Hot new stepped hull from Michael Peters

Michael Peters Yacht Design. Surely you have heard the name? In the past 30-odd years, more than 30,000 boats have been built to the more than 350 designs produced by eponymous naval architects and design house headquartered in Florida.

Think Chris Craft, think Hinckley, think Viking 75 motoryacht, think the new Bertram 35 and 54 under build as we speak, think Azimut’s Atlantic sportscruiser and, yes, do think giant Jeanneau.

The French boatbuilder Jeanneau has commissioned the famous Michael Peters to create key performance hulls for a range of boats in the fleet, from the Leader sportscruisers to the Cap Cammarat centre consoles, and the Prestige motoryachts.

Jeanneau talks excitedly wherever it has a Michael Peters’ hull designs for it's a key selling point. But now there’s something else to wax enthusiastically about.

One of the key features of the new flagship Cap Cammarat 10.5WA we recently drive off Cannes during its South-of-France launch was a special Michael Peters’ twin-step hull that is well worth a splash of ink and a drive should you get the chance. The hull is a more advanced version of the single step hull under the Cap Cammarat 925.

The new hull of Cap Cammarat 10.5 WA is based on the last evolutions in the world of hulls with steps, using the S.V.V.T patent of Michael Peters, explains Jeanneau. The acronym is short for Stepped-Vee Ventilated Tunnel, a design already used with success on fast hulls of military forces and US Coast Guards.

In fact, this interesting hull offered to Jeanneau, with which the boatbuilder created its new flagship Walkaround in cahoots with French designer Paul Sarrazin, is a derivation of a 40ft US Coast Guard interceptor boat with a nice big gun on the foredeck.

The purpose of the twin step hull is twofold: to break water tension and reduce drag via hull ventilation and to trap and redirect the air back aft to provide lift. Together and at high speed with the twin 350hp V8 Yamahas purring, the Cap Cammarat 105WA is a mid-40 knot weapon.

Specifically, the steps funnel air from the hull sides and redirect it under the hull into a central tunnel, located aft at the bottom the hull vee. In this way, the air is trapped around the hull’s rear running surface, reducing drag for higher speed and lower consumption.

In tight turns, the tunnel and the rear hull areas act like rails. In a straight line, the boat is fast. As tested and set-up, it slipped up to plane in a carefree manner thanks to the Yamaha auto-trim function of the Helm Master control box.

At high speed, you get a few extra knots out of this low-drag high-lift hull design compared to a conventional running surface. Jeanneau also says the hull lands on a cushion of air and the ride is softened. Into gnarly headseas on the final day of testing, this 10.5WA did prove pleasantly smooth riding.

In the turns, meanwhile, the central tunnel with pronounced running surfaces either side act like rails. Despite the flow of air there was no issue with cavitation and the boat ripped around smartly.

In our decades of travel and testing as boating tragics, we get to drive a lot of formulaic hulls. It’s probably fair to say that the hull has been an area that has undergone the least amount of change over the past 30 years. But everyone now and then something comes a long that has some deeper thinking.

The new Cap Cammarat 10.5WA is a very progressive boat for Jeanneau, a global boatbuilder which is now batting in the multi-outboard open boat league. That style of boat has been hot to trot in the US in the last two years. Jeanneau hopes its European take will attract widespread interest from those who like performance and family comforts in a walkaround that sleeps four. Certainly, fast open dayboats are de rigueur these days.

More from the local Jeanneau dealer Matt Willett Marine and the Cap Cammarat 10.5WA on the Jeanneau website.