martin menzner berckemeyer yacht design

Aluminium yacht building : BM 36: out into the distance

Fridtjof Gunkel

 ·  28.01.2018

The construction by Martin Menzner/Berckemeyer Yacht Design is characterised by its modern design with a wide stern, chines due to the material and a highly functional cutter rig. In the YACHT test, the BM 36 impressed with its successful ergonomics, outstanding sailing capabilities and a direct steering feel on the large, partially recessed wheel. The boat is also available with two single wheels or a tiller, and various wishes can be realised on and below deck; the boat can be configured very freely as a semi-one-off.

With a stated weight of just six tonnes, the BM 36 is on the light side and has a ballast content of 37 percent. With the standard sail area, it has a very high sail carrying capacity of 4.7, and the permanently attached cutter sail allows the cloth to be effectively furled.

What it can do, how it is: The BM 36 in the YACHT test in the current issue

The same concept in 40 feet:

Heavier long-range yachts:

Freydis, Reinke 16 M Ice (pdf)

BM 40 Clipper (pdf)

Thule, aluminium long keeler (pdf)

Journeyman 60 (pdf)

Aluminium Wadden cruiser (pdf)

BM-70 (pdf)

Marlin, blue water yacht (pdf)

Allures 39.9 (pdf)

Garcia Exploration 45 (pdf)

Allures 51 (pdf)

Most read in category Yachts

Closing the Circle

• November 2nd, 2024
• On Location

After my last article about the amazing wooden WOY and my visit to Pure Yachts in Kiel where the all-new custom/semi-custom Pure 42 yacht is in the making, here´s another article about Martin Menzner´s amazing yacht designs. As a long-standing and loyal reader of my blog you may know that Berckemeyer Yachts is pretty much on top of my „Dear Santa“ wishlist and that I´ve followed the building process of quite a few boats so far. Well, for two of those good old acquaintances building process has finally come to an end. The circle has been closed.

During my visit to Pure Yachts in Kiel Matthias Schernikau, whilst bringing me back to the train station, drove a quick detour because he said that there´s someone I might be interested to see. And right so he was! GORRE, his beautiful BM49 sailing yacht, moored graciously in her berth. There she finally is: One of the two boats, the „good old friends“ of my blog. Oh, what a beauty!

Two good old acqaintances

I met this boat in her very rough hull-building time, almost eight years ago. Eight years! At that time, visiting the renowned shipyard Benjamins , it was my first ever encounter with designer Martin Menzner and alltogether my first touchpoint ever with the building process of an aluminium sailing yacht. Thinking back (and re-reading my article from so long ago) I must say that I still then had been blown away by the simple and clean, yet beautiful and neat lines of these boats.

Let alone the fascinating building process and all those fantastic properties of the material aluminium. During that occasion I met Matthias Schernikau, then „only“ the client and owner-in-being of that boat, for my first time. An instant affection, I came to know his patient, calm but determined character. Something still very vividly apparent in his current project with Pure Yachts. I met Matthias and his GORRE a few more times during the fitting in his then-company. Unforgotten the near- perfect Baltic sailing trip in his AMAROK, a 41-feet aluminium performance cruiser by Judel/Vrolijk. And then there is this beauty:

The first ever project of Pure Yachts, a BM50 sailing yacht. I visited this boat near Cologne almost 2 years ago where she was in the shed to be fitted as well. I don´t want to dive all too much into the details, but now she found herself at the Baltic Sea, Pure Yachts taking over and – at the time I visited her – she was only two weeks from being finished and handed over to her owners, a German-American couple. In this, my visit also kind of closes the circle for this yacht as well.

Berckemeyer yachts: Full custom aluminium boats

Having these two boats, one finished and sailing already, one shortly before seeing water and being taken over, almost „side by side“ is a great opportunity to explain and show the features and specialties that make a Berckemeyer sailing yacht. First of all: These aren´t series production yachts, these are one-offs and fully customized boats. Martin Menzner, once having accepted to have one Berckemeyer build for you, will determine in very close collaboration with each of his clients every single detail of the yacht.

This can best be seen at the steering properties. GORRE for example, the BM49, has a long tiller that is absolutely massive! This simple, easy to operate and easy to install steering system is very direct, makes a lot of fun when using and is evidence of the owner´s (well, Matthias´) choice of getting a fun yacht that is ready to be sailed actively. In autopilot-mode or at anchore the tiller is folded away, the full length of the cockpit can be utilized for roaming about. The owners of the BM50 made a different choice:

They went for classic double steering. You can also see that the seating benches are much shorter, the coamings more nimble. The BM50 is a true offshore cruiser built for a skilled sailing couple, BM49 GORRE is customized to fit Matthias: The height of the benches and coamings had been custom-fitted to exactly match Matthias´ seating height. This is just one, but very impressive, detail of what true architect´s customization means. I doubt that there are many more brands or shipyards offering a service, measuring the lower legs of their clients to adjust the height of the cockpit benches …

No compromises. Not on his watch!

A Berckemeyer is a no-compromise boat. Martin Menzner, the designer, has not only a reputation to make fast sailing nimble boats but also a track record in being, let´s say, disputatious. There are things he will insist upon, other he won´t consider even if you ask him for. Also, for a Berckemeyer, this can never be a boat made with cheap, undersized or unproven products. The rigging is made by Pauger in Hungary. Winches are from Andersen as a matter of course.

Fittings, even the running rigging (by Maffioli), must live up to the highest demands. As there aren´t too many Berckemeyer yachts sailing outthere, it´s a no-go for Martin Menzner to make compromises which will compromise the safety or the performance of the yacht. It´s a similar approach to choosing his clients – and he indeed can choose for whom he will build a boat and for whom not – as Jean Pierre Kelbert explained to me when I visited his shipyard a few years ago.

„No compromise“ starts with the choice of material in the first place, nicely visible when checking the massive integrated chain plates of the BM50 in the shipyard. The Berckemeyer yacht is a metal boat. It´s a ship. I´ve heard stories of a Berckemeyer BM43 hitting the rocks and being grinded against the sharp breakwater of a port entry a few years ago. All visible damage had been a few dents in the hull and a slightly bent lead keel bomb …

It´s not a Berckemeyer if it´s missing a deck house

Martin Menzner can of course design other boats (which you might acknowledge when googling his name, the „LA28“ or just browse my blog). And even the Berckemeyer yacht comes in many shapes and „flavors“. For example, whilsts sailing with GEKKO two years ago I had been tricked mis-identifying a BM52 „Bristol“ cutter-style classic yacht for a Bestevaer by KM Yachtbuilders . Most Berckemeyers however are deck house performance-yachts, just as GORRE, the BM49 and the BM50.

As Martin says, way more than half of the inquiries he gets are asking for a deck house yacht. And it makes sense: This configuration is the best compromise between liveaboard comforts and a cruising-capable layout. Peering into the deck house of the BM 50 (above) you can see the simple yet beautiful arrangement: Two long benches facing each other and a full 360-degree panoramic view.

The same perspective aboard the finished BM49 GORRE: Behind the benches the main switch panels are located, secondary displays and autopilot controls. In case of very bad weather a night watch will be safe, warm and dry in here. In GORRE the benches can be turned into pilot berths by taking out wooden panels. Perfect place for a nap near the helm. The aft end of the roof of the deck house is a bit prolonged into the cockpit so that it also works as a kind of sprayhood and rain cover when sitting outside. Martin Menzner perfected the measurement, size and layout of his deck houses, still offering customizations for each owner.

A true go-anywhere-boat

The single most important advantage of aluminium hulls over GRP hulls is their stiffness and rigidity. Hence, the safety. Hitting a floating object with moderate speeds can cause severe damage to plastic hulls, impressively shown in the wonderful Robert Redford movie „All is lost“ . Even smaller objects, like a wooden pallet, could rip a bow open and sink a GRP-boat. For an aluminium yacht, this would do a mere scratch. Aluminium is impact resistant and can be repaired easily. In this, a Berckemeyer is a go-anywhere yacht indeed. Growlers? Ice? Bring it on!

Of course yacht going to the extreme southern or northern lattitudes must also ensure a certain comfort for the crew. A Berckemeyer yacht is fully insulated against the freezing temperatures of the Arctic and Antarctic sailing areas. Walking through the BM50 I can put my fingers into a very thick layer of insulating material. Moreover, this BM50 is equipped with two heating systems, which is very interesting. The first one is a standard Diesel forced burner that vents heated air into the interior. This is meant to get the boat dry when it is damp or moist. For the owner´s comforts, there´s a second heating system.

It´s a full-fledged hot water cycle heating that not only feeds different radiators located in saloon, cabins and bathrooms. Here it comes: The whole massive keel housing which is the central metal column you can see in the picture above is one big radiator! What a great idea by Martin Menzner! In this, the whole huge surface area is utilized to make it cozy and warm – this BM50 will have her home port in Seattle/USA. Winters are pretty chilly over there …

I know just one single Berckemeyer which doesn´t come with variable draft. To sail around the world in a yacht like this mostly means that the owners want and can afford to take their time and truly discover the places rather than just visit, drop by and leave. Discovering often means to travel upriver somewhere or sneak into remote and shallow anchorages. Having a yacht that can reduce ist draft is key. Martin Menzner perfected a proprietary drop keel system which I will later document in a more detailed article for sure.

Plain, simple & practical

Sounds like a lot of „frills“, right? Well, it´s not. The Berckemeyer boat has simplicity in ist DNA, I shall say. For example, take the ship´s galley. Down below you can see the almost finished and nicely painted galley of the BM50. It is a longitudinall kitchen fitted to the starboard side of the saloon, vis-a-vis a U-shaped saloon settee around the main dining table.

Everything regarding the joinery of the kitchen has been thought through. All fittings are saltwater-proof. Using the cheap IKEA tinplate-furniture fittings is a no-go. Moreover, the opening/closing-snatches are simple, good looking and easy to replace. Best part about it: They keep the stuff closed even under load and in extreme motion. This is a key-feature of any Berckemeyer yacht: The stuff is made for offshore sailing, not for looking nice on a boat show.

In this, still, every owner can and should have his own style and preference for colors, even materials incorporated into the boat´s design. Whereas the owner couple of the BM50 went for a very light-colored boat that is kept in a white and grey color palette, Matthias Schernikau aboard his BM49 GORRE went for a more classic approach.

In the BM49 with the same kitchen but finished, you can see how such simple and seemingly easy little choices can and will influence how the whole yacht „feels“ like. GORRE comes with a much „warmer“ color palette. Both owners went for liquefied gas-stoves although an all-electronic galley fitting powered by inverter or generator wouldn´t be a problem. For the new Pure 42 the shipyard even offers an electronic propulsion system, by the way.

Both boats are basically almost the same size, yet the choice of different front panels, the utilization of much more wooden (or unpainted) surface colors makes for a completely different look and feel. Matthias decided to go for Cork as the material for the floor boards , wooden glossy-painted front panels for the kitchen drawers and sand-colored cushions. Whatever choice yours would be, the nicely balanced interior construction and placement of the deck house aboce your head will make sure that there´s always more than enough natural light. Even down below.

On a long haul cruise, the circumnavigation and the dream-trip of your life, the last thing you want to have is this „dark basement“-feeling when down below. The raised saloon-approach by Oyster or Allures for example is most perfect to make sure you´ll have plenty of natural light and a nice 360 degree-view. For the more performance-oriented design of a Berckemeyer yacht, this would be a bit too „extreme“, so the deck house is made in a way that the huge glazing area of the front windows is placed exactly above the dining table – lighting up the whole saloon perfectly.

Individuality is key

I will do a full-fledged walkthrough of the finished BM50 in a future article, so no pictures of the cabins in this one. But I can assure you, owners and guests will love their private rooms! A nice detail at the end to underline the possibilities any buyer of a Berckemeyer will have are the bathrooms. These, of course, are also fully customizable and Martin Menzner will be happy to make sure that you can do your private things even in heavy seas.

Matthias Schernikau, a craftsman himself, is kind of a Don Quixote when it comes to unnecessary electric and electronic equipment. When he showed me the Pure 42 he tild me that this boat won´t come up with any BUS-technology except for the navionics. In his own yacht, the BM49 GORRE this philosophy is carried to the extreme: Inside the bathrooms of his boat, you won´t even find an electric toilet ! Instead, the good old pumping toilet (but not the standard cheap one!) is installed.

The owners of the BM50 however chose the other end of the wide range of possibilities. A high grade electric toilet is already installed, but the boat comes with an even bigger surprise: This BM50 will come with a full-fledged sauna! Yep, this is possible. Being stationed in Seattle/Washington and sailed all around the world, the owners don´t want to abstain from the sweaty joys of this healthy northern tradition.

More than this: In normal sailing mode, the forward facing sauna that is adjacent just behind the bow-crash box housing the chain locker and forward fender store is utilized as sails locker for both the Gennaker and the Code 0 light wind sails. As I mentioned before, the pictures in this article show the BM50 just a few days before finalization and launching, so you can look forward to seeing this yacht finished in her whole glory.

(Almost) finished. What now?

So, what now? First of all I am so happy to having closed this circle. Seeing the BM50 almost finished now after I visited her shiny, empty hull for the first time two years ago makes me very happy. Happy for the owners who have literally made a dreamyacht come true for themselves but also happy for the boat. Any new boat put to the water is a happy occasion.

Most of all I am happy to see GORRE floating so proudly! It have been eight long years, almost as long as I am writing this blog, since I saw the boat for the first time. Stunning. This BM49 is a perfect example for determination, for a man making his dream come true, no matter how hard, how long and how winding the road to fulfilling his visions may be. From a drawing to a hull, from a rough raw metal box to a dream yacht. A long way, but finally, a vision becoming reality.

What´s left for me to really close the circle is only one thing: I have to sail one of these! After all these years of just admiring and dreaming, it is about time to board, let loose the lines and cast off. This, my friends, will be the next article! Only a few days after the BM50 had been launched, Martin Menzner called me and invited me to go out with GOLUX, the name this wonderful yacht had be christened to bear. And oh boy, was that a perfect sailing day! Stay tuned.

If you like Berckemeyer yachts, here´s more:

Aluminium marvel in the making: BM49

Aboard the smallest one: BM36

Finishing a bargain Berckemeyer hull?

Artwork afloat in an unlikely medium

Now for some contrast. For me, yacht design has always been an art and a science. You pick a target for the objective elements like boat speed and handling characteristics. Maybe you throw in some objective comfort requirements too. With those items objectified and defined you have some room left over to decide on how you are going to wrap that package aesthetically. Do you want a traditional look like Chuck’s daysailer? Do you want an eclectic look like Steve’s motorsailer? Or do you want to push the boat towards the very modern, “I bet you haven’t seen this before” look?  

The designer of the LA28, Martin Menzner, of Berckemeyer Yacht Design decided on a look that would challenge your appreciation of yacht aesthetics. It’s a new look that moves forward from a lot of modern, high-performance sport boats and takes it to a new level of art.  He carefully avoided the “in your face” approach and instead gave us a boat that while almost “normal” looking is visually stunning. It looks new and it looks right. It also takes full advantage of all wood construction techniques. 

The first thing that strikes me as I look at the hull is the heavily radiused deck edge. I’m not even sure I’d call it the sheer line. The radius appears to increase as you go aft. If you use the inboard intersection of the radius with the deck camber as the sheer you get a reverse sheerline. The bow has reverse rake to it as is pretty common today. There is just a bit of overhang aft. The D/L is 74 and the L/B is 3.4. Draft with the carbon lifting keel down is 5 feet 9 inches. The beam is moderately distributed and not exaggerated aft. There is no chine but in this case I think that is a function of the cold-molded build style they have chosen, eliminating hard joints in the structure. While there is no hard chine to the hull the turn of the bilge forward is very tight resulting in an almost chine-like shape forward. The sections aft are very arc-like.

You can choose from two cockpit configurations. You can go with long bench seats forward in the cockpit or just a big, open cockpit with the only seating being on the side deck. To my eye the bench seat cockpit looks to be the more practical. The cabintrunk is beautifully contoured and simple in shape. There is volume below for settee berths and a mini-galley, but I don’t think anyone would consider this a serious cruising boat. That was never the intention. But you never know. You might get a wild hair.

The LA28 is being built in Germany by LA Yacht and is the build product of some out-of-work wooden boatbuilders who decided to combine talents and form a yard.  Four LA28s have been delivered to date and now the yard is looking to expand and get started on a 35-foot model. I wish them the very best of luck.

LOA 27’11”; LWL 26’3”; Beam 8’3”; Draft 5’9”; Displ. 3,306 lbs.; Ballast 1,200 lbs.; Sail area 398 sq. ft.; SA/D 28.69; D/L 74; L/B 3.4; Auxiliary 2.4kw electric (optional); Water 13 gal.

Our best estimate of the sailaway price  $135,000

Heinrich-Seifel-Str. 3

Waren, Germany 

+49 173 2945147

www.la-yacht.de

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• Nautitech Open 48
• Outbound 5360
• Elan Impression 43
• Full Circle 30
• Tanton No. 309

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