Martin Billoch’s latest design is coming together at M Yachts in Argentina with help from Billoch’s family who are staying tightly involved in the creation of a very personal yacht for themselves. It will be fascinating to see how a relatively free-range design like this performs at the worlds in Newport, RI against optimised IRC and ORC designs. Interestingly, Billoch has gone for a trapezoid fin keel with no bulb, as remains the preferred choice on the best small to mid-sized IRC designs – especially from French names like Nivelt, JPK, Lombard and Jeanneau. The rather attractive sunken-deck arrangement lowers the CG – though it cramps headroom a little – and allows one guard rail to meet the offshore special regs requirements for a maximum vertical span of 38cm. With a 4in gunwale hiking in Newport may prove fairly limited…
top of the rail is kept at 10cm wide where some hiking may be needed – tapering to flush forward and aft where it’s not relevant. Maybe 10cm is a little narrow a hiking perch for some of us with old arses, but for the young and athletic Billoch thinks it’s just fine… but he’s also fitter than many of us his age, having represented Argentina in the 470 class at the Savannah Olympics where he finished in a respectable eighth place.
The Billoch-Zerbo 33 has other on-deck innovations to ensure simplicity without losing function, such as a floating tack arrange- ment that allows easy regular adjustment to headsail luff tension without the use of a winch. In fact, the entire deck layout is designed to reduce weight, expense and above all complication with only two winches handling all the headsail and spinnaker sheets, while for the mainsheet a purchase system without a traveller is employed, with leech tension controlled using a powerful vang. Interestingly, one notices a lack of a bowsprit on this boat, which means the downwind sail plan relies on (gasp) a symmetrical spin- naker with pole. Billoch explained this is intentional as well, given that the ORC/IRC Worlds (like most ORC championship events) will consist of six windward/leeward course races and only two offshore races in the format, and being in Newport probably raced in light to moderate non-planing conditions.
‘I look at this boat as having a nice forgiving design, easy to sail with a good crew and rewarding for those who know how to shift gears in these conditions, but ready also to keep going offshore
if the weather gets rough,’ he said. ‘This is not a sportboat, and even though it’s built light the dry displacement is over 3,000kg.’ Yes, that’s right, more than 3,000kg on a 33-footer, not light. Yet this weight will not be put into a bulb to enhance stability: in fact, the keel in planform looks rather old-fashioned in trapezoid- shaped lead with no bulb, reminiscent of the old IOR keels from decades ago. Even the top of the high-aspect carbon rudder starts to resemble the keel with the addition of elongated fairing fillets. Billoch expects to add up to 500kg of lead internal ballast at the boat’s CG to set her on lines optimised for VMG racing. And on a theme of minimal complication and expense, the hull and deck are built in E-glass, foam and epoxy – all of course vacuum bagged to ensure good saturation and adhesion. In addition, the hull has an impressive internal sub-frame structure with carbon reinforcement to take the rig and keel loads, which along with the bulkheads were fabricated with help from the local composite engi- neering talent that for years was actively producing raceboats, struc- tures and spars for King Marine, King Composites, M Yachts and others – many of them remaining active providing composite com- ponents and structures for marine, agriculture and other sectors. It is this talent that has also produced the boat’s carbon spars and associated parts, carbon standing rigging, pre-preg carbon rudder and tiller, and the boat’s carbon bulkheads. This represents a sensible use of expensive high-tech materials: carbon is only used where strength and light weight are paramount. As for design guidance, Billoch said, ‘I like working within the ORC rule. Personally it is my favourite rule formula because it’s fair and predictable and is able to rate features in the design that other rules either ignore or penalise. By comparison, having a single number is to me like the old IOR days where you either get it right or you get it wrong.’
We look forward to seeing photos soon of the Billoch family sail testing their dream. I hope that when they get to Newport they’re able to realise that if this boat is fun to sail, keeps the family together, raises some eyebrows and is reasonably competitive at the world championship, then for sure they got it right. Martin Billoch and Dobbs Davis
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SEAHORSE 35
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