Hello this is Paul Madden from the Yacht Channel and today i'm going to talk about heli skiing and
a very exciting development that i'll get to in a moment but a little background first i grew up
skiing uh since the age of five i was on the ski team at uh colorado university and also ended up
racing on the fis circuit that Cup D'Europe and later on the pro tour so I got to ski at a lot
of fantastic mountains all around the world in South America and Europe and North America but
probably the biggest thrill for all skiers is to ski off track out in the wild in deep powder
and the best way to access that uh is by helicopter so skiers are familiar with helisking
in British Columbia Patagonia Scandinavia and it uh it's a very popular uh part of the skiing world
now with the advent of global expedition yachts that are both ice class and helicopter capable
skiers can access incredible skiing terrain in places like Iceland Greenland Patagonia
both coast of Canada and of course the arctic and the antarctic for those more adventurous
vessels today i'm very excited to introduce the ocean explorer 71 heliskiing edition this is
a conversion that is specifically designed and outfitted for operation in ice class conditions
in extreme weather in any part of the globe and unlike most yachts it's not principally set up
for operating in the tropics it's actually set up for operating in extreme weather
cold weather in particular and it's a unique vessel in many ways when people come looking
for expedition yachts and for conversions they almost always want to have ice class but they also
want to have stabilizers and if you're going into the ice you have to have retractable stabilizers
they like the bulbous bow that also is something that you can't really retrofit on a
serious ice class vessel and a lot of yachtsmen want speed what we found for this conversion is
a new 71 meter search and rescue vessel that was built for Scandinavian government it was designed
and built specifically to be able to go out in any weather conditions in any time of year in the ice
to rescue other vessels it has some great features that make it ideal for this purpose first of all
it's a diesel electric 19 knot vessel this vessel was built to DNV class it is ice class it comes
with a shipyard warranty there are only 400 hours on the engines it has ocean crossing range its
main engines are three MAN diesel electrics the motors are Rolls-Royce it not only has helicopter
capabilities but it also is fitted out for cold weather operations in the layout here you'll see
it's got sauna hot tub treatment rooms and then it's got a platform here so after taking a sauna
you can jump into the ice water there's a ski room and dive equipment room here so you would have a
a bunch of deep powder demo skis and snowboards and that's also where your underwater gear will be
so if you want to have the capability to dive under the ice or dive in the ice
that is a special kind of technical diving and that equipment will be kept in there the vessel
can also be equipped with an ROV that will deliver uh video images back to all the screens on the
vessel uh up here we've got a tender that i will show it's actually got a front loading platform
so that you can take skidoos ashore or atvs or snow motorcycles or whatever you'd like all of
the guest quarters are above the water line on the main deck so they've all got great views
the master stateroom has an owner's office and basically has the privacy of its own deck
there's an elevator that accesses all decks and forward here there's a wonderful viewing lounge
and also a gym so that you've got a great view when you're working out another hot tub on the
top deck and these are these are all areas that we will be fitting out during the conversion
so the new owner can specify what sort of uh interior look and style that they would like
to have installed Richard Leibowitz by the way uh not only did the exterior styling on this
but he also uh has done some interior renderings and is standing by to do a custom interior for a
new vessel it's a search and rescue vessel so it goes out uh 19 knots in the middle of the winter
in the ice to rescue other vessels we actually have a matterport 3d image of the existing
vessel on the explorer yachts.com website so you can get into the guts of this boat
and have a tour of the existing boat this is not the converted vessel but it it you can
take a trip into the engine room and see the crew quarters and go on to the bridge here it has all
the modern equipment that you'd expect to find in a vessel uh with this sort of mission here you can
see the construction in the bow it's ice class so it's got a lot more ribs and a lot more strength
than you would see in a typical hull it also has an automatic closing watertight door for
the bow section and this is equipment used on a lot of commercial and military vessels it's a
highly reliable long life and you can get service globally there's a complete commercial galley
and here's the crew mess so all the crew quarters and all of the guts of the vessel
are there they're state-of-the-art and they're new so there's room to bring along all kinds of toys
and equipment and for an example there are these new skidoo expedition extreme which can be used
to explore icy environs the vessel is capable of handling a number of different uh helicopter
options so there again it's up to the clients or their pilot's preference on what kind of equipment
that they want to bring along we have designs that are ready to be adjusted for a new owner
and we can go ahead and do a pretty speedy conversion on this this is bound to become one of
the most exciting expedition yachts in the world it's easy to arrange to go and have a look at the
search and rescue vessel in spain we have brokers standing by in spain to assist
and we are ready to rumble here so uh give us a call and you'll see links here
for more details on the vessel and the project so check it out and stand by for more news you