IRC YEARBOOK 2009
Striking the balance between sailing deep and
heating things up is tricky enough on the race
course but consider what sails will suit your
style of downwind sailing best
“You may now find people are starting to push the envelope as far as
Code Zeros are concerned and that light displacement, racing type
boats will be using them quite a bit more”.
John Highcock of Saturn Sails
Generally speaking, production cruisers and big race tacked on to little bowsprits, so you may now find people
boats benefit the most and small race boats the least. are starting to push the envelope as far as Code Zeros
are concerned and that light displacement, racing-type
A-sails boats will be using them quite a bit more.”
According to Highcock: “People have gone down the
asymmetric route for the last couple of years, but the Hull factor
motivation should be about issues such as the ability The hull factor has been seen as a subjective number,
to expose area downwind, ballast ratio, performance but we are told that it is calculated and relates to details
numbers, and what kind of courses you are expecting such as the deck layout, whether there is a fixed galley
downwind. For Solent-type racing, against the tide, or unit, bunks up forward, the keel and appendages. All
reaching, then the asymmetric can help, but you have these issues are interpreted into the hull factor.
to be able to project it more than most people think. “When keels weren’t being quantified in any particular
You need separation from the mainsail to be able to way and VCG, tear-drop keels did not carry a penalty.
get deeper down to the rhumb line, maybe carrying a Now they do,” thinks Highcock.
staysail as well.
“In addition, several people have found out to their New keels
cost that a short pole does not work. There is no point An expensive alteration, but are new keels worth
in gaining an extra 10 per cent on untaxed area, say, considering? “It depends on the boats concerned. Some
if you cannot gain enough down the rhumb line, can indeed benefit from new keels,” says Ker. “The key is
unless you are doing a lot of reaching.” about improving the performance while keeping the rating
the same. But it is a fundamental principle of IRC that you
Code Zeros don’t improve performance without increasing the rating.
“One of the main changes is the definition of J,” says “IRC is not supposed to rate the quality of design, only
Highcock. “Essentially this is now to the intersection the physical parameters. Changing something to make it
of the forestay as far as the headsail is concerned, physically different is one thing, but if you change a keel
and if the sail is a spinnaker it can be tacked forward for one which is similar in type then you would hope that
of J. This in turn means that Code Zeros need to be the rating would not change.”
28
IRC 09 Getting an Edge_bs 28 1/12/08 09:06:47
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