Baltic Yachts starts construction on second Café Racer

Baltic Yachts has started construction of the second Baltic 68 Café Racer which it says will be optimised for racing.

The Javier Jaudenes-designed yacht will have a deeper draft at 4.7m, a higher righting moment, a single rudder and one electric propulsion unit instead of the two seen on the first yacht.

The yacht will be a ‘un-plug and play’, all-electric boat in terms of propulsion and winch package, with a free-wheeling propeller able to charge the lithium-ion battery bank while sailing.

With a Marstrom swept spreader rig, the new Café Racer will be able to race with no runners or backstays up to a wind speed limit of about 30 knots true. Baltic Yachts and the rig manufacturers continue to refine this lightweight option. The new yacht will again make use of structured luff technology within its sail wardrobe.

With the hull and deck built in pre-preg carbon and the bulkheads and interior in similar advanced composites, the new yacht is essentially, says Baltic, a 100% carbon version of hull number one with a resulting displacement of around 20.6 tons.

“The first 68 was a hugely successful exercise in developing new, sustainable building materials, examining electric drives, hydrogeneration, micro-turbine range extenders and an easy-to-use rig, hull number two will be even more high performance orientated enabling the yacht’s full racing potential to be realised,” says Baltic Yachts EVP Henry Hawkins.

The new yacht will be fitted with an 18kW Fischer Panda diesel range extender which can be used to boost the lithium battery bank, although there’s likely to be sufficient charge for a full day’s sailing. It’ll also have solar panels fitted to the superstructure and cork decks, which have proved to be extremely successful on the first 68.

The new Café Racer is scheduled to launch in Spring 2023 and will be based in Palma.

This yacht will be one of three Baltic Yachts’ launchings in 2023, including the Baltic 110 and high-performance Baltic 111. They will feature in the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations which will run throughout 2023 and culminate in a Baltic Yachts’ Rendezvous event in Porto Rotondo, Sardinia in September 2023.