Foils first
When the creator of the original televised grand prix skiff series Bill Macartney went looking for a new game he told his ‘creative partners’ Morrelli & Melvin to give him a big set of foils, a powerful rig… and only then some trick hulls to float it all
Everything about the new SuperFoiler racing circuit in Australia is about adrenaline-fuelled speed – and that applies as much to the design and technical development of the equipment as to pace around the course. For the Doyle Sails team tasked with producing the horsepower for these high-octane foiling trimarans the challenge was irresistible, despite the tight timeframes for designing, developing and delivering fast one-design sails for the fleet. The SuperFoiler circuit is the
brainchild of Australian father and son duo, Bill and Jack Macartney, and aims to take over the mantle of the highly successful 18ft skiff grand prix circus, which Bill
62 SEAHORSE
Macartney pioneered. They commissioned designers Morrelli & Melvin to come up with a supercharged small foiler, sailed by three people all on trapeze, with a brief to perform in 5-25kt. The result is a hot rod, demanding to sail but capable of speeds up to 40kt. ‘The closest thing to these boats are the America’s Cup foiling multihulls,’ says Pete Melvin. Measuring 7.9m long by 5.1m wide, with a 12.5m mast and 33m2 sail area, they are highly technical with a mass of control systems to master. ‘The power-to-weight ratio is very
high, with a 5m beam and weighing only 250kg,’ says Melvin. ‘Most other boats of comparable size are two to three times heavier.’
Above: working with Morrelli & Melvin and Bill and Jack Macartney to produce the horsepower for the group’s new SuperFoiler was about a great deal more than accurate and well engineered sailmaking. There is little conventional – either above or below the ‘deck’
To bring the concept to reality
Doyle joined forces with Innovation Composites, who built the platforms, and Hall Spars, who supplied the rigs and foils. Doyle CEO Mike Sanderson embraced the concept, describing it as ‘the next level of excitement above the 18-footers and a whole new world’. Says the loft’s design chief
Richard Bouzaid: ‘We started the design work about 18 months ago when the idea of the SuperFoiler circuit got off the ground. We started with an investigation of the relationship between the rig and sails and did a lot of simulation work in that area.’ Developing foiling sails was not
an entirely unknown area for the Doyle team. They purchased one of the 10m foiling catamarans used as testbeds for Emirates Team New Zealand’s 2013 America’s Cup programme and have been regular campaigners against a group of similar-sized foiling multihulls on Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour. ‘Some of the research and development work we did on that boat was of value in this exercise as well,’ says Bouzaid. When the first prototype came
out the Macartneys invited a group of top sailors, including Glenn Ashby, Jimmy Spithill, Nathan Outteridge and others, to put the boat through its paces.
ANDRE FRANCOLINI
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