From the top
As manager of both the TP52 and Maxi72 classes, legendary project manager and passionate supporter of big boat racing Rob Weiland is in a unique position to reflect on the lessons of 2015 After a tense three weeks, with the Maxi72s in Porto Cervo and then the TP52s in Cascais, the trophies have been handed out, the class meetings have taken place and all have flown home… time for a wrap-up. The Rolex Maxi72 World Championship, with six boats competing, saw Hap Fauth and Bella Mente collect the Rolex and World Champion tro- phies with a 1pt margin from Roberto Tomasini Grinover and Robertissima, with Dieter Schön and Momoin third. Writing this, it dawns on me that it’s now time the Maxi72 class get a new perpetual trophy for their worlds. It is nice to have a record of all the great world champions on one trophy.
Costa Smeralda gave its best at this regatta, we raced every day with the only neg- ative being Caol Ila losing its mast on the second day when two-sail reaching. Should not happen, but it sometimes does and then it is a major to get back on track. Nobody was hurt, all involved remained calm, the owner amazingly took up paddle boarding and the sails go back up at Key West. In the last issue I gave my take on how the 52 Super Series finale could shape up and to my relief I was close. Indeed the battle for the John Cook Owner Driver Trophy was the tense affair I promised, with Takashi Okura and Sledscraping through to take both that trophy and third overall. Harm Müller Spreer and Platoonwere the ones producing the strongest challenge to Sled– before they let the heat of the final day melt their chances with a pair of 9th places (just two 7th places would have done the trick). In the end only 7pt covered the top four owner-drivers… after 46 races and no discard!
Of course, Azzurra never looked like drop- ping the ball in the final event and is this year’s 52 Super Series champion. Yes, we do have a perpetual trophy for this one! Rather large and rather heavy, but it is the one you really like to see your name on. Quan- tum Racing won in Cascais in calm Quantum style – reassuring for the team and slightly unnerving for her rivals as for a bit it had looked like the team’s mojo was lost. Nev- ertheless, 2015 belongs to the Roemmers family, their partners the YCCS and the whole Azzurra team.
Working for both classes gives me a good insight into both the similarities and the dif- ferences. The 52s and 72s are at first sight very much the same. But while the 52 is an originally IMS-inspired box rule boat targeted to race boat for boat on mainly W/L courses, the 72 is an IRC-optimised boat targeted at racing on corrected time on a variety of courses from W/L to offshore events. Both are about the best boats to have when racing
28 SEAHORSE
In 2016 the TP52 Super Series continues as a tightly packaged series of dedicated class regattas while the Maxi72s (above) head off on a tour of the world’s great venues, with eight major regattas already on the programme – ranging from Key West to Antigua to St Barths to Porto Cervo… you’ve got to feel for those guys
in the two main handicap systems – of course they fit IRC best but with a bit of tinkering will give you a good run for your money under other systems too.
Having so many similar boats racing together reveals the strengths and flaws of the box rule and rating approaches – and of the boats produced – more clearly than any theoretical VPP. This is better than full-scale tank-testing, this is the best sailors pushing the best equipment to its limits. No wonder these boats and their sails are optimised nearer to perfection than any one-off project. Our TP52 racing has taught us a lot – espe- cially as we allow Wild Card boats to enter on the back of their IRC certificate, plus TPs also race in open IRC and ORCi events. We have not only learnt about IRC optimisation, but also how to optimise the box. What is the effect of going deeper on draft, going lighter, adding sail area, changing the shape of the mainsail, rake, sheeting angles? No way you will ever see these effects demon- strated so accurately on a computer. You could also use our racing to compare IRC with ORCi, but it could be more useful in testing the practicality of the two systems. Overall, my feeling is that conducting such a study would help steer the future of both systems in the right direction.
The biggest difference I guess is in righting moment assessment. IRC only measures beam, draft and bulb weight while ORC mea- sures righting moment and hull shape. As a class the TPs left the RM approach, it was too inaccurate in terms of its power within the rule, too open to manipulation… or, if you wish, to plain luck. And I think we were proven correct. But to assess a wide variation of boats RM is a useful tool; so how to com- bine those two positions?
Back to the big picture and a few wider observations. My impression is that IRC in these sizes of boats rewards speed. Which in essence is what you want, if not need. Go lighter, add sail area, go deeper, if you do it wisely you will do better.
My perception is that IRC is somewhat too generous with age allowance. If you use the credit to speed up your boat and optimise with- out touching areas that could void the age allowance, you will keep your boat at the front. Is this good or bad? It’s good if you feel a race- boat should last 10 years or so; bad if you feel that development and building new should be encouraged, or at least not discouraged. As with all good things, excess is to be avoided. I am not sure IRC has a plan for that. It might be good to add limits for draft in relation to hull length; we are at a practical limit with the 52s (3.5m) that I would not like to exceed, but I also know that doing so will produce a still better IRC boat and a faster TP52… so what to do?
With the 72s we are already beyond the practical limit with a draft limit of 5.4m. Rules follow trends; the 72 class set this limit as soon as one boat went that deep, only to see its fears confirmed after four more boats also increased draft to 5.4m – which really is not practical. But trust me, going deeper would still pay off on the water (we could of course just lay the weather mark in 5.5m of water). One other thing to note when discussing rat- ing rules. Modern raceboats, certainly above 45ft, look as they do and perform as they do because they are designed to IRC. Maybe somebody has built a racer to another rating rule in the past 10 years but I do not know about it. Now we see the ‘IRC72/TP52 look’ appearing at 40ft and below; it took courage, I’m sure, to soften the protection of production
INGRID ABERY
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