News Around the World �
Armel Le Cléac’h offers an insight into what goes on beneath the water on a top-of-the-range Imoca 60. With reaching struts in place plus deck spreaders and associated rigging, there is a hint of square-rigger about Banque Populaire… dispelled by a glance at the ‘artistic’ foil. Beautifully faired-in lifting rudder system, very little headstay sag given the boat’s attitude and powerboat-inspired hard chines aft. An illustration of why next-generation Imocas may ask more of their foils in return for reductions in wetted surface area
to take the tools out of the box and repair and maintain his boat mid-competition. Jérémie Beyou had his hands full solving an issue with his autopilots and a problem with the top of his mainsail track… Jean-Pierre Dick, who curiously lost a lot of distance early on, suffered furler problems (although the skipper of St-Michel Virbac also made a big mistake by entering the forbidden zone around Antarctica, which had cost him eight hours to get back on track). Some skippers talk about their damage, others not – but the assumption is none of them stay unscathed. As soon as the boats enter the Southern Ocean conditions are severe, the equipment is exposed and opportunities for intervention are far from ideal. That’s the difficulty of a Vendée Globe. Where to put the throttle for competing at the level you want without going too hard on the boat? What sort of a repair is possible without losing too much on rivals? Racing around Antarctica is the challenge. You soon begin to dream about the exit of the corridor (Cape Horn) while those further astern are still testing their skill in their first cold gale and asking themselves: ‘Is this going to be the story every day for the next month?’ You have to be a masochist to enter the Vendée Globe. No doubt about it! Patrice Carpentier
NEW ZEALAND As the deadline approaches for the launch of the AC50 raceboats ahead of the Bermuda America’s Cup in June, it is clear that new realms of complexity have been explored. But as many of the major elements of the boat are governed by one-design restrictions, it will take a keen eye to discern where the big design effort has focused. As the boats dangle from cranes during launch and retrieval the cognoscenti will closely study the foils, tip shapes and rudders for some clues. Those subtleties will only reveal a small part of the story. The big secrets will remain hidden from view. ‘The boats will look pretty similar,’ says Dean Barker from Team SoftBank Japan. ‘The magic will be in the things you can’t see.’ At the heart of these yachts are the hydraulic systems that power
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the foils, rudders and wingtrim and the electronics that direct the flow of hydraulic oil to the areas of greatest need. ‘Forget yacht design,’ says Emirates Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton. ‘This has nothing to do with yacht design as we know it. It is all about engineering. In our design team of 30 people we only have one yacht designer, and he is principally involved in engi- neering. This is a new type of sailing and it suits the younger guys, the Playstation generation, because it is a giant Playstation game.’ The challenge is to take the relatively small amount of horsepower generated by four big units (no offence to the grinders) and direct it as quickly and efficiently as possible to all the competing areas of demand around the boat. That poses a physical challenge – the plumbing alone is mind-boggling, as several dozen hydraulic rams have to be fed oil on demand. It also poses an electronic challenge as the helmsman and trimmers punch buttons to constantly switch power from point to point, adjusting wing trim one second, rudder angle the next and foil rake the next… or as many as possible at the same time.
Lucky the Playstation generation ignored their parents’ nagging to ‘for goodness’ sake stop playing those computer games!’ Their disobedience bred fast-twitch thumbs and brains hotwired to respond simultaneously to a multitude of rapid-fire stimuli – just the skills required for the modern America’s Cup ace. With so many variables to trim for optimum flight, one imagines the helmsman having a kind of Top Gun array of buttons and settings to dial up at warp speed. ‘It is a bit of a dance,’ Barker agrees. ‘There is plenty going on. There are all sorts of buttons to push and if you hit the wrong one, or knock something, you can end up with undesirable consequences...’
‘It’s more like stepping onto a spaceship than a normal yacht,’ says ETNZ wing trimmer and skipper Glenn Ashby. ‘We spend about 95 per cent of our time with the designers and engineers going through the hydraulics and electronics, so we can learn the systems and controls. It is all about utilising the power available in more areas. If you can use it in more areas you can sail the boat more
NICOLAS PEHE/DPPI
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