Classic Manoeuvre
The hull of the 37m cutter rigged sloop Bugamena was turned at Royal Huisman‘s shipyard beneath blue skies beside the frozen canal. As the Dykstra & Partners-designed yacht rotated slowly in the slings, she revealed her traditionally styled deckhouses already in place. With her low profile, it was both logical and efficient to construct hull and superstructure upside-down (photo courtesy of Hans Westerink).
Although very much a classic above the waterline with her elegant hull, graceful counter stern and varnished, teak-clad deckhouses, Bugamena is built in an exciting new genre of “Spirit of Tradition” yachts – the wolf in sheep’s clothing. With a modern underwater body shape and a fully ballasted vertically retractable bulb keel complemented by a powerful 48m Rondal carbon mast, Bugamena can be expected to deliver performance that would have seemed inconceivable to her design forebears.
Meanwhile, work on her Rhoades Young-designed interior is well under way in Royal Huisman’s joinery department. The theme draws on period details whilst using modern techniques to smoke-age and to distress oak panels. Walls and bulkheads are colour and texture contrasted using light-coloured painted panels set against deep hand rubbed wax finishes to create a sense of nostalgia within a more contemporary Nantucket ‘beach-house’ flavour. Her onboard systems have been designed and installed according to a less-is-more approach. Focused on delivering an easily handled yacht supported, below deck, by modern amenities in exceptionally comfortable surroundings Bugamena will be launched and handed over to her owner in spring 2012.