Kirribilli is the result of an idea developed with architect, Renzo Piano to design a fast cruiser with all of the characteristics of the most modern maxi yachts, and the sober qualities and essential lines of the famous J Class, which competed in the America’s Cup in the 1930s.
The main characteristic of this boat is that it combines advanced construction technology, researched hydrodynamics and performance with sober elegance. The design is never for its own sake, as often happens with many modern yachts, but rather it is a means to create the ideal surroundings for the use of composite materials. The technical and architectural factors are the result of structures integrated into the interior or on the deck. The structures and reinforcement plates on the deck have been left exposed, which enhances the adequate combination of technology of the materials and the way they have been used structurally and aesthetically. The monocoque structure, with hull and deck in high-thickness sandwich, also makes it possible to eliminate almost all of the secondary reinforcement structures, leaving smooth, seamless surfaces inside the boat.
In this way, the continuity is constant between all of the surfaces of the hull, deck and bulkheads, which are joined by a wide radius to create a seamless monolithic area, where the structure is architecture. The division of space into cabins exists, but compartmentalisation is linear and symmetrical, so when we see the whole craft, from stern to bow, we perceive the outer forms and the structural order. On board the feeling is that of experiencing shapes and perceiving the structures: hull, deck and bulkheads are painted in a pale mother-of-pearl shade, featuring simple forms and attention to detail, becoming part of the boat, almost as if they are outside elements, almost sculptures in wood that “inhabit” the partition bulkheads. This has made it possible to build an extremely light craft, with the maximum weight and minimum wetted surface of its size and type of equipment.
