat 72′ is equipped with righting moment foils (RMFoils), rake-controlled foils over 7 meters long, daggerboards for leeway control, and T-rudders with rake control. This foil system was made possible thanks to Gomboc's Flight Control System, which manages the foils' angles of attack.
“The RM foil is the most striking feature of the Persico Cat 72′,” emphasized Ferdinand van West, chief designer at Morrelli and Melvin. “The foil serves the same purpose as the one used in the IMOC class, but has been adapted to a catamaran and can be fully retracted. Using Gomboc simulation software as a design tool, we achieved a quantum leap in development and immediately saw that impressive performance was possible. We carried out a carefully considered optimization to ensure that the Persico Cat 72′ was a safe boat with optimal performance, even in light wind conditions, when the RM foils cannot be used. The decision was to optimize the design to make the boat a semi-foiler, but capable of switching to a full foiler with the bottom just above the water surface when conditions allow.”
The Persico Cat 72′ is designed for skimming, meaning it glides about 20 cm above the water. The RMFoil kicks in at just 9 knots of wind and can push the boat to nearly 20 knots in just 13 knots. To ensure safety and reliability, the fully autonomous control system can gradually lower the hulls and reduce speed to the owner's preferred level, allowing for cruising in absolute comfort.
Steering and control are provided from one of the two helm stations located outboard in the spacious aft cockpit. All navigation maneuvers and flight control can also be handled by a crew of just three from the aft cockpit. Equipped with an internal steering wheel with flight and mainsail controls, the vessel guarantees maximum comfort and protection from water spray at high speeds.
The catamaran offers a 360° panoramic view from the saloon, surrounded by curved, full-length windows. The spacious aft cockpit is on par with catamarans designed as pure cruisers. The deckhouse roof houses solar panels, which can provide 2 kW of charging power.
This exceptional luxury combines with expected performance of up to 40 knots downwind and 26 knots sailing close to the wind, while ensuring the same level of comfort aboard a catamaran designed exclusively for cruising. The engine's cruising speed is 8 knots and it generates zero emissions thanks to its electric powertrain.
"Combining performance with the quality of onboard hospitality is one of the great challenges of contemporary shipbuilding, a challenge that Persico is able to address thanks to its expertise," commented Mark Somerville, COO of Persico Marine. "The Persico Cat 72' is a one-of-a-kind catamaran, capable of raising the international bar for this type of vessel. Achieving great speeds thanks to foils while maintaining stability and ease of crew management is a new frontier for the entire industry. With this catamaran, we have combined our experience in carbon fiber construction with the craftsmanship we employ in interior construction and the expertise required to produce high-performance foils."
“The owner of the Cat 72′ entrusted our team in 2015 with the development of innovative technology that would allow a fully-equipped catamaran to achieve near-complete foiling,” said Malcolm Park, project manager of the Persico Cat 72′. “And thanks to continuous learning, experimentation with creative minds across the yachting industry, and the crucial collaboration with Persico Marine, we believe we have overcome the challenge and look forward to sharing the project with the sailing community when the vessel is launched in the summer of 2024.”
The delivery of the Persico Cat 72′ is in fact scheduled for 2024, after assembly and sea trials in La Spezia, at the Persico Marine shipyard.
CLICK HERE TO SUBSCRIBE TO THE FREE SUPER YACHT 24 NEWSLETTER
