Design
Push each other on
Within the space of just a few weeks two of the most aggressively campaigned big trimarans had between them broken and re-broken two great ocean racing records no less than four times
The MOD 70 trimaran class has history and form, plenty of both. In total, seven boats have been built, all are still sailing and some are still setting records. Peter Cunningham’s distinctive blue PowerPlay (formerly Concise), and now actively for sale as a turnkey package, is among those that continue to lead the charge, having recently set new records over the Fastnet racecourse and the classic Cowes to St Malo route. But in a clear indication of just how
competitive this unique fleet of ocean- going trimarans continues to be, it took little time for a sistership to up the ante. In the case of the Cowes-St Malo route, it was just minutes before Maserati had broken PowerPlay’s new record after the pair had set out on the same morning from the Solent in a cross-Channel duel.
Cunningham and his crew, led by longtime MOD70 skipper Ned Collier- Wakefield, set an extraordinary pace around the traditional Fastnet racecourse. A month later Maserati did the double and raised the bar even further, beating PowerPlay’s time by over an hour, completing the 605nm-course in a staggering 23 hours, 51 minutes and 16 seconds at an average speed of 24.94kts. To have held an impressive record across an internationally famous
92 SEAHORSE
offshore route for such a short period of time was doubtless frustrating for the PowerPlay crew, yet the ongoing rivalry is another reminder as to why the MOD70 continues to be an appealing and reliable inshore and offshore machine. Unlike other designs, the MOD70 hasn’t just kept pace with current developments, but in many cases has led the way. The world of performance sailing has advanced rapidly over the last decade with speeds accelerating both inshore and offshore. The development of foil technology, driven initially by the big changes in the build-up to the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco, saw the 72ft foiling leviathans raise the racing above the water’s surface taking the top speeds with them. Then, the following season, the wing-masted AC45s were up on foils as the Cup looked ahead to another high-speed foiling event.
The technology triggered responses throughout the racing world with foiling finding its way into offshore racing aboard the Ultime class of 32m multihulls as well as the Imoca 60 monohulls. Everyone it seemed wanted to fly.
Meanwhile, the MOD70s appeared to be still operating in displacement mode yet in reality their C-section
Top: the MOD70
PowerPlay recently broke two ocean racing records. Above:
PowerPlayʼs owner Peter Cunningham is not giving up until he hits at least 40 knots on the helm
daggerboards had already been quietly providing foiling assistance, generating vertical lift that was not only increasing the power through additional righting moment but also helping to prevent the bows from burying at speed. While they may not have been seen primarily as foiling boats, the lessons learned aboard the MOD70s, especially in offshore conditions, were being fed back into the system helping to fuel the high- speed revolution.
The original concept of the MOD70 started back in 2009 as a one-design oceanic racer. The aim was to build a boat which would be the standard for the next 10 years. The development of the MOD70 was a collaboration between the VPLP design firm (Vincent Lauriot-Prévost and Marc Van Peteghem) and the
ABNER KINGMAN
MARK LLOYD
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