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The Far East gave the world gunpowder and pasta. Now it presents another innovation.
by Jonathan Webster
photography by Kevin Miller
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04/01/2005
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| YANTAI RAFFLES 289 |  |
In 2003, Asean Lady emerged, as unconventional as
promised. She has since plied the waters in Southeast Asia, and gathering her
fair share of comments along the way.
"When she was still in the yard, I had one visitor who spent
two hours
viewing the project," says Chang. "That evening at dinner he asked me,
very seriously, ‘Are you building two yachts or one?’ Recently, another
person
remarked in a deadpan manner, ‘She’ll never sail straight;
she’ll only go around
and around.’"
Owner Annie Chang and a team of four designers created the
Chinese-themed interior using native sources, including lounge sofas from
Yantai, custom-made furnishings from Guangzhou (formerly Canton) and carpets,
fabrics, wood and stone from Shanghai. (Click images to enlarge)
But Asean Lady does indeed sail straight. The
asymmetrical outrigger configuration is less prone to fatigue than a traditional
catamaran design because the cat’s identical hulls sometimes work against each
other in certain sea conditions. The outrigger, by its inferior size and
position, always follows the main hull, thereby lending support and balance to
the vessel without countering the main hull’s tracking.
Additionally, the out-rigger’s support allows the main hull
to be very streamlined, similar to that of a sailboat. The architecture provides
an amazingly economical cruising speed and range for an 88-meter. "Just recently
we were cruising at over fourteen knots on a single two thousand-horsepower
diesel," Chang says.
Asean Lady’s control and steerage system is atypical as
well. The
single engine links directly to a Rolls-Royce Aquamaster azimuth drive
with twin rotating propellers, eliminating the need for a long shaft
and its
accompanying risk of vibration. The yacht’s engine room,
therefore, is
remarkably small for her size and rests astern, well away
from the guest rooms
and even the crew quarters.
Instead of rosewood, Chang chose red
pine, usually readily available in the region, for most of the joinery. When
suppliers ran short, she imported the rich-looking timber from
Canada. (Click images to enlarge)
She also is equipped with a Rolls-Royce Aquamaster retractable
azimuth bow thruster that doubles as the backup propulsion system for the main
power plant. Producing 600 horsepower, the bow thruster alone can power the
yacht at seven knots for thousands of miles. A single joystick supplants the
traditional throttles and wheel, allowing for true point-and-go maneuverability
utilizing bow and aft thrusters.
"The first time the engine started and she spun around in the
tight space between the dock and the wharf in our shipyard was the moment I
became fully aware of what an amazing and truly unique yacht we’d created,"
summed up Chang. "However, it also presented a strange sensation, and one that
my captain has had to get accustomed to, and that is not being able to feel
whether the engine is on or not. There are literally no vibrations to let you
know she is engaged. All you have to go on are the instruments." While it’s easy
to become a quick convert once you’ve been aboard, particularly under power,
it’s also easy to understand why the conventional yachting community paid little
heed to the outrigger yacht concept. "I had several professional naval
architects that failed to put the design together and one of them even had the
cheek to enter my design in a competition titled ‘Ships That Will Never Be
Built,’" Chang says.
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