If there has been one arena even more testing on equipment and rigs than the Imoca 60s it was the Orma 60 multihull class (left), where blindingly fast but relatively fragile boats were pushed to the absolute limit by the most ruthless grand prix crews (witness the Groupama Orma 60 team’s win in the Volvo race)… and this is exactly where Vincent Marsaudon and Lorima cut their teeth. Lengthy deck spreaders (right) allowing an expansive shroud base add to the multihull parallels
Imoca spreads its wings
As part of the latest rules agreed by the Imoca 60 class, skippers now have the choice between two one-design rig configurations… But speaking to the sole official supplier, Lorima’s Vincent Marsaudon, ‘wingmast or conventional spar?’ sounds increasingly like a rhetorical question since at the time of writing the score stood at 6-0 in favour of the more aerodynamic solution
‘Studies carried out by design offices and the teams point to a better performance of the wingmast compared to the traditional profile… though we’re not talking about a particularly big advantage,’ says Vincent Marsaudon.
‘We also note that the non-French skippers, many of them less familiar with the use of a wingspar (which are of course the modern norm on the multihull scene), choose them anyway when they build a latest-generation boat in an effort to max- imise performance. There was a time when the wingmast was a bit of a “connoisseur’s choice”, now it is simply the default position – even though every one of the skippers who went for that solution previously ended up
30 SEAHORSE
dropping their rig at some time or other! ‘Take for example Desjoyeaux and Gabart in the last Transat Jacques Vabre. They are both expert sailors, but it seems like they might have been testing the envelope a bit too hard… in retrospect it looks like there was an issue with their J3 (lower forestay) not being in place when perhaps it should have been.’
The point being that despite the usual ‘ease of handling’ argument put forward by wingmast enthusiasts, the fact remains that they come with a user-guide that cannot be ignored. Granted, trimming and mainsail reefing are made easier, but mast management has to be carried out by the book and should follow the right adjust- ment protocols when conditions or points of sailing change.
‘So yes,’ continues Vincent, ‘in terms of aerodynamic gains there are interesting advantages, but when sailing with a rotat- ing wingmast there are certain mistakes that you can’t afford to make. It requires quite a bit of attention, especially down- wind – but having said that when every- thing is done as it should be this type of spar probably has a safety margin slightly superior to that of a conventional tube.’ Lorima is the sole supplier of these standardised masts for the Imoca class, an agreement that runs until 2021. The Imoca committee based the initial design brief of the standardised wingmast on Jean Le Cam’s Synerciel and on Armel Le Cléac’h’s Banque Populaire, limiting air-draft to
29m and righting moment to 30 tonnes- metres. The new spar is stepped on a deck- mounted ball, with a rotation range of up to 60º on each tack.
‘We supply all of the new boats and others that are being upgraded to the new rules, and we take particular care of the older-generation boats – such as Hugo Boss, which dismasted in the Barcelona World Race – to help them take advantage of the latest developments. So far we’ve produced four of the new masts (the first went on the new Safran 60), we have two more being finished and we’re about to deliver a replacement rig to the existing Hugo Boss – in this case, not a completely standard ‘new rule’ mast.
Back to the wingmast vs traditional spar debate; so far none of the Imoca skippers have opted for the latter and Vincent thinks ‘it will remain that way, ending up in a very homogenous fleet. There is a logic to that, since as soon as a team secures the oppor- tunity to build a new-generation racer they want every technical choice to be driven by the quest for maximum performance. ‘In terms of weight, there is no significant difference between the two solutions, and the same goes for centre of gravity: it was part of the deal, to come up with designs that would compare on those two para - meters to make the choice a fair one.’ Lorima has a very tightly controlled manufacturing process that has been deliv- ering the new masts within a maximum weight range of just 2kg – bearing in mind
GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
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