There is no doubt the Imoca 60 foiler Gitana is very fast indeed. Only making it 25 per cent of the way through the Vendée Globe course in no way diminishes the technical achievement these boats represent – it is more surprising that several of these ‘at the cutting edge’ foilers did get round in one piece so early in the development process. But, as the author highlights, these boats are a tiny part of sailing and we should not allow them to force change on to the rest of the sport – though as a distinct and élite division they are a hell of an advertisement for going afloat
disagree more. Maybe at the showcase end of the sport that will be the case, like canting keels. But for the vast majority sailboat racing does not require servicing of appendage bearings each week, or sending someone aloft each evening to service the halyard locks. And what happens when you pop down to the marina to find that your neighbour isn’t as good at mooring as you expected and used your foil as a fender? Fifteen years ago I remember thinking that by now every boat in the marina would have a canting keel. I’m so glad I was wrong. So where is development heading? I am not asking about the showcase events, but the sport in general. I hope that it will not be rule driven, but driven instead by natural evolution. In that context I do not see more power as the way ahead, with bigger sails, bigger bulbs and higher loads (the Jeremy Clarkson approach, as I call it). As is often the case, we can look at our friends in Brittany to
see a path. The Imoca world started to get powered up about a decade ago. Rigs got taller, bulbs heavier, and the boats looked faster in the VPP. But when you then get one person driving it, efficiency becomes a far bigger factor. While the Imoca rules controlled further development in this direction, I suspect that little was needed. The class would have naturally stepped back and we see recent designs (foiling or not) that are faster in the real world than those overpowered designs proved to be. In the rest of the sport we are seeing more and more boats
racing shorthanded and wanting to race with fewer crew. To make the best of this you don’t power the boat up, you make it more efficient. And this drives me back to the original question about code zeros. Are they the natural evolution for the majority? I hope not. I hope that there is a more efficient solution to going fast when just cracked off, and maybe a better solution to an all-round sail that cuts inventory sizes and just works. This brings me on to a thought about one of the America’s Cup
teams in 2007, who had a sail loft team that referred to themselves as ‘the triangle factor’. With all of this development in sail materials and construction techniques, is a triangle still the most effective starting point? Is a single surface sail really the ultimate? Look at paragliders, kitesurfers and wingsuits. Have they evolved from a triangle and is that where we should continue to focus? Looking back further, do birds’ wings look much like a triangular sail? At one end of the spectrum, quad headsails first appeared (to
my knowledge) in the J Class. Where have they gone? I understand that compared to a code zero they achieve similar performance without the extra drag of the corner and without such enormous loads. The big question with any development that starts outside the box is how to rate it – to get there you first have to measure it. There is always an answer but, rather than approaching IRC or
ORC with the question, best to approach with the question along with a potential answer. IRC generally acknowledges innovation and the IRC Rig Factor can cope with most developments to an extent. This allows the pursuit of ideas with relative freedom. So I hope that in coming years we see developments that are
not looking at ways of getting around rules or that force owners to reach into their pockets to update the whole boat for the sake of one sail. I hope to see developments that make the boat work better overall, for racing and cruising, and encourage more to simply go for a sail. I don’t see our sport developing if we have to get all of our
friends together to wind our way out of a marina full of half- submerged foils, to go for a sail where every part of the boat is straining and the only question is what will break first. Sailing should be about simplicity and efficiency first. James Dadd, project management and rating consultant
SEAHORSE 31
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