PHASE TWO – Terry Hutchinson A windy September day in Auckland and at American Magic we are coming off an eight-week training block. It has been a good period of development and as I write I am also reflecting on how much there is still to learn. The AC75 is an absolute beast of a boat. It generates righting moment and stability like nothing I have ever sailed, and it is impressively fast. Developing the world’s fastest monohull in isolation is difficult


in the best of times. Unlike days of old when there were two boats and the testing could be quantified not only by the science but by the sailor’s eye developing one boat is hard. It requires incredibly accurate wind solutions and great people behind the science. At American Magic we are fortunate to have the likes of Chad Turner and José Luis Vela (aka Jos) leading, developing and analysing the instruments and performance of Defiant. Following the testing plans of manager Anderson Reggio, the


team get into the day-in day-out routine of training. These boats eat people and as a sailing team American Magic has 19 sailors. Each day to get any meaningful time there is a rotation of three to five grinders halfway through training. As a sailor within the pool of grinders it is awesome to experience this side of our sport. Obviously pretty far from our strongest athletes, you can say that the sailing produces a certain level of adrenaline that is unmatched. The best conditions are 16-20kt of true wind speed, windy enough


to go really fast and yet not completely out of control – at least from the observer’s point of view, Dean [Barker] might have a different perspective. I have never experienced the G forces that we have on this boat. You are whipped around like a rag doll with no ability to hang onto the grinding pedestal and yet you get right back into place and start spinning, knowing that we need the oil pressure to control the yacht. All I can say, it is an incredible side of the sport that I am grateful to have the opportunity to experience. The level of complexity in the boat speaks directly to the cost


and the potential reasoning behind the limited entries. As we have got further into the event you also realise that the competition is hardly just on the water. Much has been written about the dysfunc- tion between the Defender and Challenger of Record and as we are learning that is just part of the competition – disappointingly so! This side of it is a missed opportunity. I think when you look back


at history, and the possibilities of improving the future of our sport, at a certain point whoever is the Cup holder needs to decide the mentality of the defence. Is it a defend at all cost or for the better - ment of sport? I have not quite decided here the mentality as we don’t know what the show will look like in 2021. The boats are impressive and so that in itself is a tick towards promoting the sport. But it is hard to see the trickledown and benefits of this technology to the weekend sailors. Happy to be proved wrong and, as I said, grateful to have this experience as sailing around at incredible speeds is awesome! On deck is Patriot. We look forward to getting her out on the water


late in the month of October. The clock is ticking! Standing by Auckland, NZ, 28 September


SHE IS A SCOW! – Patrice Carpentier The Défi Azimut brings the Imoca fleet together in Lorient every year for an original exercise over four days: Day 1 is devoted to speed runs over a distance of 1nm. Days 2 and 3 were dedicated this year to a 500-mile solo race (plus a ‘safety officer’ onboard) and Day 4 to a crewed race around the island of Groix. The event brings together the ocean skippers for a few days’ fun


sailing (20 Imocas were present) and a useful public relations exercise less than two months before the start of the Vendée Globe. There are not any real sporting stakes… except that all these skippers are competitors and whatever the circumstances we will always try to go faster than the nearest boat. I had the privilege of being invited for a run aboard Armel Tripon’s


L'Occitane, designed by Sam Manuard, and it was magic. The tem- perature is nine-degrees, the sky sunny and the surface of the water barely ruffled by a wind of 12kt. The sailing boats leave one after the other, launched at their maximum speed for an intense three


Built at Lalou Roucayrol’s shipyard and designed by Romaric Neyhousser Arkema 4 is the first new Multi50 for some time and marks a new generation for this specialist class. There is a big focus on windage – the beam fairings are quite heavy but the design team found that the windage benefits outweigh the extra weight (which on a tri is saying something). The X-beam layout is reminiscent of the final Orma 60 trimarans. Plentiful use was also made of Arkema’s green composite materials in the build


to four-minute run. We sail with a TWA of 100°, the sea is flat, our black boat carries a fractional code O (FR0), a J3 as a staysail and full main. The sails are trimmed for a close reach, the leeward foil is fully extended and the keel canted. Where I am sitting on the deck (the boat is so simple!) I am watch-


ing the tip of the foil that rises as the boat accelerates. A hoarse whistle accompanies us. All of a sudden the wind strengthens a bit, the heel increases, I hear an order from Armel to reduce the cant of the keel and simultaneously an alarm sounds, the one coming from the outrigger which warns of an overstrain on the rig. The boat slows down and this run is certainly not the best… For the next run I watch the new boat from the outside on a rubber


boat. The boat lifts up like a futuristic weapon with the same sails as before but without the J3. The view is striking. L’Occitane looks like a flying saucer. The bow of the scow is far above the water, the boat leans completely onto the foil but does not heel much at all. She looks horizontal and flat on the water. Onboard the RIB the GPS indicates 23kt of speed. But it barely


changes and the gas handle remains motionless except for a moment when in an puff L’Occitane quickly overtakes us… The result speaks for itself. The official speed recorded on this run is 23.35kt for the Manuard


design, almost 2kt faster than Linkedout, second, andArkea Paprec, third, whose skipper must be very happy after his repeated foil failures. The first boat without foils, V&B Mayenne, is only the 12th fastest with a run of 15.71kt. Almost 8kt difference from L’Occitane! You cannot help but think of the huge gaps that will open up on the Vendée Globe, even if in Lorient the foilers had the perfect con- ditions – wind 12-14kt and flat sea – that favour them outrageously. But in the long solo race the day afterwards the foilers will once


again sail away on the first segment of the course. Then the wind will moderate. The foilers won’t get away sailing upwind in the light airs. Near the finish line the wind falls completely. Jérémie Beyou, whose Charal no longer displays the insolent superiority that we knew before, went very close to the island of Groix in the hope of protecting his pride! And, yes, he finished first in front of three women: Sam Davies, Isabelle Joschke and then Clarisse Crémer, decidedly at ease on her Banque Populaire without foils. Sunday 13 September, the Azimut Challenge ends with the round-


ing of the island of Groix. There is still very little wind. Kevin Escoffier at the helm of the ‘old’ PRB, but a very light Imoca now equipped with foils, takes his revenge on the 500-mile race he was about to win before the wind failed, and cuts the line in front of Apivia, followed by V&B Mayenne and Sam Davies, who doesn’t start brilliantly but actually finishes very well in both races. The 2020 Vendée Globe will be an interesting one.


OUT OF MY COMFORT ZONE – Simon Fry As Baz Luhrmann so eloquently said in his 1980s hit, ‘Every day for the rest of your life do one thing each day that scares you.’ Now 


SEAHORSE 15


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