Extraordinary… a new keel concept plus the engineering that allows all of the underwater appendages on Magic Carpet e to operate reliably and to move around quickly enough for racing. The keel cants and folds, the bulb remaining level in the horizontal axis, the twin rudders are housed in rotating cassettes to be retracted and immersed Imoca-style as required – Imocas being a boat type with which designer Guillaume Verdier has enjoyed ‘success’. Then the forward canard… not satisfied with it too being liftable as well as fully retractable for long downwind legs, it can also be rotated to vary the angle of attack. That’s a lot of calibrating to work through…
Carpet e’s multiple staysails. All the current downwind sails are furling, but to future- proof this the hatch also allows for soft sails and drop systems to lead directly aft, all the way back to the transom. Also positioned in this area just forward
of the mast is the sailing engine room, with the single-board canard system. There is full access to the system, with a clear panel displaying the entire canard up/down hydraulic ram, part of the typically high- level engineering from Cariboni of Italy. Canards are not new appendages. We
have seen them on 12 Metres, Version 5 AAC boats, Imocas, plus other offshore racing yachts, but what is new about the canard on Magic Carpet e is just what it is capable of. Yes, it can extend from the hull a long way. Yes, it retracts much of the way into the hull as you’d expect. But look closely on the deck just in front of the mast, and there is a small removable hatch panel, allowing a halyard to be clipped to the canard head to retract it fully on long downwind legs. Given the combined talents of Guil-
laume Verdier, Cariboni and Persico, what they have in fact created is a multi-axis canard system, within the IRC Rule, which when it is mastered may deliver another
before-and-after moment in big boat racing. Big call, you say? Wait and see. Slightly further aft we come to the keel
room, the heart of Magic Carpet e, with a keel-head wet-box that houses yet another brilliant and unique engineering system. Magic Carpet e has a canting and a swing- ing keel system, and driving this huge engi- neering challenge was the need to create a system that can reduce draft from 7m to 4.6m. This was non-negotiable for Sir Lindsay, as he was never going to build a boat that was unable get into St Tropez. The problem with existing canting/
lifting keel systems is there is significant case structure and associated weight demand high up in the boat, often up to deck level. And so continuing with the ver- tical centre of gravity theme, Guillaume went to work and came up with a canting/ swing keel concept, presented early on to Gianni and Pierre Luca from Cariboni. This reduces draft when needed yet with few if any compromises to race perfor- mance. Basically, a massive titanium cas- sette houses the fore and aft axis point of the keel fin, with a huge swinging cylinder that pushes the keel head forwards, rotat- ing it around the axis of the canting cage. At the bottom of the keel fin is the bulb,
but if you swing the keel aft without moving the bulb the draft remains almost the same, or even greater, with the bulb now pointing downwards. Instead, when the fin is swung aft the bulb also pivots on an axis on the bottom of the fin so as to remain horizontal, enabling draft to be reduced to 4.6m when the keel is fully swung aft to 60°. Think about all the intricate moving parts involved in that process… and the scale of them. Once the keel is swung forward again
into its full-depth vertical position, large lateral rams enable the canting of the keel to 45° either side of centreline. As Magic Carpet e is predominantly an inshore racer all of these hydraulic cant movements also have to happen at race pace. The Magic Carpet team have always
focused on gaining seconds around the racetrack, and so from full cant, 45° one side to 45 on the other, takes a very, very, short time indeed. When crew member Ed Bell told me the exact time it takes I thought I had misheard him, and asked him to repeat it… meaning a massive amount of hydraulic oil must be moved at an immense flow rate. This cant and swing solution was such a
eureka moment for Guillaume that the raw materials were sourced, secured and
SEAHORSE 57
PHOTOS BENOIT LINERO AND GUILLAUME VERDIER
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