NEW ARRIVALS
Words by Andrew Grogono
Icarus
Speed sailing in the 1980’s
Having read the recent article in ‘Multihull
Review’ about the new sailing speed
records being achieved by ‘Vestas Rocket’
and ‘Hydroptère’, it brought back many
memories of our own efforts in the 1980’s
to exceed 30 Knots in ‘ICARUS’, a Tornado
catamaran, equipped with foils.
CARUS was based on a schoolboy's dream to
I
sail faster than anyone else by reducing hull
drag to an absolute minimum using already
well proven technology; that of lifting the boat
completely out of the water through the use of hydrofoils
more normally found on powered speed boats.
Some time earlier the USA Navy had sponsored Gordon
Baker’s design and successfully experimented with a large and
automatically stabilised mono-hull on hydrofoils called ‘Monitor’.
This fact gave us confidence to invest in our own project.
(‘Monitor’ is now in a Virginian museum).
So what are my memories of this exciting period of rapid
advances in weird and wonderful sailing craft design? I suppose
one of the most memorable craft of the era was Tim Coleman’s
60’ proa ‘Crossbow’. This extraordinary craft with a pencil thin
hull and 30’ outrigger achieved higher speeds than all of us at
the time but it could only sail on starboard tack! To appreciate
the difficulties this created, one needs to understand the set-
up of the Speed Sailing Course. This comprised a 500 metre
diameter circle with 12 buoys placed around its circumference in
the same way that you would find numbers around the face of a
The author’s Icarus
clock.
As a competitor, you would advise the official time keepers
turn on the main winch. ‘Crossbow’ was
which particular point of the circle you wished to enter and
developed over the years and ‘Crossbow 2’
they would then position a timing boat at the entry and exit
eventually achieved a World Record of 36
point of the circle. You would start your speed run well away
knots.
from the first ‘gate’ to gain maximum speed before entering the
course. You can well imagine, in the case of ‘Crossbow’ that
Perhaps one of the most sophisticated
considerable time was lost after each run as it was normally
designs at the time was Philip Hansford's
necessary to drop the enormous sails and tow her back to the
‘Mayfly’. This was entered in the ‘A’ class
starting area, hoist the sails and start another port tack run
(sail area up to 10 sq m) and was effectively
across the circle of buoys. Nevertheless, ‘Crossbow’ made a
a small version of ‘Icarus’ but, towards the
memorable sight, often crossing the course with her crew in the
Monitor
end of her development, it was infinitely
outrigger some 25’ in the air! A sharp knife was always at the
superior, being equipped with forward facing
ready to cut the main sheet in the case of a squall and a foul
sensors which measured the flying height
38  MULTIHULL REVIEW : FEBRUARY 2009
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