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suddenly rose up out of the water from skimming to foiling and looking truly different from anything we had ever seen before, well, that was when my son Jack and I looked at each other and thought, ‘Hmmm… this is interesting!’ SH: Next steps… BM:We’d already had a conversation about the Moths, America’s Cup boats and other foilers that were coming on stream. Funda- mentally what was happening was that people were taking existing structures like the extraordinary AC72 catamarans, and putting foils under them; basically retro-fitting foils. So we asked ourselves what would emerge if you started the design concept at the foils. So we spoke to the best designers we could find with the idea
of looking at the foils first, then creating a structure that gave you maximum power-to-weight ratio, minimum drag, the best possible performance, and in a design format where you can fit three boats into a 40ft container. The design was to be for a three-person crew, because we know that works for TV and is cost efficient. We opened it up to electronics,
would foil, and working first with that set of sails we tweaked the batten shapes and modified the deck-sweeping function – little adjustments really but the performance impact was sometimes surprising. We also tried a mainsail roughly 6m2 smaller for above 18kt of breeze. We knew the deck-sweeper set-up worked – actually as Pete and
So where do we go from here, guys? One of the SuperFoiler crews takes a moment to plan their next move…. already a bit bruised having tried to keep up with Macartney’s star turn of Nathan Outteridge, Glenn Ashby and Goobs Jensen. Racing any of those separately is an ask in a high-performance boat, but racing all three when they’re on the same boat… Be serious
to aero and hydrodynamics, to all aspects of development and new thinking. After conversations with Chris Nicholson, Dave Witt and others we determined that the best guys on the planet for us to talk to were Morrelli & Melvin. That was three and a half years ago. SH: Was design choice a given? BM:When we got that advice from the people we most trusted that was good enough for us. We started a conversation with Morrelli & Melvin, then we worked up the brief for them to understand that we weren’t just asking for foils under a tri or catamaran; even though the SuperFoiler can appear to be a trimaran, it is not that at all. Then they focused on ideas for the structure and pretty soon we all said ‘Yup’. So we locked in the deal and away we went. SH: What of the rig package? BM: Morrelli & Melvin were adamant that we should go for a soft wing sail that reached down to the deck to seal off flow between the high and low pressure side. The spar itself is also a solid wing section, so the combination is very efficient. Perhaps my son Jack should take it from here… Jack Macartney: Originally with Pete Melvin we modelled an 11m and 14m rig as the spectrum we wanted to look at for the boat. We ran some VPPs around that and after discussion decided to run with a 12.5m rig, with a view to having a big set and a smaller set of sails to give us range. We then ran VPPs on that and decided to sail boat #1 to check the predictions. We wanted to know that in 6kt of breeze the boat
24 SEAHORSE
his team ran the aero study on the platform the results were pretty amazing to see. They refined the platform, the hull and the fairings, which is how we arrived at the solid trampoline versus a net. What they found was it gave us negative drag and plenty of lift. We also had conversions about the fairings on the structure; back on the AC72s that made a significant difference – on the SuperFoiler it’s a no-brainer. SH: The cross-section of the beam is? JM: The beam is D-shaped like the leading edge of a wing which, combined with the fairings and corners out to the floats, provides lift, and of course the faster you go the more lift you create. If you look at the Bermuda America’s Cup the aero side was really well researched – now we can be at the sharp end of all that R&D. SH: Sailmaker… JM: The conversation came down to Doyle and North. North have a lot of the software and intelligence that have led a great deal of the foiling technology, but Doyle have that technology too and it just came down to the people we are dealing with. For us, working with Mike Sanderson and the owners of Doyle, they really wanted to throw their whole weight behind this thing so we felt we should give them a crack at it. SH: Construction… BM: From the beginning we knew for minimum weight and maximum strength clearly it could only be all-carbon construction. We spoke to several builders here in Australia and elsewhere, then analysed the different proposals we received and opted for Innovation Composites in Nowra NSW, who stood out with their passion and enthusiasm for this project; they’ve done a fantastic job. But through- out we have had some remarkable people assisting us: Phil Jameson, Euan McNicol, Dave Witt and Nico, Tyson Lamond – really smart people who know about sailing stupidly fast sailboats. SH: You included western Australia in the circuit – surely it would be easier to start just on Australia’s east coast? BM: First and foremost we couldn’t have done this without the support of the Western Australian Tourism Authority, and Busselton City Council who also support us. And secondly I am a Perth-born boy! I don’t know if you remember the 18ft Skiff coverage we used to get out off Rottnest Island in Fremantle – but it was simply trans- formational for that enterprise, with beautiful breeze, clear water and phenomenal racing. We couldn’t make Rottnest work this time, but Busselton offers
the same thing; and the prevailing strong breeze comes off the land, so high speeds over flat water… and with outstanding spec- tating opportunities. SH: Funding… BM: We carried this project up to a certain point then went out to our network and raised $3million with 17 investors. These are people who put their faith in us. Of these 17 people there are really two or three who have a passion for the sport. We did approach some of the best-known sailing people in this country… but the silence was deafening. SH: A surprise? BM: Blue, when you engage in something like this and you have been through it before you really don’t get surprised by anything. There were a couple of aspects that raised an eyebrow, though – the complete lack of interest at the high levels did surprise me. What this enterprise represents is an expanded version of what
we created with the 18-footers. What we did there was present the sport to the public in a fantastic way and we inspired a lot of young people to go sailing, so I would suggest that was the best thing that happened to sailing in this country for a long time. The foiling machines you see us with today will do this to an even greater degree – yet those who are ostensibly responsible for the well-being
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ANDREA FRANCOLINI
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