DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION PHILOSOPHY
We began sailing and cruising with an excellent yacht built by Little Harbor Yachts, designed by Ted Hood.
After years of cruising, we developed a specification list of what a cruising yacht should be. We searched the used boat market in Europe and the USA. The boat we wanted did not exist, so we decided to build.
We looked at the best semi-custom boats such as Nautor Swan and Oyster Yachts. They are excellent yachts, but their maximum quality is constrained by the inability of the boat show shopper to recognize and unwillingness to pay for quality in the non-visible parts of a yacht.
We submitted my 110 pages of specifications to excellent custom shipyards such as Alloy Yachts, Concordia, Derecktor, Green Marine, Kanter Yachts, Trintella, and YDL. We selected Trintella as the builder best able and willing to build the quality we wanted in our yacht.
A close inspection of the system installations on Mona Lisa will reveal a level of quality not found on any other yacht.
There were certain things that we did not want in a yacht. We did not want the usual boat found at the boat shows. We did not want a boat with a large number of tiny berths. Mona Lisa carries two couples in the most luxury possible on the best 61' cruising yacht.
We did not want a sailboat with a short stubby keel that could not sail to windward, but we also did not want a boat with a deep keel that would keep it out of some of the world’s best cruising areas and most sheltered anchorages. To solve this dilemma, we elected to have a hydraulic lifting keel. The 10 ton lead bulb moves up and down so that the draft can be reduced to 6 feet (1.9m) for access to shallow anchorages, and the keel can be lowered to a draft of 11 feet (3.4m) for high performance bluewater sailing.
We wanted an expedition sailboat that could sail among polar antarctic ice and the huge logs that float away dangerously from the Alaskan logging operations. A plastic hull is not suitable for expedition cruising, so we studied the merits of aluminum boat versus steel boat.
We decided that Yacht Mona Lisa would have an ice-reinforced aluminum hull.
Mona Lisa has numerous special features. Please see the documents below for a complete listing and description of the myriad of features, which we believe are critical to achieving the optimal world cruiser.
Here are merely a few of
Mona Lisa's special features:
heated enclosed pilothouse;
transom garage for secure storage of the dinghy;
hydraulic anchor storage system;
custom-engineered high-tech thermal and sound insulation;
cabin sole which floats on sound insulation;
life rails (not wire rope) are stainless steel pipe with all welds highly polished with no visible weld beads;
highly polished stainless steel custom Wigo portlights;
leveling pilothouse chair and dining table;
large gourmet
galley;
hydraulic keel (lifting keel);
recirculating hot water conservation system (the innovation of Steve Dashew);
six high capacity bilge pumps in four watertight compartments;
carbon fiber AeroRig by Carbospars;
forward looking sonar;
abundant electric outlets both Euro 220v and USA 110v throughout the yacht;
scuba compressor.
Important equipment is doubled (redundant):
VHFs, radars, MF radios, autopilots, GPSs, running lights, fresh water pumps,
refrigeration compressors, and more.
The air-cooled and water-cooled 220v/24v refrigeration compressors provides backup redundancy to the refrigeration and provides the ability to operate the refrigeration while the yacht is hauled out of the water.
We tested and selected the AeroRig by Carbospars. We were totally impressed. AeroRig
is THE ideal cruising rig for a husband and wife or a short-handed crew.
It's fast, it's very easy to handle, and it's extremely reliable.
The AeroRig is similar to a traditional fractional sloop rig, ...
But there are some very important differences.
- The AeroRig is easy to handle. To adjust the sail trim, it’s merely necessary to adjust the main sheet. Moreover, the AeroRig is self-tacking. Mona Lisa can beat up a river simply by turning the wheel.
- Going downwind, the AeroRig really shows its advantage. Although many cruising boats carry a spinnaker, this sail can be troublesome and is often not used because of its difficulties. When the AeroRig runs downwind, the mainsheet is simply eased, and the AeroRig becomes essentially a
powerful
square rigger.
As such, the AeroRig yacht sails much faster than a tradtional (i.e., old fashioned) yacht with a spinnaker that is not flown, and the AeroRig is much faster than a conventional wing-on-wing setup because more sail area is presented to the wind. There is no spinnaker to hoist, and there is no wing pole to wrestle.
- The AeroRig is very strong. No AeroRig has ever been dismasted.
- There are no shrouds to inspect. There are no shrouds to maintain or replace. There are no shrouds to break. The decks are clear.
- The AeroRig should be on the best sailing yacht and the best cruising sailboat.
The yacht design priorities of Mona Lisa have been flattered by the imitation by yacht Blue Sky Messenger designed by Sparkman & Stephens and built by CNB. Dieter Empacher has a design that looks like a clone of Mona Lisa. Designers such as Gerard Dijkstra, Bill Dixon, Dieter Empacher,
Bruce Farr, and Van de Stadt have designed AeroRig boats.
Mona Lisa could be used as a luxury cruising yacht by a couple, or she could be used as a research vessel by a small team.
She carries substantial fuel and cargo, and is capable of being
self sufficient for months.
If you are looking for bluewater adventure in Chile, research in Antarctica, whale watching in Alaska, sailing in the glaciers of Greenland, watching the pelagic birds in the southern ocean, or scuba diving in
Tahiti, yacht Mona Lisa is for sale now.
On watch at sea, you can sit in the heated enclosed pilothouse at the helm with your feet on the radiator. This is the way to cruise Cape Horn or Spitzbergen. Joshua Slocum and Bernard Moitessier never had it so good.
We were inspired by the explorations and expeditions of yacht Pelagic skippered by Skip Novak and
the cruising yacht innovations by Steve Dashew in his Deerfoot and
Sundeer.
We did not want a motoryacht, we wanted a high-performance cruising yacht.
We did not want a sailboat patterned after the fragile race yachts in the America's Cup or even the racing yachts of Whitbread. Yacht Mona Lisa is designed to be a rugged
strong expedition yacht and also a fast comfortable sailboat.
Yacht Mona Lisa was designed and built without regard to cost to be
the best cruising yacht,
the best expedition 61' sailboat,
the best luxury sailing yacht. ....
And she is.
