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Editorial Andrew Hurst Time to get (more) serious
In last month’s issue multihull designer Renaud Bañuls presented a forward-thinking article about the rising number of strikes to and from mammals to racing yachts. Better mammal-avoidance tech- nology and routeing strategies that avoid high-risk areas should, I hope, start to produce safer sailing in the next few years but there is a long way to go.
The experiences of yachts in the Arkéa Ultim Challenge demon-
strated how much we need to prioritise this topic. All the Ultims reported ‘strikes’ necessitating delays for repairs or, in the case of poor Tom Laperche, retirement from the race. I have long been cognisant that this is a major problem for ocean
voyages of all types and I was an early adopter of Patrice Carpentier’s mantra that ‘a UFO is a large mammal’, not some inanimate object. Jules Verne Trophy winner and MOD70 regular Brian Thompson puts it equally eloquently: ‘Every time you hit something it feels very sad.’ So was I up to speed with this growing problem? Not even close.
An old friend was recently explaining his cruising plans for the next couple of years. So far so nothing, really. He sails a large Finnish- built yacht of excellent provenance and does not scare easily. But after two years in the Med his recent trip through the Straits
of Gibraltar taking his yacht round to winter in Portugal proved a game changer. Multiple Orca attacks that were fended off continually over a 12-hour period by various methods, followed by the same thing all over again the following day. Terrifying until you get used to it… but who wants to do that? Warnings of intense Orca activity were being sent out around the tips of Spain and Morocco, and right up the Atlantic coast into Biscay. My buddy is off to northern climes for a couple of seasons, away from the Med, the Atlantic and any other Orca hotspots. To quote him in full, ‘Andrew, it’s a real thing; and it’s quickly getting worse.’ Honestly, I had no idea.
Perfect fit Prompted by more Ocean Fifty drama in the TJV last month we again bemoaned the lack of a replacement for the larger and more reliable Orma 60s. Then we read Brian Thompson’s excellent piece on MOD70 sailing in this issue (pg21)… Duuh! Reliable 70ft tris, racking up tens of thousands of high-speed miles
to build his Class40 Pirelli Alla Grande hit gold first time out. Within a few months there will be at least four more baby Pirellis joining the fleet, all built at the same Genoa shipyard set up for the task. In the Mini Transat Federico Waksman from Uruguay won the Proto
Division with a well-prepared but older David Raison design – the same boat that Pierre Leroy used to win in 2021. However, in the runner-up slot was his tuning rival, Carlos Manera
of Spain, sailing the ultimate Swiss Army Knife design from Sam Man- uard. Manera’s new Mini features four foils in total, daggerboards for the lighter stuff which are then retracted with C-foils ready to be lowered as the breeze increases. This is a first test of Manuard’s latest ideas. Just thinking about where Sam goes from here makes me dizzy. Could this be a case of ‘if four foils are right then everyone else
is wrong’? Much as I love innovation, part of me hopes that in this instance it does not turn out that way.
Family frightener (another one) As Julian Everitt recalls (pg61) the Iroquois ‘cruising’ cat designed by Rod Macalpine-Downie in the early 1960s and production-built by Tornado Olympic gold medallist Reg White was, in hindsight, so far ahead of its time as to be ridiculous. Examples of this rapid design won races, cruised extensively and one example even completed a circumnavigation. Some tipped in from time to time but no one died and most were righted and later carried on. That for some they were a bit too rapid and tippy prompted a de-tuned Mk II version which also proved popular. But observers of today’s beautiful big cats from HH, Gunboat and the like should look again in wonder at this little and surprisingly commodious ancestor. It deserves nothing less. I had my first ‘offshore racing’ experience in an Iroquois Mk I during
without any structural problems. And in the best hands now with a vanishingly small risk of capsize. Can be bought for less than half a new TP52 and the running costs are similarly at least 50 per cent less. Huge fun to sail around on, more fun to race. MOD70 owners need to take a fresh look in the mirror. You’re onto
a great thing here! Get some prices for building a few new boats, agree a mixed inshore-offshore race programme and shout louder than Luca Rizzotti’s guys who are selling their equally fab AC40s to private owners. The MOD70 design may be 12 years old, but it’s still better than anything else out there offering close high-speed ocean racing with better reliability than even the Orma 60s could dream of.
Merde! Italy dominating the Class40 and winning the Mini Transat in the Series Division. Uruguay and Spain taking first and second in the Proto Division. And then there are the boats… the design and build team that exceptional Italian skipper Ambrogio Beccaria assembled
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Designer Philippe Briand (centre) and two French engineers look on as France 2 capsizes after her keel detaches in San Diego 1995
a windy Round the Island Race in the mid-1970s. Fortunately there were a couple of good cat sailors onboard. I remember how exciting it all was, one hull up, the other burying back to the crossbeams. In later years I did breezy laps on an Orma 60, an Irens Formula 40 and the mighty PlayStation. All were dull by comparison. You’ll not have more fun for the $15,000-odd an Iroquois will cost you today.
SIXTY YEARS ON AND WHAT HAVE I LEARNT? That you start out playing rock and roll so you can have sex and do drugs, but you end up doing drugs so you can still play rock and
roll and have sex – Mick Jagger is 80
COOLER THAN CLAPTON I’ve been trying to keep
from getting bored – Charles Caudrelier, Gitana Ultim
Cleaning my boat, watching films, reading a little on my tablet, but the vibration makes it tricky sometimes. If I
AND UNHURRIED There is 60-70kt+ off Cape Horn so I have
q
decided to be patient – Caudrelier With the Antarctic Exclusion Zone it is an
ambush with no escape – Caudrelier For two days I shall wait, I am still smiling!
FLIPSIDE I was devasted, I just
exploded – Tom Laperche retires SVR Lazartigue
relax I worry more – Caudrelier I had my little problems, I have a sensor on the daggerboard that doesn’t work and I have to adjust it by feel. These things are a bit annoying but that doesn’t stop me from
going fast forward – Caudrelier
In a fraction of a second your whole
out in pure rage – Laperche
world has collapsed – Laperche I screamed my lungs
RIGHT SIZED Whoopee! – Astronaut Pete Conrad steps onto the moon
Man, that may have been a small one for Neil [Armstrong] but
that’s a long one for me – Pete Conrad is 5ft6in
SEAHORSE 11
GILLES MARTIN-RAGET
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