The Fifty: Eleva Yacht presents its new 15 metre sailing yacht
Presenting a new challenge. From a yacht builder a new brand in sailing yachts, with the mission to be a fast cruising yacht with full comfort in long passages in a full cruising attitude. The designer is the well known Giovanni Ceccarelli, with both cruising and America’s Cup experience.
A wave forward
Eleva is a new brand that is coming onto the fast cruiser market with a specific mission: high-quality sailing yachts dedicated to the pleasures of nautical tourism at a fast cruising speed where liveability and comfort combine with the pleasures of sailing and nautical skills. To achieve these results each model’s structure was created by a team of experts. Not only are they capable of incorporating the best of contemporary technology into the product in terms of building the structure and performance, but they also research the simplest functional aspects, those little things that are essential to being able to fully enjoy the pleasure of cruising.
Owners who choose Eleva become part of a team that knows how to guide their choices and interpret their true nautical needs. Eleva Yacht is part of Carbon Line, a well known shipyard. The design is made by Giovanni Ceccarelli.
The Fifty – Cruising to the future
It’s the entry-level yacht and the first of a series of larger projects that are destined to become industry benchmarks and a new standard for the fast cruising yacht market. The new Eleva Fast Cruisers combine ease of handling, even with a small crew, with assisted manoeuvres that provide excellent performance in the water, making this a comprehensive cruiser that’s not limited by marine conditions.
Designed to respond to the challenges of navigation class A – featuring a clean design that’s both innovative and very personal – it becomes an authentic and recognizable brand in a landscape of competitors that are quite similar and vie with each other over minor differences.
Eleva’s future is genuine cruisers that will also get you noticed when racing, made with hulls born to compete between the buoys and be domesticated to cruising.
All of this is the result of integrated design that starts from the lower hull without forgetting ergonomic needs.
The Design – Born for the sea
The design is the work of Ceccarelli Yacht Design, which has been able to work on every aspect in a comprehensive manner: the lines of the lower hull, exterior and deck, interiors and structure. In this way the designer and his team were able to monitor the entire project. The hull is designed for a medium-light displacement. The hull shapes are the result of decades of experience in design on the part of the Ceccarelli design studio and research into the best forms using CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software. The style is expressed in lines directly related to function, such as the horizontal band from bow to stern that deflects the water. An absolute novelty in the world of sailing yachts, the sheer line is characterised by a wave pattern that, in addition to giving the design a powerful presence, makes the prow high in the water thus keeping it drier while under sail. A light deckhouse stops immediately in the bow just past the mast.
Performance – A full sailing experience
The lines at water level feature wide, flared stern sections, which are then relatively narrow at the waterline, with large volumes in the bow; all this combines to make the boat stable and balanced, as well as fast, in all points of sail and wind conditions.
The highly-stable shape is designed to provide excellent performance for a broad reach and when running under gennaker for maximum pleasure at the helm, together with ease of operation and safe navigation. In sailing an Atlantic crossing the Eleva The Fifty can demonstrate high daily distance averages, exceeding 200 miles per day. The shape of the hull below the waterline also makes it possible to reach high motor cruising speeds, thanks to the upper hull, which easily exceeds the critical speed, another element of comfort especially during Mediterranean summers. The twin rudders, in addition to distributing volumes, allows for greater stability at the wheel and ease of operation even with autopilot, the hallmark of boats that are built for solo sailing in ocean races.
Construction – The quality challenge
The vessel’s structural design is the result of impressive, detailed work done to comply with the ISO category A norms. The implementation will be carried out using the best
resins and fabrics currently on the market. The entire construction process for the hull and deck uses infusion technology, guaranteed by the impressive experience and professionalism of CarbonLine, the only facilities in Italy with this potential specialised in constructing large-scale yachts using infusion and able to dedicate an entire shipyard to the production of sailboats.
The laminated hull is made of fiberglass and epoxy resin in a 3-step infusion process. The first phase involves the infusion of the outer skin, the second the vacuum laminating of the core and the third phase the infusion of the inner skin with the goal of giving the hull extra strength and lightness thanks to the improved monitoring of these processes. The hull’s structures are in turn all infused, always with the same epoxy resin that is applied in the three phases of the process – first the upper longitudinals, second the transverse frames, and third the central longitudinals – to integrate them into the hull and at the same time keep it as light as possible. The structures are reinforced using carbon including the keel support area. The bulkheads are all structural, infused on the plate with epoxy resins, bonded and infused with resin on board. The structural chainplates are made of carbon and vacuum laminated, as are all of the other composite parts of the boat.
The deck is entirely constructed of carbon with epoxy resin using the infusion process. This solution was chosen in order to have a better rating according to ORC rules, lower the centre of gravity, restrict the weight on top, and make the entire hull/deck structure more rigid.
All the various phases of working with the composite are monitored with accurate processes, allowing for the continuous control of the temperature of both the environment and the products during the injection of the resin, which is brought to the right temperature for it to have the same degree of viscosity at all points. In addition, the large number of infusion points ensures the same degree of catalysis in different areas of the hull. In order to optimize the epoxy resin’s best characteristics, the post-curing of the products is done in a large heating chamber that is able to reach 80º C.
The keel is made with a high-strength steel box beam featuring a lead ballast-bulb in order to lower the centre of gravity and significantly augment the righting moment.
Deck and Sail Plan
Eleva The Fifty has the largest cockpit available among those of the 50-foot yachts currently in production. It was created to experience the sea while cruising but it’s ergonomic when used in races or with a crew that’s looking for performance and quick adjustments. The mainsail traveller in front of the helmsman ensures safety in strong winds and retains the potential for control that’s useful to an experienced sailor in order to better adjust the sails. The sail plan is characterised by a mast that’s located approximately at the centre of the boat, which allows for a very balanced distribution of exposed canvas whether sailing upwind or downwind.
The rigging is divided at 90% and is set up for a genoa at 104% of LPG, a staysail and a Code 0 mounted on the bowsprit on which the gennaker can be rigged.
Layout – Comfort and light
The interior layout involves what is now considered the classic distribution for units of this size: three cabins and two heads, one dedicated to the forward cabin – considered the master cabin – and one for the two aft cabins and for day use. While the layout of the sleeping cabins doesn’t change, there is an option for the galley: it can be positioned amidships as originally designed or located in the more classic position, close to the stairs leading down.
Interior Design – Less is better
These yachts are designed to experience the sea with large areas of glass and openings in the deckhouse for proper air circulation, which also makes living inside the boat a pleasure.
The furnishings are built-in and made primarily of composite materials that are then covered with wood veneer produced by ALPI, offering a selection of woods, which combined with the assortment of upholstery fabrics, are all part of the customisation options proposed for every client. The finishing of each boat will be customised according to the client’s needs.
Aiming for quality, a great effort was made in researching the best materials, finishes, equipment and accessories. Every detail has been chosen in harmony with the design to
restore the solid and innovative character which makes Eleva The Fifty a boat that looks to the future while respecting tradition.
CarbonLine - Leader in the supply of composite materials, was established in 2013 as the result of its three owners’ entrepreneurial vision. They had the strength and determination needed to create a company that now has three operating facilities, more than 20,000 m2 of covered production space, 180 employees and more than 120 independent contractors.
The company boasts international clients in the nautical industry and provides cutting edge manufacturing services and laboratory analyses, in order to obtain high-quality products offering maximum performance at a reasonable price.
Ceccarelli Yacht Design is one of the world’s most prominent professional firms dedicated to yachting. Giovanni Ceccarelli (Ravenna 1961), the firm’s current manager, earned an engineering degree in Bologna in 1987. At that time the design studio was led by his father Epaminonda, considered one of the pioneers of modern yacht design in Italy and eclectic man. Passion for racing has featured as part of his career path; first as a helmsman and then as a designer, winning ten world championships in the IMS and IOR classes now ORC, the Dimore del Garda was the absolute winner of the Centomiglia del Garda. He was principal designer for two America’s Cup campaigns, in 2000 in New Zealand with Mascalzone Latino and in 2007 with +39 Challenge, a professional goal achieved by few in Italy. Ceccarelli was involved in the salvage of the Costa Concordia, where he established the methodology for its removal.
