Spot the difference... not hard. On the left is Holcim PRB in her original orange livery, best described as a 2020V2 Verdier design, produced like 11th Hour and Biotherm as an interim design package but lacking the later, newer thinking that was introduced for Charlie Dalin’s new Macif. With a flat forward underbody and relatively wide beam at the waterline, PRB contrasts dramatically with Thomas Ruyant’s Koch-Finot For People with its deeper veed forefoot and wineglass sections. A complete change of philosophy that is already proving very fast. Ominous for some, especially as there are two of them
Their system works very well in their target range of use. But it generates other problems at other times. In particular their system is very dependent on the angle of heel. I expect it works very well when the boat is flat. But when she heels it generates these sporadic ‘off-axis’ forces. Upwind Charal 2 is an excellent com- promise in terms of speed and height, as we saw going into the Channel at the start of the TJV. Upwind against Charal Thomas [Ruyant] could only foot as fast as possible towards the expected right-hand shift… and this is what got him first into Biscay. SH: Let’s talk about elevators (which are
still prohibited in the Imoca class). AK: It looks like the obvious next step in the class… but it is a bigger question than some people believe. Currently the average speed of the Imocas is 27/28kt, which is also the point when control-stability begins to become a problem. Instability is a limiting factor at speed. With elevators this speed would increase from 28kt to 35/37kt. The foiler skippers, myself included, are not feel- ing very motivated to venture into the Vendée Globe at such speeds! You have a kinetic energy problem that’s growing with the square of speed. So moving from 28 to 35kt you double the kinetic energy and
therefore you also double all the structural problems and the risk of injury to the sailor. And we are already at the limit in terms of safety with the existing boats… SH: The big takeaways from the TJV? AK: There are plenty of lessons. Greater finesse with the sail trim, the keel angle, the angle of the foils… The behaviour of the boats and their speeds now vary con- siderably with just small variations in settings. There was a lot of learning on this race but even more was learnt afterwards during the solo Retour à la Base. In some areas you are always more advanced than others. In terms of structural evolution of the boats we have been lucky to be able to sail a lot since March and to have identified the positives and negatives (a minus was having to strengthen the bottom of Arkéa Paprec and For People, forced to retire while leading the Fastnet fleet). We have already designed the foils for the Vendée Globe. The designs were fin- ished just before the start of the TJV with the objective of improving upwind perfor- mance in the 14kt wind range (the ‘hole’ we mentioned); that is to say obtain better VMG without losing our advantage when footing off (actually, we will work on upwind sailing generally as Charal looks very strong to windward). You also want a slightly different type of foil for solo sail- ing; we aim for a slightly lower flight height and better automatic-adjustment at altitude. Finally, we are also working on the ballast configuration, to make the boat simpler to operate when on your own.
FOR ALL YOUR SAILING INSURANCE NEEDS HAVE YOU CONSIDERED?
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Call or email us to discuss a quote for your protection & peace of mind
Neil Coxon Email:
njc@lexrisks.com Tel: +44 (0) 7553 264890
www.lexrisks.com SEAHORSE 57
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