Technology
Light enough, fast enough... AND strong enough
As foils become more powerful and generate more righting moment, rig loads increase – and so do the benefits of Doyle’s sail technology
With three round the world races and dozens of long ocean races on his CV, Doyle Sails’ chief designer Richard Bouzaid has come to regard prolonged periods at sea on high performance race yachts as an occupational necessity, more duty than delight. In that professional capacity, over the course of a decade-long association with British solo ace Alex Thomson, he has added thousands more sea miles to his sailing log, testing and refining sails for Alex Thomson Racing campaigns. As offshore environments go, it doesn’t get much tougher than that. With the start of the Vendée Globe scheduled for November, Bouzaid says the new generation Imoca 60 foilers are flying faster than ever. The 2016-17 edition saw a big jump in performance with six entries, all designed by VPLP-Verdier, opting to use foils, four of which took the top four places. Hugo Boss broke three speed records and finished a close 2nd behind Banque Populaire VIII (Armel le Cléac´h), which set a new course record.
In the lead-up to that race and long before a commitment to foiling, Bouzaid joined an investigation by the Alex Thomson Racing team into the concept. The 2013 America’s
74 SEAHORSE
Cup had demonstrated the huge potential of foiling catamarans but the application on monohulls, particularly for round the world solo racing, remained uncertain. ‘We went off sailing on various different types of foiling boats in Europe, up in Switzerland and Denmark in particular,’ Bouzaid recalled. ‘That was before we really started thinking about the sails, or even the style of boat for the Vendée programme, or we knew how fast these boats would be.’
The 2016-17 fleet introduced a foiling revolution, with a performance jump of more than 40 per cent at times over the previous generation. Bouzaid says the 10 boats with the new larger foils in the 30-boat fleet for 2020 show a similar performance leap, in certain conditions 40 per cent faster than the 2016 generation. For the sailmakers, a limit of eight sails including a mandatory storm jib means a relatively small inventory has to cover all eventualities. With the mast positioned well aft, the sailplan is configured around a mainsail and a permanent J2-type headsail on a fractional forestay set about two metres back from the stem. Ahead of this primary headsail are three tack positions along the prod,
Above: the DSS foiler Maverick derives the same
competitive advantage from Doyle Stratis sails as the Imoca 60s that are driving the development of next-gener- ation sail technology. As foils get progressively more power- ful, rig loads increase and the inherent benefits of Doyle’s sail technology – including weight
reduction and improved safety
margins – also become more
substantial
offering options for fractional or masthead Code Zero and reaching and running sails, varying in area from 200m2
to 400m2 . Inside of the
primary headsail, provision is made for a staysail. The reduction in sail numbers is mainly cost-related but the speed of these boats also reduces the number of sails required, much like a multihull. The all-Doyle Hugo Boss inventory is heavily invested in the company’s Structured Luff technology on all the flying sails including the staysails. “They are all lensed sails with luffs projecting forward,’ Bouzaid says. ’They are so effective on Imocas, which have high righting moment and low rig tension (about seven tons on the primary headstay). Anything you can do to reduce headstay sag and make the sails work more efficiently under relatively low loads is always going to be a big gain.’ Even with the larger foils on the 2020 generation yachts producing more righting moment (and thus more rig loading) the safety margins are improved with Structured Luff technology over conventional sails. The weight reduction achieved by Doyle Sails technology brings additional advantages. ‘Weight saving remains very important, more
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