Delighted to learn that the yacht I voted for, is the winner of the Blue Water Cruiser category in the 2017 Sailing Today Awards.
Kraken Yachts Ltd flagship the Kraken 66 was selected from a shortlist comprising models from
- Najad
- Amel
- Hallberg-Rassy
- Bénéteau.
Designed by award-winning New Zealander Kevin Dibley and his team, the new Kraken range – comprising the Kraken 66, 58 and 50 – does not set out to be all things to all people. Instead it is aimed specifically at the blue water cruising market. It therefore incorporates numerous features designed to give maximum safety, comfort and easy handling under sail to owners looking for a yacht that can take them – short handed if that’s their preference – on extended voyages.
To prove the point, Kraken’s Chairman Dick Beaumont a man who has developed companies and has lifelong extensive business interests worldwide has covered over 100,000 miles cruising the world under sail.
He has already covered 10,000nm in his Kraken 66 White Dragon. He set sail from Hong Kong in February 2017 and is currently in Madagascar.
After the first 576nm passage of this trip Beaumont wrote in his soon to be published blog “White Dragon has exceeded our best expectations, sailing at a comfortable and impressive 9kn average speed for the duration of the trip. She has coped beautifully with big seas coming dead across the beam and she maintained a very steady motion the whole way.”
White Dragon aims to arrive in Cape Town in December where the Kraken team will hold a month-long promotion of the Kraken 66 from 16th January to 16th February 2018.
Beaumont said of the trip so far “After 10,000nm crossing the South China Sea, the Sulu Sea, the Java Sea and a 4,000nm crossing of the Indian Ocean we can say she is truly fit for the purpose of short handed ocean cruising.”
He added, “As I write this, just two of us are sailing her down the east coast of Madagascar doing 10kts with 25kts of wind on the beam.” After time in Cape Town, he will then sail on to St.Helena, Ascension Island, Brazil, the Azores and back to Gibraltar.
By the end of the trip White Dragon will have covered about 17,500nm. As Beaumont says “Not bad for a shakedown trip!”