KM Yachtbuilders, the launch of the Bestevaer 36 S/Y

With the launch of the Bestevaer 36 S/Y, KM Yachtbuilders achieved another new milestone this week. The yard has never built such a sustainable and compact yacht before. Over the coming weeks, there will be more hard work and rigging. The journeys for the next two months feel like a tour: First a test sail on the Wadden, then onwards to the jury days for the Yacht of the Year innovation price, next up the launch at Hiswa, and then immediately on to Grand Pavois boat show in La Rochelle.

With the Bestevaer 36 S/Y, the yard meets the demand of many sailors for a compact and more sustainable yacht. Together with Dykstra Naval Architects, the most sustainable options were always taken during the design and the construction process. This produced a long list of sustainable improvements: Electric drive, extremely efficient regeneration, 70% recycled aluminium for the hull and the mast, sails and running rigging of recycled PET, an unpainted hull, bead-blasted antislip, no antifouling but sustainable foil, no teak but thermally modified European wood, no foam but insulation with sprayed cork.

The Wadden slalom

In first instance, Gerard Dijkstra and Eeuwe Kooij, the designer and the builder respectively, built this yacht for their own use. Gerard said: “We wanted to be able to make the most sustainable choices without any compromises. In many ways this is a research project, which we also use to build the most ideal yacht. My wife and I have sailed the seven seas over the course of our lives but over the coming years we want to stay closer to home. We want to potter along the Wadden and the shallow German and Danish coastal areas. And with a force West 6 or more, we still want to be able to sail back calmly over the sea. This yacht can do it all: it offers everything that made the Bestevaer range a big name but with its centreboard up, measuring no more than 70 cm, it dries out superbly at low-tide. We will be slaloming around the islands, fantastic.”