AQUABLUE

LOOPING 50

Patrick Luscher’s Design

Aquablue is made out of strip planking, light and stiff, and fully

equipped offshore. She was built in 2007 in Sète, on Med sea in

France by Patrick Luscher, designer and architect of the Looping serie

for his personal use. He sailed 2008 the southern atlantic to Rio de

Janeiro and then the Caribbean before returning to France. We

started again in 2011 from there and sailed to Teneriffe on Canarian

islands to cross then the atlantic again and arrived in Martinique,

Caribbean. After several cruises up and down the Antillas, departure

in January 2014 for Panama and the Pacific.

Description

General

P. Luscher designs sailboats since 30 years. His catamarans are well

known among “connoisseurs” in the old world and several sail in the

French Polynesia all year around. They can be compared to

Shionning. The Looping 50 is one of his last design. He drawed it to be

a light, simple and not too powerful boat, with few sail surface in

order to be handled alone or easily by a couple. The carbon mast is

like an airplane spar, lightly foiled and rotates freely. The “park

avenue “ boom is also in carbon. Rigging therefore is simple: no

shrouds, only forestay and 2 moving backstays in order to stiffen the

jib while tacking. This is a great advantage while sailing downwind:

mainsail is completely open and the sailcloth does not touch anything

( leeward backstay is completely free). Another smart system is the

moving base of the fore stay on a curved rail. As self tacking jib are

not efficient off wind, moving the jib base on the hull and tighten

again the sheet makes a significant difference in speed. Hulls are

completely empty in the bows, therefore absolutely neither tendency

to dive in heavy seas nor to gybe with the mainsail fully open.

Mainsail fully open

Interior

Starboard hull with 140/200 cm bed in the back and toilet with

separate shower in front. Multiple shelves and closets in between.

Interiors can be cleaned easily, no holes for insects, flies, etc…

Multiple closets

Separate shower with acrylic door

Port hull shelf

Same bed in rear port hull, toilet in the middle with shower,

workshop in front with watermaker. Bed 120/200 in front.

Port toilet

Saloon

Great desk-chart table, kitchen with bar, sofa and half round table

Grand sofa for the siesta

Rigging and sails

Carbon rotating mast , carbon boom, Luscher-rig system

Full downwind with jib base on port hull

Jib base on starboard hull off wind

Mast base with arthurs, self tacking jib rail

Moving jib base with sheets

Mainsail and jib in Hydranet offshore triradial cut made by Doyle in

2013. Gennaker and spinnaker with sock.

Harken electric winch to manage main, jib, hoist and bringing

someone on top of the mast.

Trampoline dyneema-goretex

Engines

2 x Nanni 4150 HE 37 cv, arbre 30 mm, prop Radice 16’/15’ RH, bec

de canard, reverse Technodrive TMO 60 M ratio 2. Racor,

1600 hours on engine

Tanks : 2x330 litres gasoil

3 liters @ 2200 rpm

Speed : 7,2 kn on one engine, 8,3 kn on two

Start battery : Optima red AGM 90 amp

Lots of extra pieces for the engine ( 1 alternator, filters, belts, etc…)

Water, kitchen, fridge

Watermaker Dessalator 12 volts/ 60 liters/h

watermaker

Water tanks 2x350 litres

Fridge 106 litres, freezer -12 ° 28 litres, fridge-freezer 12 v/ 28 litres

Group Danfoss BDF 50

Electric boiler for hot water

Three burner ENO with stowe

Many storage

Energy

Aquablue does not need a generator. Solar panels do the job during

day light, D-400 wind generator while mooring and W&S

hydrogenerator under sails. While motoring the alternators charge

the batteries with a Stierling charger.

Stierling charger

Solar panels : 1x 370 watts, 1x 300 watts, 2x MPPT regulation

Batteries : 4x 75 Ah Optima D31M AGM 2013 deep cycle

Room for an extra battery

Energy management with Xantrex

Converter AJ 12/220 v 3500 watts for home vacuum cleaner,

Nespresso cafe machine, water heater, heat gun, drill, etc

Wind generator D-400 mounted on silent blocs, no noise in the cabin

Hydrogenerator W&S with different props (depend on speed). Charge

20-30 amp à 10 knots. You can use the watermaker and make 60

liters / hour under sails.

Watermaker can also be used on bright sunny days at noon. Solar

power is enough and while mooring in trade winds you charge with

the D-400 !

Electronic

Raymarine autopilot, calculator SPX-30, control panel ST-6002, linear

hydraulic jack type 1, 12 v, 1 wireless S 100

( reserve : 1 calculator Smart Pilot, 1 panel ST-6001, 1 compas

Fluxgate, 1 rapporteur d’angle de barre, 1 electric engine for

hydraulic jack, 1 clutch)

1 pilot ST 3000 on wheel with belt as backup in case

Tacktik wireless System for rotating mast. Interface with autopilot

for wind mode.

Simrad NX-40 with broadband low consumption radar, AIS targets,

navigations charts C-Map max

VHF-AIS Horizon GX-2100 2 postes interfacé avec NX-40

Echomax active XS dual band radar reflector.

Exterior marinised Iridium antenna with cable to chart table

Mooring wind anemometer, HF reception radio, Navtex NX-300, GPS

Furuno GP-31.

portable VHF Standart Horizon with GPS waterproof and floating

Multiplexeur Shipmodule Miniplex 2-Wi interfaced with PC and Ipad.

AIS targets et nav parameters on Ipad with iNavx soft.

AIS targets on Ipad

Mooring

Lofrans Tigre 1500 watts new engine (2013)

3 anchors, 70 m 10 mm chain, many lines and fenders

Special lifting chain system when mooring in coral patches

Dinghy

custom wood-epoxy 2 cycle engine Nissan-Tohatsu 9,8 cv with 2

tanks in dinghy.

Security

Seasafe 4 offshore revised 2013

Advanced tracking beacon. Cat can be seen on internet Google map

everyday. Panel with panic and pirate button.

Advanced Tracking

Panel

4 lifejackets with lifeline

Aquablue cannot sink, will float even full of water

EU ISO/DIS 12215 cat A-8 pers

Aquablue is a delight to sail and is ready to continue offshore

passage. This particular design has proven its relialibility after many

thousands miles. 200 miles are easy reached in confort thank to

lightness and not too much sail area. With help of gennaker or

spinnaker you maintain speed even with 10 kt true wind.

Her simple rigging allows easy handling short hand. Full downwind is

possible while other catamaran cannot. No sail wear ! No inadvertent

gybe !

You do not use diesel to make energy thank to different sources of

energy.

The many tight compartments and the strip planking design with

double floor make her completely non submersible. (positive

flottability full of water is 4 tons)

The carbon and foiled rotating mast builded like a airplane spar has a

much lower center of gravity which has a favorable impact on the

rigging moment maxi calculated to be 26240 kgm at 3°. This moment

is positive until 70° of bank.

Patrick Luscher did a very good job with this design. Aquablue is

perfect to sail in couple or with another couple of friends on long

distance.