Zemphira with her new renovations and rigging. Photo credit: Alison Langley
Help us get Zemphira to the finish line by casting your vote! The 76-ft racing/cruising sloop has been nominated for a Classic Boat award. VOTE HERE!
2023 saw the final phase of Zemphira’s multi-year refit in the capable hands of Lyman Morse Boatbuilding. With the mandate of an all-star staff of owner’s representatives and sailing crew, we worked hard over three years to make her faster, more fun to sail, more tweakable, and more amenable to luxury cruising.
This year, we brought the crowning touch—a re-imagined sail plan brought a newly built rig to employ all the innovations in sail-plan technology over the last two decades. We moved shroud chainplates out to the rail, eliminating overlapping genoas and reducing the compression loading on the mast, enabling a lighter tube and smaller standing rigging. A mast of high-modulus carbon and carbon standing rigging saved more weight aloft, to the tune of several hundred kilos, increasing righting moment and allowing us to add 2.2 meters of mast height and sail area.
Through an extensive program of VPP analysis we substantially improved performance against rating, widening her opportunity to win in lighter air. We also designed a sleek new carbon mast collar, replaced all blocks with light modern soft-attachment blocks, and engineered a sophisticated hydraulic jib-sheet inhauler system allowing her to point higher.
Restoration Photos:
Zemphira’s innovative keel socket allows the keel to partially “break away” into a “crush zone”, to minimize the potential damage.
The new steel fabricated keel strut with lead casting on its bottom will fit into the socket; the socket will handle all the transverse load that the keel places on the boat as it heels. Photo credit: Tyler Eads/Lyman Morse
Carbon/foam replacement part mated to the original wood/foam/carbon hull structure. A specially-designed scarf/lap joint assures full strength is transferred across the joint. Credit: Robert Stephens/SWD
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