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First look: Baltic Café Racer

• September 3, 2021

Rupert Holmes takes a look at the recently launched Baltic Café Racer, a powerful and quick daysailer with green credentials

Baltic Yachts has been responsible for some of the world’s most iconic yachts of the past five years, including the 142ft Canova , which is fitted with DSS foils, the 175ft Pink Gin and the 130ft My Song . The Finnish yard’s latest creation the, Baltic Café Racer is a 68ft daysailer, and is no less spectacular as it’s a cutting edge design that looks to the future by using environmentally friendly solutions throughout.

The concept for the Baltic Café Racer is based on a very clear vision: the name stems from the pared down motorbikes of 1960s London that were optimised for a single task: conveying their riders impressively quickly from one venue to the next.

The result is a design that excels in many respects and stands out in an increasingly crowded market place.

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Baltic engaged Mallorca-based Javier Jaudenes as naval architect for the project. “The design develops best performance in mid-range winds of around 12-14 knots,” he told me.

“We wanted to have a powerful sail plan that will also deliver some excitement with gentle breezes.” When in race mode in stronger winds the boat will therefore benefit from having crew on the rail to develop its full potential.

The hull shape minimises wetted surface area at low angles of heel, with rounded sections and relatively low waterline beam aft. However it rapidly gains form stability as the boat heels.

Design Unlimited has created a choice of interior concepts, colour palettes and material choices

Jaudenes says the decision was made to incorporate twin rudders at an early stage to enable owners to enjoy power reaching to the full when daysailing.

A big effort has been made to minimise the environmental impact of this boat. Roughly 50% of the structural fibres are of flax, while auxiliary power is provided by twin 15kW Oceanvolt electric motors.

The ultra-sleek coachroof is covered in solar panels, designed into the styling of the deck from the outset to enhance the boat’s aesthetic appearance.

The flax fibres used in construction also help to improve insulation, which can reduce airconditioning power consumption by 30%. As a result there’s sufficient battery capacity to run the aircon all night in eco mode.

As befits this yacht, Baltic has sensibly kept weight out of the ends of the hull, yet there’s impressive accommodation volume below decks – enough for an owner to be able to stay on board for several nights in considerable comfort.

The layout is focussed on a generous full-beam saloon, plus a spacious and well appointed forward owner’s suite. There’s also a day head, a small double quarter cabin for guests (or crew) and a reasonable galley.

Launched in May 2021, the first Baltic Café Racer was undergoing initial sea trials in August 2021.

Baltic Café Racer specifications

LOA: 20.73m / 68ft 0in LWL: 20.73m / 68ft 0in Beam: 5.63m / 18ft 6in Draught: 4.00m / 13ft 1in Displacement: 22,800kg / 50,200lb Ballast: 8,200kg / 18,000lb Price: POA Builder: balticyachts.fi

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Baltic 68 Café Racer: Easy Rider with a Green Attitude

Baltic Yachts 68 - 20m Café Racer

Sleek, simple to sail, and sustainably innovative without compromise, Baltic’s 68 Café Racer Pink Gin Verde is the optimum plug-and-play, ready to go, smart choice. A daysailor by design, she smoothly extends to long weekends with onboard energy and posh comfort to spare.

Launched in May of 2021, followed by successful sea trials in August, Pink Gin Verde recently displayed her inviting attributes at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in September in Porto Cervo, earning enthusiastic raves.

Naval Architect Javier Jaudenes, in the spotlight for the Baltic 108 WinWin sailing yacht of the year in 2015 and St. Barth Bucket race winner, designed Pink Gin Verde to parallel the popular pared-back 1960s motorbikes that shared café racer distinction. The café racer individuals were known for their quick jaunts between cafes as well as for owning a rock and roll subculture attitude that earned them a global style all their own. Jaudenes is also credited with Pink Gin Verde’s exterior design and worked in tandem with Jens Paulus, Hermès bespoke objects designer, on interiors.

By the Numbers

PGV stretches to 20.73 meters LOA, reaching with her reverse bow to lengthen the waterline. She has a beam of 5.63 meters, a draft of 4 meters, a displacement of 22.8 tonnes and a ballast of 8.2 tonnes.

Powered by a pair of low-emission, low maintenance 15kW Oceanvolt engines, that arrangement ensures Pink Gin Verde sails along with the wind, as well as without it. A freewheeling, controllable-pitch propeller charges the lithium battery bank while sailing, via solar cells and a hydrodynamic generator. Additionally, a microturbine range extender adds to the joy of sailing, and at some point, will be running on hydrogen or biofuels. The system is designed to perform at its best between 12 and 14 kts, making it a worthy craft for both racing and cruising.

Pink Gin Verde is fitted with Doyle Sails that are designed to be easily managed by a short-handed crew. All sails are made with Doyle Sails’ Black Stratis 1100, which is lighter and easier to handle than most. Sporting a square-top mainsail, the plan pairs it with a Structured Luff jib and genoa staysail, cableless A3, and cableless upwind jo.

The technology reduces sag of the middle forestay by a meter, enabling wider sailing angles and ensuring reliable furling from either top or bottom. Since the fiber is laid in accordance with the load path, 50 percent of the luff loads are carried in the sail itself, reducing the load from an average of 12 tons to 9 tons. The result is improved performance with less weight and an easy, safe, enjoyable experience that very quickly transitions from the slip to sea for active sailing.

Eco-Spirited Materials with Environmental Advantages

An alternative to teak, Pink Gin Verde’s deck is built with a sustainable, durable cork material from Marinedeck. A high-performance composite with the appearance of teak, it is weather tight, highly fire-resistant, long-wearing, easy to maintain, cool to the touch, stain-repellant, and has earned high noise and thermal insulating praise in its 30 years of use.

These non-slip decks, harvested in Portugal by companies in agreement with the Forest Stewardship Council, are additive in nature. Rather than the subtractive process of measuring and cutting teak, Marinedeck cork decking is built to exact measurements, can be fabricated on board and installed from templates, reducing materials and installation costs. Aside from Forest Stewardship Council certified wood, it is the only product 100 percent certified for marine decking.

The hull is laminated with a bespoke flax fabric from Swiss firm Bcomp. The flax is grown and harvested with little or no herbicides or fertilizers, making it less harmful to the environment. Two plies of ampliTex™ SPRINT flax fabric, one woven and one multiaxial, sandwich each side of an interior layer of pre-catalyzed resin, contributing more than 50 percent of the hull’s reinforcement.

This sustainably-driven sandwich enjoys a remarkably low void content in addition to reducing man-hours required to lay in the mold. Already proven in the marine industry, flax is known to absorb vibration and blanket noise while saving space and reducing weight. AmpliTex is also used in the keel area for strength. A versatile fiber, flax can be pigmented and is beautiful in both structural and aesthetic uses.

Recycled plastic bottles find their way into the non-structural panel cores with Armacell polyethylene foam. Corecell and balsa core are used in the hull laminate and bulkheads, respectively. The sleek curves of the rooftop solar panels produce 1.5 kW even while moored, managing to look both beautiful and functional on this stunning yacht profile. Pink Gin Verde’s systems incorporate lower humidity recirculated air in combination with fresh air to reduce power use directed toward air conditioning. Overall, reduction of power usage has been demonstrated to be up to 30 percent. The solar panels produce enough power to run onboard systems and refrigeration in Eco-mode, lightening the load on the battery bank. UV filters are thoughtfully placed to maintain bacteria-free air.

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Professional BoatBuilder Magazine

Baltic 68 café racer.

By Dieter Loibner , Mar 18, 2021

Baltic’s 68′ (20.73m) Café Racer, a high-performance daysailer designed by Javier Jaudenes, brims with interesting design decisions and lightweight construction that combines flax and carbon fibers.

If this Finnish builder of luxury yachts is any indication, composites made with natural fibers are inching closer to mainstream boatbuilding applications. Later this year, Baltic Yachts , operating 280 miles (450.6 km) south of the Arctic Circle, will launch its Baltic 68 Café Racer, a 68 ‘ LOA (20.73m) daysailer with a fresh approach to composite construction: A large portion of the hull material incorporates renewable fibers such as flax as reinforcements in an effort to reduce the boat’s carbon footprint. Flax’s excellent sound-deadening properties, Baltic says, also help reduce the use of insulation, thus saving space and weight. Other interesting details include an electric propulsion system and, quite possibly, a microturbine, not a diesel generator, to charge the electric-drive batteries while under way to extend the vessel’s motoring range.

While Baltic serves a high-end market with customized luxury sailing yachts, the adoption of renewable fibers in composite materials is not just a gimmick for a wealthy client. The Finns’ methodical approach could herald a switch for the leisure boatbuilding industry to incorporate more sustainable construction materials whose desirable properties like stiffness and lightness compare favorably to those of conventional fiberglass or carbon fiber but are easier to reuse and recycle. Renewability aside, flax also has an appealing look and feel and can be dyed and pigmented, offering interior designers near limitless color variations.

The Café Racer 68’s features an open and quite minimalist interior that uses flax rattan, light oak timbers, flax composites, custom wallpapers and modern textiles, which combine to create ‘unpretentious simplicity’ according to interior designer Jens Paulus.

Even though Baltic does not yet build entire hulls from flax like Green Boats in Germany does (see “ The Quest for Cleaner Composites ,” Professional BoatBuilder No. 188), it has used this natural fiber for interior panels and floorboards on the Baltic 130 (LOA 43m) My Song , launched in 2016. “The last two years we have been actively testing, and are using flax for nonstructural parts in the Baltic 146 Custom,” said Baltic spokeswoman Elisabet Holm. “We have now taken it even a step further, and flax makes up more than 50% of the Baltic 68 Café Racer’s hull reinforcement.”

Baltic Cafe Racer Uses Prepregs and Different Cores

Unlike the way Green Boats in Germany infuses parts, Baltic used special prepregs over different core materials, depending on loads and the corresponding strength requirements. Baltic’s composite materials purchasing manager, Thomas Lill, said the yard chose Gurit’s Sprint ST94 and ST95 systems, also suitable for E-glass, which come in biaxial, twills, and unidirectional weaves, with low to no crimp and twist and optimized for lightweight reinforcement. “Different fibers require a different amount of resin to become saturated,” Lill said about the mixed-fiber layup. “This isn’t a problem as long as you have a carefully calculated and correct resin amount in each and every one of the layers. Then none of the layers have a need to cannibalize resin from the other.”

A technician starts hull lamination with a surfacing film against the mold. The final laminate is vacuum bagged and cured at 85°C (185°F) heat.

For cores, Gurit Corecell was employed for the hull topsides and slamming areas, Baltek balsa in the aft hull bottom and bulkheads, and Armacell recycled PET foam for nonstructural interior panels. Cork, too, is part of the material mix, mainly to dampen sound and vibrations. How will all this help turn the Café Racer into valuable recyclate at the end of its useful life? “Balsa and cork could be used for energy production, releasing very few toxic gases during the process, since both are wood,” Lill explained. “The PET foam can be collected and recycled into new foam, for example.”

Once the yard figured out the properties and the behavior of flax-based composite materials, it had to decide whether the best application was to completely replace carbon fiber or to combine the two laminates. “Flax fiber is lighter than carbon but not as strong. It also needs more resin to fully wet out, and therefore the final weight is not always lighter,” Holm said. About specific structural/nonstructural applications in the Baltic 68 Café Racer project, she said, “The hull outer-skin laminate is a mix of flax and carbon fibers. In the solid-laminate bottom area of the hull [midships bottom], flax is used to bulk up the thickness. The 11 structural bulkheads are all using flax skins too and a balsa core. Regarding nonstructural applications, we are using flax mainly for interior parts, like floorboards.”

To create a lightweight, stiff structure, Baltic bonded 11 structural bulkheads made of flax skins and balsa core into the hull. The target weight for the 68′ hull is 1,557 kg (3,432 lbs).

Baltic is not ditching all other composites in favor of flax fibers, but it is making judicious calls on where to use each type of fiber depending on the loads and stresses the laminate must withstand. The company published a video showing how the BComp ampliTex and Sprint material is cut to size and laid over an outer skin of carbon, which, according to the company website, “still provides the best hull surface finish and prevents print-through of the reinforcement laminate.” Once these layers were properly positioned inside the mold, the Corecell core went in, and then the inner hull skin was laid on top. To meet the ambitious hull weight target of 1,557 kg (3,430 lbs), the inner layer is a Gurit Sprint carbon prepreg. “The number of layers varies depending on location [high-load area or not],” Lill explained, “but on average the outer skin [consists of] five layers and the inner skin of three layers. One of the benefits with the Sprint system is that you do not need to debulk nearly as much as with a traditional prepreg.”

With the separate laminates in place, the entire structure is vacuum-bagged to eliminate air pockets and heated to 85°C (185°F) for 16 hours, which causes the resin in the prepreg’s inner layer to evenly and thoroughly saturate the adjacent flax reinforcement.

The first Baltic 68 Café Racer will be launched in spring 2021. Its embrace of sustainability will be further supported by charging the lithium battery bank through hydrogeneration via twin freewheeling propellers or with a microturbine generator, which has yet to be specified. Microturbines are refrigerator-size gas turbines used for power generation. They evolved from turbochargers, aircraft auxiliary power units (APU), or small jet engines.

Asked about the strategic direction Baltic is pursuing with composite materials from renewable fibers, Holm was clear about the company’s goal: “To use more eco-friendly materials in general (fibers, resins, glues, etc.) without losing our identity of being ‘lighter, stiffer, faster.’” Now it also added “greener” to that tagline.

Baltic Yachts Oy Ab Ltd, Alholmintie 78, 68600 Pietarsaari, Finland, tel. + 358 6 781 9200, .

Gurit (USA) Inc., 115 Broadcommon Rd., Bristol, RI 02809 USA, tel. 401–396–5008.

BComp, Passage du Cardinal 1, CH-1700 Fribourg, Switzerland, tel. +41 (0)26 558 84 02.

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The Baltic 68 Café Racer

The new Baltic 68 Café Racer is inspired by the eponymous motorbikes of the 1960s. The latter were spare, customised, lightweight and often built from parts of other bikes so they would be one-offs that the young London rockers of the day could use to spin from between their favourite cafes and show off outside them. The new amazing 20m from Baltic Yachts is just as much a one-off on the scene. 

Penned by Javier Jaudenes for launch next year, it is designed for easy sailing and will be extremely green and sustainable. The 68 Café Racer also sports a 30kW electric motor, solar cells, a hydrodynamic generator, and a deck built from sustainable pine. Over 50 per cent of the hull structure is made from ampliTex Bcomp flax fibre so it is sustainable as well as exceptionally good at damping sound.

Lastly, like the latest hybrid cars, the Baltic 68 has a range extender to charge its lithium ion battery. Its exterior lines are amazing, clean and very sleek, while below decks, there is only two cabins: a large master cabin with head forward, a dinette and galley, as well as a second small cabin (maybe for crew) and head aft. The 68 Café Racer splashes in spring 2021. 

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Baltic Café Racer: First Look

New elegant, eco-friendly, stylish and powerful boat Baltic Café Racer - what did Baltic Yachts present and how does this yacht compare favorably with its competitors?

Let's take a look at the recently released Baltic Café Racer! Innovation and tradition in one bottle. In addition, the creators have added several new technologies that distinguish this yacht from the competition.

Introduction to the World of Baltic Café Racer e

Introducing Baltic Café Racer – the latest addition to the legendary yacht line from Baltic Yachts. Combining innovative technology and sophisticated design, this yacht stands out from its competitors, offering unrivaled quality and comfort.

Baltic Yachts, known for its progressive designs, has added elements to the Baltic Café Racer that make it one of the most attractive yachts on the market. From the 142ft Canova to the 175ft Pink Gin, Baltic Yachts has always impressed. This 68-foot yacht is no exception, representing a mixture of cutting-edge design and environmental solutions.

The Baltic Café Racer concept is inspired by the Café Racer motorcycles from London in the 60s, symbolizing speed and style. The result is a yacht of outstanding design and performance that stands out in a crowded market.

Power, form and speed

Architect Javier Jodenes brought his unique style to the project, ensuring the yacht has excellent performance in medium winds. The hull shape minimizes drag while providing excellent roll stability.

“This design provides the best performance in average winds of around 12–14 knots,” says Javier.

The hull shape minimizes wetted surface at low bank angles, with rounded sections and a relatively low waterline at the stern. However, it quickly gains form stability when the boat heels.

Baltic Café Racer is attentive to environmental issues. Additional power is provided by twin 15 kW Oceanvolt electric motors.

The roof of the cabin is covered with solar panels. The batteries are also custom designed to match the style of the boat

Flax fiber used in construction helped improve insulation. This also helped reduce the energy consumption of the air conditioning system on the 30%. As a result, the battery charge is sufficient for the air conditioner to operate all night in economical mode.

Layout and specifications of Baltic Café Racer

The yacht's layout focuses on a comfortable saloon and functional staterooms, ensuring a superb on-board experience.

The shipyard has focused on a spacious saloon, as well as spacious and well-appointed cabins. There is also a bathroom, a small double cabin for guests (or crew) and a good galley.

The boat was launched in May 2021. The first hull of the Baltic Café Racer underwent sea trials in August 2021.

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Greener Sailing: Baltic 68 Café Racer

Created as a daysailer and weekender - the baltic 68 café racer, made of flax and other sustainable features for greener yachting..

The Baltic 68 Café Racer appears with an excellent progressive and aggressive design. Moreover, is not only the design progressive but also the choice of materials. Baltic Yachts will use natural materials like flax, which can be very interesting. Some weeks ago, I sailed the small daysailer Flax 27 by Greenboats from Bremen, Germany. Alongside the exceptional performance of the boat, it is also the design with visible flax fibers (the “counterpart” of visible carbon fiber). Javier Jaudenes designed the 20m sailing yacht. He also draws the lines of the Baltic 108 WINWIN.

The designer comments:

“This is a yacht for owners and their friends who want their sailing exciting, easy, and enjoyable. When the mood takes them, the Café Racer is ready to GO! This is the essential modern weekender with a genuinely ‘green’ approach to construction and auxiliary power.“

Onboard energy

Two 15 kW electric engines by Oceanvolt supports port maneuvers and during low wind trips. To recharge the lithium battery, the yacht uses solar cells and a hydrodynamic generator. Furthermore, a microturbine serves as a range extender that can run on hydrogen or biofuels.

Baltic Yachts also focuses on the power consumption of the board systems:

“Our system mixes re-circulated, less humid air with fresh air to reduce the amount of power needed to maintain the desired onboard ‘climate.’ UV filters ensure the air is bacteria-free and solar panels can power the system in eco mode with no draw from the battery bank.”

Jens Paulus, a designer at Hermès and the naval architect of the yacht Javier Jaudenes, created a design that contains eco-materials like flax, linen, and leather.

Jens Paulus comments: “It’s a contemporary interior embracing the eco-spirit of the Café Racer. One of the main ideas behind the interior is to show as much as possible the shape of the hull and intensify that unique feeling of being inside a boat.”

Another design comes from Design Unlimited. They added some more colors

Mark Tucker from the studio annotates: “The Café Racer’s accommodation offers a comfortable and cosy place to relax after a day’s sailing. Our style options provide an appealing welcome and a great place to enjoy a good lunch after some excitement out on the water!”

A finished Baltic yacht with a related design is the Pink Gin

Main Specifications of the Baltic 68 Café Racer

Length Overall

Length Waterline

Deck Layout and General Arrangement

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With her flax-reinforced hull, eco-electric propulsion, easy to handle sail plan and stunning interior design, the first Baltic 68 Café Racer offers a stylish, sustainable, performance sailing experience.   Following her recent launch, the yacht will undertake trials off Jakobstad before heading for the Mediterranean where she will be available for viewing and aim to take part in September’s Les Voiles de St Tropez.   Primarily, the Café Racer provides clients with pleasurable performance sailing through ease of handling and the latest rig and sail technology. Combined with a reduced carbon footprint, using naturally grown building materials, eco-electric propulsion and a hydrogeneration system, the Café Racer continues to lead Baltic into a new era of yacht building.

Naval architect Javier Jaudenes explains “This is a yacht for owners and their friends who want their sailing exciting, easy and enjoyable. When the mood takes them, the Café Racer is ready to GO! This is the essential modern weekender with a genuinely ‘green’ approach to construction and auxiliary power.“

Buying into a modern package Baltic Yachts Executive Vice President, Henry Hawkins, said: “This is a yacht which tackles today’s challenges of sustainability and low carbon targets head on – she’s fun and easy to handle, offering a genuinely rewarding sailing experience. Baltic’s engineers and partners have incorporated a brilliant, naturally grown yacht building material in sustainable flax which perfectly complements the advanced composites expertise for which the company is renowned.”

“We’re confident the Baltic 68 Café Racer Class offers a modern, attractive package which clients will be keen to buy into,” he said.  “We are also exploring the possibility of a ‘green’ rating advantage to encourage the use of sustainable materials in yacht building,” he added.   Naturally grown boat building materials Some 50% of the Café Racer’s hull and deck mouldings use Bcomp’s ampliTexTM naturally grown flax as a reinforcement. A SPRINT pre-preg lamination technique developed by Gurit is being used in this instance. Flax dramatically reduces the overall carbon footprint of the build and works well in conjunction with more conventional advanced composites, which are still used throughout the structure.   An extensive array of solar panels will be fitted to the yacht’s superstructure providing sufficient power to run onboard systems, including refrigeration. Sustainably grown Marinedeck cork replaces teak for the Café Racer’s decking material.

Doyle Sails’ Global Superyacht Sales Manager, Scott Zebny, said:   “For the Café Racer without any backstays, the real benefit from structured luff technology is the fact that we don’t have to pull on the headstay as hard in order to achieve the same amount of headstay sag.  All of our modelling together with Marstrom’s shows that we can achieve acceptable amounts of headstay sag with the way the mast has been engineered making tacking really very easy for day sailing”. 

Doyle Sails International’s chief operating officer, Emma Hendy, said: 

All electric Café Racer Under power the Café Racer is driven by twin 15kW Oceanvolt electric motors with saildrive-style legs. While sailing, the free-wheeling propellers can, if selected, drive the motors as generators, which in turn charge the Lithium battery banks. The previously mentioned solar panels add to the charging capability and there’s also a range extender using micro-turbine technology which will eventually be powered by biofuels or hydrogen. So, it’s a genuine good-bye to the internal combustion engine.   Stunning interior styling If the Baltic 68 Café Racer’s external looks excite you then her interior styling options will blow you away!   Jens Paulus and naval architect Javier Jaudenes offer a contemporary style using a range of eco-materials like flax, linen and leather. “It’s a contemporary interior embracing the eco-spirit of the Café Racer. One of the main ideas behind the interior is to show as much as possible the shape of the hull and intensify that unique feeling of being inside a boat,” said Jens.

The client for the first Café Racer has chosen a fresh look (below), using fabric and light timber bulkhead finishes, light oak flooring and leather handrail detailing, again by Design Unlimited.

Following trials in Finland, the first Café Racer will head for the Mediterranean where she will be attending events in Sardinia and the Cote d’Azur. Details of plans to be at the Cannes Yachting Festival and the Monaco Yacht Show will be published at a later date when COVID-19 restrictions are eased.   Key features Gets you sailing quickly and easily Stunning interior options Sustainability package includes: Hull made using naturally grown flax and carbon Cork decks Twin electric propulsion motors Hydrogeneration Micro-turbine range extender Eco air-con Powerful and genuinely easy to handle sailplan Marstrom rig with no runners or backstays Doyle Structured Sail Technology reduces rig loads Carbo-Link aerodynamic carbon rigging Press-button sail handling Unplug-and-go lithium battery power Twin rudders for control Fixed keel for simplicity Naval architecture by Javier Jaudenes Interior styling options by Javier Jaudenes/ Jens Paulus combination and Design Unlimited

Dimensions:

Loa 20.73 m (22.66m with bowsprit)

Lwl 20.73 m

Beam 5.63 m

Draft 4.00 m

Displacement: 22,800 kg

Ballast: 8.200 kg

• Baltic 68 Café Racer

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I think you should be happy with the length, looks perfect. As does the rest of the jacket.  

rolf s said: I think you should be happy with the length, looks perfect. As does the rest of the jacket. Click to expand...

I'll Lock Up

looks good length wise.  

Call Me a Cab

Trim fitting jackets like cafe racers can be tricky lengthwise. If you get too far down into your rear end/hips area, you need to have a bit of flair to accommodate the size of your booty. In other words, if you're lucky enough to have a V-shape, it will probably start V-ing out the other way once you get down past your waist. Having the zipper start a few inches up from the bottom of the jacket helps quite a bit. Your jacket looks great.  

Grayland said: Trim fitting jackets like cafe racers can be tricky lengthwise. If you get too far down into your rear end/hips area, you need to have a bit of flair to accommodate the size of your booty. In other words, if you're lucky enough to have a V-shape, it will probably start V-ing out the other way once you get down past your waist. Having the zipper start a few inches up from the bottom of the jacket helps quite a bit. Your jacket looks great. Click to expand...

ProteinNerd

My mail is forwarded here.

Roma said: View attachment 35796 Click to expand...

ProteinNerd said: How could you look at that picture and not think it is absolutely perfect? Aero did you a favour as I don't think 27" would have looked as good! don't over think it, the jacket couldn't look any better. Click to expand...

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• Baltic Yachts Rendezvous

Stunning Café Racer offers ease of use, style and sustainability

2 june 2021.

The first Baltic 68 Café Racer was launched on schedule last week when her super-stylish looks were revealed, her ease of use demonstrated and a new era of low carbon footprint yacht building unveiled

With her flax-reinforced hull, eco-electric propulsion, easy to handle sail plan and stunning interior design, the first Baltic 68 Café Racer offers a stylish, sustainable, performance sailing experience.

Following her recent launch, the yacht will undertake trials off Jakobstad before heading for the Mediterranean where she will be available for viewing and aim to take part in September’s Les Voiles de St Tropez.

Primarily, the Café Racer provides clients with pleasurable performance sailing through ease of handling and the latest rig and sail technology. Combined with a reduced carbon footprint, using naturally grown building materials, eco-electric propulsion and a hydrogeneration system, the Café Racer continues to lead Baltic into a new era of yacht building.

Naval architect Javier Jaudenes explains

This is a yacht for owners and their friends who want their sailing exciting, easy and enjoyable. When the mood takes them, the Café Racer is ready to GO! This is the essential modern weekender with a genuinely ‘green’ approach to construction and auxiliary power

Buying into a modern package

Baltic Yachts Executive Vice President, Henry Hawkins, said:

This is a yacht which tackles today’s challenges of sustainability and low carbon targets head on – she’s fun and easy to handle, offering a genuinely rewarding sailing experience. Baltic’s engineers and partners have incorporated a brilliant, naturally grown yacht building material in sustainable flax which perfectly complements the advanced composites expertise for which the company is renowned.

“We’re confident the Baltic 68 Café Racer Class offers a modern, attractive package which clients will be keen to buy into,” he said. “We are also exploring the possibility of a ‘green’ rating advantage to encourage the use of sustainable materials in yacht building,” he added.

Naturally grown boat building materials

Some 50% of the Café Racer’s hull and deck mouldings use Bcomp’s ampliTex TM naturally grown flax as a reinforcement. A SPRINT pre-preg lamination technique developed by Gurit is being used in this instance. Flax dramatically reduces the overall carbon footprint of the build and works well in conjunction with more conventional advanced composites, which are still used throughout the structure.

An extensive array of solar panels will be fitted to the yacht’s superstructure providing sufficient power to run onboard systems, including refrigeration. Sustainably grown Marinedeck cork replaces teak for the Café Racer’s decking material.

Rig and sail technology makes sailing easier

Making the Café Racer easy to sail is key to the new yacht. The Baltic 68 Café Racer employs some of the latest thinking in rig and sail technology to make handling easier. Thanks to a Marstrom Composite mast, with its swept back spreaders and wide shroud base, there are no runners or backstays to worry about.

Gybing and tacking, even with a square top main, require only sheet control with no runners, checkstays or running backstays to complicate life! But there is still a lot of performance on offer.

The way luff load is distributed using Doyle’s Structured Luff Technology plays a critical role in the overall rig and sailplan equation. The rig concept draws on existing technology based on the Bergstrom/Ridder, swept spreader designs from the 1980s. The spreader sweep provides the mast’s aft support that backstays would normally provide. Modern materials linked with Doyle Sails’ Structured Luff technology, Carbo-Link’s carbon standing rigging and the stiffness provided by the advanced composites used in the Café Racer’s hull, mean the advantages of the system can be fully realised without compromising performance.

Torbjörn Linderson, head of the mast department at Marstrom Composite AB in Sweden said:

A key objective is to extract performance from this sailing machine, but it must be easy, safe and enjoyable to achieve and not just for the fully professional sailor.

The use of Doyle Structured Luff Technology means that the sails themselves are designed with reinforcement in the luff area which spreads the load into the sail itself to avoid having to impose large headstay tension to reduce luff sag. It is ideally suited to the backstay-less Marstrom rig.

Doyle Sails’ Global Superyacht Sales Manager, Scott Zebny, said:

“For the Café Racer without any backstays, the real benefit from structured luff technology is the fact that we don’t have to pull on the headstay as hard in order to achieve the same amount of headstay sag.  All of our modelling together with Marstrom’s shows that we can achieve acceptable amounts of headstay sag with the way the mast has been engineered making tacking really very easy for day sailing”.

Doyle Sails International’s chief operating officer, Emma Hendy, said:

“Reducing luff sag in one of the biggest factors in allowing our sails to achieve more driving force. In some instances, we are reducing loads by up to 50%.”

When it comes to mainsail control, Doyle’s Structured Luff Technology provides so much load bearing ability in the sail itself that powerful luff Cunningham adjustment can be used to induce sail shape in lieu of backstays and runners.

The Doyle technology reduces weight, makes sails much more efficient and more user-friendly to trim.

Also key is Carbo-Link carbon fibre standing rigging, in this case CL ELLIPSE, which is aerodynamically profiled for an additional performance edge.

Torbjörn Linderson explained: “The modern composite hull structure of the Baltic 68 Café Racer has allowed us to do away with the reverse diagonal (stay) as well as slightly reducing spreader sweep from the typical 30° used by the B&R rig to 28°. A key here is stiff rigging, where the penalty in terms of weight and drag is greatly reduced using Carbo-Link’s CL ELLIPSE rigging, packing stiffness into a small and aerodynamic format.”

All electric Café Racer

Under power the Café Racer is driven by twin 15kW Oceanvolt electric motors with saildrive-style legs. While sailing, the free-wheeling propellers can, if selected, drive the motors as generators, which in turn charge the Lithium battery banks. The previously mentioned solar panels add to the charging capability and there’s also a range extender using micro-turbine technology which will eventually be powered by biofuels or hydrogen. So, it’s a genuine good-bye to the internal combustion engine.

Stunning interior styling

If the Baltic 68 Café Racer’s external looks excite you then her interior styling options will blow you away!

Jens Paulus and naval architect Javier Jaudenes offer a contemporary style using a range of eco-materials like flax, linen and leather. “ It’s a contemporary interior embracing the eco-spirit of the Café Racer. One of the main ideas behind the interior is to show as much as possible the shape of the hull and intensify that unique feeling of being inside a boat,” said Jens.

Alternatively, Design Unlimited has chosen to capitalise on both the yacht’s eco-credentials and Café Racer-with-attitude approach with an impressive choice of colour palettes, material choices and concepts. Mark Tucker from DU said:

“The Café Racer’s accommodation offers a comfortable and cosy place to relax after a day’s sailing. Our style options provide an appealing welcome and a great place to enjoy a good lunch after some excitement out on the water!”

The client for the first Café Racer has chosen a fresh look (below), using fabric and light timber bulkhead finishes, light oak flooring and leather handrail detailing, again by Design Unlimited.

For performance and weight saving, the ends of the yacht are virtually empty with the main saloon forming the focal point of the accommodation and a large owner’s double cabin located just forward. An additional double berth is located to starboard, aft of the companionway.

Following trials in Finland, the first Café Racer will head for the Mediterranean where she will be attending events in Sardinia and the Cote d’Azur. Details of plans to be at the Cannes Yachting Festival and the Monaco Yacht Show will be published at a later date when COVID-19 restrictions are eased.

Key features

• Gets you sailing quickly and easily
• Stunning interior options
• Hull made using naturally grown flax and carbon
• Twin electric propulsion motors
• Hydrogeneration
• Micro-turbine range extender
• Eco air-con
• Marstrom rig with no runners or backstays
• Doyle Structured Sail Technology reduces rig loads
• Carbo-Link aerodynamic carbon rigging
• Press-button sail handling
• Unplug-and-go lithium battery power
• Twin rudders for control
• Fixed keel for simplicity
• Naval architecture by Javier Jaudenes
• Interior styling options by Javier Jaudenes/ Jens Paulus combination and Design Unlimited

DIMENSIONS:

LOA 20.73 m (22.66m with bowsprit)

LWL 20.73 m

BEAM 5.63 m

DRAFT 4.00 m

DISPLACEMENT: 22,800 kg

BALLAST: 8.200 kg

The Baltic 68 Café Racer was transported to our waterfront facilities and launched successfully end of May.

Baltic 68 Café Racer Pink Gin Verde

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We’re constantly updating our website to bring you news of launchings, new commissions and Baltic inspired innovation.

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Thursday, august 22. russia’s war on ukraine: news and information from ukraine.

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A woman rides bicycle past the debris of a multi-storey building, destroyed few days earlier ... [+] following a strike in the town of Myrnohrad, on August 21, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainian civilians flee areas close to the front line as Russian troops steadily seize more territory across the eastern Donetsk region. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP) (Photo by GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images)

Dispatches from Ukraine. Day 911.

Frontline. On Aug. 22, Russian forces dropped two guided bombs on the village of Esman in Ukraine’s northern Sumy oblast , the Sumy regional prosecutor’s office said . The mid-day attack resulted in the deaths of two men, aged 74 and 67. The wife of one of the deceased men was also injured and hospitalized. Ukrainian prosecutors, in collaboration with law enforcement, are investigating the shelling as a war crime.

Kozacha Lopan, a village in northeastern Kharkiv oblast, less than five miles from the Russian border, came under Russian artillery fire on Aug. 21, Ukraine’s ministry of internal affairs said . The strike reduced part of the village council building to rubble, trapping several people in the basement beneath. One woman in her 50’s was successfully rescued. Emergency operations are ongoing.

A Russian strike on the village of Malokaterynivka in southeastern Zaporizhzhia oblast killed a 14-year-old and left seven other children seriously injured, regional governor Ivan Fedorov said on Aug. 20. The strike hit a children’s café, Lavanda, and also injured two adults. The 14-year-old boy who died, succumbed to his injuries at the hospital. “The terrorist [Russia] maims civilians and will not stop, even at children. We have to stop them,” Fedorov urged.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the northern border region of Sumy and meet with top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi and Sumy’s military governor on Aug. 22. Syrskyi updated the president on the operational situation across all active combat zones, focusing on the frontline’s hot spots and the Kursk region of Russia, where Ukraine recently captured yet another locality and more Russian military troops . Sumy military governor Volodymyr Artyukh reported a decrease in artillery shelling and civilian casualties in his oblast since the start of the Kursk operation. “Our operation in the Kursk region, our combat work is ongoing,” said Zelenskyy. “I thank all our guys, all the units, for further replenishment of the exchange fund,” he added, referring to Russian troops captured for eventual POW exchange to free Ukrainian troops held by Russia.

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed important legislation this week, including protections for foreigners fighting for Ukraine and adopting the founding statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC). On Aug. 20, the Rada granted temporary residence, immigration rights, and a path to citizenship to foreigners and stateless individuals fighting for Ukraine. The law permits these individuals and their families to obtain legal status in Ukraine even with expired passport/documents.

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On Aug. 21, the Rada ratified the Rome Statute of the ICC. This move will strengthen Ukraine’s ability to prosecute Russian war crimes, and brings it closer to officially joining the ICC, a condition European Union membership.

Parliament also passed a law banning religious organizations connected to the Russian Orthodox Church , which supports the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, on the same day. Known as the "ban on the Moscow church," the law is particularly targeted at the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), a satellite of the Russian Orthodox Church. While the UOC has declared that it is independent from Russian influence, it is widely mistrusted. individual parishes will have nine months to cut ties with the Russian Orthodox Church.

The Netherlands has purchased 51 specialized mobile radar units for detecting drones on behalf of Ukraine , the Dutch Ministry of Defense announced on Aug. 21. The ministry ordered the units from Robin Radar Systems, a technology company in The Hague. These advanced radars are designed to detect small drones and have the capability to distinguish them from other flying objects, such as birds. A key feature of these systems is their ability to operate while moving, making them more difficult for adversaries to locate and neutralize. They will arrive in Ukraine in three tranches in the last quarter of 2024, where they will be deployed to counter Russian drone attacks.

A 20-million-euro ($22 million) support package, funded by Germany, will provide grants to internally displaced persons, returning Ukrainians, and battered communities in Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kyiv oblasts . This assistance is part of the “ Resilience+ : Economic Integration of IDPs and Conflict-Affected Persons” project, a collaboration between Ukraine’s economy ministry and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), funded by Germany’s Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). According to Tatiana Berezhna, deputy minister of economy for Ukraine, the project will provide 150 grants of up to $7,800 for micro-enterprises, 90 grants of up to $22 thousand for small businesses, and 45 grants of up to $17 thousand for micro-enterprise startups in the Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kyiv regions. The package also includes education/work training grants for individuals. “We are grateful to our partners for their help and willingness to expand our capabilities to support residents of the war-affected areas, entrepreneurs who continue to work there or restore their businesses,” Berezhna said.

By Daria Dzysiuk, Karina L. Tahiliani

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