IRC 40 for the US

Mark Mills teams up with newly launched Summit Yachts

Summit Yachts, a new marine sales and marketing company based in Connecticut, USA has announced plans to launch by the end of this year a new IRC racer/cruiser production 40-footer designed by Mark Mills. Their new King 40 is to be built at King Marine in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

George Carabetta, co-founder of Summit Yachts with Barry Carroll, hopes the boat will debut at Key West Race Week next January: "I think that the handicap racing climate is healthy," said Carabetta, who has owned a series of yachts called Diana. "One-Design has done very well the past few years and one reason is due to the lack of a good handicap rule. IRC has been very successful in Europe, and now that it’s coming to the U.S. there’ll be demand for an IRC boat."

Barry Carroll, former owner of Carroll Marine which built racer/cruisers for the IMS Rule and also the popular one-designs Mumm 30 and Farr 40, sees few alternatives to IRC. "If you’re going to do a race boat that’s not a One-Design, what do you do?" he says. "If you’re going to do handicap sailing, that’s going to be under IRC. If you’re going to do anything in Europe it’s going to be IRC, except for ORC level classes. IRC is the thing to do."

The King 40 builds on Mills Design’s successful 39- and 40-footers of the recent past, targeted towards the middle rating band of the Rolex Commodores' Cup. “The boat is designed with an eye towards the IRC, but it should be a good all-around, high-performance design and should perform well under any rating rule, including PHRF,” said Carabetta.

Carroll adds that the boat will not be a strict one design: “The owner will be able to work with Mark Mills to tweak the boat to their local conditions. It allows creativity and fun for owners."

Summit Yachts chose King Marine as the builder after an extensive search. King Marine has built the America’s Cup Class yacht for Spanish syndicate Desafío Español as well as the Reichel/Pugh 66 Blue Yankee and a series of carbon-fiber ORC 42s. “We’ve travelled for the past year looking for builders when we came upon King Marine," said Carabetta. "They’re known for building high quality racing yachts and had a desire to get into production built boats. They’re ideal for what we’re looking for."

Carabetta, whose last boat was a Farr 40, and Carroll, who built Carabetta’s last boat, have been friends for a number of years. They felt there was a niche in the racing market for a new 40-footer, which led them to create Summit Yachts.

Mark Mills writes: "This is an exciting production yacht that targets one of the most popular segments of the performance yachting market under one of the most successful rating rules ever. The sleek design combines the race-winning performance of our custom designs like Tiamat and Mariners Cove with a truly dual-purpose interior and cockpit layout and promises to be one of the most exciting boats of 2008.

"Developed from our unsurpassed experience with winning IRC 40' designs, the King 40 shares the slim low drag hullform, ergonomic cockpit and deck layout designed for racing but comfortable for cruising, deep CFD refined foils, and the swept 2 spreader carbon rig with non-overlapping jibs and masthead kites. When combined with the fully fitted interior including three double berths, 6ft 3in headroom, large head and forward cabin, and exceptional galley with refrigerator, hot water, and double sink as standard, the King 40s promise both racing and cruising is clear".

Working with experienced European Dealer Peter Morton of BSI in the UK adds another component to the successful worldwide launch of the King 40.  

For more information visit the Summit Yachts website: www.summit-yachts.com