Superyachts in the rough

I have been on various Ferrettis in my life
and I must be with Mike on this, Ferrettis are wet boats but compared to the mainstream builders have one of the best most comfortable rides around and always improving
the Ferretti 80 is a good boat a bit wet but good
the bow of the 80 is also not low as one might think, it looks so because of the sleek profile
in the end I prefare getting wet then bouncing around when the going gets tough
 
This time I'm also supporting the defense of your builder of choice. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Ferretti surely have nothing to learn about how to make a safe, smooth and confortable planing hull - regardless of the CE mark btw: the boat in the pic was most likely made before they started with Cat A, but I can tell you for sure that it wasn't the hull design in need of changes for the A mark. Much smaller details are involved.
And though obviously it's hard to judge based on a pic, imho it's safe to say that there's nothing wrong with the boat behaviour: the bow is in fact well visible above the wave, and above the deck line there is just spray.
The wave itself, it does look weird: not that high maybe, but very short and steep compared to the surrounding sea state.
Lighter/smaller boats probably would have taken off more rapidly and with less spray, but you're spot on, that has absolutely nothing to see with seakeeping.
Jfm could probably enlighten us further, having been there?
 
To be honest i don't remeber the sea conditions well. There was a swell but i think that wave on the ferretti was a freakish wave, like the big swell you sometimes get every 7 or 8 waves. Possibly added to a superyacht big wake. We were motoring on a parallel course, all happily on the Sq58 flybridge and not getting wet, so it wasn't a bad day at all. Folks who know the area will know where it is - it is west of the cap D'Antibes and if you stood on the ferretti looking aft you would be looking straight at the Eden Roc hotel and Juan Les Pins. I think my sister in law actually snapped that pic - good timing with the shutter. No photoshop I promise, I wouldn't know how!

I don't think I'd criticise the ferretti. When a wave like that comes the boat either rises over it and falls into the trough, throwing everyone round and smashing the plates and glasses, or it cuts through it and makes spray. The ferretti does the latter, and maybe that's not a bad thing, as others have said? No danger, nothing wrong with the boat, imho

Also I think the wave has a steep front face and has only just hit the ferretti bow. If the pic were taken say 0.25seconds later I think the ferretti bow would have risen. Still pics can be misleading sometimes...
 
It is really difficult to get pictures that create an impression of rough water - except perhaps in a hurricane. My own pictures of a recent trip where overfalls and generally high winds did nowt to convey my difficulty in trying hold a camera whilst helming single handed.

All that said...I agree with you that these boats should be able to handle weather to F10 without endagering the crew - after all they all will be CAT A - Ocean! What would hack me off more (if I were a superyacht owner) would be if some pissy little old Windy overtook me outside Antibe /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
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