Peter Harrison's new superyacht

The Daily Sail has a look around the GBR Challenge boss' new 115ft ketch

Peter Harrison's new superyacht Sojana has been launched and this weekend is supposed to be undertaking her first sea trials sailing from the GBR Challenge base in Cowes.

The boat is a pleasant looking Farr-designed 115ft ketch named after the GBR Challenge boss' three grandchildren. Although first and foremost she is a luxury cruising yacht she is designed to have a fair turn of speed - the VPPs suggest she should touch 25 knots reaching.

Hence she has all mod cons from leather upholstery to mahogany panelling, marble faced vanity units and gold (plated) taps. On the performance side the panelling is all Nomex cored. The construction of her hull and deck by Green Marine has been in state of the art carbon/Nomex high temperature cured with engineering carried out by SP Technologies.

Bremner Associates have project managed Sojana, along similar lines to their previous work - Mike Slade's Leopard which was also built by Green Marine. However while the fit-out of Leopard took place when she was still in Green Marine, in Sojana's case this has been taking shape for more than a year now in one of the sheds at the GBR Challenge base.

Her rigs were built in carbon fibre by Hall Spars in the States and her sail plan, complete with mizzen staysails and gennikers, is wopping. Her sails have been made by North UK and the first set are of the Spectra/carbon panelled variety. John Bremner says that a 3DL suit for racing is also on the cards.

Appendage-wise she is nothing radical. The keel is fixed and she carries no water ballast. However the tankage for her fresh water and fuel is configured in such a way that it can be pumped up to weather. This is not designed for round-the-cans racing states John Bremner, but is more for longer distance passages.

Sojana's schedule is to include the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers and she is expected to stay in the Caribbean to sail in some of the regattas out there. Skipper of the new beast will be Marc Fitzgerald, who normally skippers Peter Harrison's Farr 52 Chernikeef 2. It is understood that this arrangement will stand.

Quite a cool feature of her is her RIB, designed by Christian Stimpson, which will have a removable bow section in order to fit diagonally into a slot in the transom.

Vital statistics

LOA: 115ft (34.97m)
LWL: 98ft (30m)
Beam: 25ft (7.68m)
Draft: 15ft (4.50m)
Sail area: 7,535sqft (700sqm) upwind, approx 15,000sqft (1400sqm) downwind
Displacement: 96 tonnes
Main heights: 144/118ft (44/36m)

More photos on page 2