News Around the World
At the time of writing Wild Oats XI has just been through 300nm of tough sea trials and the two halves have remained attached. The large cut-and-shut is not so unusual with big composite raceboats; the old IOR Whitbread Maxi Fortuna gained several metres in length ahead of the 1993 race and Young America’s ACC yacht famously broke in half but was then glued back together in 1999. No doubt OneAustralia’s ACC boat could also have been fixed after snapping in 1995 – had it not been swallowed up by the Pacific
There were of course critical landmarks along the way. When the hull was cut in September, a detailed inspection of the 10-year-old hull core revealed zero water ingress or delamination. Oats is a superbly maintained maxi, but has endured some significant banging and crashing over the past decade; but holding a section of the old hull up to the light, it still looks brand new.
So how were the two sections joined? Well, in simple terms with a 2m fore and aft scarf that runs down each of the topsides, but when you reach the bilge area the scarf then also runs forward to make a T-shape. Standing inside the hull, the joined area was pointed out to me and I did a double-take: the joint is no thicker than the rest of the hull. The smooth inner skin also surprised me – I fully expected to see more reinforcement around the join. The new bow is cleaner and inside it is more open. Gone is the carbon structure supporting the original bow rudder and the rule- driven watertight bulkhead just aft of that rudder, leaving more room to work plus a significant weight saving. How significant? Skipper Mark Richards isn’t saying, but he knows to the gramme the weight of everything that has been removed and, though hesitant to share too much information, he acknowledges with a smile that all this surgery, plus larger and lighter headsails must have Oatsclose to a tonne lighter that last year. All this plus 15 tonnes of keel and rig shunted a couple of metres further aft should see bowman Tim Wiseman stay a little drier this year…
Weight saving was the main goal, but this project remained governed by engineering principles. The material used to fabricate the bow must be compatible with the material in the rest of the hull. This sounds logical, but any decision to go extreme here would see the forward section of the boat fighting with the aft, a frightening scenario when sending it through Bass Strait at night, and so the same carbon/honeycomb lay-up was used, with thermo-formed foam core in the slamming areas forward.
And all the time at McConaghys in Mona Vale the clock was ticking. Every time I visited I saw the key staff deep in conversation,
20 SEAHORSE
focused, checking, measuring, but when I pulled them away to ask how it was all going, what struck me was the calmness of the team. To an observer this concept is dramatic – creating an entire hull joint 11m back from the bow that has to withstand the loads imposed from forestay and Code Zero tension, plus transferred torque from keel cant, plus the obligatory slamming and the occasional nosedive, or punching the pointy end through the back of a wave at 0300 on a dark December night.
The build team listened patiently to my observations, and as my voice and eyebrows rose at the end of that sentence, they just smiled and reminded me that they built the boat in the first place and understand every curve. They have lived the loads and limits onboard Wild Oats XI for 10 years and point out that the joined area is probably stronger than before.
The project finished on time, with just a few tweaks to the original plans requested by the crew to improve the sailing functions. And the crew were there too, three of them underneath the boat during my visit in masks, gloves and overalls, torture-boarding the underside of the hull high above their heads as the Sydney summer delivered Celsius temperatures of high 30s and even low 40s. Deep commitment to the boat… and to the Oatley family who make all this possible. Blue Robinson
USA New features – same great place
The Storm Trysail Club taking the reigns of Quantum Key West Race Week has brought positive change in two general respects: the new regime brings fresh enthusiasm, energy and some greater resources to implement new features, but without compromising on event quality since much of the management that has been running things for the past years remains in place. Not to mention Storm Trysail’s own long history in regatta organisation – including the consistently successful Block Island Race Week.
MCCONAGHY BOATS
GREG KERBA
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