OPAC
OPAC: when a top is “mega”
The OPAC “Yacht Division”, specialists in customized hard and soft yacht tops, has designedone of the largest yacht tops ever to be created for the Swiss yard SHIPTEC.
The structure’s surface is a good 9.4 meters in length by almost 5 meters in breadth and it covers the upper deck of the brand new technological vessel “Saphir”, which has just been launched onto Lake Lucerne.
The mega-top, comprising 15 AISI 316 steel arch ribs, extends to a surface area of almost 47 sq meters.
A technical and logistics study was carried out in collaboration with the yard and ship owning company with the purpose of creating the superstructure. Over and beyond merely technical aspects geared towards obtaining the necessary robustness and rigidity of the structure so as to bear the weight of the material employed, non secondary solutions relevant to finished product transport and ease of assembly were also taken into consideration in the design.
Once again in response to the yard’s request, Opac not only constructed the soft-top but also the huge resin support structure – the result of collaboration with its own dedicated suppliers. Here too, the search for material for specific yacht spaces was carried out with a view to ensuring product sea worthiness and durability.
The mechanism reflects OPAC standards: electrical opening/closing is by way of a cog belt drive system powered engine, run electronically by an encoder which, when programmed, recognizes the points of full stroke, basically making sensor installation superfluous. The system, hence, allows programming of effective top functioning both in opening and closing mode. The mega-cover is divided into three sections with a compartment designed to store the canvas when the yacht deck is completely open.
The whole structure has been conceived to ensure yacht design continuity, though at the same time emphasizing the recherché style of a vessel created following ecological principles and used for tourist transport on lakes.
