News

The Rapido 60, Romanza, is currently sailing from New Zealand to Australia, across the Tasman Sea, to compete in Airlie Beach Race Week and Hamilton Island Race Week which will be held between 6 and 25 August, 2018.

“Finding Mrs Right”, Boating New Zealand, August 2016 by Dougall Love. Photo is Hull 001, not Hull 002 which is Romanza.

To refresh our memories as to why Romanza’s owners, Dougall and Jaz Love, decided that the Rapido 60 was their No. 1 choice, we have dug up an article that appeared in Boating New Zealand in August 2016…

Below is a selection of choice quotes from the original article, Finding Mrs Right

“The more we (Dougall Love and Jaz Knowles) looked at it, the more we thought the Rapido 60 ticked our following key boxes:

  • Safe – won’t sink, even upside down.
  • Fast – fast enough to avoid trouble if you want to, fast enough to get you there without dragging tonnes of lead around, competitive in regattas if we wanted to compete.
  • Comfortable – the motion of a monohull but with training wheels and minimal leaning.
  • Modern – lightweight and strong with simple (sophisticated?), race-derived sailing systems and equipment.
  • Spacious – perfect accommodation for what we wanted to do.
  • Simple – clean lines, sensible design thinking with spacious galley and saloon, open air living connectivity, lots of light, plenty of storage, centralised weight, separate cabins.
  • Downside – won’t easily fit in a marina.”

Other quotes from the article.

  1. The logic of slowly dragging a large lump of lead (the keel on a monohull) half way around the world scrambles my brain.
  2. We wanted a boat that would be fast, stable, safe, modern and smart.
  3. (After spending time on a 55′ cruising cat), the sea motion seemed kinda cork-screwish and left us feeling a bit green about the cat option.
  4. One day I accidentally came across this website, rapidotrimarans.com. The next time the topic came up I showed (my partner) Jaz and we both went “Whoa!”, now that IS interesting!
  5. (The fact that Rapido Trimarans’ (and Triac Composites’)) MD Paul Koch… and learning that his partners were another Aussie and a Kiwi helped. That they had not long sold their previous business (Corsair Marine), which had built over 2000 trimarans was good, as was the fact that they had been building in Vietnam for over 10 years.
  6. The visit (to Triac Composites’ factory in Vietnam) proved to be amazing, with the size and scope of the boat blowing us away. With their own autoclave, bake oven, CNC machine, lamination shop, freezers full of pre-preg and a well-planned and managed operation, we were impressed.
  7. What we’d imagined about the boat seemed to be completely proven.
  8. (The Rapido 60) moves well, both sailing and motoring.
  9. Her well-balanced helm makes her easy to steer and she turns quickly in a very short space.
  10. She is fast – we only experienced light winds, mostly ahead, but when the opportunity was there to unfurl the reacher we consistently cruised between 12 and 14.5 knots in 8-10 knots true wind speed.
  11. She is comfortable and spacious..
  12. We particularly loved the big open galley and saloon, the same-level open cockpit, the spacious forward stateroom with its ensuite and separate shower, the quality of the finishing and the helm station up high where you can see everything and enjoy the sailing.
  13. It’s a well thought-out design, well-built and finished to a very high standard – just what we want.

Note 1: Rapido Trimarans’ Paul Koch will be sailing on Romanza for the two regattas (Airlie Beach and Hamilton Island) in August 2018. If you would like to meet Paul, please email [email protected]

Note 2: The Rapido 60 is built by Triac Composites.