Superyacht in Focus: Bliss

After leaving New Zealand to cruise Tahiti in 2009, Bliss has seen her fair share of ocean over the last few years and still remains an impeccably maintained and award-winning yacht. The high-performance element of her construction and lightweight composite hull allows for a clean speed of around 16 knots under sail on flat water.

“The weight of the yacht’s structure is approximately half that of an equivalent build in aluminium,” explains the design team of Dubois Naval Architecture & Yacht Design. “This weight saving compounds, requiring less sail area to drive the lighter yacht and therefore smaller winches; less hydraulic power to power the winches; a smaller engine; less fuel to drive the engine; and less ballast being required because of the reduced sail area … Twenty years ago it was widely believed that by now all sailing yachts would be built using the composite materials. However, the majority of yachts over 100 foot long are still built using aluminium."

The brief from the owner was for a fast, comfortable, thoroughly reliable world-cruising yacht. “For many years now, we at Dubois have worked on both excellent sailing performance and comfort of life at sea and in harbour. Sightlines, the flow of one space to the next, engine room accessibility etc. have all been carefully considered. Performance has been enhanced with recent hull and appendage design developments and the optimization of stability and sail area.”

Bliss is a true performance cruising sloop which leaves an impression both in the docks and on the water with her black hull and striking orange pinstripe. Much of her speed is attributed to her weight-saving hull which provides increased stability whilst her high-aspect carbon fibre rudder has direct quadrant non-assisted steering to provide unrivalled feedback to the helmsman.

Her immaculate interior styling by Design Unlimited features unique cabinetry by Yachting Developments own in-house specialist tradesman and an exceptionally high level of comfort throughout. Bliss can accommodate six guests in three luxurious cabins as well as a well-appointed crew area.