Sailrocket 2: World’s coolest yachts

Yachting World has been asking top sailors and marine industry gurus to choose the coolest and most innovative yachts of our times, and yacht designer Pascal Conq nominated the Vestas Sailrocket 2. Here’s the report:

“With no hesitation, my choice for the world’s coolest yacht is Vestas Sailrocket 2,” says Pascal Conq.

The designer behind two-times Vendée Globe winning IMOCA 60 PRB and the new electro green FC3 53 lightweight cruiser is famous for speed, though he admits: “Sometimes I like to sail slow, very slow, and try to stop everything from moving.”

Paul Larsen’s Vestas Sailrocket 2 is one of the most extraordinary and fascinating pieces of yacht design work ever created and set a new world speed sailing record of 65 knots in 2013. It catapulted sailing into its very own jet age, and refined a concept yet to be bettered.

“I love this boat because her speed was so high that Paul Larsen could write it on the sand, beginning at the end, and because her ‘pulling down’ foil explored successfully the opposite force [to lift] by keeping a flying object in sufficient contact with the water to generate its speed.”

For Yachting World’s list of cool boats, click here.