Design comment by Rolf Vrolijk

The concept for production Baltic 56 was to develop a hull shape that would be able to accommodate several different configurations.

The Baltic 56 will give the customer the option to choose between very different concepts but still have the guarantee that the yacht will not be a compromise in any direction.

Baltic Yachts offers basically three completely different configurations;

Performance orientated sailing yacht with fixed keel (L-shaped) with various draft options, 2.850-3.300m.
Performance orientated sailing yacht with lifting keel . Draft from 2.350 keel up, to 3.750 with keel down.
Extreme performance orientated sailing yacht with canting keel and two asymmetric lifting boards. Draft with keel on center 3.200m.
All the Baltic 56s will be semi custom made. There will be an option between three standard interior options and fully custom made interior will also be possible. Further there will be a choice of three different deck shapes with either cockpit aft or a combination of aft and middle cockpit. There will also be a modern styled deck available from a mold.
All the hulls will come out of the same molds but smart molding techniques do allow different overhang and stern shapes and also the stem angle can be customized from near vertical to approximate 15 degree.

We have developed several production boats together with Baltic Yachts but this one is the most innovative and versatile project. The big challenge was to incorporate all the above concepts into one hull design. Basically all the different concepts are very much performance orientated but have different ways of achieving this. All three different concepts have of course their pros and contras.

The fixed keel option is the most conventional and has a minimum of mechanical parts. The restriction is the depth and might limit the area where you want to sail. The stability will still be high because of the very high percentage of lead in the bulb.

The lifting keel configuration has the big advantage that you could sail and enter harbors with shallow water. This concept will have one rudder on centerline with less depth but still very effective and enough area to make the boat controllable under all conditions. The disadvantage might be that the centerboard case might limit the option for interior layouts and the center board system will need to be serviced on a regular base. The performance will be comparable with a racing boat of the same size and displacement. The canting keel option is the most extreme and is new for the yard to be offered in a semi production way. The yard already has very good experience with the canting keel system and has been using it on boats up to 80 foot without any problems. This configuration will boost the performance and performance will be even better then conventional racing boats with a crew of 15 man sitting on the rail. The big advantage is less heel and later reefing time. Especially for cruising crews this is what you want.
Of course there are some negative sides apart from costs;

The canting system will intrude a little above the floor but will integrated as a step into the interior.
The system has to be moved by hydraulics and enough electrical power will be needed if it has to be moved on a regular base.
Control of the system is complex and need good knowledge on how the system works to have full performance advantage.
For good upwind performance you need some extra appendage area to produce enough side force. We have done very extensive research on the different configurations and the solution with two asymmetrical lifting boards is the best performance wise. We have succeeded to integrate the board cases into the lockers of the guest cabins and this way this works very well with the cruising interior.
We are very happy that Baltic Yachts has already sold the first two boats that are completely different in concept. Baltic is negotiating on the next boats and apparently the option of being able to choose the best configuration for customer needs, makes it very interesting.

The first two boats will be delivered in 2005 and they will be great proof of what Baltic Yachts is capable of producing.

RV, 16/04/2004

The graph shows a comparison in speed between the standard version of the Baltic 56 and the canting keel concept. For clarity the graph shows the comparison for only two wind speeds, 14 and 25 knots. At this point this comparison is preliminary and numbers will change during the development of this project. It is clear however from the graph that the canting keel system will have a “turbo effect” thus giving a much higher speed ratio. The negative side is that it is a much more complicated system to build with increased costs, but on a positive note there is a huge increased flexibility in sailing the boat.
A yacht like this demands more skill from the crew than the conventional keel concept. It will give increased tuning possibilities, which will make tuning more sensitive and demand a greater knowledge from the crew. In return this concept will substantially raise the sailing performance. It can be argued that a sophisticated concept like this is at its best when the boat is being sailed in racing conditions by a professional crew. You would assume that this is not an ideal concept for a short handed family cruiser but in reality, in a curising situation with the keel fully canted, the boat will have the same stability and performance as a racing yacht with 10 crew members on the weather rail and sail substantially more up-right.