Bavaria C57 – The designer’s comment

The partner of Cossutti Yacht Design Alessandro Ganz about the project of the new flagship Bavaria C57.

The story starts one year ago when we received a call from Bavaria Yacht asking for the possibility to develop “something” together. During the first meeting we discovered what that “something” was: the new yard’s flagship! The only thing we could do at that moment was to accept the exciting challenge and to start immediately to think about the design of this 57 footer.

The inputs were very clear from the beginning, and this helped a lot because of the strict time to develop the boat. In fact the C57 should have been unveiled at the Cannes boat show 2016 and will be presented at the Dusseldorf Boot in January 2017.

The inputs from the yard were:

• Overall wellbeing onboard: strive to achieve a stress free zone for owner and guests by providing a great amount of space, light and comfort on deck and down below.
• Trendsetting design: “Superyacht” style with attention to details and high level of equipment installed.
• Innovative solutions: from clever interior space arrangements to usage of advanced materials and state of the art technologies.
• Fun during sailing: modern hull in combination with optimized rig options is designed for cruising couple to sail safe and fast inshore or offshore, in light or strong wind condition.
• Individuality: to let an owner to configure its own yacht according to his own wishes, needs and preferences.

 

 

It was a huge effort the Cossutti Yacht Design Team, responsible for the naval architecture, exterior design, structural design and interior layouts, together with Pulse Team, an experienced Croatian company in charge of the engineering and interior style, to combine all the features required by Bavaria. In particular, one interesting point of the project was to improve our designing skills upgrading them from the small series to the big series production. This was not an easy task because we tried to find the right balance between the construction costs and the state of the art building process.
The hull design is very innovative for the yard: the hull lines have a completely different waterline concept compared to previous CR 56 both above and below the sea level. In fact the hull is much wider than the previous models of the yard, especially at stern to achieve bigger internal volumes and more space on deck; a great effort has been put in refining the hull shape at stern in order not to have too much wetted area for such a big boat, and be fast also in light winds.
Forward “V” shaped sections guarantees smooth movements in choppy seas, while the round to flat aft help in reaching high speed under motor. A taller mast allows bigger sail area both upwind and downwind, and, for first time, also a carbon mast is offered as option. The keel is a new concept for Bavaria as well: “L” shaped with airfoil profile fin for an optimum upwind lift and a shaped bulb to concentrate weight at bottom for stability. Two are the main draft options, 2.5 m and 1.99 m but also a deeper 2.8 m keel will be offered to more performance oriented clients. Rudders are the standard Yard double blades configuration, connected via a rigid bar.

The C57 has been designed to be assembled in a very few steps in the production line, increasing the builders efficiency allowing them to work in better conditions. In fact, in a first stage there is the assembly of the hull, main structure and major systems backbone while all the interiors and the systems related are assembled out of the boat. At the specific assembly stage, the interiors modules are integrated in the hull and connected to system backbone. Thanks to careful laminations optimization and new vacuum infusion system, boat weight can be significantly reduced, while a different structural concept, derived from our experience in race boats improves overall longitudinal and transversal stiffness.

The hull is made with a solid single skin bottom in the slamming and central areas, while the stern and the sidewalls are made by sandwich lay up using a closed cell PVC core to reduce the weight. The hull structure is integrated in the inner liner together with the system backbone and the interior modules base. The hull liner is glued to the hull and over laminated in the critical area such as the floors that support the keel. A longitudinal stringer runs all along the sidewall increasing the boat stiffness and creating a tunnel to run the system running from the bow to the stern. The stringer is also glued to the hull and over laminated in the high stress areas. All the bulkheads are glued into dedicated receivers shaped into the hull or deck liner and other receivers glued on the sidewalls. The boat has been designed to withstand the loads without the contribution of the interiors modules and the structural design has been optimized with the Finite Element Analysis.

 

 

Design features
The design of the C57 derives from the needs to give to the new Bavaria flagship a new identity, keeping in mind the yard heritage. Although it may seem a complete break with the past, there are several features that could be recognized in the previous models of the yard such as the double level in the coachroof or the stern chamfer.
In particular, the double level coachroof has a longer first level to reduce the total coach roof height perception and to get the proper standing height in the front cabins, and a shorter second level to have 270° windows in the saloon. With this solution it is possible to accommodate all the sailing hardware on them to have a complete flush deck. Coming to the deck layout an extensive analysis has been done together to the yard and the dealers to assess the characteristics that the new C57 must have. The results were clear and they could be resumed in Comfort, Privacy and Usability.

With these inputs we started to work and we came up with a multi zone deck concept. In fact there are three different sunbathing areas, one at the front, one on the coach roof and one in the cockpit. The cockpit is divided also in two areas: a guest area at the front and a working area in the back. The guest area is characterized by the two U-shape benches that could be able to sit up to ten people and could be transformed in a comfortable lounge area by lowering the table.

 

 

 

The working area is located at the back of the cockpit, distributed around the two helm stations. All the deck hardware is ergonomically positioned for the easy sailing, such that it is possible to sail the boat also in a short crew. All the manoeuvres are brought to the helmsman position running into dedicated channels. The boat is fit with the standard self tacking Jib but she could be equipped with the longitudinal tracks for a bigger genoa. Moreover the consoles are thought to accommodate all the instruments needed for a nice and safe navigation.

The wet bar together with the cockpit fridge are located below the stern bench and the grill could be raised to the proper cooking position. On the starboard side of the cockpit there is a 10 pax liferaft storage, this is an open van that could access both from the cockpit and from the bathing platform, allowing the liferaft to be “ready to use” in case of emergency. On the port side there is a comfortable companionway to the bathing platform and the dinghy garage, designed to accommodate a Williams mini jet tender or any kind of recreational gear.

 

 

On the stern it is also integrated a full standing height cockpit shower.
A smooth companionway (only 55° angle) brings directly into the saloon. The big windows around the coachroof have been designed to extend the horizon and to bring the natural light in. Once again the layout wants to separate the guest area from the working area: in fact the saloon, made by a dining area on port and the traditional chart table together with a lounge area on starboard, is located just below the companionway and the transverse galley is located at the main bulkhead on a lower floor level. The big hull windows are located at the right height to look outside and to enjoy the landscape both in the saloon and in the cabins.

 

 

The owner cabin is located at the front together with a dedicated head and a separate shower.

 

 

The twin guest cabins in the stern are furnished with a caesar bed that could be used as two single beds or a queen size one depending on the situation.

 

 

After many months of work, the first unit of Bavaria C57 is almost ready and we all of Studio Cossutti Yacht Design are looking forward to attend the big party of presentation, which will take place during a spectacular evening during Boot Düsseldorf at the end of January, where for the first time we’ll reach out and touch the new jewel Bavaria from 21 to 29 January 2017.