Superyacht Mirabella V - winner of the Glass Sellers Company Technology Award 2006
Joe Vittoria’s Mirabella V Dream Extends the Barriers of Technology.
This year’s Technology Award salutes a man with the courage, vision, and tenacity to build the largest yacht in the world from glass fibre. The man is American Joe Vittoria, the yacht is the extraordinary Mirabella V.
When Joe Vittoria and Ron Holland developed their ideas of building the world’s biggest single-masted yacht they knew they would be extending the barriers of technology. Joe’s dream was simple: a 75 metre sailing Superyacht with over 3,000 square metres of sail and capable of taking 12 guests in luxurious accommodation anywhere in the world, with ultimate upwind sailing performance.
Several years before, he had discussed this dream with his collaborator of 30 years New Zealander Ron Holland, a world authority in sailing boat design, who calculated that for 12 guests to travel in luxury on an elegant yacht, the vessel would need to be at least 75 metres long. The proportionate rig would dictate a mast 90m high. And to ensure the speed requirement was met, the hull construction and interior would need to be fabricated from the lightest and strongest materials available. But cost was a big driver in the decision making process.
Joe and his family would use Mirabella V, but the vessel also needed to be economically viable. Mirabella V was to be part of the Charter operation run by Luciana Vittoria, Joe’s wife, as part of the Mirabella Yachts chartering portfolio. As a result, a glass fibre composite hull could be the only choice. The combination of flexibility, strength, light weight, economic construction and material costs, and durability in a hostile marine environment made glass fibre unique amongst fabrication materials available to Joe.
High Modulus, a composite design company based in the Hamble in Hampshire, had been part of the team to build previous Mirabellas. The team was re-formed for the Mirabella V challenge, and over time a scheme for the GRP hull was developed for approval by the Classification society Det Norske Veritas. But that was only part of the task. The team now searched the world for builders who were at the leading edge of construction in GRP and found VT Shipbuilding (formerly Vosper Thornycroft). The UK-based company had been working in GRP for some 30 years, primarily building naval ships such as minehunters – but nothing like sophisticated yachts.
In June 2001, the company was selected to begin the detailed engineering design and construction. It was to prove one of the most demanding technical challenges in nearly 150 years of VT shipbuilding history. Yet less than two months after the contract was signed, mould erection started and the enormous hull structure began to take shape in VT’s former Southampton shipyard.
Mirabella V now spends summer in the Mediterranean and winter in the Caribbean, chartering for $275,000 per week. Mirabella V now has two entries in the Guinness Book of Records: one for the largest singly masted yacht in the world, and one for the largest single sail. Joe pays tribute to the many people who helped to create this ultimate superyacht. “She attracts superlatives wherever she goes and it’s a huge credit to all those who have been involved.”
