at Rio 2016 in the Nacras. Gulari’s one of not so many top sailors with substantial sharp-end experience of both cats and foils. His background would seem to make him an obvious asset to any AC team… But this is Bermuda 2017 and the term ‘closed shop’ barely begins to describe it.
However, being a speed demon himself, Bora is more upbeat in his views: ‘I’ve been watching the AC boats practice-racing and they are extremely impressive,’ he says.
‘But there seems to be a fair amount of sentiment still from people who think of the real America’s Cup as being raced in mono- hulls. So why not next time bring in some big foiling monohulls? Why not open up the rules and see what people come up with… surely the Cup is where you do that?’
Finally, though former Rolex Yachtsman of the Year Steve Benjamin has kept away from the Cup scene during a long and illustrious career in the Olympics, offshore racing and recently Etchells, he too is optimistic… if typically succinct: ‘Yeah, it seems pretty good. I just wish those boats were bigger!’
(Comanche) on the warpath Los Angeles, April 2017 and Jim Clark’s Comanche has just joined 62 other entries preparing for the 49th edition of the Transpac and with one goal: a new race record. Clark’s well-known 100ft VPLP/Verdier design, built by Hodgdon Yachts in 2014, was created to be quite simply the fastest monohull yacht in the world, with a design to break records and collect every line-honours prize on offer. So surely the Transpac is the obvious place to pick up where the programme left off a rather quiet 12 months ago?
With several major records under her belt the goal for the 2,225- mile Transpac is to get to Honolulu in less than the 5d 14h it took Neville Crichton’s Reichel/Pugh 90 Alpha Romeo in 2009. That year Crichton’s boat was guided by Jules Verne-winning navigator Stan Honey, who will be back aboard Comanche come July. Stan’s success as a navigator in transpacific races (Transpac, Pacific Cup, Victoria-Maui) is unparallelled: in 22 races he has won line or class honours 10 times – an impressive record in itself. And he may have made that 11 had he not sustained a head injury while sailing onboard Comanche shortly before he was due to compete on Wild Oats in the 2015 Transpac – for which he was ably replaced by Nick White, who guided the USA/Aussie crew to line honours… but no new record. We spoke to Stan about Comanche’s prospects for the Transpac record while he was cruising the coast of Mexico with his wife Sally onboard their Cal 40 Illusion. ‘Crucially, I think a record is achievable without having to have unusually windy conditions, just stable breeze along the course. The year we did it on Alfa the breeze was not particularly strong, but it was relatively steady throughout the trip.’ This is not just a hunch. Not only does Comanche’s 24-hour monohull record run of 618nm dwarf Alfa’s best day on the Transpac course of 480 miles – but using weather data and routeing software Stan reached his conclusion after digitally sailing the race over each of the past 13 years. ‘I’ve routed Comanche on the racecourse using historical GFS weather data for 143 starts. I ran routes starting every day from 1 July to 11 July, from 2004 through 2016. Statistically we’ve got a reasonable shot at it starting on any given day, but obviously there could be rotten enough weather to make it pointless to start on our scheduled race start day of 6 July. That opens the door for us to do what the big tri Lending Club did two years ago, sail the course off a different start day to maximise our chance of achieving a course record but giving up the opportunity to win any trophies. ‘Given that Comanche is out of the hunt on handicap or for the Barn Door (first fixed-keeler home), if we had terrible weather for 6 July it would be fruitless to just sail the course for no reason,’ he said. ‘If the forecast was much better for a nearby day I suspect that Ken [Read] and Jim would go for that.’ Comanche’s unusually wide hull form is very different from both
Oats and Alfa, since she is designed to carry (much) more sail area in windy conditions. That wide hull, however, also makes her trim sensitive to weight and can be a limiting factor in her performance should the air go light. ‘We will be on a strict weight budget for this
20 SEAHORSE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88
