Led by engineer and designer Romaric Neyhousser, the Arkema Mini project is the most ambitious of the current initiatives as it attempts to tackle several new technologies simultaneously. A foiling scow with a fore-and-aft, two-element soft wing rig is a lot to deal with, but Arkema has performed well on the Mini circuit since launching last year. Neyhousser works closely with Guillaume Verdier on his foil engineering and was a member of Verdier’s team working alongside America’s Cup winners Team New Zealand
‘As far as sailing is concerned, we need
to see how small we can go while keeping a reasonable performance gain/price ratio.’ One could be forgiven for thinking that
VPLP was first and foremost, due to their exceptional pedigree on the racing scene, focused on competitive sailing for this specific project, but Marc makes no secret of the fact that they’re operating in a much wider field, having obtained funding from industry to carry out a very comprehensive R&D programme. ‘The first Oceanwings prototype was
developed thanks to a grant from a large strategic innovation fund,’ he notes. It was fitted onto a 7m catamaran built using bio-composites and developed by Roland Jourdain’s Kaïros research unit. According to VPLP, the Oceanwings set-up allowed the test mule to match the level of performance of a conventional rig while reducing the required ‘sail’ surface by half at the same time as dramatically decluttering the deck (no need for a traveller, kicker and so on). ‘The following phase for us was to find a
partner able to take this to a much larger scale, ultimately to mass-produce various sizes of wings. Unlike on the proto, we would in this case be looking at foils made of rigid panels (as opposed to cloth), mounted on retractable spars to allow for surface adjustment. ‘We found that partner in CNIM, a big
player in industrial production and the design and manufacturing of industrial systems. To give you an idea of the scope of
38 SEAHORSE
CNIM’s work they produced the complex seals between the Chernobyl reactors and their huge concrete and lead sarcophagus… ‘What’s needed to interest commercial
operators is to show a payback [on invest- ment] of not much more than five years,’ says Marc… ‘and with today’s relatively low oil price it’s not an easy sell’. But what about recreational sailing? ‘The major yachtbuilders are very inter-
ested too, but then again for cost reasons at this stage we are only talking about boats of 50ft and above… at least until we can find a way of rationalising the production of the principal wing components. ‘The solution for the panels isn’t totally
defined yet – there are several choices but cost considerations will be the ultimate arbiter. We’re generally looking at the range of composites that we’re already used to working with, such as carbon for the mast and the like. ‘For large-scale applications automation
becomes a much more important driver. We have developed a suite of trimming algorithms which will be coupled with either electrical or hydraulic systems depending on the boat’s size. We’re happy with the results we have obtained on the prototype, but we are also looking with humility at the way ahead,’ concludes Marc Van Peteghem, before finally adding that ‘applications in the racing arena that would go beyond the Cup or C-Class will eventually come, but at the moment that’s not our primary objective.’
Power and control For designer Romaric Neyhousser, how- ever, taking the wing concept from its multi-million dollar Cup enclave to the more accessible Mini circuit was the first objective. Having designed the successful Arkema Multi50 for Lalou Roucayrol, Romaric went on to look at the rig of the same team’s radical scow-hulled and foil- equipped Mini 6.50. ‘It would be a push to say that the wing
concept is in “universal development”, though all sorts of projects are going on, as we’ve seen with Bénéteau’s programme. ‘But even if the wings simplify manoeu-
vring and deck hardware they’re still com- plicated to build and have relatively high associated costs… so I think it will take a bit of time to become much more wide- spread. Also, this initiative is being driven by shipyards and by designers and sailors; these rigs have no relevance yet in the areas like grand prix yachting where much larger sums are routinely spent chasing perfor- mance improvements. ‘For the weekend sailor neither the per-
formance gain nor the ease of use justify the extra price. It’s different for the luxury yacht segment, or the very top of some types of racing. ‘If we look at my experience with
Arkema, it’s interesting what we could achieve without a big research budget: our aim was mostly to enhance ease of handling at sea. In that context it’s difficult to quantify the precise aerodynamic gains,
FRED AUGENDRE
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