Extraordinary Boats

CROSBIE LORIMER ON SHEARWATER

- Crosbie Lorimer

Wheeling effortlessly from crest to trough, wingtips kissing the wavetops, the shearwater is Australia’s most prolific seabird and a constant companion of offshore sailors on the country’s eastern and southern coastlines. Its mesmerizing flight is a model of elegant efficiency.

Having set out to achieve similar characteristics for his next yacht it was apt that Guido Belgiorno-Nettis – businessman, engineer, arts patron, and yachtsman – chose the name Shearwater for his latest creation.

Belgiorno-Nettis, whose sailing accomplishments includes six Farr 40 Australian National Championship wins and a World Champion title in 2011, commissioned Mani Frers, of the famed Friars yacht design dynasty, to create his yacht.

“We liked each other immediately,” said Frers, adding: “I already had been thinking about designing this sort of boat.”

“We both had a ball,” Belgiorno-Nettis says on their creative meeting of minds. “We spent three hours every week for three months on Skype. Mani also came and sailed on my old boat Satori to get a feel for how we use it.”

The brief was to create a fast and comfortable yacht that Belgiorno-Nettis and his wife, Michelle, could readily cruise together, while also being suitable for local twilight racing at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron and Middle Harbour Yacht Club.

The term cruiser-racer does little justice to the result, a remarkable twin rudder, 57ft lifting-keel hybrid design.

Being principally for Guido’s and Michelle’s use the design could be tailored very much to their own needs; and as neither of the couples is tall, some typical design parameters could be freed up to meet performance criteria.