A Conversation with Reichel/Pugh’s
Ioannis Moatsos By David Schmidt
Who’s your target customer? Why would this boat appeal to them? The yacht would be an attractive
Hang around sailing long enough
and it becomes apparent that innovation has a distinctly cyclical nature. For example, hard chines were once extremely popular and prevalent on cold-molded boats, then they vanished, then they reappeared, along with dual rudders, in the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race with Juan K’s designs. Needless to say, every now-generation Volvo Open 70 carries hard chines and dual rudders irrespective of the designer. Walk the docks of any boat show and you’ll see that this “revolutionary” technology has percolated down through the ranks of production racers and racer/cruisers. I caught up with Ioannis Moatsos,
a yacht designer and naval architect at the venerable Reichel/Pugh design firm at the 2011 United States Sailboat Show at Annapolis to get his thoughts on the market’s direction, and where the brand-new RP-designed Aquila 45 racer/cruiser fits into the pantheon of modern racer/cruisers.
What was the design brief behind the R/P-designed Aquila 45? The Aquila RP45 was designed as
an all-around performing, offshore- capable production racer/cruiser that would be easy and fun to sail even with a reduced number of crew onboard. The interior was required to be race-optimized but still provide enough comfort for short cruising and long- distance racing.
48° NORTH, JANUARY 2012 PAGE 42
package for sailors who race regularly at a club level and above, and [who] now want to own a yacht that can deliver more performance while maintaining a small level of comfort. These sailors are looking to be at the front of the fleet, both at the club level and at bigger regattas, while at the same time want to own a yacht that will allow them to safely and competitively race in longer- distance offshore and coastal events.
Can you tell me about the decision
to make the Aquila cruising-friendly? This seems like a departure from previous Reichel/Pugh boats that I’ve sailed on. The level of interior on this specific
yacht has been developed for short cruising with friends and family, with arrangements that can be easily converted for a long-distance offshore/ coastal race without compromising comfort or functionality. It’s not a departure at all as R/P has designed a lot of racer/cruisers in the past. For example, the Vincitore/Vela Veloce Southern Cross 52s and the Scarlet Runner IRC52 are a few recent examples of successful racer/cruisers that R/P has designed.
Unlike many modern racer/
cruiser designs that we’ve seen in recent years, the Aquila doesn’t use hard chines. Can you tell me about the decision not to use these? Hard chines on racer/cruisers are
often used for increasing the interior volume [so that] more accommodation [can] be fitted, or to achieve performance downwind. The downside to such approach is the increased drag upwind from the chines and wide hull
sections aft. The R/P team was able to achieve the required interior volume and desired downwind performance with this particular non-chined hull shape without compromising upwind performance.
The boat seems to have a fairly
fine bow section—does this mean that she’s equally quick upwind? The bow sections were developed
to deliver flotation balance and performance, both upwind and downwind in flat water and waves. The bow sections have an optimized amount of volume to achieve this, and as a result the yacht is very fast upwind.
How is she off the breeze? How
do her design characteristics help her off-the-breeze performance? The full bow sections prevent the
bow from nose-diving and reduces the amount of spray and greenwater on deck. The wide hull shape provides form stability and allows the yacht to start planing quickly. The spinnakers are sized to provide enough power to keep the yacht going fast and to maintain control as the breeze kicks in. The yacht is very easy to drive both on and off the breeze, with optimized foils that do not compromise control or performance.
Is the boat optimized for one
particular design rule? Or, is she a good all-around performer? The yacht has been optimized to
be a good all-around performer. She already has an IRC rating of 1.250 and will also perform well under other rating systems such as ORCi/IMS and ORR.
What is the ideal race for the
Aquila? Buoy racing, or the Newport- Bermuda/Transpac? The design is developed to be
competitive in all three. Fast around the buoys and fast, safe, comfortable and easy-to-handle for the challenges of the Newport-Bermuda or Transpac races.
I noticed that the backstay winches are splayed inwards—why? The angled winches are a design feature that was developed in racing
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