Left: like his successful (very) turboed TP52 the last Ichi Ban but one was another Botin design – this one a custom-built 60-footer. Above: the skipper’s reward for an adequate performance as the most successful big boat team in Australia take another Hobart win. Few of Australia’s 14-strong TP52 fleet would be anywhere near their Super Series counterparts racing inshore – but the Australian fleet is a much better bet if mummy allows you out to play in the dark. And the Australian TP52s enjoy exactly the same benefits with regular close competition driving up performance. It’s hard to win anywhere now in IRC (or ORC) if there is a decent TP52 in the mix
on top of which we use a lot of string potentiometers.’ (These ‘string pots’ are variable resistors with a spring-loaded string, the resistance of the device depend- ing on how much the string is displaced. String potentiometers were originally developed as a simple way to measure large displacements such as the movement of aircraft ailerons, rudders and flaps.) Oxley again: ‘The standard 5-volt string
pots can be calibrated with our instrument software like WTP or FaRo. On Ichi Ban the position of the forestay and therefore the rake is determined with the string pot, which is recalibrated before each race, as is the pot on the running backstay deflector. We also trialled string pots as rudder sensors, but we now use a solid-state sensor because in that instance the string pots seemed to require constant recalibration. ‘Positional data and wind velocities are
critical. Along with most of the top TP52s we now use a Quadrans fibre-optic gyro compass – expensive, but the difference in the quality of the information is extraordi- nary. These units are now recording at 100 hertz, 100 times a second, recording trim and heel. That is a big step forward. ‘In a program like FaRo, when the boat
pitches forward and the top of the rig has gone that much more because of the moment, the Quadrans is now doing
the windspeed correction so you end up with an incredibly stable wind speed and direction – even in very unstable sea conditions. ‘If you use a standard compass, which
might cost a fifteenth of the cost of the Quadrans, there are inherent errors, for instance when the boat heels there is an immediate error of 1-2° on every point, whereas the gyrocompass is completely unaffected by these things. ‘To analyse our actual sailing perfor-
mance we use KND. The KND team have proven experience in the America’s Cup, Volvo Race, Vendée Globe, Sydney Hobarts and Fastnets. Their expertise in combining CFD, VPP and data analysis is exceptional and the working relationship we have there is very good. ‘From the data I do a lot of analysis and KND can do more. They develop tables
that say things like the boat is performing best with 23° of heel, with zero trim. Or the performance is terrible when you were too bow up without enough heel in the boat. Or the boat performed better when the rig was further aft… Invaluable stuff. ‘Over the year these polars are further
refined. And then of course bigger things might change… For example, will we carry a whisker pole to Hobart this year with the new IRC penalty? That will depend on the test certificates which we are currently working through. ‘For the race you must declare an IRC
certificate around 18 December, well before you have a good forecast. If the pole-penalty is 5-6 points, as suspected, in a race that is more windward-leeward than anything else – it’s probably not going to be worth carrying… ‘But then there are the knock-on consid-
erations. We are looking at just how to deal with that in our sail programme for the race, because it’s quite a gap if you don’t use the whisker pole. Now you won’t be able to have a jib set wide? ‘This year, with a truncated sailing
programme and lots of pressure, this sort of high-quality analysis will be essential if we are to win the Sydney to Tasman Island race again. And then have our hat in the ring for Hobart…’
SEAHORSE 61
q
ANDREA FRANCOLINI
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118
