Arrayan I

The Secrets of the Superb Arrayan
An article by Paul-Gerard Passol

This boat was born from the meeting of Henry Yreux and the architect Gilles Vaton. A well-known Breton yachtsman, Henry Yreux once owned Margilic I for 18 years.

Browse through the Beken albums from the 1950s and you will undoubtedly notice this elegant varnished wooden sloop, 15 meters long, designed and built by Costantini, which was one of the best French sailboats participating in the Royal Ocean Racing Club championship events, especially Cowes-Dinard.

His next boat, which he kept for about fifteen years, was Saudade, a 17-meter yawl designed by C.R. Holman and built in teak by the English shipyard Berthon. For Henry Yreux, aesthetics has always been one of the paramount qualities of a boat. Like Margilic, Saudade was superb. As for Arrayan, his third sailboat, its beauty leaves one speechless. The signs of admiration from the crews of other boats at sea and the crowds that gather when this great bird returns to port leave no doubt in this regard. A close relative, let’s say a big brother, because it measures nearly 30 meters long, of the famous Charles Heidsieck III – 2nd in the penultimate Round the World Race, this other Vaton design distinguished itself at the Nioulargue in 1986 under the name Xeryus – Arrayan has the appearance, rigging, sleek lines, and almost flush-deck, of a maxi-racing boat. The performance too.

It’s a “dinghy,” as Breton sailors say, which, in average weather, easily makes its way at over 10 knots close-hauled—faster than the 12 m J.l. boats currently competing in the America’s Cup—and which, in fresh wind, flies downwind—at over 15 knots—while remaining easy to steer—and allows peaks close to 20 knots…

However, do not deduce from this that Arrayan requires, like competition maxi-boats, 25 crew members, that it is a spartan racing machine, with a functional deck for racing but perilous for cruising because it is strewn with obstacles: winches, “coffee grinders,” pulleys, carts, rails, tackles, spars, and a profusion of running rigging (that is, in landlubber language: cables and ropes) that must be avoided at all times, lest you twist your foot or get knocked out.

Arrayan is indeed a very fast sailboat, but its incredibly wide deck (23.39 ft maximum beam) is exceptionally comfortable both underway and at anchor. The arrangement of the hardware, its increased simplification through the use of hydraulics, and the routing of the maneuvers (some of which pass largely under the deck) have been studied both to allow the boat to be sailed by a reduced crew and also to preserve immense areas free of obstacles where it is pleasant to enjoy the pleasures of idleness or sunbathing. As for the cockpit, surrounding a fixed teak table, around which we experienced standing more than 20, it is a true deck salon.

The interior of Arrayan I has nothing to envy to the most refined cruise boats. The decorator Maxime Longo, in collaboration with Gilles Vaton and the builder Christian Tréhard, has done remarkable work. I want to give special mention to the immense and very bright “living area” that welcomes you at the foot of the companionway. In a harmony of warm woods and fabrics chosen with refinement and simplicity, this “living area” is an exceptional success. It combines in the same unpartitioned volume a very pleasant living and dining area as well as the kitchen and navigation station, both perfectly equipped. But one does not only live in the “living area” on board. In fact, one always lives well, wherever one wants, and without any bother.

Do you know many boats that offer a total habitable area – deck and accommodations – of 250 m2 like this one? Even when chartered by 8 people (the maximum number of passengers allowed) served by the 5 crew members, it is a boat where no one gets in each other’s way.

Another originality and exceptional asset of Arrayan is that it is a full keel yacht. Its stability is guaranteed, whether the keel is raised or lowered, by the width of the boat and by the 16 tons of lead ingots included in the double watertight bottom of the hull. The keel, which weighs only one ton, is used solely to improve sailing performance close-hauled.

Once the keel is raised, Arrayan drafts only 4.59 ft and can afford, which seems astonishing for a yacht of this size, to anchor in the depths of coves, in the most sheltered places from wind and swell.

You can go ashore with your feet on the ground or take the ingeniously stowed dinghy inside the transom. Arrayan naturally has all the diving equipment, windsurfing boards, etc., that happily complement life at anchor.

One notable consequence of the hull shapes and weight distribution is to make this yacht resistant to heeling and exceptionally supple and smooth even in rough seas. I have seen it myself: Arrayan never pounds, it steers between two fingers, and it is infinitely more comfortable at sea than a boat of the same size with a fixed keel.

A final word about this beautiful yacht that cruises or can cruise, on demand, in all the seas of the globe: do you know what “Arrayan” means? It is the name of a tree that grows in Patagonia at the end of the Andes Cordillera. Its bark has the color and texture of suede. Arrayan is the sacred wood of the Mapuche Indians. What a lovely symbol!

An article by Paul-Gerard Passol