ORC
Let’s hunt
It’s been a few years since a serious custom all-carbon raceboat has been built for domestic use, rather than export, in the US but this year’s previously scheduled ORC/IRC Worlds did at least help reignite some of that interest. For Victor Wild and his Fox team the aim was to improve on their Botín-designed Pac 52 that was part of the short-lived Pac 52 Class on the US west coast, having made an early exit for the east coast in search of more diverse racing and a serious bid towards the Worlds in Newport. Accordingly, Fox 2.0 represents the latest in TP52 design development, but tweaked ‘Ichi Ban style’ to be more competitive for mixed inshore/offshore handicap racing. Coupled with the latest in foil, rig and deck tech- nologies, the result is an effective inshore and short offshore racing platform employing the best features of both disciplines. Adolfo Carrau and his colleagues at Botín Partners, production
designer Paolo Periotto and manager Filippo Cravetto are fast to point to their partnership with Pure Design & Engineering in New Zealand for their expertise in advanced composites and credit this for some of their steady advances in 52 design. Working with their Super Series teams, Botín and Pure also host a comprehensive post-season debrief every autumn to further inform incremental improvements for their next generation designs. ‘52 design is now extremely refined, it’s hard to believe but we are
now in the 15th or maybe 16th generation of TP development,’ said Carrau. ‘Fox 2.0 is one more step forward and is close to being like the other latest-generation inshore Botín 52 – Bronenosec – but with a design and engineering benchmark that is more offshore-oriented like [Matt Allan’s multiple Hobart Race winner] Ichi Ban,’ adds Periotto. ‘In this sense it’s a hybrid design – yet still without compromise.’ For example, after employing Pure’s composites expertise both
Bronenosec and Fox 2.0were able to eliminate a forward bulkhead – and yet in the case of Fox still retain adequate stiffness in the hull panels to not flex unacceptably in a seaway offshore. The spec- ifications here are complex: more is needed than a simple addition of a few stringers to the structure plus an extra layer of pre-preg. ‘A lot of credit should also go to the handful of speciality builders
who now know these 52s inside out,’ said Periotto. ‘They have the build process determined and refined extremely well. For example,
38 SEAHORSE
when a honeycomb core is needed for the forward panels they know it’s not easy to find core of this type that is of consistently high enough quality, so they build into their process the fabrication of multiple test panels to identify the right batches of material.’ Construction by Longitud Cero was on schedule and pristine.
Carbon pre-preg skins over Kevlar honeycomb cores above the waterline and foam core below for slamming loads give the lightest and stiffest hull and deck structure yet still exceeding GL standards. Given the modest amount of coastal and short offshore sailing
in their programme, some additional reinforcement was also included in select areas, producing some additional weight, but not much and deemed worth it for the additional reliability. Conversely, project manager Keiran Searle reckons, ‘Only a few kilos were saved in the choice of a partial honeycomb core, but it’s worth it even with the IRC rating bump; and ORC has no similar strength penalty.’ A tidy little Lombardini engine is also substituted for the Yanmar
Saildrive combination mandated in the Super Series regulations, saving a further small amount of weight that was reinvested in extra structure where it is helpful to deal with the additional offshore sailing loads never seen by European Super Series designs. Other adjustments not found in Super Series designs, due mainly
to the requirements of occasional offshore use, extend beyond structural solutions with some sailing systems similarly reconfigured. For example, every winch on Fox 2.0 is interconnected, allowing
maximum flexibility using the six winch drums; coarse and fine-tune jib controls are accessible from the rail; and either tiller steering or wheels can be fitted with only 30 minutes needed to swap between the two. ‘Victor usually likes to steer starts and upwind,’ said Searle, ‘so we made sure that the deck layout would accom- modate this.’ Cravetto reckons the boat in current mode is ready for coastal racing, but ‘would still require further waterproofing on deck to be ready for anything serious offshore, like Ichi Ban.’ While Fox 2.0may have the strength of Ichi Ban and the design
heritage of Bronenosec, in the measurement data it is not the same as either. Not constrained to fit the Super Series box, Fox is slightly deeper, stiffer and has more horsepower than Bronenosec yet still squeaks in under the 16.40 upper CDL limit for ORC Class A.
GRETCHEN DORIAN
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