Design
A black pearl indeed
Ordering a new boat for a full offshore race programme narrows the field when it comes to selecting a builder who will ensure that you receive a boat that is both reliable enough as well as fast enough to do the job
In ocean racing the name Black Pearl is synonymous with excellence. This is a mature team led by owner Stefan Jentzsch whose racing interest is almost exclusively offshore. He and team manager, Marc Lagesse, bring together an impressive veteran crew whose CVs are littered with multiple Volvo Ocean races, even Whitbreads, not to mention dozens of Fastnets, Transatlantics even a few America’s Cups. It's a small and tight group who enjoy their racing at a high level. It’s therefore unsurprising the team’s choice of boatbuilder for the latest Black Pearl was going to be a builder who shares the same dedication, passion and fastidious attention to detail that this team has while on the water. For Black Pearl the obvious choice was King Marine.
Over the last few years the team has ticked off class and overall wins in numerous classic races, including last year’s difficult Middle Sea Race and in 2017 the Cape to Rio Race. The latter is an impressive feat for this triennial 3600-mile race across the South Atlantic considering they raced a Carkeek 47, not a Maxi. This team prefers racing offshore with a group that’s small but versatile, trading some creature comforts to maintain this tight footprint. And in no way does small size correlate to
68 SEAHORSE
diminished interest in their results: this is one of the best-prepared teams racing offshore today. ‘We certainly had a lot of fun and success in the five years we sailed the 47,’ Lagesse explains. ‘At the time this boat was available for us it worked into our schedule on a short timeline. However, our interests have evolved into wanting a boat just a little larger that could have just a little more comfort while racing offshore. Our brief to our candidate designers was for a fast offshore boat between 53ft up to Open 60 sizing and it had to be sailable by a crew of less than 10.”
Among several credible options, the team chose Botín Partners, in part because of their success in TP52 designs, but also their more recent successful offshore designs and fertile ideas on matching design concepts with functional realities. The decision to have a design drawn at 56ft represented their ideal optimum size and rating for their intended programme of racing: the classic 600- milers such as the Caribbean 600 along with the occasional ocean race like the Transpac.
‘This team know exactly what they wanted,’ said Adolfo Carrau of Botín. ‘They had five years of collected performance data so they knew the
Above: the next-genera- tion Black Pearl is a 56-footer designed by Botín and built to a very high spec by King Marine. Despite a few obvious parallels with the highly successful Botín/King TP52s, this boat is com- prehensively optimised for offshore racing, based on five years of compiled performance data. Key features include a fixed keel and cleverly designed water ballast system
average range of conditions to target in the design. They knew that TP52s rate well but they wanted a boat a little larger, yet not so large that a canting keel was going to be cost- effective for rating. So we opted for a fixed keel design with water ballast used to compensate for the smaller hiked crew.
‘And unlike the TPs, their offshore programme meant the boat had to be completely waterproof yet also lightweight and strong. There are many details needed to keep a high- speed boat like this waterproof, so deck design is really important. Many builders underestimate the effort needed to achieve this, but with Marc working with King Marine build manager Tony Evans and Black Pearl technical consultant Micky Costa, they have been able to achieve success.’
Lagesse agrees it’s this attention to detail where King Marine really excels. He says the atmosphere at King Marine is one of collaboration and not simply taking what’s proposed from the builder then fighting through detailed redesigns. ‘Micky and I could sit alongside the technical team and co-design the details in real time rather than endless iterations of shared drafts passed among all parties. And when
JULIAN LUCCA/LUNA MARIANI
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
