The Baltic 65 named Stig was successfully launched and test sailed in Finland end of may before being shipped to the mediterranean. While this judel/vrolijk yacht has been built with racing and cruising in mind, racing is arguably the higher priority.
The Baltic 65 Stig is probably one of the most high-performance boats ever constructed at Baltic Yachts’ yard, with the owner intending to be very competitive under the IRC rating rule against all-out race yachts such as the STP65. “It won’t be a Spartan race boat,” says Project Manager Jonas Krokvik, “because it still has a full interior. But there have been some important concessions to weight. For example there is no teak on the deck, it is painted instead to save weight and reduce heeling moment.” Baltic 65 Stig has been equipped with two mainsails, one with minimum roach for ease of handling with a permanent backstay, and a racing mainsail with big roach, which will entail running backstays led to either aft quarter. A racing yacht should preferably have a very deep keel whereas a cruising yacht should reach also shallow waters. Therefore Baltic 65 stig has a telescopic lifting keel that is located completely outside and does not influence the interior or limit the cabin arrangements.
For cruising the telescopic keel will make the baltic 65 Stig a versatile yacht for visiting shallow bays and harbors, with the 4.1M draft capable of reducing by 1.2M. The interior layout is very interesting combining a twin cockpit deck layout with a single aft entrance. This enables an interior layout with a saloon area aft and all living space forward. The interior is very modern and will be minimally fitted out, with very little permanent furniture. Together with Rolf Vrolijk a number of VPP studies were run on various Length/Beam-, Displacement/Lengthplus Sail Area/ Displacement ratios in order to optimize the yacht as much as possible to meet the given conditions. All these various concept, layout and performance studies that resulted in Baltic 65 Stig have been worked out in cooperation between Baltic Yachts, judel/ vrolijk & co, R&J Design and Baltic Yachts’ representative in Italy, Alessandro Vismara.
