everywhere does. Generally, to be exciting the boat you sail has to be in contact with the water. A lot of noise and spray and it is this contact and the resulting disturbance of the water that creates the excitement. The SailGP F50 cat is one of a handful of exceptions, but it is a tiny handful. At the smaller end of the scale there are the development class
dinghies. The International 14, the Cherub, the 12 Foot Skiff and in the UK the National 12 and Merlin Rocket all give the owner the chance to express him or herself. And if you are of that frame of mind you can experiment to your heart’s delight. What a shame that the 18ft skiff is now a one-design. Yes, designs in these fleets steadily get quicker but the advances
are usually such that a well-sailed older boat can remain competitive for longer than some believe – especially once design development inevitably levels off. And because development designs are typically better built using better, more durable materials, older boats don’t tend to go soft as quickly as many manufacturer one-designs. If you fancy yourself as a designer these dinghy classes and the many classes of radio yachts that, mostly, employ open design rules are an excellent place to cut your teeth. Where would young design- ers come from if the sailing world were completely one-design? All that said, there is surely room for some more modern
restricted classes, particularly in keelboats. The TP52s remain interesting (I have one or two preliminary designs in my computer!) but they are large boats which restricts their popularity. Although smaller versions of the rule have been tried – GP42 etc – none proved popular. My opinion is that to make a smaller box rule inshore class popular, maximum beam must be savagely restricted so that righting moment comes primarily from keel ballast, not people on the rail, thus making them cheaper to campaign. The other route to level racing in modern boats is to have a
modern formula rule with level rating bands, as the old IOR rule provided. The main problems with the IOR were, in my opinion, due to taxing stability and to guessing displacement by a series of measurements rather than just weighing the boat. This led to those unsightly measurement bumps and humps, as designers tried to fool the rule into thinking that their boat displaced more than it actually did. In today’s ‘measured’ classes weighing boats is the norm and so you will find craft that are boat-shaped rather than a bunch of boxes bolted together. Stability is a factor of speed, but it is also a factor of safety and,
because righting moment almost always comes at a price in drag, other than in respect of hull scantlings it doesn’t need taxing at all. It is fundamentally self-regulating. If you increase waterline beam to raise the metacentre, and thus the length of the righting arm, wetted area and thus viscous drag go up and wave drag rises. If you lower the vertical centre of gravity (VCG) again to increase the length of the righting arm, because it results in a bulb or a bigger keel to hold the necessary ballast, it also raises wetted surface area and viscous drag. And if you increase the weight of ballast, drag rises yet again. Thus, how much righting moment the designer chooses to use is his own concern. It is available to every designer and doesn’t warrant taxing. Like many other enthusiasts, I remain convinced that an IOR V2
with these two factors removed or changed, plus some tidying-up, could still be an attractive proposition for offshore racing – partic- ularly at the international level. It would certainly be better than trying to devise a rating system whose aim is to rate all boats ‘fairly’ no matter the weather conditions… obviously an impossible task. One final thought. Ben Lexcen, in one of his brainwaves, came
up with a novel way of rating a boat. His proposal: that a yacht had to fit into a sphere of a certain diameter. Think about it. To maximise length the hull would have to be midway up the sphere but that would give a very long keel and a very short mast. To make the mast longer and the keel shorter you would have to move the hull lower in the sphere which will make it shorter, but how much longer would the mast have to be and how much shorter the hull to max- imise performance? And then there’s the keel. Make it longer and you increase righting moment but you lower the rig so heeling moment goes down, increasing stability further. Ben of course was a maverick as well as a genius. Imagine if he had been a salesman as well.
SNAPSHOTS Brought to you in association with
q
l Words fail… on attempt no653 to sail solo around the world on his bastardised Imoca the always newsworthy Norbert Sedlacek is back in Les Sables having suffered a failure of his steering/hull/keel/ cuddly toys/rigging/cooker/wi fi/ad infinitum. Fill in as you wish l Apparently… there’s a ‘Double Handed World Offshore Championship’ going on somewhere... l Ten boats… 10 countries and one person (with respect) our exceptionally well-informed readers may have heard of l Honestly… who gives out these event titles? l ‘World Championship’… beer can race (at best) l Hard cash… Imoca update... l New boat… year one including build, 7million euros l Annual campaign costs… 3million euros l New boats on the next Vendée startline… 14 l ‘Peak Imoca’… some say… l Wrong… they said the class was ‘dead!’ when new builds passed one million euros l Why… in France alone 20million people followed the 2020-21 VG daily for a ‘significant amount of time’ l Talking Vendée Globe… the world’s biggest solo race, Denmark’s Silverrudder, was won this year by one Jan Andersen... l 449 rival soloists… raced him in this year’s edition l A minimum age… to turn Pro Sailor, and once Pro that’s it for ever? l Thanks to… Fred Berg for an interesting suggestion (on a postcard) l Bravo, Tom… favourite Tom Laperche dominated this year’s Figaro Solitaire from start to finish… l Head-hunted… and was immediately added to the crew of François Gabart’s controversial Ultim SVR Lazartique l Bravo also… Don McIntyre, race organiser l After… he turned away several wannabe Golden Globe entries for failing to meet safety criteria ‘fully’ l Oops… one who did, however, did not last long: Guy de Boer hit the Canaries soon after the start l Just after… Canadian Ed Walentynowicz declared with great honesty, ‘I’ve had enough’ l That was… on day four (hmm – ed) l In the blood… Yvan (brother of the late Laurent) Bourgnon’s latest mini-escapade was to set a new eight-hour record for Cowes-Dinard l So what… on his Nacra 20 cat l Families… and another one whose mum must have despaired, all her sons insisting on doing crazy things at sea: l Classy gesture… to honour his friend and winner of the 1990 Rhum, 1986 winner Philippe (Philou) Poupon is racing the 2022 race on the VPLP Orma 60 Groupe Pierre 1ère of the late Florence Arthaud l When Arthaud… won the 1990 race that did more for women’s ocean sailing than good intentions and a mission statement will ever do l Renamed ‘Flo’… the golden tri has been beautifully restored and is literally lighting up La Trinité when caught in the morning sun l Fantabulous effort, So Cal… l The 19th Annual Benefit Regatta… in San Diego this year raised a record-breaking $475,000 for Sharp Hospice Care l Better still… fifth overall and first in class was ‘our own’ Scott (Anarchy) Tempesta on the Anarchy V l OK… not literally actually better, but you billions (sic) of Anarchists know what we mean l The USA… is still the most generous nation in the world l Hola!… Volvo veteran Guillermo Altadill is assembling a Spanish group to purchase two AC40s hoping for a future return to the Cup l Overdue props… repentance, admiration… l We have never… been sure of the ‘fortune’ that accompanies Dean Barker as he moves from one Cup team to another l Having been cruelly crushed… in turn by Coutts, Baird, Spithill then Burling in his Cup hopes, losing did seem to be a habit l But but but… not only has ‘Deano’ proved an inspiration and top performer on the thriving Auckland Cherub scene… l But only now… do we discover that throughout preparations for the 2021 Cup with American Magic, Barker was battling bowel cancer… l Having…aggressive treatment that would leave most of us bed-bound l We wish you… and your daughter Mia the very best for another winning season battling Moose, Hooray and offspring l Find a Cherub (or an AC75)…
RaceBoatsOnly.com l Find some crew…
EurosailNews.com
SEAHORSE 15
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130
