Imagine yourself sitting in the cockpit of Ammonite, the latest launch from Southern Wind Shipyard. There is a soft lapping of water against the hull, the teak deck reflects warmly in the late afternoon sun, and your backdrop is one of the most spectacular cities in the world. You are moored off Cape Town, South Africa and Table Mountain rises up from the ocean, its flat top, the feature that gave the mountain its name, is covered with a fine tablecloth of clouds. Your new SW82 sloop was built just a stone’s throw away and you have spent the day on the water putting the boat through its paces. Now, as the shadows lengthen, the lights at the foot of the mountain twinkle to greet another African evening and you realize that you are sitting on a wild thoroughbred, not unlike the animals that roam the plains not too far away. Your dream was to build a yacht capable to taking you anywhere in the world, but you took delivery of yacht that has a little African Spirit in it and you know that some adventures lie ahead.
Ammonite is the third of Southern Wind Shipyard’s SW82 series. It was launched in the wake of Feelin’ Good and Grande Orazio, both of which have sailed extensive, trouble-free miles. The design reflects the owners desire for a yacht with a “sexy body and a highly competitive soul” and this Farr design meets and exceeds those expectations. Marcus Blackmore, the Australian owner of Ammonite, went to Farr Yacht Design to get hull lines, appendages and a sail plan drawn, and he then commissioned Nauta Design to turn what’s clearly a high-performance design into something more elegant and comfortable. The result is a perfect expression of a sporty and competitive sailboat that will also be comfortable and safe for family cruising.
The owner made it clear from the outset that he wanted a fast and powerful yacht which he could use to compete in the both the Caribbean and Mediterranean Superyacht regattas. With that in mind the hull, deck and superstructure were made of a resin infused carbon fiber sandwich which resulted in a light but immensely strong boat that is both competitive in light winds yet also able to take heavier weather conditions in stride. Gurit, a world leader in composite engineering, made sure that every strand of carbon fiber was there to do its job and that there was nothing extra that was not needed. The experience that Gurit gained designing and building a Carbon Composite Roof for the new Jaguar F-TYPE automobile gave them the confidence to treat the engineering of Ammonite with the same kind of precision that they gave to the Jaguar. This kind of attention right down to the smallest details can be seen throughout Ammonite.
