With this 78 foot craft in carbon, designed by Vismara, Cantieri Valdettaro in Le Grazie has marked the start of a new era. Without ignoring the great traditions of the master carpenters that made them famous in the 1990s, such as the restoration work on orion and the building of the 34-metre run away to name just two, in the third millennium, the Valdettaro boatyard is moving towards a more modern construction concept, with a new entrepreneurial set up.
The boat is a development of the now famous 78’ “Ghibellina”, from which it takes its high-tech content and simple forms. This vessel, however, has a markedly more sporting vocation, which required Vismara to achieve an even more sophisticated level of design for the purposes of achieving higher performance levels. Compared to the number 1, then, the Valdettaro 78 Performance Cruiser is lighter, more stable and has longer, more efficient appendages that have made way for a more generously sized sail plan. Vismara’s design philosophy, which has always been orientated towards dual-purpose use of composite materials - both for construction and fittings and fixtures – most definitely comes to the fore in this project, too.
The hull, deck, and structural bulkheads are in fact made in composite material, using unidirectional carbon fibre, preimpregnated and post-cured in a vacuum at 90°, and carbon, which remains exposed on the sides of the interiors, while the bulkheads are painted with an eye-catching purple-red that contrasts with the pale, bleached teak of the furniture. The interiors, created in conjunction with Lapo Ruffi, are more symmetrical, especially in the bow, which houses the master cabin with twin beds instead of a double bed against the bulwark. Continuing towards the stern, there are two twin guest cabins, each with bathroom and amidships is a roomy dinette. The stern is dedicated to the galley, set out in a separate area and on the port side, the crew cabin. This new layout also favours a lower freeboard which, from a design viewpoint, allows the boat to achieve better performance as well as offering a sleeker aesthetic. The simplicity and clean-cut look of the deck on Ghibellina has been the starting point for and the inspiration behind the new Valdettaro 78, which has a decidedly more minimalist feel. The rig is further simplified with the use of 3 captive winches to control the mainsail and the turning of the genoa and these are located in the engine room, like the ones used on the latest technological craft, the Baltic 147. There are just two winches at the far end of the stern for the halyards and the gennaker. The deck plan is flush deck with a large cockpit complete with two carbon wheels and divided into a work area, aft and a living area, fore. The companions and all of the hardware are custom build and concealed. A large sail locker is situated in the far end of the bow. The anchor system, which is under the hull, is an evolution of a system already in use by other boatyards, but improved and optimised to offer greater reliability.
