Design
Cascade ... when trickledown really is too small a description
The trickle-down effect is supposed to happen slowly but this time its pace is very fast indeed. Just five months after the end of the 36th America’s Cup, Persico Marine launched a fully engineered concept for a 40ft foiling monohull loaded with America’s Cup technology and systems. But the Persico Fly40 isn’t a leading-edge one-off, it’s a one design class for owner-drivers with a fully managed regatta circuit – and the price, and ongoing cost of ownership, is a lot lower than what TP52 owners, for example, are currently paying. It’s a compelling idea and one that Persico is in a uniquely strong position to deliver. ‘We built two boats for Luna Rossa which took a couple of years and we built the one design arms for all the teams,’ says Mark Somerville, general manager at Persico Marine. ‘That’s when the concept was developed. We put in place the technology and tried to capture as much as we could within the AC period to have that trickle-down effect happen as quickly as possible so we can bring this new technology of foiling boats to the public.’ The Fly40 is more than a Luna Rossa spinoff, although their star helmsman Checco Bruni is deeply involved. ‘There aren’t too many people like him that have spent that much time behind the wheel of a boat like this so he is instrumental in every aspect – technically, ergonomically, crew size, whether
66 SEAHORSE
you drive it with a button or a lever, everything goes through him,’ Somerville says.
The design itself is a collaboration between specialists in this field who work with the Italian and New Zealand Cup teams for the 36th AC. A lot of know-how also comes from Persico’s in-house design office which is staffed by sailors, naval architects and engineers with experience in Imocas, Ultims, Ocean Race boats and almost every other high- performance class you can think of. To keep costs under control Persico is wisely holding back the production run until a critical mass of orders are confirmed. ‘Let’s face it, these boats are not cheap, they’re high-end technology,’ Somerville says. ‘A normal boat doesn’t have half the equipment that hangs off the bottom. These things and the controlling mechanisms and systems behind them cost a lot of money. We want to do it properly, we want to do it once and do it right. So we will start building when we have four clients signed.’ ‘We’ve been working since the beginning with some very interested parties and we expect to have contracts in place so we can start building this year and launch the first four boats next season,’ he says. ‘If we start tooling before Christmas we’ll be able to put four or six boats in the water. Realistically you’re looking at four to five months to build one boat. Obviously if you can build them in parallel it’s a much shorter
Above: the Persico Fly40 is a 12-metre foiling mono- hull concept developed directly from the AC75s and due to go into
production before the end of this year. Persico Marine plans to run the class itself as a tightly managed one design racing circuit for
owner-drivers with profes- sional crews
time frame.’
The expertise that Persico brings to this venture is far broader in scope than the America’s Cup projects they’ve been involved in. The company’s one design manufacturing experience is equally relevant and their record of delivering a whole fleet of Volvo 65s with a weight variance of less than 20kg, as well as their meticulously accurate production of the AC75s’ one design foil arms, should give buyers full confidence that all boats in the Fly40 fleet will indeed be created equal.
Why is it a 40-footer? ‘The bigger it is, the more expensive it is,’ Somerville says. ‘You’ve got to hit a market. A 40-footer gets us everything we need performance wise. We started with a blank sheet of paper and first you’ve got to decide what you want to do with the boat. For us, we want grand prix sailing with owner drivers and pros. We don’t need it to be any bigger than this, we’re going to fly very early and hit high top-end numbers that will more than satisfy the needs and requirements of people who like sailing fast.’
Forty feet also makes sense for transport logistics and helps to control the ongoing cost of ownership. ‘The other side of it, which for me is bigger than the actual boat, is that we at Persico are going to manage and organise the class,’ Somerville explains. ‘Not just
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