Vripack & Newcastle Shipyards Combine in "Chuggaboom" Project

First thoughts when you look at this expedition yacht is "Wow", the shear size of this yacht and typical expedition style just shouts take me around the world and let me explore. Vripack and Newcastle Shipyards have combined in this project named Chuggaboom, with Vripack taking on the exterior design and the naval architecture, and the American shipyard Newcastle who are well known for their expedition yachts, taking on the construction and are progressing smoothly with the build.

Chuggaboom will be 177ft (54m) long,and have a beam of 37ft (11.50m) and a cruising speed of 12kts. Her external design and expedition style has a close resemblance to other expedition yachts in her size range such as the 184ft (56m) Pangaea, the 196ft (59m) Ulysses and the 209ft (64m) Turmoil. All of these boats have the same bold character for adventure.

Bart Bouwhuis Director of Design from Vripack said:

"This globetrotting family yacht is a true dedication to the original philosophy of our research vessel design. She is outrageously spacious and has been designed for a very experienced yachting family with the typical no-nonsense attitude we love. Even we have difficulty holding her down on our drawing tables, as the adventure that goes together with her design makes the drawings come alive"

Her bold character for adventure is softened by the luxurious interior designed by Andrew Winch. One of the yachts special features is the dedicated motorbike storage and workshop where the shop is directly connected to the forward deck enabling the bikes to be rolled on to a tender giving easy transport to the mainland for island exploration.

"Turmoil" 209ft Expedition Style Yacht

Turmoil 209ft was launched in 2006 by the shipyard Royal Denship who are currently in administration due to them being declared bankrupt in April 2009. This Mega Yacht belonged to the late Gary Comer who founded the Lands' End clothing company. Three months after taking delivery of Turmoil Gary passed away. The boat is believed to be still used by his family. The above picture was taken in Valencia on the 4/9/2011, so if any of you are in the area it is well worth a trip down to have a look at this huge expedition yacht which was designed by Ole Rune.

She can accommodate up to 12 guests and has a crew of 16. When this yacht was been constructed great attention was placed on the crew who are treated like guests on board this yacht with all of them have their own en suite cabin. As you sometimes hear "a happy crew means a happy boat and a happy owner" this philosophy was defiantly taken into consideration.


There is one deck dedicated to the late Gary Comer which features aft master stateroom and a forward study with a 180 deg view. the study has paintings of yachts, models of yachts and books of adventure, exploration, sailing. shows you what kind of a character the owner was. She has a max speed of 16kts and a cruising speed of 14kts with a range of 6,500nm.
Turmoil joins the elite in the expedition class as a self sufficient world explorer.