Iconic blue-hulled Sparkman & Stephens designed performance ocean cruising yacht from the very best in the business. Full custom design and build and offering outstanding value in the market for such a special yacht.
FURTHER BROKER’S COMMENTS:
Designed by Sparkman & Stephens and originally launched in 1987 as NAOS, IPERO is a full custom yacht built to the very highest standards by Baltic Yachts in Finland.
The Baltic 83 was the first custom collaboration between Baltic Yachts and Sparkman & Stephens with S&S looking after the naval architecture, hull, keel and rudder lines and Baltic Yachts design house dealing with her deck styling and interior. The huge success of this collaboration paved the way to a number of further iconic semi-custom Baltic’s including the Baltic 58 and 64.
A great deal of attention was placed at the design stage in to weight and structural calculations with a view to creating a comfortable, safe and fast world cruising yacht.
Purchased by her current owner in 2005, IPERO was completed refitted by Monaco Marine in Cogolin during 2005/6. The works included a raft of interior modifications to the sleeping cabins (leading to the creation of one of the finest owner’s suites on any yacht below 100ft), new teak decks, new hull paint, repainted and inspected rig, new generator, electronics, tanks, watermaker, air-conditioning, navigation equipment and so on. In short, IPERO was relaunched as a new yacht in 2006. Further refit works were again made in 2017 with a view to overhauling all of her systems for complete reliability in ocean sailing.
Registered at just under 24m as a pleasure vessel, IPERO sits at the top end of yachts that can be sailed by her owner for pleasure, but of course, she has also always benefitted from a professional crew to keep her top condition.
MANUFACTURER’S COMMENTS:
This 83ft performance cruiser was the first custom project Baltic Yachts worked on in conjunction with the famous American naval architects, Sparkman & Stephens.
While the hull lines, keel and rudder design were from S & S, the accommodation and deck styling were by Baltic Yachts’ own design office. There was particularly close cooperation between S & S and Baltic Yachts on weight and structural calculations.
The project was developed for a central European client and the main goal was for comfortable, fast and safe world cruising from the yacht’s home base in the Mediterranean.
PG JOHANSSON’S COMMENTS:
Many of the projects we have produced through the years has left valuable memories in our memory bank. We have done everything from extreme racing, performance cruising projects, with extensive weight saving in order to achieve the clients’ and our own goals. We have also done projects where the extreme performance has not been the top goal, instead more emphasis on cruising comfort. One of the more cruising minded projects we did in the mid. 1980s was an 83 FT custom performance cruiser. Our Italian agent, at the time, Roberto Fabbri got in contact with a central European client that showed interest in having an 80+ footer built. We visited the client, in Switzerland, and talked about his vision for his new project and based on that I went back to Finland with an information package as a base for creating preliminary drawings, layouts, specification, weight studies and price calculations. This was, at the time, our largest projects so for that time in our history it was a challenge. Our In-House- Engineering people looked forward to the challenge with great enthusiasm. In the discussions with the potential client, we had touched the bases of alternatives for Naval Architecture. The client was leaning toward Sparkman Stephens and based on this we contacted S&S asking if they would be willing to produce preliminary hull lines for the project. Based on lines we got from S&S we produced deck layouts and styling as well as interior layout alternatives. There were a number of layouts and suggestions flying back and forth between the client and ourselves and after a number of months working, we had a design package ready for presentation. With this package plus a preliminary contract proposal in my briefcase I met, together with Roberto Fabbri, with the client. After a full day of discussions, I flew back to Finland with a signed contract and a bottle of wine from the client’s vineyard. It was a good feeling that months of team effort, from our side, had resulted in a very good contract. For your information: I have never tasted a better wine. We immediately started the project. Our first project with Sparkman & Stephens and our largest project at the time.
As mentioned earlier, the main emphasis for this project was cruising comfort. However, good sailing characteristics were not off the table hence hull and deck were sandwich construction and unidirectional fibers. The interior was also built fairly light. The result was a very comfortable cruising yacht but with very good sailing characteristics. The interior was very detailed with cold- molded frames and surfaces in all directions. Our chief designer, at the time, Tor Hinders, took things to the extreme hence our interior carpenters faced a challenge. But as can be seen from the enclosed pictures they more than lived up to the challenge.
On the first of May 1987, the boat left Finland on a course towards a warmer and more enjoyable sailing climate. In 1980: s the 83-footer was our largest project so far. In an international view it was also a large project. A nice client, good subcontractors, a tremendous yard team, the result was a very nice cruising yacht with very good sailing characteristics. It represented one of many milestones in the history of Baltic Yachts.
PG JOHANSSON for Baltic Yachts Tell Tales April 2022.
