TAKAPUNA II Project 1952

In the early 1990s Laurent Giles were commissioned by the Valdetarro Shipyards to design a 34m cutter with exterior styling by Studio Garroni specifically targeted at the charter yacht market. All five of these vessels were built and proved to be very popular charter yachts, their spacious accommodation, simply laid out decks and easy to handle fully furling cutter rigs made them an instant success. The yachts are now mostly in private hands, but some still charter and one of the current owners approached us to develop a larger version.

The Takapuna II concept proposed here offers a larger and more spacious accommodation for a full 12 guests and enlarged crew. Sailing performance is improved by adopting a lifting/swing keel and twin rudders (the original 34m cutters had a very shallow fixed draft) so that she can still cruise safely in the shallow waters of the Caribbean. The high aspect cutter rig ensures good all round sailing performance with a snug staysail rig when the weather gets really bad. The design uses single screw propulsion with a controllable pitch propeller for optimum motor sailing performance and low drag when sailing, with retractable bow and stern thrusters for control when docking.