Technology
Vanishing act
It’s not just the widespread introduction of hydraulically powered winches that led to the sweeping clean of once cluttered big boat deck layouts... it’s also down to the elegant systems which they are a part of
If a casual observer walking the dock were to see a new IRC maxi and an old IOR maxi from the 1990s alongside each other, they’ll probably see the Harken brand name on both sets of deck hardware. And they’re sure to notice the stark difference between the complex, cluttered deck plan of the IOR maxi and the clean, deceptively simple-looking deck plan of its modern IRC-rated equivalent. Where have all the winches and grinder pedestals gone? One of the most fundamental changes in the way we sail is the acceptance of powered systems. A side-by-side comparison of deck hardware shows just how far we’ve come.
Everything’s manual on the old IOR boat. You’ve got six pedestals and upwards of 20 winches – every control line has its own dedicated winch. Most of the time, each winch essentially functions as a heavy, expensive rope
68 SEAHORSE
clutch. Tacking speed is determined not just by how quickly the grinders and trimmers can sheet the sails in, but also by the speed at which the rest of the crew can scramble across and around all those trip hazards to reach the new weather rail.
Compare that with the clutter-free deck of a modern IRC maxi – the one in the picture is a recently launched Botín 85, the first in a new generation of maxi racers. Where have all the winches gone? There are actually more sail and rig controls than there were on the IOR boat, but only eight winches in total, which is the practical minimum you can get away with if you want full racing functionality. But that doesn’t mean the deck hardware is any less important than it used to be. ‘Deck layouts are obviously cleaner. And the boats are much easier for crews to move around and push harder. But the boats certainly
Above: this side-by-side comparison of a 1990s IOR maxi with a brand new IRC maxi shows just how far we’ve come from the era of fully manual sail and rig controls where every line had its own winch and crews’ brute strength was crucial. The way we sail has fundamentally changed
aren’t simpler’, says Mark Wiss, Harken’s director, Global Grand Prix and Custom Yacht Sales. ‘If anything, there are more adjustments and much higher loads to manage. These boats are more complex than ever.’ ‘We involved Harken early on when we were looking at the initial design proposal,’ says Terry Halpin, the owner’s rep for the Botín 85 build project. ‘Botín had given us load estimates so we asked Harken for equipment proposals to work out how to handle the estimated loads: here’s what we’d like to do, how do you think we should go about it? In many ways the new IRC maxi looks like a scaled-up TP52 but in one crucial way it’s a very different boat. Almost everything is powered by hydraulics, with 225 metres of hose running under the deck and inside the spars. Each of those eight winches is used for multiple trimming
RICK TOMLINSON/CORY SILKEN PHOTOGRAPHY
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