The launch of Wendy Schmidt’s new Maxi Deep Blue this spring (issue 483) might just have started something, though the appearance of this foiled VPLP design suggests that if a modern Maxi class proper is to gain legs then key parameters will somehow need to quickly be agreed – if only between the designers involved
Flight of the Maxis
The Maxi circuit is becoming topical. Since the great IOR racers crossed the line for the last time in the 1990s different concepts have been tried, some durable, most not. But the real Maxi has yet to return. VPLP aims to propel things to another level – and also attract some new younger owners
The idea was to offer an alternative to the fleet of 72ft Mini Maxis, without any hard constraints apart from a requirement in terms of accommodation – ‘a few cabins, yet something easy to reconfigure, a race- compatible layout’, says VPLP designer Quentin Lucet. Also VPLP knew they didn’t want to go down the ‘scaled-up TP52’ route, and their big machine would need to be adaptable for fast cruising, though definitely not optimised for it. The Brittany-based design office consid-
ered all the options, notably in terms of appendages, looking at different fixed vs canting vs lifting-keel concepts, various daggerboard and numerous foil solutions. ‘We pitted a selection of candidates against each other, comparing them on pure per- formance terms,’ explains Lucet. All of this within the parameters set in
the design brief, namely the Mediterranean playground and its typical light airs with choppy seas (VPLP worked with an aver- age wind speed of 11kt) and a maximum
draft of 4.5m to allow access to strategic harbours on the circuit. Initial blueprints yielded boats in the
18 to 20-tonne displacement range, which meant the need for a generous sail plan to deliver performance. ‘In the early stages,’ continues Lucet, ‘even in the context of a foil-equipped boat, we needed to make sure it would be quick in phases where it could not benefit from the appendages.’ Bulb weight considerations were partic-
ularly important here, and Lucet notes that their approach was guided by the same thinking as 2020-generation VPLP Imocas: design it as light as possible, the objective being that when the foil kicks in the bulb becomes much less important for generat- ing righting moment. Nevertheless, contrary to Imoca racers,
this boat needed to perform well upwind – something Vendée Globe projects generally file under ‘anecdotal’. ‘We could not afford to go around sailing 15º lower than the Maxi72s,’ says Lucet to illustrate the point. The first canting-keel design option
relied on a 5.5-tonne bulb and was also fitted with a central canard to improve upwind performance in light airs. Then came a lifting-keel alternative,
which increased the bulb weight to 7 tonnes to satisfy the same stability criteria – a noticeable weight cost. This concept was also equipped with a trim tab on the keel’s trailing edge (something the best Orma 60 tris had toyed with in their day, with convincing results). Upwind the trim tab would compensate for the lateral area lost with the high-aspect fin necessary to make a lift-keel solution work.
‘What we quickly saw,’ says Lucet, ‘was
that the canting-keel option proved more powerful and lighter, up until 28º of heel… a sailing angle that doesn’t seem realistic for that type of boat anyway, so that sealed the deal for us.’ The sophisticated package they ended
up with (canting keel+canard+foils) would, VPLP judged, appeal to owners willing to really push hard at innovation in their ‘time off’, while not proving exces- sively intimidating given the level of hydraulic and electronic assistance that is now available. Not to mention the level of expertise of today’s best pro sailors. As Lucet stresses, ‘The very large foils
we have created could even be left on the pontoon if the conditions for the day mean they’d be superfluous: in that case the boat would remain a traditional, high-perform- ing displacement-mode craft… By no means a crippled machine!’ We see here that another key theme was
to address potential scepticism around the use of intimidating giant appendages, and to give reassurance that investing in this advanced solution would not be a risky bet. ‘And the raw numbers are compelling too,’ continues the designer, ‘since we reckon that at 20kt the foils will be lifting around 50 per cent of the all-up weight.’ In terms of hull design the guiding
principle was to focus on narrow water- lines, to favour minimum wetted surfaces at low angles of heel. This was also the approach adopted for the company’s new Imocas, and notably results in what Lucet calls ‘1980s-looking transoms’. ‘The previous-generation Imocas had
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