Left: just how close you can sheet a TP52 headsail with the shape-holding and arrow-straight exits possible with today’s sailmaking techniques remains to be seen but reigning Super Series champions Azzurra (nearest camera) must be getting there; Azzurra’s boom is also well above centre. When the Rán team’s first Maxi72 was launched in 2009 builders Green Marine famously sampled through numerous rolls of pre-preg using only the very best. Similar attention to detail went into Jason Carrington’s immaculate build of the team’s first Fast40+ (above). Beamier than a TP52 and with clever sheer treatment placing the hiked crew further out than normal the extra righting moment showed as soon as Rán VII hit the water. Meanwhile, the VCG benefits from the reduced deck area plus there are more gains from a light electric engine installation with shallow power cells set flush inside the very bottom of the hull
Not smiling yet is the class manager. As in 2015, so many new
boats arriving so late to battle means very little time to get them all measured and to address the unavoidable anomalies we find. With all teams pushing to be exactly on the class limits of dozens of measurements and rules, there is no way they all succeed and corrections have to be made and the boat measured again. Where we have ‘soft limits’, like on water-tightness, rule compliance sometimes takes months for all to be at the same standard. I get quite a few questions whether we can expect bows on TP52s
as we see on Niklas Zennström’s new Fast40 Rán? The new Rán is too special not to mention. Shaun Carkeek and Jason Carrington, in collaboration with Tim
Powell and Jan Klingmüller of Rán Racing, pulled out all stops to produce the next-generation Fast40. Winning six of the eight races in her first event, we are not looking at a slow boat. Question is will the competition step up to the challenge or step away? Rán is a proper one-off, built to today’s highest standards within
the class rule constraints on materials and techniques, which are not that many. Most noticeably is the rule limiting builds to foam core. Foam is cheaper than Nomex but requires more hours and skill to get it right weight-wise. As in any class, weight is of course king. There is no denying the most striking feature is the bow but
second comes beam – it is a very wide boat. The bow shape is aimed at less drag and surface area – the latter can be translated to less weight and a lower vcg. Contrary to what some say, lowering air resistance alone does not make a boat gain much, maybe one or two seconds per hour. On a 40ft boat the crew look big and draggy compared to the 52s. The 4-5m2
Fast40s by Carkeek are 3.85m. More beam adds weight as it requires more hull area but for sure it adds stability. Where the TP52 class rule limits beam to 4.42m the Fast40 rule limits beam at a royal 4.35m. With the bulb weight of Rán and Carkeek’s defending champion
Girls on Filmthe same (1,999kg) and draft of course on maximum (3.0m), you can imagine the effect of the crew sitting much further out. Walk in the park for Rán upwind in anything over 9kt of breeze and learn how to sail the boat in the light stuff. IRC certainly does little to discourage wide beam. Actually, I am a little surprised that Rán’s bulb weight is not
slightly under that of Girls’ to create more rating room to address the light stuff and have an even bigger motor going downhill… Both certificates show a hollow steel fin, which puzzles me as
a solid fin would reduce the need for bulb weight even further and is free RM in IRC, but possibly this fin is near solid and we are just facing a little mystification? A solid fin could be 600kg. Rán is all up near 70kg lighter than Girls, 3,908kg on the hook. From many angles the boat looks great in the photos, not
unimportant. Just cannot yet get used to Niklas and crew seeming to have grown… Shall not forget to mention the new Rán has the first ever EEL Propulsion electric engine. A start-up, possibly under the wings of the skipper’s tech fund Atomico? We all know that one of Niklas’s earlier start-ups was quite a success so do not think too lightly about this one. Oh, I forgot to answer the question. The answer is ‘not likely’ as
less deck panel in the bow will
translate to 30kg less weight in the ends which is always nice. Most interesting is the very wide beam of 4.21m where earlier
the TP52 rule is very strict on hull shape and sheer radius. A Maxi72 Cannonball-style bow makes no sense on a TP. It could be facilitated but if it ever were it would be part of a much bigger change, I guess. Rob Weiland, TP52 and Maxi72 class manager
q SEAHORSE 31
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