Contents December 2019 FEATURES
4 Got there YVAN ZEDDA
38 Twenty years and twenty boats It’s already promising to be one heck of a party ROB WEILAND
42 New discipline new audience Things are moving as details are developed for the introduction of offshore racing at Paris 2024. MATT SHEAHAN
Looks fast? Yvan Bourgnon drives his Orma 60 tri Rexona during what would shortly turn into a tempestuous 2002 Route du Rhum. The following day the Ormas would sail into an Atlantic winter storm which would leave the record fleet of 18 starters in the Orma 60 class reduced to just three finishers (the race was won by Michel Desjoyeaux, a good man to have along in a storm). Fifteen of the starters (including Rexona) were dismasted, damaged or sunk. At the time the Orma 60 was the most spectacular racing class on the planet, turning out 15 or 16 boats for every grand prix inshore regatta and attracting thousands of spectators. But the same boats were used for oceanic shorthanded events like the Rhum. That need for inshore performance, with pressure to produce very stiff as well as very light structures led to super-fast boats that were getting increasingly fragile. And if circumstances should conspire to punish you then talent was no defence; Loïck Peyron had a miraculous escape during this race when his very light and fast Fujifilmbroke up around him as the French skipper, for his shore crew, rather ‘spookily’ relayed what was happening. The 2002 Rhum was the end of the line for the Orma 60 as a class. But how fast were they? Well, given comments elsewhere in this issue, about how the biggest changes in 50 years of sailing have taken place over just the past 10-15 years, PRB skipper Vincent Riou, who knows of these things, points out that today’s Imoca monohulls are in most conditions as fast or faster than the Orma tris ever were. If you are to be caught out in a storm on the scale of the 2002 Rhum then that Imoca might be the better choice…
COVER: Benoit Stichelbaut/ALEA
44 Rotation is the key The extra degree of freedom given to the foils in the latest Imoca rule may make these boats competitive inshore as well. JUAN KOUYOUMDJIAN
50 A man and his boats When US railroad and automobile tycoon ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES decided to learn to sail he found just the boat. ROGER VAUGHAN
56 Shifter Forget foils, why not trim the hull as well? GAVIN WILLIS and GRAHAM CAMM
62 No turning back Foils may indeed be everywhere but the story began at the turn of the last century, not the current one. BRIAN HANCOCK
67 A rare beast indeed The success out of the box of the Italia 11.98 Sugar winning this year’s ORC Worlds was impressive. And you can sleep on it too. MATTEO POLLI
REGULARS
6 Commodore’s letter STEVEN ANDERSON
9 Editorial ANDREW HURST
12 Update Of flaps and wings and things, the (inevitably) prettiest AC75 goes afloat in Italy (obviously), TANGUY BOUROULLEC and his flying Pogo 4 are very much in touching distance, SailGP sort of surprises and an insider’s (deep) disappointment. TERRY HUTCHINSON, JACK GRIFFIN, PATRICE CARPENTIER, ROB KOTHE, CAROL CRONIN, GIULIANO LUZZATTO
22World news Transatlantic traffic, Imocas or rabbits, eyes on the scows, no surprises yet for Team NZ, Ineos make it four and from bad to worse for US Olympic sailing. PATRICE CARPENTIER, MALCOLM PAGE, IVOR WILKINS, PETER LESTER, BLUE ROBINSON, DOBBS DAVIS, DAN BERNASCONI, MIKE DRUMMOND, GRANT SIMMER
34 Rod Davis – Doing no wrong Is much more likely if you have the right attitude
36 ORC – Potted history We are not the only ones to be celebrating 50 years’ continuous service. NICOLA SIRONI
40 And the fat lady sang When the TP52 Super Series fleet gathered in Porto Cervo they were faced with a surprise new force majeure. ANDI ROBERTSON
70 RORC news – Do the triple EDDIE WARDEN-OWEN
71 TechStreet
81Seahorsebuild table – Forza! GIULIANO LUZZATTO 84Seahorse regatta calendar
107 Sailor of the Month And the fight moves to the east
We’ve talked a fair bit here about the conundrum which pitches the brilliance of high performance foiled sailing against the risks it can pose. Sailors out training alone: the problem is there but more about self-rescue (though the risk of a foil strike is always present). Put two or more such boats together, as here, and when things go wrong you have the perfect storm of kinetics, energy and inertia plus some very hard and sharp immoveable objects
MATIAS CAPIZZANO
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