Opposite: Nigel Irens’ 24m Allegra is quite capable of flying a hull though maybe not in full relaxation mode… In many ways these fast but fully loaded ocean cruisers represent the cutting edge of non-grand prix boatbuilding, with luxury delivered through clever use of the best lightweight construction. Several steps up the pace scale is Paradox (left), a fast, much-raced Irens Orma 60-progeny that is, however, nicely fitted out and is cruised extensively


or three competing and the original one- design rules are no longer enforced. The tragedy is that the creation of the MOD 70 fleet was a beautifully executed attempt to introduce trimaran racing to people who spoke languages other than French. For years French sailors (well, mainly Breton sailors actually) raced under the Orma 60 class rules – and very success- fully. The problem was that the expansion of the class simply ceilinged out once it became obvious that barely a single serious skipper from the global yacht racing community was the slightest bit interested in joining a non-global, ‘Franco-French’ event. Less still if singlehanded or even two-handed racing were involved. The MOD 70 was intended to change all that, on the one hand by creating a strict one-design class (better racing, lower bills), and on the other because world-class skippers would be more likely to jump in if they knew that they were racing the same boats as those Breton guys – who would otherwise have a huge experience advan- tage in terms of the preparation of a non- one-design boat.


In their efforts to encourage non-French participation the class governors even went as far as forbidding MOD 70 skippers from racing their boats in the single/double-handed events like the Route du Rhum, popular though they have always been with the French public. Alas it all came to nothing, largely because of outside factors like the global economic downturn which happened just as the class was getting going. Maybe it all just seemed too risky when viewed from the non-French perspective. Peter Aschenbrenner, owner-skipper of the 63ft trimaran Paradox, has competed in many Caribbean races in recent years and he has a different take on all this. His response to the question ‘why do you do it?’ is 100 per cent positive. To him any hand-wringing about the inadequacies of the rating rule is of no importance. In a nutshell he is just happy to sail a fast boat


as fast as possible in ideal conditions while enjoying the company of a boat-full of good friends. Last season Paradox (which by French multihull standards is most definitely a cruiser-racer) was often


in competition


, which is a very much faster boat on any point of sailing. They each did their own thing and, although Phaedo3


was


nearly always way ahead, the Paradox crew got their kicks just by sticking one on Phaedo when conditions (OK, luck) allowed.


As it happens Paradox nearly always came out on top on corrected time, but that was not really what they came to do. And anyway, in view of the inherent diffi- culty of getting a multihull rating system to be even slightly plausible, who cares? At this point it’s worth noting that in the summer of this year Paradox is set to cruise the length and breadth of the Mediterranean in family mode. So what’s next from a multihull perspective? As things stand there’s no reason why any Maxi owner would want to have a shot at multihull sailing. Serious racers will stick to the boats that offer serious racing and hardly notice the odd fast multihull entry sail off as usual over an empty horizon.


The French will probably continue to play to their ever-faithful local audience, and are currently working hard on the next challenge, which is to get big multi- hulls to fly properly on foils in open water (as in around the world).


This, incidentally, is a hard nut to crack. Any private buyer thinking of having a go at it would soon find that the investment levels will be astronomical and that they will still be left in no-man’s land when it comes to getting in any meaningful racing. So is that it for multihull racing in the non-French world? Luckily it seems that as one door stays shut another one sometimes opens…


Perhaps as a result of the America’s Cup


with Lloyd Thornburg’s MOD 70 Phaedo3


developments in recent years there’s some really interesting ‘middle-ground’ activity now going on as a handful of serious owners build (or plan to build) cruising catamarans… but not as we know them. Until recently cruising catamarans have been thought of as the poor relation, known for having lots of space and being cheap to build, but otherwise being pretty much devoid of any qualities that might appeal to someone who likes going sailing. The simple truth is you can’t (and never could) have all the attributes in one boat. The well-known trimaran designer Dick Newick used to explain this by drawing an equilateral triangle on the back of a paper napkin. He’d write one of the words ‘Fast’, ‘Spacious’ and ‘Inexpensive’ on each of the three corners of the triangle, then put the cursor (his pencil) in the middle. As he moved it towards any one of these desir- able attributes it would move (you guessed it) away from the other two.


Your MOD 70 would be way over in the ‘Fast’ corner where you would obvi- ously expect it to be both expensive and have next to zero in the way of accommo- dation. But this new cluster of buyers are attracted to the idea of exploring what happens if you move Dick’s cursor just about bang in the middle of the ‘Fast’ and ‘Spacious’ side of the triangle (which, it has to be said, takes you a very long way from the ‘Inexpensive’ corner…). We had an opportunity to test this in practice when we were invited to design and see built the 24m catamaran Allegra… and the result is impressive. Easy motion, a good turn of speed and a made-good tacking angle of 90° (so an upwind VMG of 8.5kt in 15kt of wind). Easy tracking downwind with 20-30 second surfs at 28kt in 32kt of wind made to look easy. And the kettle (as multihull pundits have always promised) stays right there on the hob. From the liveability standpoint there’s


plenty of room and the saloon, which is light and airy, offers all the thrills of sailing a performance boat but without any of the attendant discomfort.


Rob Grimm, skipper and owner’s rep of


Allegra, summarises their story so far: ‘The designers of Allegra were given a challeng- ing set of criteria: the owner wanted a high- performance yacht that could cruise fast and show well in regattas; the boat needed to be comfortable for crossing oceans; and also provide the family with a gentle sailing experience and act as a large, stable platform to enjoy secluded anchorages. ‘I’m not sure that anyone expected all these criteria to be exceeded by such a


SEAHORSE 37


w


TIM WRIGHT


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