steering by wheel.
On the homeward run, with the IOR maxi ketch fully loaded and charging downwind in 20-25kts, he was called up to helm in the middle of the night. ‘I had never steered by instruments before. At first it wasn’t going that well, but Glen Sowry told me to forget about the instruments and trust my instincts. So, I just sailed by feel after that and it went pretty well.’ Well enough that Bannatyne went on to taste his first round-the-world race victory on New Zealand Endeavour. ‘He proved to be a very good driver, a great team player, somebody we needed,’ says Dalton.
Bannatyne’s stellar career was launched. Asked about what keeps drawing him back to ocean racing, he jokes that an ability to quickly forget the bad times is important. More seriously, he thrives on the total concentration required to keep driving hard in that narrow zone between success and failure. ‘Keeping performance high without wiping out is what it’s about,’ he says. Backing up sailing talent is a strong technical grounding. Bannatyne qualified as a mechanical engineer at Auckland University, always with an eye to working in the marine industry. ‘My plan was to work at something like Farr Yacht Design, or somewhere involved with structural engineering on racing yachts, so it fits perfectly with the work I do now with Doyle Sails. ‘I have used my engineering background a lot in my pro sailing career, working as liaison between designers, engineers and the sailing team. It is good to have a common language and understanding of the technical side of things.
Above: the major refit and DSS foil retrofit of the Reichel/Pugh 60 Wild Joe was another Doyle Sails/ Infiniti Yachts collaboration in which Bannatyne played a
leading role. Top right: Bannatyne recently won the 2021 Transpac Race as
tactician and watch leader aboard the Pac 52
Warrior Won after a longer- term role
managing the boat’s rating optimisation for multiple rules and
developing its sail wardrobe
‘It is a very satisfying part of what I can bring to sailing programmes, to go a little more in-depth into the technical aspects of whatever we are developing, whether it is sails, or masts or even boat structures. Also, coming at it from a sailor’s perspective I can work to ensure that we end up with a usable and practical solution without building it too heavy, or cumbersome.’ All of Bannatyne’s talents and expertise have been marshalled for an exciting new grand prix level yacht that is the first to be designed from the outset to utilise all the benefits of Doyle Sails Structured Luff and Cableless technology. This is the Infiniti 52, designed by Hugh Welbourn with a fixed keel and a single DSS foil. It is the brainchild of Infiniti Yachts owner Gordon Kay. Bannatyne had worked on two previous Infiniti projects, the 46- footer Maverick, and a significant refit and DSS retrofit on the Reichel- Pugh 60-footer, Wild Joe. ‘Gordon Kay wanted to bring a 52-footer to market requiring fewer crew than the TP52s and targeted towards coastal and offshore events like the Fastnet, Sydney-Hobart, Caribbean 600, Transpac and Transatlantic races,’ says Bannatyne. ‘My responsibility was for the rig and sailplan. ‘Gordon has seen the Structured Luff and Cableless sail technology we introduced on Maverick and Wild Joe. He has totally bought into the technology and was keen to incorporate that to the fullest extent possible with the Infiniti 52 project. ‘We have been able to realise some pretty nice weight savings: lighter structure, lighter mast, lighter and lower profile rigging, lower loads
throughout. We are looking at a 30 per cent reduction in rig compression and forestay load for the same headsail luff profile of a TP52 .’ Bannatyne describes working with Welbourn as a very collaborative process. Welbourn provided a preliminary VPP based on a basic sail-set he uses as a design starting point. Doyle Sails then refined the VPP for its Structured Luff and Cableless technology and fed that back to Welbourn. At the same time, Doyle Sails worked closely with sparmaker NZ Rigging, providing load studies and rig tuning suggestions based on its CFD tools.
‘It was an iterative process that worked extremely well,’ Bannatyne says of the dialogue that went back and forth, banking the gains each technology partner was able to bring to the project. Some of these gains were to focus on reaching and downwind performance, considering the type of offshore racing envisaged for these boats and the conditions in which the DSS foil would provide the greatest advantage. ‘Upwind performance is also important so Hugh applied a lot of attention to the keel and rudder optimisation and the balance of the boat.’
Two boats were bought off the plans and the first, for the Finnish Tulikettu Racing programme, was due to begin sail trials and testing in England towards the end of 2021. ‘A lot of interested parties are lining up to see how this turns out,’ says Bannatyne. ‘This is breaking new ground in the sense that it is the first to combine Hugh Welbourn’s DSS technology and Doyle Sails Structured Luff and Cableless technology in a project designed from the outset to gain maximum benefit from both. ‘It’s evolution, not revolution,’ he adds. ‘These concepts are well proven on a lot of race boats already. Bringing them together in this fully committed application takes us further down the evolution path.”
www.doylesails.com
q SEAHORSE 79
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