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On the surface and under the skin, Delta’s 154-foot Mr. Terrible resets the scale.
by Mark T. Masciarotte
photography by Neil Rabinowitz
11/01/2007
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| Delta 154 |  |
When it comes to the latest delivery from Seattle-based Delta
Marine Industries, the yacht’s name, Mr. Terrible, at first can be quite
surprising, to say the least. To many residents of California, Nevada and
Arizona, however, the name conjures images of the "best bad guy in the West," a
mustachioed bandit brandishing a gas pump nozzle in lieu of a six-shooter. The
bandit is the logo of the owner’s company, Terrible Herbst, and a symbol that
graces service stations, casinos and motorsports team products throughout
the region.
Delta aficionados might notice that the 154-foot (47-meter)
Mr. Terrible bears a familial resemblance to Gran Finale, an
award-winning yacht delivered by the yard in 2002. They’d be right. Although
slightly longer, the semi-displacement hull for the new yacht was laid up in the
same basic hull mold as Gran Finale, and the superstructure draws on much
of Juan Carlos Espinosa’s contemporary styling from that project as well as
Espinosa’s interior arrangement. However, as is typical of the custom new-build process, the new boat’s styling and interior were heavily modified; in this case
by the Delta Design Group’s lead designer, Adriel Rollins, who worked
closely with the owners throughout the project. The results of both exercises,
from the standpoint of both design and detailing, are striking.
| Click on the Specs tab at top to see complete list of resources. |
Having a cruising speed of nearly 20 knots, Gran Finale
broke new ground for Delta, a company long known for its displacement vessels.
Mr. Terrible boasts equally impressive performance, derived from a pair
of MTU 16V4000 engines that each provide 3,650 brake horsepower. This propulsion
package allows the boat to attain speeds in excess of 20 knots at a half-load
displacement of 403 tons. Equally impressive is the fact that at a reduced speed
of 14 knots, Mr. Terrible has a range of 2,700 nautical miles.
 Photograph by Neil Rabinowitz. (Click image to enlarge)
Savvy yachtsmen know that the key ingredient driving the
construction of high-speed vessels is weight control. No matter the quality of
the vessel’s lines nor the care given to the calculations from which the
scantlings are derived, extra weight instantly translates to lower speeds and,
potentially, to costly contract disputes. Weight often has a way of pushing
design limits, especially in yachtbuilding, where interior finish and outfitting
are subjects of great concern for demanding owners. And, despite the
oft-repeated—and somewhat misleading—mantra that "fiberglass is stronger
than steel," it is by no means a featherweight product, especially when
laid-up in solid form, which is the method used by Delta for its hull
bottoms.
Having dealt with this aspect of yachtbuilding on many
projects, Jay Miner, Delta’s chief naval architect and the executive in charge
of the Delta Design Group, is well aware of the problem, noting that the
laminate schedule for Mr. Terrible calls for the hull sides and
superstructure to employ a sandwich construction that includes Baltek
vertical-grain balsa for
the core.
"Weight," notes Miner, "is one of the biggest issues [in
yachtbuilding]. It’s an issue that does not go away, even up to the last day of
construction, and it’s something that you ignore at your peril."
That said, Miner further explains Delta’s approach to the
overall problem.
"We have always been conservative in engineering our
structures, so initially, we probably introduce a little more weight into the
primary components of the vessel than comparable builders might, so that makes
the issue of the interior that much more important to track.
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