ORC
One for us
Argentina-based Martin Billoch is well-known for his decades-long design and build talents, in diverse projects ranging from competitive Quarter Ton designs, to the Skud 18 (with Chris Mitchell and Julian Bethwaite) used in Paralympic racing, to box rule GP26s. Recently he joined the classics movement with a current passion for racing Cippino II, the 1948 wood 15m sloop designed by the elder Germán Frers, patriarch to the dynastic design house based in Buenos Aires and Milan, as well as the classic 8-Metre Delphis. Billoch’s best-known intersection with ORC was in the noughties,
when the rating system devised three new classes of boat types intended to attract interest in developing custom and semi-custom designs focused purely on performance – and not the dual-purpose cruiser-racers using the VPP-based system for handicap racing. The GP (Grand Prix) classes were established at 26, 33 and 42ft
in length, with varying tolerances for use of high-tech materials appropriate for the likely market for each class. Whereas GP42s were all-carbon projects that attracted interest from well-funded pro teams, intent on winning class events held alongside the Audi Med Cup, Billoch and others focused on design and build projects in the GP26 class where materials were controlled in an effort to deliver high performance at low cost. The idea had traction, with a good number of boats built over
the years in Argentina, Europe, the USA and Asia, many of which remain active in local racing. Their wide geographic distribution hindered any chance of widespread box rule racing, but their favourable ratings in ORC have kept them competitive and helped support the now popular ORC Sportboat class (this year’s European championship in Istanbul is expecting 50 entries at last count). Billoch’s latest project, however, has strayed away from GP26s
to larger dimensions suitable to his later-in-life interest in racing with his grown sons and daughter both at home and abroad. And not just sailing: they are helping him in the build process as well.
34 SEAHORSE Billoch teamed up with Joaco Zerbo for the design of the new
Billoch-Zerbo 33 now taking shape at M Yachts in San Fernando, Argentina, 20 miles northwest of Buenos Aires at the western extremity of the muddy Río de la Plata. The Billoch family’s direct involvement makes this a very organic, family-friendly project, quite reminiscent of the time decades ago when raceboat design and boatbuilding could be home town affairs and not solely in the hands of a small handful of designers working with even fewer builders. The goal of the Billoch family effort is to get the boat to Newport,
RI in late September to compete in Class C at the ORC/IRC World Championship. ‘Family is important,’ says Billoch. ‘We have been having a lot of fun both sailing in the classics and other boats over the years, and with this project we have the chance to be together and involved at every stage. This is our project so it has challenges, but it’s very fulfilling.’ In a personal one-off project like this the designer/builder has
more of a free hand to experiment, unconstrained by notions of what a series builder may want to sell, so this boat has some rather novel innovations to enhance both performance and practicality. The first item is what appears to be a deck sunken below the
gunwales and an oversized cabin house – and this is precisely what Billoch intended. The house size only looks high but is in fact at a minimum height for below-deck access, while the lowered deck surface pushes its weight down 25cm to help lower the boat’s centre of gravity. The low deck also helps with offshore special regs by reducing
the span between guard rail and ‘gunwale’ to allow the use of just a single guard rail to meet the OSR maximum vertical span of 38cm. The deck edge treatment also permits a much stronger stanchion
attachment, the stanchions now being secured at both the deck itself and the top of these ‘bulwarks’. And while the configuration looks unusual for a racing boat, and seems to inhibit hiking, the
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