by Chris Nicholson, head of the Doyle Macquarie loft. Nicholson is a two- time Australian Olympic sailor and three-time world champion in the 49er class and has sailed thousands of offshore miles competing in five Volvo Ocean Races.
For the Sydney-Hobart Nicholson switched to Infotrack so his place on Comanche was taken by another Doyle pro, New Zealander Stu Bannatyne. He is one of the most experienced offshore racers in the world with eight Volvo Ocean races (including four victories), eight Fastnet Races, three Transpacs and 11 Sydney-Hobarts on his resumé. ‘Not a bad exchange,’ Sanderson agrees. ‘It all comes back to our policy of getting great guys involved with the brand. That kind of talent runs right through the company.’ Does a one-two finish in a high- profile event mean that new clients greet their arrival on the Hobart dock and flood them with sail orders? Not really, but it does raise the profile and credibility of the brand and the technology behind it.
It is a step-by-step process that proved itself on the Maxi72 circuit where Sanderson’s involvement with Hap Fauth’s Bella Mente programme saw Doyle making steady inroads. ‘On the strength of Bella Mente, Momo followed and then Cannonball and all achieved success at the Maxi Worlds,’ Sanderson affirms. ‘You do not have to look back very far to a time when Doyle wasn’t even
Top: the Doyle Sails equipped Comanche won the hotly contested battle for line honours in the latest Sydney
Hobart Race, sailing a wide arc to the east of the rhumb line and making good use of this triple headsail
set-up; Doyle CEO Mike Sanderson was onboard for the race as tactician. Above: Doyle Sails is also now enjoying consistent success on the Maxi72 circuit where three of the leading teams are now racing with Doyle sails
getting opportunities to submit proposals for major campaigns,’ he says. ‘Now it is a very different landscape. People have a choice and we are part of that choice. ‘Getting these results brings us to the attention of people who might not have considered Doyle Sails for their performance superyacht, or a new Code Zero, or a Structured Luff headsail. More and more we are seen as a serious player in the grand prix and superyacht arenas.’ Although Doyle’s international profile has enjoyed a steep rise under Sanderson’s direction, he has been careful to concentrate resources in specific areas. ‘We have developed a wonderful team and our energies are devoted to three large categories: superyachts and grand prix racers, while the majority of our lofts service local racing and cruising yachts. That is how we divide our time.’ The next big target is France, global leader in the multihull scene. This push is being driven from the Doyle UK loft by Brian Thompson – ‘one of the most accomplished English-speaking multihull sailors in the world’. Like Honey, Thompson was part of Sanderson’s victorious crew aboard ABN Amro One in the 2005-06 Volvo Ocean Race. Thompson is an accomplished multihull sailor with an apparently unquenchable thirst for sailing around the world. He set a circumnavigation record with American adventurer Steve Fosset in 2004, won the 2005 Oryx Quest with Doha 2006 (ex-Club Med), won the Volvo Race with Sanderson, finished fifth in the 2008 Vendée Globe and was a helmsman/trimmer for Loick Peyron on the maxi-multihull Banque Populaire V, which claimed the Jules Verne Trophy in 2012. ‘The French multihull market is virtually untapped territory where our Cableless and Structured Luff sails offer a big performance boost.’ In similar vein, ongoing work with Alex Thomson’s HUGO BOSS for this year’s Vendée Globe race will be closely watched by the French
contingent. ‘It is busy times for Alex with the Vendeé approaching this year,’ says Sanderson. ‘He is our big hope for the Vendée Globe. Alex is always known for his blistering speed. We certainly hope that this time he goes one step further to the top of the podium. He has a very strong team with a lot of data and a lot of history behind him. ‘Alex is showing some big gains with our technology and, for our part, we need to make sure that everything we do for the HUGO BOSS programme is 100 per cent reliable. This Vendée Globe provides a great line in the sand for our brand in that respect.’ Sanderson’s conviction about the efficiency of Cableless and Structured Luff products is not so much about where it was last year or where it is now. It is about where it is continuing to go. ‘The potential is still huge. Last year I said we were just scratching the surface. The development remains ongoing. We have a mantra that every sail we build must be better than the last one. We keep pushing ourselves on that.’
Claims of major reduction in weight and mast compression combined with improved performance might sound like those warnings about financial advice: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Yet Sanderson insists the science is irrefutable. ‘The industry has accepted it as being the future. Mast makers and naval architects are not disputing the positive advantages. We have race boat projects as we speak where masts are being designed in line with the reduced loads derived from using these products. Every superyacht project we are involved with is using this technology to some extent and half of the new-build projects are exploring going all-in with it and taking it to its full extent. ‘Taken to its logical conclusion, this genuinely could be the first thing in a long time that will bring down the price of superyachts and make them nicer boats to sail.
‘The people behind these projects take nothing for granted. They rely on the accuracy of modelling and the tools available now are incredible. They need to be, because lives are at stake and a lot of money is involved. ‘Any computational process does not give you a concept but it can provide accurate answers to specific parameters you feed it. The answers coming from these tools show what Cableless and Structured Luff sails are capable of and real time data we are getting off existing boats is matching those answers. ‘That, in turn, is giving yacht owners comfort. That process is happening at good speed.’
www.doylesails.com
q SEAHORSE 67
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
