Holland Jachtbouw

While sailing yachts comprise only a single-digit percentage of the superyacht market, some significant and extraordinary yachts have launched this past year. Here’s a sampling.

Designers and builders of sailing yachts greater than 100 feet (30.4 meters) are being tasked with creating vessels that not only are beautiful, comfortable and safe, but also achieve a high level of sailing performance. The proliferation of international superyacht regattas has upped the ante for owners who not only like their yachts luxurious, but also like to best their competition on the race course.

HJB has launched the J-class yacht Rainbow, which is based upon the lines of the 1934 America’s Cup winner drawn by William Starling Burgess in the early 1930s. This spectacular 40-meter “J” features a high-end superyacht interior and a unique hybrid propulsion and power system inside a racing-boat hull, topped off by a grand prix racing deck and rig.

This yacht’s owners seem to have a penchant for Greek names that start with the letter C. They called their previous 105' (32m) yacht Cassiopeia and the name Calliope is associated with Zeus’ daughter, the muse of heroic poetry and Homer’s presumed inspiration for The Odyssey and The Iliad. Fittingly, the building of the new 138’ (42m) Calliope has been an epic (and enjoyable) journey.