Daggerboards & Lifting Rudders
Daggerboards
The Air Yacht 80 has daggerboards controlled by line drivers at the helm. The daggerboards allow it to point higher into the wind, optimising speed, drag and even safety. As the daggerboards are curved, we have fitted them into trunks in the hull sides with little loss of space in the interior. With the daggerboards fully down, the draft of the Air Yacht 80 is 3.2 metres; fully up, the draft is 1.2 metres.
Lifting Rudders
The rudders are in cassettes aft of the engines and placed in the lowest part of the sugar scoop. This is a wet area and the rudders are outside of the engine room. The clear advantage of this is that if the rudder sustains damage, it simply can be lifted out and another dropped into place. This means no water ingress into the boat, as would be the case if the rudder stock was located inside the engine room, as many are.
In our design, we wanted to reach shallow spots such as the Exuma chain, an area of islands in the outer area of the Bahamas where the average depth is 3 metres. By having rudders that can be raised, the Air Yacht 80 is able to reach these beautiful locations.
