Engineering:Bianca 111

The Bianca 111 is a Danish Yacht built in the 1980s. It is a yacht of great elegance and style, and in its time, competed with the top racing and cruising yachts. It is of high quality build, making it reliable and fast in calm weather conditions, but also safe and trustworthy in harsh weather. There are only a dozen Bianca 111s left in the world. The main characteristic of this yacht is its nervousness in the wind, with an 18 metre mast for only 11 metres of length. It is very rigid, and unforgiving in strong winds. A slight error at the helm will quickly result in heeling over, due to the power produced by the high sail area. With a main of 41.5m² in a 7/8 rigging. This boat is indeed very powerful at beam and close reach, like many of its generation. Despite a spinnaker of over 92m², its architecture does not making it very fast whilst running on a 7/8 rigging. Many modern yachts are designed to run fast down wind, but or slower whilst close hauled. This is the opposite with the Bianca 111.

In expert hands, the Bianca 111 can reach a high speed potential, but is also suited for cruising, due to a good speed: comfort ratio. This boat remains very technical however, and as previously mentioned, can become very sporty and tiring to manoeuvre in harsh conditions.