The Dutch builder KM Yacht Builders has been building aluminum explorer-style sailing vessels since 1998 and recently announced the launch of a new Van de Stadt-designed 56-foot Stadtship named Flow. Interestingly, the new boat is almost identical to a sloop KM’s owner Eeuwe Kooi built with his father 20 years ago.
The new 56-footer has many qualities that make it capable of extreme sailing and expeditions. The hull and deck are welded aluminum with large watertight bulkheads fore and aft and fitted with extra-thick insulation.
Equipped with a retracting keel and twin retracting rudders, Flow can sail in very thin water up rivers or in areas like the Wadden Sea that has dramatic tides. Plus, she can dry out on her own bottom without damaging the appendages.
The tall sloop rig has a carbon mast and a Hoyt Jib Boom for the jib. Plus, it has a sprit from which you can fly a Code 0 or an asymmetrical chute. With 200 liters of water ballast that can be transferred from side to side, the 56 will sail flat and fast upwind.
The pilothouse and aft cockpit flow together and provide well organized spaces for sailing in all types of weather and temperatures. The pilothouse’s large windows and overhead hatches give those inside great 360-degree sightlines and a good view of the sails.
The accommodations include three double cabins and two heads with showers. The saloon is spacious, and the galley is set up for convenience and safety in rough conditions. There is also a workshop or systems cabin aft where all spare parts and tools will be stowed.
To keep the interior bright and airy, KM used sustainable bamboo for the furniture and joinery and finished the ceilings and overheads in white paint. The cabin soles are covered with Treadmaster, which is durable, utilitarian and low maintenance.
Kooi notes that “the new owners are real globetrotters by land, sea and air” who are planning to sail to the high latitudes in both the Arctic and Antarctic.
KM is well known for explorer-style yachts. It builds the Bestevaer aluminum expedition yachts, the Stadtship designs and they built the new Pelagic 77 Amundsen for Skip Novack’s Pelagic Expeditions company.
Read the press release on Flow’s launch here.
Watch the video.
