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New Rainbow Project to Begin Building:
On May the 15th, 1934, the William Starling Burgess designed J-Class Rainbow was launched at the Herreshoff Yard in Bristol, Rhode Island, USA. She was built to defend the America’s Cup against Endeavour in 1934. The first two races were tough for Rainbow but the last four races she beat challenger Endeavour. Owner Vanderbilt laid Rainbow up in a dry dock and then refitted her. In 1937 she was sold to Chandler Hovey and contended for defense of the Cup. Sadly for her, Ranger won and became the new defender for the next Cup. In 1940 Rainbow was sold for scrap. Dykstra & Partners Naval Architects where chosen to give Rainbow a new life. A repeat client, the former owner of Windrose of Amsterdam, showed his trust in the Dykstra team to be the Naval Architects and designers for this new J-Class yacht. The 46-meter schooner Windrose of Amsterdam set the Trans-Atlantic schooner record at 10.5 days in 2005, the previous record of 12 days was set by Charlie Barr with Atlantic in 1905. The 40-meter J-Class Rainbow will be built in aluminum and designed according to the JCA (J-Class Association) maximum performance rules. She is expected to launch in 2010. Dykstra & Partners have gained over 20 years of J-Class experience and were responsible for the rebuilds of the J-Class yachts Shamrock V, Velsheda, Endeavour, refit of Ranger and the new build Endeavour II. Rainbow will be the second new J-Class in order for the Dykstra team. More new J-Class projects are in design for clients. To keep the J-Class fleet and races alive and to encourage new build yachts to enter the field, new JCA maximum performance rules have been developed, including allowing aluminum as building material. The new rule is a VPP (Velocity Prediction Program) based rating system which puts limits to the performance. This new rule has been developed by the Dykstra & Partners office and the Wolfson Unit in Southampton. The aim of the JCA, the Dykstra team, and the rule is to bring fair and close racing to the fleet and to give all designs a chance of winning (on a handicap based system). Over the years the Dykstra team gained an enormous amount of hands-on information by racing on all the J’s in the current fleet. Links of Interest: About Dykstra & Partners Dykstra & Partners Naval Architects was founded in 1969 by Gerard Dijkstra. Up to 1979 the office was mainly involved with ocean racing. The office specialized itself during these year to include yacht design and the building supervision of ocean going sailing yachts and fast shorthanded racers, using the experience of Gerard Dijkstra as skilled sailor. Much attention is given to research and development. New designs are tested in towing tanks and wind tunnels, strength of hull and rig is studied with finite element analysis. Everybody onboard the Dykstra & Partners team is a passionate sailor with experience on different types of yachts. Since 1986 the re-design of the Big Class classic racing yachts of the 20/30s has become a major activity. Major Big Class refits or reconstructions included famous names such as the 181-ft Schooner Adela, 212-ft Schooner Adix and the J-Class yachts Endeavour, Velsheda, Shamrock V, and Ranger. The success of these projects resulted in a new class of new designed and built classic looking yachts, also called the “Spirit of Tradition” class, such as the 152-ft schooner Windrose of Amsterdam, 164-ft Schooner Borkumriff IV, 169-ft Meteor and the 295-ft three mast schooner Athena. Currently under construction at Royal Huisman Shipyard is the new J–Class Endeavour II. Another major step is the design of the Panamax Ketch, the 200-ft ketch currently under construction at Baltic, combining classic appearance with high tech carbon structures. Designing rigs and sail handling systems for even the biggest vessels became another specialization. In 2006 the 3-mast Dynarig yacht Maltese Falcon, built by Perini Navi, was launched to the design of Dykstra & Partners. The office also developed the Pilot Cutter type
yachts in the range of 50-60’, shorthanded performance cruisers for worldwide
use, the first of the series is sailed by Gerard and his wife. Additional Links of Interest: |
