Extreme E already employ these battery
units in extreme environments, racing across deserts or on expeditions to the polar ice caps. At the end of each day they simply powerwash the units, giving further confidence in their waterproof integrity. Finally, to guard against issues with the
lithium battery and what is known as the thermal runaway, there are multiple safe- guards, the final being that the battery compartment can be flooded with saltwater, to cool down the unit without destroying it. The galley is also a key area for the crew
and any technicians onboard. PLC control screens are mounted on the engine room side panel, to monitor and control sailing and hydraulic systems and loads, using the extensive load-monitoring system that is permanently active. This means that the very aft of the galley – which happens to be right next to the coffee machine – is in effect Ed Bell’s office. For cruising the galley is also designed to allow the chef to create fine dining and so is equipped with cooker, fridge, freezer… and plenty of headroom! What is next, just forward of the PLC
station, is yet again quite extraordinary. An engine room without an engine, with its electric propulsion system. This drives the boat through the water via a retractable propulsion system, using exactly the same-diameter Helix motor used to drive the hydraulic pumps. All told, without a portable range-extender Magic Carpet e is able to motor at well over 8kt for 48 hours. On arrival at an event the boat then plugs in to shore power and recharges overnight. Any problems with shore power locations and the range extender can be put into use. This project is probably the first occa-
sion when the marine sector has launched something advanced ahead of the automo- tive sector. The battery technology used from Fortescue Zero has yet to enter the
60 SEAHORSE
mainstream automotive market, so sectors across the marine market and maxi yachts in particular still have the opportunity to help spearhead a revolution.
The design – Guillaume Verdier Sir Lindsay gave me a blank page, saying, ‘Guillaume, we would like to select you to join a competition with other architects.’ So I had a white page to do what I
want… 100ft long. So somewhat naively I drew the boat that I wanted. I said that I don’t know much about IRC – I am not a specialist in that. Anyway, I drew the boat with a lateral foil and a foil on the keel – a strange boat that has not been done before. Not like the America’s Cup boats, and not like a big Swan, but a strange foil- ing boat that will take off very early. The brief was to sail very fast in 6-12kt, and so that was my design. Not really fast in the upper range compared to a foiling boat, but a super-early take-off and quite cruisy. Sir Lindsay loved it – but he said,
‘Guillaume, I am too old! It is too different from what we know, and I won’t be able to entertain my friends!’ So the second brief was still to be free, but with a little IRC consideration, like viewing the future version of Magic Carpet 3. I said I will try, and let’s see. I knew roughly the performance of Magic
Carpet 3, but I refused to see the drawings from that boat; they are of a competitor’s design [Reichel/Pugh] and I don’t want them in our office. But I will make a plan to re - create the hull shape of MC3 using photos. And so I did that, rebuilding the naval archi- tecture – perhaps wrongly, but more or less OK, and I wrote some calculations, power, drag, righting moment etc. I was helped by Jeremy Elliott, he was my IRC specialist and he corrected me in many ways! But he left me with the mast very far aft, and in IRC this proves to be very good. I think that
everyone in IRC said the mast should be forward for a small J. But we drew a tall mainsail, and a big J, so it makes sense to have a very slender high-aspect mainsail… if it is properly trimmed it is really good. With the hull shape I was wondering if I
could make a hull a little fuller in the front – like an Open 60. When you make an angular hull shape, like the old Open 60s with the fine bows but fat sterns, when you heel over the bow goes down and you have a shorter waterline. And for displace- ment boats it doesn’t work. So I came back to Comanche (Verdier-
VPLP 100-footer) plus I had the ‘fake boat’ of MC3 that I had created in my mind. With Comanche I know both its defects and its advantages. Then in Magic Carpet 3 the keel retracts up and down, which is nice, as you need a deep keel, not too heavy, but the problem is that for it to go up and down you are forced to have a straight fin, maybe just tapering the last bit. The straight bit is quite a blunt section, and so I thought we should pivot it aft, like a sailing dinghy. In terms of mental space for this project
– well, I am always busy! And when I did the America’s Cup [Verdier is lead designer for Emirates Team New Zealand] we always had three or four other projects also going on. For me it is like cooking when I do a boat – I guess if you always make the same food you don’t progress. If you want to progress you have to do a bit of a multihull, a bit of dinghy, a bit of a windsurfer. It is exactly the same approach. When you design for an off- shore boat the waterline length is a differ- ent story, you want to be better in waves, but it is always the same logic. The danger of such a big boat as Magic
Carpet e is to have someone with strong shoulders to go through with such a project. It is rare to have a client confident and experienced enough to watch as
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