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POLAR 65
1 - General The Polar 65 is a swing keel metallic monohull specially designed
for high latitude sailing. The Polar 65 is intended to accommodate up to fourteen persons for
extended periods. The keel case is placed at mid ships and for that
reason the main saloon is shifted to the after quarters. This is the
favourite arrangement among polar yacht owners. The large volume afforded
when the design provides beamy quarters gives an unobstructed saloon,
so spacious that can accommodate the whole crew plus guests. The U-shape
sofa that surrounds the aft side of the saloon is served by two tables,
a convenient arrangement once only one of these tables may be employed
when short handed, or all seats may be occupied when parties are occurring.
Frequently polar yachts are chartered by expedition parties or by
documentary producers. For that matter, the Polar 65 reserves a noble
place at the starboard side of the saloon for an ample communication
centre or working area. Symmetrically, at port side is located the
galley with freezer, refrigerator, two sinks and a four burner stove
with oven. Besides there is a profusion of lockers for pantry and
kitchen appliances to be stored. The floor at the working area is
protected by a rail where the cook can lean his back against it, without
risk of falling to leeward in case the two hands are required for
the pots. Separating the galley from the study, there is the engine
room with the pilothouse above it. The access for the engine room
is by a hatch placed at the centre of the aft wall. To port there
is a ladder to the pilothouse. This is a 360º visibility windowed
compartment reserved for navigation and inside steering. A pilot settee
berth provides a second social ambience for a small party. Talking
to charter skippers, they pointed the importance of a second small
resting area where a crew tired of all the fuss generated at the main
saloon can find a quieter place to stay. At the aft wall of the pilothouse
is located the wet suit locker. This is a good place for this essential
equipment once it avoids bringing water down below, besides being
a handy place to dress before leaving the warmth of the heated interior.
The companionway is placed at starboard and is shut by means of a
deck type commercial hatch installed at a 45º angle fore and
aft. On top of this hatch is built a solid dodger frame with laminated
glass windows all over to spare the crew from spray when getting out
and also to protect the pilot house from solid water going down below.
At each side of the engine room there are two corridors that give
access to the living quarters located at both sides of the keel case.
The stock plan considers the need to accommodate a large crew, and
to fulfil this purpose, we designed a family cabin at port side with
no less than five bunks, plus a working desk with stools. In front
is the owner's "en suite" stateroom with two accesses, one
by way of the starboard corridor and the second one provided by a
door that leads to the large portside cabin. To starboard we designed
two cabins with two berths each plus two berths for a professional
crew, if wished. Another option is to build a workbench with vise
in place of the professional crew accommodation 3 - Deck layout
The Polar 65 is a flush deck ketch with a pilothouse. Abaft the fore
mast at centreline is located the cover for the swing keel case slot.
At that cover there is a laminated glass port that permits the visual
inspection of the lifting operation from the deck level. The fore
deck, in front of the main mast, is a clean working area. The bollard,
mid and fore stay chain plates and the electric windlass are fitted
there. An 800 mm x 800 hatch gives the only access to the watertight
foc´s´le. If a rigid bottom inflatable is to be carried
aboard, the fore deck is the best place to stow it. Columns support
main and mizzenmasts so there is no need to worry about leakages at
mast carlings. At each side of the main mast are placed backrests,
a must in such a wide deck. The foresail fairlead tracks are located
at both sides of the keel case slot. Once the fore sails, except for
a gennaker, aren't overlapping, the other pair of shroud chain plates
is placed close to the topsides. Abaft the keel case it's placed the
windowed pilothouse with the mainsail traveller and main sail and
mizzen sheet controls leading to the afterside of the coachroof. The Polar 65 is a cutter-rigged ketch. The emphasis of the design
was focused in functionality and robustness. According to the opinion
of the most experienced skippers that operate in Austral waters, double
forestays, each one with its furler is the most practical way to handle
fore sails. The heavy weather jib is hooked to the mid stay instead
of employing a furler. We opted for suppressing runners, bringing
more simplicity to the manoeuvres, and in its place we installed two
permanent stays parallel to the aft lower shrouds. The ideal was to
avoid swept back spreaders, this way keeping the main sail away from
their tips. Once there are no overlapping foresails, shrouds chain
plates are located close to the topsides saving the mast from excessive
compression. Swing keel yachts are being employed successfully in the southern
ocean and elsewhere. Being a relatively new trend in yacht design,
it required some perfectioning since its introduction in order to
attain unquestionable reliability. The large swing keel yachts normally
operate in areas where the sailing conditions are the most severe
as absolute confidence in the system employed is fundamental. The Polar 65 is propelled by two 100 hp diesel auxiliaries. The shaft
lines run inside skegs that are joined join to the twin rudders, with
apertures for the propellers. As these boats are intended to operate
in regions where pack ice is a possibility we opted for "keel"
cooling to refrigerate the engines as well as the generator. For that
purpose we used the skeg plates as heat exchangers, a very practical
solution, considering the otherwise lost space inside those boxes.
The aperture creates the opportunity to locate vertical skegs in front
of the rudderstocks, for lighter steering ability. The Polar 65 was initially an order for a custom design from the
Ukrainian, naturalised Brazilian navigator, Aleixo Belov. A civil
engineer by trade, Aleixo is probably the only person who ever went
three times consecutively around the world single-handed aboard a
sailing yacht. His "Tres Marias", a 36 foot fibreglass cutter,
served his purposes perfectly well when sailing in tropical waters.
After the third voyage he started considering building a go anywhere
yacht that he could sail together with family and friends or going
single-handed when desired. He came to our office with sketches of
the boat he had in mind, after visiting a common friend, Oleg Belly,
who operated faultlessly a swing keel yacht of about the same size
as the Polar 65 for more than ten years in Antarctic and Arctic waters.
Oleg grew a solid reputation among charter skippers for his general
knowledge of the subject. Being a physicist and a skilled boat builder,
he built his sixty three feet long Kotic with the only help of two
welders at a country town in Brazil, far from the facilities of larger
centres, in the surprising short time of one year. The concluded boat
went straight from the port of launching to the Southern Ocean where
Oleg spent the first season in a three months charter to Antarctica.
Oleg contributed with excellent ideas in some of the decisions concerning
the project and Aleixo, an experienced boat builder himself also had
good contributions in the development of the design. |
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