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Crossing the Atlantic at over 30 knots in a floating carbon lounge: the Baltic 111 Raven just proved it's possible. And that it might even become the norm.
A record on the first attempt
6 days, 22 hours, 27 minutes and 47 seconds. That's how long it took Raven to devour the 3,000 nautical miles of the RORC Transatlantic Race 2026, smashing the monohull course record. Average speed: 18 knots. Peaks over 30 knots under squalls. And a 30-knot finish line crossing — because why slow down now?
The craziest part? It was her first offshore race. Not a shakedown, not a break-in passage. A record, right out of the gate.
"To set a record in your first attempt is something very special", says Damien Durchon, the boat's skipper, with composure that barely masks the emotion.
A few months earlier, Raven had already shaken the yachting world by achieving an unprecedented grand slam at the Boat International Design & Innovation Awards 2025: Outstanding Exterior Design, Best Interior Design, Best Naval Architecture and Innovation of the Year. Four awards. Four. The jury minced no words: "A naval architecture marvel." On paper, the boat was impressive. On the water, she just validated everything.
The wild gamble of ultra-lightness
How do you sail a 34-meter superyacht at maxi-trimaran speeds? You start with an obsession: weight.
55 tons. That's Raven's displacement. A yacht of comparable performance weighs between 75 and 100 tons. Do the math: 30 to 40% less mass. This isn't a diet — it's a metabolic revolution.
Every gram was hunted down with meticulousness bordering on neurosis. Shower doors? 2.3 kg/m² instead of the usual 13.5 kg/m². Hydraulic piping? Replaced by flexible tubes, saving 160 kg in one stroke. Mounting brackets, those little parts you never look at? Refined in carbon down to 100 grams each.
"Although weight has been scrutinised and massively optimised, Raven still fully supports a superyacht level of systems and comfort", assures Henry Hawkins, Executive Vice President of Baltic Yachts. The bet was exactly that: sacrifice nothing in comfort while eliminating every superfluous kilo.
The aesthetics of lightness
Raven's interior resembles nothing known in the superyacht universe. Gone are the mahogany woodwork and flashy marbles. Here, the carbon structure is exposed, embraced, elevated by rattan and bamboo finishes. The result? The Awards jury summed it up: "She's a spaceship but it makes sense. The use of finishes is quite clever — I love the combination of rattan and carbon fibre."
A spaceship. The image fits.
Foils that change everything
Raven's real stroke of genius lies beneath the waterline. Hydraulic T-foils, capable of supporting approximately 60% of the boat's displacement at high speed. In other words: at full clip, more than half of this 55-ton yacht is carried by her underwater wings.
But wait — we're not talking about full flight like an America's Cup AC75. The concept is subtler, more seaworthy, and ultimately smarter: assisted foiling. The boat doesn't take off. She lightens, reduces her drag, and flies along.
A hybrid system of formidable complexity
The foils don't work alone. They integrate into a stability ecosystem that would make an aeronautical engineer pale:
- Retractable hydraulic T-foils
- 5-meter fixed keel with 9,300 kg bulb
- 10 tons of water ballast per side
- Vertical trim tabs at the stern
The result of this orchestration? A heel angle that rarely exceeds 10°, even under full power. Ten degrees. On a racing monohull running at 30 knots. It's downright astonishing.
The safety paradox
And this is where Raven inverts a logic as old as sailing: the faster she goes, the more stable she becomes. The foils generate a righting moment that increases with speed. Counter-intuitive? Absolutely. Revolutionary? Probably.
What happens if a foil stalls? Damien Durchon brushes aside the concern: "If a foil stalls, the boat simply behaves like a conventional yacht. In many respects, I would say Raven is safer than most offshore boats." No catastrophe, no capsize. Just a return to classic yacht behavior — which, let's remember, already weighs 55 tons and has a 5-meter keel.
"Like piloting a spaceship"
The numbers impress. The testimonies from those who've helmed Raven send shivers.
"At 30 knots and above, you're moving quicker than the waves themselves. You're working your way through the sea rather than reacting to it", describes Durchon. Reread that sentence. At 30 knots, the boat moves faster than the swell. She no longer endures the ocean — she crosses through it.
Claes Nyloef, project manager, speaks of a sensation previously reserved for multihulls: "When she starts accelerating, it doesn't stop. It's breathtaking. Previously you only experienced that sensation on multihulls." A continuous acceleration, no plateau, none of that wall sensation known to all monohull sailors.
This alchemy between machine and humans recalls what you find in other offshore racing disciplines. If this adventure inspires you, you could experience it from the inside: several ORMA trimarans are currently open for sponsorship on spencer.club, offering a unique immersion into the world of ocean racing.
Raven facing legends
Will Oxley, a navigator who sailed aboard the legendary Comanche — long the absolute reference in pure monohull speed — dares the comparison: "Comanche is still the global benchmark in VMG downwind sailing, but Raven has clear performance advantages at certain angles. In this race, when we're sailing our angles we're faster."
Faster than Comanche at certain angles. On a boat where you can take a shower in a hotel-worthy cabin. The world has shifted.
The human behind the machine
The Bird's Nest cockpit — a carbon enclosure with Perspex panels — allows guests to observe the sailing in complete safety, immersed in the action without spray exposure. But beyond the technology, the crew recalls an eternal truth of offshore racing.
"Everyone knows their role, everyone is professional... The way the team came together was a big part of the result. There's no friction, the humour stays no matter what's happening, and that makes a huge difference offshore", confide Brad Jackson and Will Oxley. An exceptional boat is worth nothing without a tight crew. It's as old as the sea.
50 years of Finnish innovation
Raven isn't an isolated stroke of genius. She's the culmination of half a century of obsessive pursuit from Jakobstad, a small Finnish port on the Gulf of Bothnia.
Baltic Yachts was born in 1973, founded by five young builders who left Nautor Swan with a conviction: you can build lighter, stiffer, more performant. Fifty years and over 550 yachts later, the yard has become the world's first certified ISO 9001, 14001 and 18001. 39 major awards in 13 years. The track record speaks for itself.
The milestones that led to Raven
The timeline is clear:
- 1980s: pioneering adoption of carbon fiber, in-house mast fabrication
- 1985: Midnight Sun, first all-composite racing yacht
- 2002: Baltic 147 Visione, new performance superyacht standard
- 2019: Baltic 142 Canova, first superyacht equipped with a DSS assisted foil system
- 2023: delivery of Raven after two years of construction
- 2026: transatlantic record
From Canova to Raven, the technological leap is immense. The assisted foil concept was pushed to its paroxysm, with hydraulic T-foils replacing the lateral DSS system. The dream team assembled for the project speaks volumes about the ambition: Botin Partners for naval architecture, PURE Design for structural engineering, Jarkko Jämsén for concept and interior design, Baltic Yachts for construction.
All completed by hybrid propulsion — Yanmar generators, 130 kW electric motor from Swiss Phi-Power, retractable carbon propeller with 3D-printed titanium hub — and a sail plan by North Sails 3Di with Helix technology on a Southern Spars carbon mast. Nothing was left to chance.
A new era for superyachts
"This is a way forward... You get foiling performance without fully flying, which is critical for ocean racing. I think you will see more boats like this", predicts Claes Nyloef.
Hard to argue with him. Raven just demonstrated that a superyacht can cross an ocean at racing speeds — 18-knot average over 3,000 miles — while offering the cruising comfort expected by a private owner. The boat accommodates four guests in two cabins plus an owner's cabin. You sleep there, you live there, and the next day you smash a record.
"The owner likes the challenge of doing something that hasn't been done before", summarizes Garth Brewer, the owner's representative. It's done. And what has been done cannot be undone.
The supercar-superyacht concept has just been born. Faster, more stable, safer — the impossible trifecta became reality in Jakobstad. The question is no longer whether others will follow, but how long it will take them to catch Raven.
To follow the next performances of exceptional boats in major ocean races, find all the dates on the spencer.club calendar.
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