Arthur’s column

So it looks like the insane decision to drop the multihull from the olympics could be reversed.  I will be one of many sailing fans around the world that applaud this re-emergence of common sense in the ISAF.

In fact the decision is not yet made – it has to be finalised at the ISAF md year meeting in May next year – but the indications are that there will be a “Mixed Multihull” class – effectively this means one male one female on the boat. It is unlikely that it will be a Tornado – there are more modern and faster potential boats – but it will be a fast cat around 18 foot long. The full list of events proposed for the 2016 games are:

• Men’s Board or kite board – evaluation
• Women’s board or kite board – evaluation
• Men’s one person dinghy – Laser
• Women’s one person dinghy – Laser Radial
• Men’s skiff – 49er
• Women’s skiff – evaluation
• Mixed multihull – evaluation
• Mixed two person dinghy (spinnaker) – 470
• Women’s keelboat – Elliott 6m (format of racing TBC)
• Men’s 2nd one person dinghy – Finn

The video above shows the Tornado in action – surely a better spectacle for those all-important TV viewers than many of the slower classes. With the emergence of the Extreme sailing series on 40 foot catamarans, and of course the recent announcement that the next Americas Cup will be fought in multihulls, there is no doubt that multihull sailing provides a fantastic spectator experience and is at the pinnacle of the sport in so many respects.

It was shere lunacy that caused the Tornado to be dropped from the 2012 games and there are many regretting the decision.  Bring it on!

The next Americ’a cup will take place in 2013 on a Catamaran (with some sort of centre hull).  It will be 72 foot long and will have a wing sail. As we have seen already in the last cup, this promises to be a beast of a boat, fast and furious.

A new 45 foot version of this wall also be launched as a training ground for the AC.  Called the “youth americas cup” this seems to me to be out to compete with the Extreme 40s series.

More information on the boat here.

This video shows the speed of the Foiling Moth against other boats – there is no doubt that foiling is where its all going.

I have followed the progress of foiling multihulls for a number of years and came close to buying one.  There are two production multihull foilers at the moment – the Hobie Trifoiler which was the fastest but broke a lot and is no longer made and the Windrider Rave.  Both of these have been clocked in excess of 40 knots!

On another note – I am certainly not the only one out there that sees Sunday’s F1 race as simply a travesty of justice.  Ferrari should be stripped of the places in the race. If they had not implemented team orders arguably Vettel would have given Alonso a run for his money while he was hindered by Masse.  I dont disagree with DC views that team orders happen all the time anyway, but surely if there is a rule you should be forced to stick to it? Perhaps they should do away with that rule and simply accept that its a team sport not an individual one?

A very interesting blog article by Paul Larsen from the Vesta Sailrocket speed team on his thoughts having sailed on L’Hydroptere in the Solent.

“Whilst all this happened I was imagining what it would be like lining up for a crack at the 500 meter run onboard this boat. I feel I can honestly say this. That boat is truly on the edge at high speed. To me it is fun… but not what we aspire towards with our own project. At 50 knots I can cleat off the wing and let go of the controls. I couldn’t help but feel that Hydroptere felt like three boats forced to fly in close formation.  When it gets upset by chop or ferry wakes it seems to fight itself as it wracks, yaws and nods around. This is not fast. Once it shakes itself free of all this and settles down to smooth formation flying again, you can feel it accelerate as the internal fight subsides. Foils are effective brakes when they are not in harmony. The torsion that those large foils put on the beam must be significant and to keep them in harmony must be a large engineering problem in its own right. To ride this thing at record speeds must be one of sailings finest balancing acts. She goes her fastest when she is flying the windward foil but when you look at what her motion is when she does this you quickly see that it has issues. The problem is that when she rolls, she goes from riding flat on three foils to sitting on two foils that are diagonally offset. If she just rolls to leeward then she risks lifting her ‘T’ rudder out of the water and losing all pitch stability. I guess it all depends on how she is trimmed at speed i.e. does the T rudder pull down or create lift… or neither in that it just follows the surface piercing front foils.”

Read the entire article here : http://www.sailrocket.com/blogs

L'Hydroptere on the Solent

What a beautiful boat – Lake Geneva sure is the breeding ground for hte world’s best looking multihulls!  You may remember a rather nice 90 foot catamaran called Alinghi which orignated here not so long ago?  Well here is her smaller foiling cousin – not technically correct since there is no relationship except that they are both on the same lake, but you get the idea.

Syz and Co Catamaran on Lake Geneva

Syz and co built this rather beautiful catamaran to go for outright speed records and contest the Bol d’Or Mirabaud (the annual long race on the lake).

For outright speed the foils may be the way to go

We wish them luck with their endeavours (with more than a twinge of jealousy!).

It wasn’t that long ago that the Jules Verne Trophy was started with the idea being to sail around the world, crossing the equator, as fast as possible.  80 days was the original magical number to beat – loosely based on the “Around the World in 80 Days” story.

Today Groupama skippered by Franck Cammas shattered the record with a phenomenal circumnavigation of 48 days 7 hours 44 minutes and 52 seconds. In the process they have not only sliced 2 days 8 hours, 35 minutes and 12 seconds off Orange 2’s five year old record but they have become the first to take this record below 50 days.

Groupama Triamaran (c) Yvan Zedda

The Beast has prevailed over Beauty.  I am still shell-shocked, although not entirely surprised.

In the words of the Swiss :

Alinghi put forth a tremendous effort today in its attempt to defend the 33rd America’s Cup. The Swiss team from the Société Nautique de Genève led for most of the first leg of the triangular course, but couldn’t hold off the Challenger BMW Oracle Racing. Alinghi lost the race by 5m26s and the America’s Cup Match, 2-0.

Team president and principal helmsman Ernesto Bertarelli congratulated his competitor after the race: “Congratulations to the BMW Oracle team. The boat was faster, there’s no question about that.”

Today’s race was postponed for more than six hours from the scheduled start time of 10:06 as, similar to Friday, the race committee waited for the wind to settle. Around 16:10 the race committee set a windward mark bearing 100 degrees, just south of due east, and the two crews started at 16:25. Bertarelli guided Alinghi 5 onto the race course on port tack about mid-line, despite receiving a penalty. The crew wanted the right side of the course, hoping for the favourable wind shift. Almost 14 minutes into the race Alinghi 5 tacked to starboard and into a right-hand wind shift that lifted the 90ft load waterline catamaran into the lead. For the next 35 minutes or so both boats held starboard tack with Alinghi, now steered by Loïck Peyron, to windward of the challenger and holding the lead in the wind shift.

Alinghi crossed the challenger near the windward mark, but lost the lead when it tacked to port to approach the mark. The challenger led by 28 seconds at the first mark and then, propelled by its wing, increased that lead by more than 2 minutes at the second mark.

Alinghi showing better upwind speed (c) Guido Trombetta / Alinghi

So its all over.  The cup goes to GGYDC and Larry Ellison – to be fair he has tried for long enough to win it so he probably deserves it!  And Russel Coutts still the man in the middle – now with the most amazing run of cup wins.

What next for these mammoth boats?  Mothballs?  Ernesto going to compete on Lake Geneva with Alinghi (I be he does)?  And whither the America’s Cup?  Back to monohulls and processions around a short course?

GGYC have accepted the Italians as challenger of record in a multi-challenger series, so it is now clear that the 34th cup will return to being the jamboree (and providing employment for many more) that it was last time.  Ellison has sortof said it could be Valencia but I have to say my money would be on San Francisco for the next cup.

The best of what was said by both sides after Race 1, 33rd America’s Cup.

BMW ORACLE Racing Team:
James Spithill (AUS) skipper/helm BMW ORACLE Racing Team (USA):
“Obviously it was quite exciting at the start. We were able to get a piece of them in the entry and that is something we had been thinking about for quite some time, and it started to set up to look like we might be able to get a penalty on them, so I pushed it pretty hard in there. Obviously that left us pretty close to them and we then we had a hard time slowing the boat down. We were in a pretty controlling position then, as time went on through we got ourselves stuck in irons, but also I want to say well done to Alinghi, they did a good job getting out from there.”
“ We still have a lot to learn. It kind of showed today that we aren’t at race level preparation that we are kind of used to in these campaigns. But it was an exciting start with plenty of action.”

Larry Ellison (USA) team founder and afterguard BMW ORACLE Racing Team (USA):
“ I think my emotions started when it looked like we were going to race in three and a half knots of breeze. Russell and I were on the boat and we were told that we might be sailing in 20 minutes then we had the call to get as many people off the boat and as much stuff as possible off the boat to sail as light as possible, because there was a very, very light breeze. I had to get off the boat and so did Russell. And so we sailed with a minimum crew. So I think it is more stressful to watch than to sail.”

Russell Coutts (NZL) CEO and afterguard BMW ORACLE Racing Team (USA):
“ I think it is early days. I said before the series that you wont be able to draw conclusions from the first few minutes of these races….but how about that win….??

“It looked pretty good from where I was sitting today. I think the team did a good job. The guys on board sailed a really nice race, pretty much faultless. They had a few problems at the start, that can happen in these boats, but we are very, very happy with where we are, but we are only a tiny way into this series now. There is so much more work to do. We know we are up against the best team out there and we are certainly not going to take our foot off the throttle. We are going to try and improve our performance further.”

Larry Ellison (USA) team founder and afterguard BMW ORACLE Racing Team (USA):
“ The piece of kit we are most proud is the wing.”
“Today I did say that sailing is a lot harder than running a software company!”

Russell Coutts (NZL) CEO and afterguard BMW ORACLE Racing Team (USA):
“I think it is just way too early to draw too many conclusions. We are only one race into the series. We will see at the end of the series in terms of the relative values of the wing.”

James Spithill (AUS) skipper/helm BMW ORACLE Racing Team (USA):
“To be honest I think we carried a bit of pressure down, I think we carried it down the lane. It was one of those things, I think, where the boat in the lead was always gaining. Having said that I think that JK (tactician John Kostecki) did a really nice job, he absolutely nailed it on the downwind leg. Full credit to him and the weather team.”
“It was very very shifty, very very puffy.”
“It was certainly good to see the guys under pressure like that because it did not really phase them one bit. They all just got straight back into what they were supposed to do and that is sailing the boat fast.”

Alinghi in Race 1 - (c) Guido Trombetta / Alinghi

Alinghi (SUI):

Brad Butterworth (NZL) skipper/tactician Alinghi (SUI):
“We tried to keep the boats apart with having the bottom pin offset but it was not actually set up that well, and we thought we had just done enough but obviously not. But that really did not have any reflection on who won the race. It made some interesting stop and start, in irons and going backwards, something we’d never done on multihulls.”

Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), helmsman and team president Alinghi (SUI):
“For sure at the start after the penalty it felt good they were stopped we could gybe and start. The wind changed quite rapidly. We had six or seven knots during the pre start and right off the start we were surprised with the wind coming in so strong, so quickly, 12 knots, but we thought we were doing good. But they caught up. We had to make a sail change which slowed us, but they were fast today and the wing seems to be quite a weapon. ”

Brad Butterworth (NZL) skipper/tactician Alinghi (SUI):
“They certainly showed how fast they can get their boat going. They could not have come off the line in a worse position and they ended up in a very strong position. When you are sitting in front of them and they sail up and around you, that is speed.”

Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), helmsman and team president Alinghi (SUI):
“Actually we had too much sail area for the most part of the race. We did not have the set up we would have liked to have had. There was a bit more wind than we expected, so I don’t think sail area would have made much of a difference. It does, I think, show that the wing is quite versatile in many different conditions, but I am not sure sail area would have made much of a difference.”

Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), helmsman and team president Alinghi (SUI):
“I have absolutely no regrets and no frustration. Actually I quite enjoyed myself on the water today. It’s racing, you win, you lose that is part of the game. We gave everything we have got over the last two and a half years. So there there is nothing to be frustrated about or ashamed about. Again, the Cup is not over. We still have one race to go. They have to cross the line, finish the race and score two points.”

Ernesto Bertarelli (SUI), helmsman and team president Alinghi (SUI):
“ I tell you, when you are in my position with the ten years that are behind and the team I have and the opportunity to race one more, or maybe two more races in the America’s Cup, you can’t call any day a hard day in the America’s Cup. They are all good days. Today it just happened they were faster, they sailed a good race.”
“ We lost and I learned over the years that losing is part of enjoying sailing and going racing.”

The postponement flag is down and the race starts in 10 minutes.

At last its underway – the 33rd Americas Cup.  Live on Eurosport.

USA looking way more powerful than Alinghi.  Swiss have a penalty as well.

The Beast is looking very powerful – I dont like Alinghi’s chances at all now.

Looks pretty sure now that the race will finally take place in the sea off Valencia.  Can’t wait!

Or maybe not …..  we all wait as nothing happens. Boredom in the extreme!

6 minutes until he commits to the start

YES