and servicing means we are unique in the industry. For the GB80 we were brought in from the conception of the project, working alongside VPLP, deciding sail plan parameters and defining all the sailing systems. The owner’s preferred sailmaker was North Sails and with an eye on the owner wanting to create something special we were able to work with North Design Services to make this possible. ‘We help with our back catalogue
of knowledge to determine the load case runs for the sail and spar package. The accuracy and speed of the North Sails design suite means that we able to fast-track load results and hardware placement often before the lines plans are finalised. This leads to major acceleration in project decisions and weight saving and ultimately allows more time to design the right custom solutions for the project. The strong collaboration that exists between North Sails and Rigging Projects is a major benefit to our clients.’ ‘It’s a new and exciting era of
sail design we are developing,’ says JB Braun, head of North Sails Design Development. ‘Being able to bring technology we developed for the America’s Cup and implement it in these projects is a great benefit for all sailors.’ Some of the notable Rigging
Projects involvements this year on consultancy and hardware have been the provision for the Gunboat 80, the two new Baltic Yachts launches and the mast hardware for the 152ft Art Explorer catamaran. The new PB72 semi-displacement foiling catamaran and a new 100ft monohull project at Persico are two exciting projects they have been working on together with North
Above: Rigging Projects’ new X Car on the mainsheet track of the Mills 68, Pelotari. Left: Rigging Projects’ jib halyard locks now have integrated load cells. Above right: North Sails’ Design Suite software enabled the Gunboat 80 rig design team to fast-track load results and hardware placement
Design Services, and these are certain to be two of the most exciting launches in 2024. It’s early days for structured
luff mainsails but the Gunboat 80 is already showing that the benefits include easier boat handling alongside the boost in performance. ‘With a normal mainsail you’d be able to change the mast curve by about 120mm, with a structured luff we can overbend the mast another 30 per cent by putting six tons on the cunningham,’ Black explains.’ That extra flattening allows for another level of control not seen before which can help with a steadier hull fly or not having to drop that reef in for another couple of knots’. These gains are significant
enough that Southern Spars deemed it worthwhile – as it was for the America’s Cup boats – to go with high-modulus carbon fibre for Gunboat 80-01’s mast instead of ultra-high modulus carbon, which would have been too stiff to withstand the extra 30 per cent bend. ‘It’s worth giving up some of the weight advantage for the improved sail trimming ability and performance gain of the structured luff mainsail,’ Black says. ‘Being able to work with Southern Spars who designed all the AC masts gave us that confidence to push this tech forward in this arena.’ Quinny Houry, head of North
Sails Palma, who implemented the sail package, says: ‘The mast properties combined with North Sails Helix technology have pushed the design envelope up to America’s Cup levels. These developments bring smaller and yet more versatile sail wardrobes.’ For cruising boats, themajor
advantage of Helix structured luff technology is to reduce the inventory of sails on board. ‘The wind range that each sail works in becomesmuch wider thanks to the ability to change the camber,’ Houry says. On the PB72, as with the Gunboats, we’ve managed to take sails out of an
already small inventory and required sail crossovers to achieve the boat’s VPPs. This is a game changer even for a normal cruising boat.’
So what’s next? ‘For us it’s all about friction,’ Black says. ‘To get the full advantage out of these systems we need to reduce friction and that’s where we are concentrating our R&D efforts in all our product ranges such as the recently released X Glide sheaves. ‘The R&D programme we have
developed has enabled a new mainsheet traveller car to be launched at theMETS trade fair this year. All our boats, not just the foiling ones, are looking for that active edge of trimming and the ability tomove the traveller as fast and easily as possible. Again we’ve gone back to the drawing board, starting from scratch and come up with something unique.We are excited to show this off atMETS and the spin-offs from this tech will lead us into some other industry improvements, so watch this space,’ Black concludes. Success has fuelled rapid
expansion, with 30-40 per cent growth year on year for the last decade, a bespoke running rigging business established at Zaandam in The Netherlands, new service and support teams in Palma, Mallorca and Rhode Island, USA and a recently set up bespoke manufacturing facility for Rigging Projects hardware. All their hardware is nowmanufactured at their HQ in Hampshire, UK. But Black is keen to point out that the key to it all stems fromclose collaboration with other key innovators. ‘The best thing about these projects is all the engineering brains coming together,’ he says. ‘Take PB72, for example, we were working with North Design Services, Southern Spars and Morelli& Melvin. It’s very rewarding for everyone, we each have our role but it’s all a teamgame and we are very lucky to be involved.’
www.riggingprojects.com
❑ SEAHORSE 57
GUNBOAT
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