HISTORY
Tayana Yachts is a Taiwanese brand of fiberglass sailboats built by Ta Yang. Ta Yang means "big ocean" in Mandarin, and Tayana means "belongs to big ocean." The yard was founded in 1973 and has built over 1,400 bluewater cruisers. Designers have included Robert H. Perry, Robert Harris, Robb Ladd, and Pieter Beeldsnijder. Yachts range from 37 to a new 72-footer.
Early models built by Ta Yang include the Sea Wolf 41, aka Yankee Clipper, and the Tanton cat ketch. In 1979, they introduced a Perry designed 37-foot double-ender. This was originally branded as the CT 37 because CT Chen was a founding partneer in the Ta Yang boat yard, and they thought the more established CT name would help sell her. Soon, they realized she did not need the CT cache, and they rebranded her as the Tayana 37. Around 600 of these 37-footers were built making it one of the most popular cruisers ever. The Tayana Vancouver 42 followed, another double-ender by Robert Harris.
Ta Yang was one of the first Taiwanese yards to scale up with larger designs like the 50 foot Flying Dutchman FD-12 and the Bob Perry Tayana 48.
Tayana is still producing yachts today.
The FD-12 resulted from the collaborative efforts of German designer Eva Holmann (formerly of Sparkman & Stevens) and Dutchman Willem Eickholt.
In the mid-1970s Eickholt, part owner at the time of Flying Dutchman Yachts, decided to build his dreamboat. A lifelong sailor, he knew he wanted an aft-cockpit, flush-decked cutter of moderate displacement and minimum wetted surface with a fin keel, skeg rudder, canoe stern, and clipper bow. “I also wanted her to be fast. Long passages bore me,” says Eickholt. “Last but not least, I wanted her to be pretty in a timeless way.”
He chose Holmann, known for her fast, unsinkable cruising designs, to help design the boat.
Do not compare the Flying Dutchman FD-12 to heavy, ponderous vessels like Passport 42’s, Hans Christian 48’s or similar. She is visually very appealing, exceptional fast, and very easy to sail. Super strong and close winded; Owners of FD12s have often reported 200+ mile days in medium to fresh conditions.
Certainly one of the best world cruising sailboats ever designed. With her flush deck, she has much more interior volume than many larger boats.
FLYING DUTCHMAN FD-12 HULL #1
Built 1977 by Tayana and marketed by Flying Dutchman Yachts as the FD-12. This particular vessel was laid up on land and under cover for twenty years before being re-commissioned by a famous sailing family in the mid 2000s. Since that time she has been consistently and significantly upgraded, improved, and outfitted for long range cruising.
This stunning yacht was semi custom built by the Tayana yard under the personal supervision of the Designer, and was the boat-show boat for Flying Dutchman Yachts. Twenty three (or 25?) were built between 1977 and 1983 and the extra care and fabulous solid teak joinery work in evidence would be very expensive in today's market.
The original gelcoat on the hull still shines, and in every department she compares favorably with a vessel less than half her age.
LAYOUT
MAJOR MODIFICATIONS
The interior features extensive use of solid teak staving and a cabin sole of teak and holly planks (no veneer here).
The yacht has three sleeping cabins, two wet heads with showers, and a large airy galley.
She presents a very spacious, comfortable main salon and even has a full workshop as well as a large forepeak with deck hatches for storing all of the things a cruising yacht must carry.
Accomidation is a queen size double aft cabin aft and two mirror image bunk bed cabins forward; with the port cabin lower berth having a Pullman style convertible to a double berth.
The main salon has large dining table for six plus a smaller table opposite with captains chairs seating two more.
The navigation station has large chart table with seating for two, and just re-upholstered in off white Alcantara in Dec 2017
A custom engineered system was designed and installed to provide additional support for the deck knee brace, tying the brace directly to the hull. New, much stronger 316 chainplates were designed and installed at the time of the knee brace tie system.
All original stainless deck fittings have been replaced along with the deck stainless fasteners.
The stemhead has been redesigned, and the anchor roller has been replaced with a dual anchor, very heavy duty custom fabrication.
Another strut was added to the bow pulpit
Supper drains have been incorporated into the bulwarks as they were lacking in the original design.
The teak decks were removed in 2017, all screw holes cored and epoxy filled. Three layers of epoxy cloth was then applied over the entire deck, with every deck fitting removed and re-bedded, using heavy duty backing plates for the windlass, cleats, and Sampson post. No more leaky teaky!
I left the teak in the cockpit for esthetic reasons.
The topsides were repainted with white Imron, and grey non-skid decks
The rudder post has been reinforced and strengthened
Six new Lewmar hatches have been installed, for superior ventilation in the tropics
Plus a host of new equipment as listed on the Equipment page