With so much focus on Imoca 60 foils it’s easy to overlook other big advances. As hull structures get better (but closer to the edge of current technology) so the global stiffness of these much-abused (above) boats continues to improve, crucially allowing for the straighter headstays (left) without which skippers can’t take full advantage of grand prix sail constructions such as the 3Di seen on Safran. Previous Vendée winner Vincent Riou (above) is the most-fancied of the non-foil 60s this time, but he’s got six foilers to beat
in your hands as you took it down. Those were in the days when you used three mainsails for a race – and that was only two races ago.
‘But right now our mainsail looks new as we sit here in New Zealand. And it will see a lot more use. We have to use it for the pro-am and in-port races plus all our train- ing days. It’s not just the actual time sailing either but also all the hoists and drops.’ ‘Looking back we could say that Abu Dhabi were the smartest team in the race, not only because they won but because their sails were in the best shape after the race,’ says Sergent. ‘This indicates clever planning in knowing when to deploy your fresh sails when you need them for speed and when not to risk wearing them out… fresh new sails are always fast.
‘Ian had also put some smart disciplines in place; for example, from the start of training the Abu Dhabi crew tried when- ever possible to avoid dragging sails over the non-slip decks – better to put more people on the job and try to carry them. Tricks like that make a big difference to how well a sail keeps its edge.’
How did Sergent know this? Because at every stopover North stayed in constant communication with the boatyard and sail repair facilities, where logs were kept of all observations and repair work done. A debrief with every team was also held in Newport to collate this data and identify patterns of wear that may prompt improvements in the next cycle. One example was a persistent problem noted with wear in the leeches of the furling headsails… subsequent analysis led to a complete redesign of the structure and reinforcement of this area of the sail so that strength and longevity were not only improved, but it was done so with little or no gain in parasitic weight.
‘What allows us to do this is the layout and structure of the fibres in 3Di,’ says Ser- gent. ‘We can customise the solution better than by just adding more material, we can fine-tune its orientation and density locally.’ A solid track record and fair pricing
helped North win the contract for provid- ing sails again in the next Volvo cycle and development is now well underway. Just as in any other one-design class, the
feedback from sailors was inevitably mixed, with some wanting more sails in the inventory and some happy with the current selection matrix. Working closely with the Volvo team, North have tried to ensure that any proposed changes made must produce positive results and not create new problems due to the laws of unintended consequences.
But before any final decisions were made, model studies were needed to evaluate the new racecourse. With use of weather models, routeing software and the VO65 VPP an amazing level of detail on the use of sails could be determined: not only could estimates be made of the speed of the boat on each leg, but the number of hours of use anticipated for each sail as well as how many manoeuvres and sail changes. ‘We worked very closely with Dimitri Nicolopoulos, of KND-Sailing Perfor- mance, on refining the data used for the modelling, then refined this further with feedback from the teams on sail selections and cross-overs,’ said Sergent.
‘The collaboration with the sailors was really important. As usual it is essential to
SEAHORSE 51
BENOIT STICHELBAUT
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