Contents February 2018
FEATURES 4 Chapeau
36 And so the dam breaks It’s taken a while but the Mini fleet has woken up. JOE LACEY and FRED AUGENDRE sit down in Lorient with scowman DAVID RAISON
Some year Hard to argue that 2017 was a bit special. In two photos you have the TP52s battling like pack-rats as the Super Series goes from strength to strength with nine (nine!) new boats being built for the coming season; then you have the Arkema scow on which the radical hull shape (radical for how much longer, though…) is barely any longer a stand-out feature. We already know of four big-budget programmes that are well advanced in the development of reefable wing rigs like Arkema’s suitable for a production cruiser-racer application. And now we have the same type of rigs looking front and centre within the new America’s Cup class – as with anything else, wherever the Cup goes so follows the big money, and with it a hugely accelerated rate of technical advancement; in this case potentially the perfect coming together of Cup R&D with a wider ‘real world’ application. In 2017 there were one or two other things too… an America’s Cup with boats so powered up that ‘heavy air’ kicks in at 10kt TWS; the top IRC designers aiming for faster and faster as well as increasingly offshore oriented yachts – scowman David Raison has yet to be convinced that a well-designed 40ft-long scow will not be competitive in IRC; much closer to shore and further out in the middle of the Atlantic, if it sails it flies. And finally a year that began with an unprecedented epidemic of oceanic record breaking – smashing – concluded with the wunderkind François Gabart almost casually knocking a week off one of the most apparently ‘unbeatable’ of those same records – and within less than 12 months. 2018 is going to have to be exceptional… We are not anticipating disappointment
COVER: Ingrid Abery INSET: Christophe Breschi
42 Some journey Today the company that bears his name covers everything from iceboating to America’s Cup racing – and a lot more besides. But that’s a very, very long way from where it all began. PETER HARKEN
48 To boldly go That AC75 – FRANCK CAMMAS, GRANT SIMMER AND DEAN BARKER talk to JAMES BOYD
54 The materials were different We’ve looked in some detail at certain technical aspects of the original J-Class. Now DON STREET considers the challenges as well as the dangers of getting them around the racecourse
REGULARS
6 Commodore’s letter STEVEN ANDERSON
11 Editorial – Sad times ANDREW HURST
12 Update The clock is ticking for Cup teams and there is way more to the Star Sailors League than meets the eye. Plus stretching the entente with the Golden Globe
18World news (Very) uncomfortable boats, soft wings, America’s conundrum and Australia cranks it up (even more). PATRICE CARPENTIER, CARLOS PICH, BLUE ROBINSON, DOBBS DAVIS, IVOR WILKINS
30 ORC – Late to the party TOM HUMPHREYS
32 Rod Davis – Jumping the
(development) curve You just gotta remember to listen with your eyes…
34World Sailing – Closing the gap
EDUARDO SYLVESTRE 58 Design – The master of
(multihull) intuition Very tough – IAN FARRIER
62 RORC – Gathering dust? EDDIE WARDEN-OWEN
63 TechStreet Right now there is a great deal of fresh design thinking around (and some very cool ships!)
69Seahorsebuild table – Busy times And Finot-Conq are back in the raceboat business
74Seahorse regatta calendar
99 Sailor of the Month Determination plus persistence equal delivery
Well, there’s a thing. Italian entry Ceramica Panaria got a little too much air when leading home in a race around the Isle of Wight. The boat flipped at 100mph, landed on its side then took off again to fly along 25ft above the water. The crew were perfectly fine but were later disqualified for not finishing with all the equipment they started with – having lost part of the engine cover during the excitement (lower right)
INGRID ABERY
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