Calafat explains his TP design thoughts for 2022: ‘We have been
happy with the flying shapes we had last year so we have very much stuck to the same concepts and panel layouts. ‘Every year there are little tricks regardless of where you work
or what you are building. So you do what has to be done. But I don’t expect any change of flying shapes or anything major. Instead we have been working more than anything on the structures.’ He highlights, ‘In such a refined class as the TP52 it becomes
about relying on your boat then focusing on how the trimmers work together more than the brand of sails. It is about understanding what the boat needs and what the trimmers need. But obviously there is still the line where there is a difference between the Botín and the Vrolijk designs, they are different animals. ‘We have been discussing things and trying to improve the
uprange performance of our Vrolijk design, but we don’t want to lose our excellent light-airs performance… so really we have ended up not doing very much at all! We updated a few little bits of the rigging but nothing major.’ Quantum should be pleased to have three teams using their
sails this season, Tony Langley’s Gladiator returning to the green and black and the Whitcraft family from Thailand setting out on their first full season with the support of the Quantum three-boat pro- gramme. Without doubt their set-up is now well proven, even if latterly the flow of information between Platoon and Quantum is said to have flowed mainly in one direction!
Racing team as we own all of our IP. Platoon really did not share very much information with other teams, even though we worked together. But they used everything we gave them… And that has been one of our promises to clients: that we will share every second of data from Quantum Racing that we can because we own it all! ‘We feel very confident. We have proof of concept. Tony Langley
has encouraged the team to come back to Quantum because he says it was the best year he’s ever had, they had the best results, largely because of the process we had put together for them. ‘As a sailmaker I have to say sails are important but the most
important thing is the documentation, the data that drives you to make good decisions on the race course and decisions on your set up. I am pretty sure that no one outside an America’s Cup pro- gramme has yet taken it to this level.’ Coaching and technical support have increased significantly over
10 years. Looking at it from a unique position is Sled’s evergreen Rod Davis, who has been in the coach boat for three of the series’s outstanding championship-winning TP52 teams, Emirates Team New Zealand, Azzurra and then in 2021 Sled. Davis’s experience and respect are key. He is big on quiet
observation and defining key priorities but he too notes how things have changed: ‘It has evolved each year so that there is more help and support for the sailors. When we started with Sled we had a rented chase boat loaded with sails and two of us on it, the boat captain and me... Now we own a big chase boat with all the race boat information coming to us all the time. Now there are four of us, driver, rigger, coach, performance analyst. We always bet… what time will we actually start? Which team will be fourth… Maybe we have a betting problem! ‘My biggest focus is [team owner
and helmsman] Mr Okura, helping him steer the boat better, crunch the num- bers better and to adapt better across different conditions. That is my number one priority. ‘If Mr Okura is not there then I try to
make sure the rest of the afterguard are all singing from the same playbook. ‘We will have Francesco Bruni again
this year. The two of us have sailed together for 20 years, I have coached him and crewed with him and we get along really nicely. It is a nice mix. ‘Sled is a very easy team to try to
The Super Series fleet lined up in Menorca last year looking every inch the premier grand prix class it continues to represent. In terms of inshore competition the sailing standard in the fleet and closeness of the racing are as good as it gets outside the America’s Cup. Development has levelled off, tweaks to sails and foils now being the norm rather than bigger changes. The boats themselves also remain fiercely competitive in their second lives in IRC and ORC events
Nevertheless the Quantum squad’s level of data collection and
analysis under James Lyne is a proven fast track to reach the best performance as quickly as possible. Both these Quantum boats will have their own designers – Andy Estcourt on Gladiatorand Mário Trindade with Vayu who will also take on a coaching role. Ed Reynolds, Quantum Racing’s programme director, contends,
‘The whole thing about sail development is about understanding your base line and from that base line it is about listening to the sailors. We brought Andy [Estcourt] up through the process. I believe he will bring a lot of that expertise to the Gladiator programme. ‘Then we have a really smart guy who has come out of South -
ampton, Mário Trindade, who is a J/70 World Champion and very strong technically; it was us who also pushed for his dual coaching role.’ James Lyne will of course oversee each of the three teams ‘Our focus as a company is always to give the best possible
support. We make sails and of course the “triangles” are important, but it is the data that is input to use them most effectively – where you are strong, where you are weak – that wins regattas.’ Reynolds continues, ‘We are in a unique position with the Quantum
44 SEAHORSE
coach because there are no egos and they are happy to work together and really share the information, each one putting their cards on the table. ‘My job is to make sure we come to
conclusions and everybody has input. Collectively we have all the correct
answers within this group, we have the experience and skills here, we just have to get them out. ‘My strengths are knowing what the high priorities are for winning
regattas, what the most important things are that we need to execute and making sure that we get the most out of our players, both indi- vidually and as a team. I spend a lot of time setting up the right environment to get the best out of them. ‘I think a lot of coaches do what I would call overcoaching, too
much data, too much information, and sometimes the sailors close down because there is such a bombardment of videos, pictures… and meetings! It is like an onion, you are trying to peel back the layers, not trying to add layers and make it more complicated!! ‘And the TP52s are a real point-and-shoot scenario. We get to
the regatta and there are three days of practice and not a lot of development time. So we talk about development and, sure, it goes on in the background, but when we are at the regatta it is in the background. Now it is all about starting, boat positioning and sailing technique for all the different conditions.’ Andi Robertson
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