News & Reviews-

Introducing The State-Of-The-Art.

Britannia III

 

Amid claims of “state-the-art” boats and “secret” design plans, allow us to introduce you to an actual, honest to God, State-Of-The-Art boat. Her name is Britannia III. She has been specifically designed and constructed from new to challenge the North Atlantic although she will make her inaugural crossing this December from La Gomera to Antigua for her sea trial.

So what constitutes a State-Of-The-Art boat? Well it should actually be new. It should be a newly built boat and it should either be – partly or wholly – a new design or a new construction in terms of method or materials. Britannia III is, as I type, nearing completion. She is constructed entirely of carbon fibre and Kevlar making her very strong while, at the same time, incredibly lightweight. Despite being a forty foot long boat, one man can lift the bow clear of her cradle.

The Size too is unusual in ocean rowing boats. Designed for a crew of 12, not only is she a long boat but her cabins are cavernous. I have stood upright inside the aft cabin and laid flat out along one of the side benches too. The size of the cabins is needed to ensure self-right capability while carrying the weight of 12 crew and their supplies.

To cope with the conditions expected on the North Atlantic, Britannia III has a ballast tank along her centre line and the crew can pump sea water into or out of this tank to alter her stability enabling her to be light enough to make best speed in favourable conditions and stable enough to be safe in less favourable conditions. But conditions can outstrip your expectations and Britannia III has a further innovation to safeguard against the North Atlantic in the shape of a weighted bulb keel with a two-metre draft. In addition, she has two daggerboards just forward of the aft cabin to mitigate side slipping in high seas and cross winds.

These aren’t her only innovative hydrofoils. Considering the vulnerability of the rudder on many ocean rowing boats, Britannia III has a heavy-duty rudder on a metal shaft passing through the hull. The top of this can be accessed from the aft cabin and can be attached to an emergency manual helm although it is normally attached to the autohelm which steers from the GPS system. It is highly unlikely that this rudder can be accidentally lost but, should the unlikely happen, a more conventional emergency rudder can be fitted to the rear of the boat.

As mentioned the boat is designed for 12 crew. 6 rowing on sweep oars - 3 down each side - while 6 are off watch. With the rowing positions no longer straddling the liferaft, the seats can be narrower. In this case the runners are not a separate addition but an integrated part of the gunwales and the central superstructure. Thus they are stronger in construction and weigh less. The boat is no wider than other ocean rowing boats yet – with the narrower seats along each side – there is a wide walkway down the centre of the boat which allows all on-board admin to be conducted without disturbing the rowers while watch changes are easier and, therefore, quicker.
The rowing deck also boasts lesser innovations such as a built-in liferaft stowage, offset scuppers to mitigate deck swamping and equipment loss, and a wet store for para-anchors and other equipment.

Off-watch in the capacious cabins extra sleeping space is afforded not only in the fore and aft under deck “coffin bunks” but also on the two “benches” down each side of the aft cabin and the central well running between them. These raised benches also allow for extra storage giving each member of the crew their own dedicated personal kit locker.

I could go on to the carbon fibre toilet buckets, carbon fibre batteries, carbon fibre fire extinguishers and other equipment but that isn’t really part of the boat. Of course, this boat is an evolution and there are more similarities between her and your ocean rowing boat than there are differences. Additionally, there are other boats being constructed in the same workshop which have other – though fewer – small innovations but Britannia III certainly presents an enormous leap forward in the design and construction of ocean rowing boats. As you can see she is, without any shadow of a doubt, State-Of-The-Art. (top)