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Left: low aspect-ratio headsails with multiple tack points most obviously distinguish Comanche from her 100ft rivals. Exquisite transom detailing (top left) with a hinged main traveller track to minimise off-axis loadings. Interesting stepped bow (top right) combines a slippery upright profile with plenty of reserve buoyancy. Simple trunks for the asymmetric daggerboards (right) and neat hydraulic reverse control purchases (left)
associated with this genre of design but at upwind angles as well.
JB recalls the history of the project as starting towards the end of the last America’s Cup cycle a year and a half ago in San Francisco when most of Com - anche’s design team were associated with the Cup in some form. It was here that the discussions started on what a new-genera- tion first-to-finish boat would look like. ‘We had built some good tools to analyse sail design in high-load settings, so applying them to this very different project was really interesting,’ said Braun. ‘The challenge was not only to get the mould shapes right, but we had another degree of freedom to place the rig and sail forces exactly where we wanted them.’ Using North’s MemBrain design tools, Braun started with a basic triangular boat design provided by Verdier/VPLP and then made successive placements of the spar and sails into locations that could theoretically produce higher and higher performance. Whenever a ‘sweet spot’ was located Verdier/VPLP were solicited for their input on the hull and appendage design. These changes would then feed back into refining the aero plan, and so it went on. This kind of collaboration was nothing new to the French teams, according to Xavier Gilbaud of VPLP. ‘The entire design process has been conducted by both the VPLP office and Guillaume Verdier’s office in a similar way to the way the work had been done on the Imoca 60s since 2007,’ said Gilbaud. ‘Our office in Vannes employs eight naval architects and engi- neers where Guillaume Verdier works with three close collaborators that are each independent. We all work together in a very collaborative way and share our views on all topics, which makes for a really rich and productive process.’
‘This was a great project for design, because we had so much freedom to explore the options,’ said Braun. ‘Usually in the process of working with boat designers you are focused on providing the drive forces they need to overcome the drag forces on a given design. But with this project we were working together to achieve an optimum, rather than succes- sively. I think this is why this boat may look so different.’
Accordingly, a distinguishing feature of Comanche’s sail plan to achieve the desired design balance is what appears to be its relatively low-aspect ratio fore - triangle, since the mast is set extremely far aft compared to comparable 100-footer sail plans. Braun says this is where this collaborative design process yielded the fastest results. ‘We kept pushing the rig aft in the modelling, and the boat just got faster and faster. So we kept going until we hit the cliff in terms of performance… ‘Actually, it’s a little counter-intuitive, because high-aspect ratio airfoils are inher- ently more efficient for high speeds. But the centre of effort in high-aspect sails is also higher than you may always want, and even nature teaches us something about this: while soaring birds glide easily on high-aspect ratio wings, predatory birds like hawks and falcons have low-aspect wings to achieve a versatility in flight that soaring birds can never have. Given what we wanted to do with this boat, we wanted a similar versatility in the sail plan. We wanted to be the falcons!’ This is why Comanche has no fewer than four tack positions for its tight-luffed headsails, starting at the end of the bowsprit, to the stem, and then two mid- deck positions aft of the stem. Conse- quently the sails developed for these spaces have aspect ratios in their design suitable
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The Power to Perform
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SEAHORSE 35
PETE MCGOWAN
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