Left: the only Mark Mills-designed Cape 31 racing in Estonia was Rolf Relander’s local entry Riot which finished mid-fleet in Class C – though by finishing 33rd in a healthy class entry of 62 boats Relander can still claim to have finished 2nd in a tiny ‘sub-fleet’ of faster high-performance designs that also included five ex-Mumm 30s and a Melges 32. A Cape 31 fleet is now growing very quickly in the UK, where as well as having regular one-design racing the boats are collecting plenty of silver racing under IRC – which is less harsh than ORC on lighter faster designs in the smaller sizes. Conversely it can be claimed that, with just a single one-off racing in Class C in an ocean of (often heavily optimised) production boats, the ORC system is encouraging just the typeform that it’s aiming at. Perhaps less pretty than his lovely production designs for Italia Yachts, Matteo Polli’s new custom racer Clean Energy is clearly influenced by rival designer Shaun Carkeek’s dramatic IRC Fast40s, as well as his glorious-looking CF520 series-built IRC52s. Where Polli’s thinking is clearly ORC-driven is in his stern sections which taper away dramatically reflecting the absence of reaching in typical ORC courses
like long windward/leewards without enough reaching to try speciality sails. Others argued there was too much reaching without allowing passing opportunities – this latter group tended to be the sprinkling of professional Italian teams that always feature at the big ORC events, with the former being more the indigenous Baltic sailors. In the US certainly the trend is away from windward/leeward courses and towards often more interesting coastal races. It was also nice at the worlds to see new designs, such as the Grand Soleil 44, out in action in the hands of strong competent teams. Similarly a new custom Polli design, Clean Energy, built locally at Alpha Yachts. Polli’s latest yacht incorporates some increasingly popular design trends seen elsewhere: a reverse bow
with deck chines to reduce weight and windage, inboard shrouds to allow large overlapping headsails, and a novel attachment point for the headstay that extends beyond the bow to maximise the yacht’s J-measurement… More on this eco-friendly design to come. The last interesting aspect to this year’s championship was the astounding progress made by the racing culture in Estonia, which has benefited over several years from an infusion of Italian design and sailing talent. This nation has been racing almost all year long without the hindrance of lockdowns, and it shows: the level of the local teams here is now high and quite capable of competing for podiums at serious big boat events anywhere in the world. Dobbs Davis
SEAHORSE 41
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