SEPTEMBER 2008
The latest edition of Modern Boating magazine is out now! To get your copy delivered to your door, simply click on the link b
The latest edition of Modern Boating magazine is out now! To get your copy delivered to your door, simply click on the link b
Modern Boating and Big Hat Productions head out for a glorious day on the water to give the Seawind 1160...
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A holiday in the Hampton
WORDS + PHOTOS:
KEVAN WOLFE
From the team that delivered Alaska, here's a new boat with a 'wow' factor.
The Alaska Pilothouse and Sedan cruisers have proved a big success for Jeff and Dean Leigh-Smith. The Alaskas, built in China with a big input from the team at the Gold Coast City Marina, have hit the right spot in the market for price and value. They have arrived at the right time when the trend is for more economical cruisers that can run in displacement mode and show a turn of speed when called on.
Now the Leigh-Smiths have stepped up and introduced the Hampton 680 Pilothouse. Built in China, the pilothouse design is a real eye opener. It is one boat that has the 'wow' factor. It's no wonder Dean Leigh-Smith has a bigger smile than the one he had on his face when he showed me the first Alaska 56 Pilothouse.
The Hampton Yacht Building Company is one of the first companies from Taiwan to start building in China. Jeff Chen, Chairman of the company, has been building boats for the past 20 years and his family has been building the Formosa line of yachts in Taiwan for 40 years.
"It's the experience and expertise we are bringing to the Hampton line of fine yachts, which are designed for serious passage making," Mr Chen told me at the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show where the 680 made its first Australian appearance.
read on below advertisement
Hampton employs some 200 skilled workers including carpenters, designers, engineers and in-house naval architects. The company is a semi-custom yacht builder and this allows customers to input their own ideas into the layout and the woods, veneers, fabrics and materials used.
Hampton's in-house design team has spent some years refining the pilothouse concept. The planing hull incorporates a modified deep-vee design with a high forward deadrise section for smooth entry into a head sea and flatter sections aft with reverse chines to provide an efficient planing surface.
The hull design also uses tunnels for the propellers, which lowers the shaft to a 10-degree angle and adds to the directional stability. The hull is one of the strongest on the market. It's hand-laid with solid fibreglass and moulded in one piece with five outer layers of Vinylester resin. And if that's not enough, it's reinforced with two layers of Kevlar from chine to chine and three layers of Kevlar in the forward impact areas and over the running gear. On top of this the deck, deckhouse and flybridge are cored with high strength Divinycell using a vacuum bag construction process, which provides strength with less weight.
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KEVAN WOLFE
From the team that delivered Alaska, here's a new boat with a 'wow' factor.
The Alaska Pilothouse and Sedan cruisers have proved a big success for Jeff and Dean Leigh-Smith. The Alaskas, built in China with a big input from the team at the Gold Coast City Marina, have hit the right spot in the market for price and value. They have arrived at the right time when the trend is for more economical cruisers that can run in displacement mode and show a turn of speed when called on.
Now the Leigh-Smiths have stepped up and introduced the Hampton 680 Pilothouse. Built in China, the pilothouse design is a real eye opener. It is one boat that has the 'wow' factor. It's no wonder Dean Leigh-Smith has a bigger smile than the one he had on his face when he showed me the first Alaska 56 Pilothouse.
The Hampton Yacht Building Company is one of the first companies from Taiwan to start building in China. Jeff Chen, Chairman of the company, has been building boats for the past 20 years and his family has been building the Formosa line of yachts in Taiwan for 40 years.
"It's the experience and expertise we are bringing to the Hampton line of fine yachts, which are designed for serious passage making," Mr Chen told me at the Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show where the 680 made its first Australian appearance.
read on below advertisement
Hampton employs some 200 skilled workers including carpenters, designers, engineers and in-house naval architects. The company is a semi-custom yacht builder and this allows customers to input their own ideas into the layout and the woods, veneers, fabrics and materials used.
Hampton's in-house design team has spent some years refining the pilothouse concept. The planing hull incorporates a modified deep-vee design with a high forward deadrise section for smooth entry into a head sea and flatter sections aft with reverse chines to provide an efficient planing surface.
The hull design also uses tunnels for the propellers, which lowers the shaft to a 10-degree angle and adds to the directional stability. The hull is one of the strongest on the market. It's hand-laid with solid fibreglass and moulded in one piece with five outer layers of Vinylester resin. And if that's not enough, it's reinforced with two layers of Kevlar from chine to chine and three layers of Kevlar in the forward impact areas and over the running gear. On top of this the deck, deckhouse and flybridge are cored with high strength Divinycell using a vacuum bag construction process, which provides strength with less weight.
next page »
« go back
