(Truly) something else – Part II
Rig designer Randy Smyth, engineer Steven Robert and builder Wolfgang Chamberlain pick up the story of the Eagle 53 ‘aggressively remarkable’ flying cat from Paul Bieker, Andrés Suar and friends
CONCEPTION TO BIRTH – Randy Smyth How did the Eagle 53 begin? I can only convey that part of the story based upon (reliable) hearsay. The story I was told goes like this… One man’s inspiration while watching
the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco transformed his excitement into a power- ful challenge to Tommy Gonzales, the captain of his Gunboat 90 Sunshine. Immediately following the Cup Donald Sussman approached Gonzales with this aggressive request: ‘Can you build a 75ft fully foiling catamaran, sporting a “practi- cal wing sailplan” that can be sailed with- out a crew of professionals?’ Tommy dug deep into his decades of
experience as a professional multihull captain and even more years of racing pedigree and answered simply, ‘No! That is not possible with today’s technology. But…’ he went on, ‘it is currently possible to build those advanced features into a
40 SEAHORSE
45ft catamaran and the lessons we learn can later be incorporated into a 75-footer.’ That began this dream project. Sitting
quietly in Tommy’s home overlooking the blue waters of the Caribbean he hit me with the Eagle challenge. He already had some design ideas that he had been for - mulating for decades. His initial sketch focused on the ‘Eagle Ray’ as a natural flowing shape to guide the new cata - maran’s design flavour. Tommy had also previously visited our loft in California when he shared his single wing element concept with me. At the time he had no boatbuilding facility, no designers, no engineers and certainly no boatbuilders. I took the ‘practical wing’ portion of the
design as a personal challenge and our col- laboration was born. Donald had it right. What good is an America’s Cup wing if it has to be laboriously taken down and stored in a warehouse each night? My own wing experiences were varied:
l Skippered a Sam Bradfield fully foiling 18ft trimaran at the 18-Square Meter North Americans in the 1980s. The design sported a two-element solid wing without stays that pivoted 360°. l Raced a C-Class cat extensively with a solid wing plus trailing edge flap. l Crewed the 60ft Orma trimaran Apricot during the Around Europe Race, again in the late 80s. The second of the two Apricot tris carried a large rotating wing mast-plus-mainsail combination.
l Wing trimmer on the 1988 America’s Cup-winning catamaran Stars and Stripes with Dennis Conner. Despite being 30 years ago that two-element wing was very similar to the America’s Cup wings in Bermuda. None of those wings fitted the ‘practical
wing’ criteria for the Eagle. With the exception of the 18 Meter wing, they were all prone to danger when left upright and unattended in any wind. Unique to the 18 Square Meter wing was its ability to pivot 360° thanks to the unstayed configuration. However, the substantial bearings, wing structure and support structure meant that the weight penalty was severe (I called it the ‘hold the pencil by the eraser’ engineer- ing nightmare). After much head-scratching the light-
bulb went off. What if the wing of our new 45-footer could be left up 24/7 and was able to free-pivot 360° but now employing shrouds and a forestay to avoid the weight penalty of an unstayed configuration? After returning from Tommy’s home in St John (which was subsequently blown off the island by the hurricanes), I started a preliminary design. The Hybrid Wing concept was simple.
Just design the wing to fit within the cone of the masthead forestay and shrouds. Incorporating a top bearing for the shrouds and forestay and a trailer ball at the bottom, the wing can pivot 360° for full feathering capability.
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