San Diego-based maxi and superyacht design maestros Reichel/Pugh have entered the fast-growing world of the large performance multihull

For 33 years designs from the Reichel/Pugh studio have produced unparalleled results for their owners and made a distinctive mark on the sailing industry. With an average age of 38, the Reichel/Pugh team has a strong passion for design, naval architecture and engineering as well as sailing whether in monohulls, multihulls or kiteboarding. The company’s impressive portfolio ranges from the 1992 America’s Cup winner, America³, to groundbreaking one- designs for Melges Boats (the 32, 24, 17, 20 and the Melges 14).

The Reichel/Pugh portfolio also boasts purpose-built offshore record hunters including Transpac record breakers Pyewacket (76ft, 1999) and Alfa Romeo (100ft, 2012), as well as the 100-footer Wild Oats XI with eight line honour wins in the Sydney Hobart and record setting trifecta (line honours, race record and overall handicap) wins in 2005 and 2012. The studio has also produced breakthrough Superyachts including the 45m Visione, the 34m Nilaya, the 67m Hetairos and two Wallycento designs; Magic Carpet³ and Galateia. Now Reichel/Pugh is looking to a new market, one which is quietly exploding in popularity: performance multihulls.

The motivation to design this 45ft offshore performance catamaran started with a question from a prospective client. The client wanted a fast yacht for shorthanded offshore racing that also featured genuine cruising capacity; he initially asked us to offer a recommendation in choosing between a Class40 monohull and a custom multihull design. There may have been an expected response from a design firm with such long and successful pedigree in monohulls, but recent hires by the company have tipped the balance somewhat and, with nearly half of the design team owning performance catamarans themselves, the discussion was spirited and the conclusions divided. To explore the trade-offs in proper depth it was decided to develop a new multihull design.

There are a growing number of larger performance multihulls appearing with increasing effort also now going into devising a pragmatic rating system to allow better competition between types. The RP45 cat, however, ramps up the emphasis on speed by opting for a clear bridgedeck with all the living space in the hulls; this may turn out to be a genuine breakthrough design

The design process begins with the market research. After evaluating possible layouts and reviewing market trends, it was determined that a catamaran design would provide more living space than an equivalent trimaran by splitting the interior accommodation between two hulls instead of one centre hull. Furthermore, given the performance goals the design would focus on an open bridgedeck layout to help achieve a light displacement. The team found a few designs in this market space, however most were by now several years old. The research indicated an opportunity for a unique performance catamaran design capable of racing and cruising that would be quite different from the existing options available today.

On deck the space gained from eliminating the voluminous but typically bulbous bridgedeck cabin allows for a more efficient sailing layout as well as a generous social area for guests aft of the mast; the bridge deck itself is also designed to keep the working and social areas dry even at high speeds. A low sheerline and cabin profile ensure a clear line of sight from the helm (an issue on many current catamaran designs). The winches and working areas of the boat are carefully laid out to facilitate both fully crewed as well as shorthanded sailing. Additionally, all control lines are lead below deck to further enhance the open feel, safety and efficiency.

Compared with a comparably sized monohull or trimaran the large open deck of this new design provides significantly more usable space. When required, a bimini hard top covering the guest seating area will provide protection from the elements for cruising passages and day sails. At anchor the transom doors open to provide bathing platforms with uninterrupted access from the bridgedeck to the water. These platforms also facilitate boarding from either a dock or tender. The forward trampolines offer more lounging and sunbathing area.

The interior arrangement features the owner’s quarters, a head with separate shower and the galley in the starboard hull. The port hull accommodation includes two guest/crew berths with shared head and a dinette area. The fit-out is simple but comfortable in keeping with modern design trends; numerous portlights and windows create a light and airy interior.

Under power the new 45ft cat is driven by two diesel saildrives, but in the longer term the design team aims to introduce electric drives, given the rate of development and increasing implementation of these systems.

To fulfil the design brief for a successful racing design all opportunities for performance advantage were investigated. The modern hull design exhibits a low rocker shape and reverse stem while maintaining a high-volume bow for reserve buoyancy with a flying knuckle to improve manoeuvrability.

The rig utilises an efficient rotating mast arrangement. The headstay, code zero and downwind sails are supported with a stayed longeron/sprit, eliminating the customary forward beam to reduce windage and pitching motion. C-shaped daggerboards provide leeway resistance as well as some vertical lift to reduce virtual displacement – also ensuring the bows stay up when the boat is being pressed hard downwind.

This 45ft catamaran, designed and engineered by the Reichel/Pugh studio, is well positioned to make an impact in the growing performance multihull market. It is truly a versatile offshore racing yacht, combining high performance with the amenities and comfort for relaxed cruising while also maintaining the safety and ease of use necessary for such a boat to be sailed by its owner and guests without employing professional sailing crew.

Tony Beale, Reichel/Pugh Yacht Design, San Diego

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Following the switch from ponderous monohulls to M32 cats the rules of engagement on the World Match Racing Tour have certainly changed… and almost certainly for the better, says Andy Rice

At the beginning of the season the newlook World Match Racing Tour was billing itself as a #gamechanger on social media. However, when reigning world champion Ian Williams came out and won the first event held in M32 catamarans back in March in Fremantle, you had to wonder whether things had changed that much after all.

Since then, however, we’ve seen plenty of evidence that things really have shifted in a number of significant ways. At the WMRT event in Copenhagen in May the number of lead changes and the degree of uncertainty in the matches were unprecedented. In the keelboat days of the World Match Racing Tour the start was everything – or certainly an absolutely critical part of the contest. Approximately 85 per cent of the time the boat that led around the first windward mark would go on to win the match. That percentage is nowhere near as high in the new style of racing.

In the strong winds of Fremantle it was the first time we got to see the M32s and the first time we saw the use of high-speed reaching starts on the Tour. Winning the start was pretty important but now it wasn’t everything. In the predominantly lighter airs of Copenhagen sometimes the start mattered even less.

The 500kg weight of the all-carbon M32 means it responds to the slightest change of wind strength, which makes finding the strongest puff the over-riding factor downwind with the gennaker, and still very important on the upwind legs. A good start provided little guarantee of being able to defend that early lead.

One of the biggest gamechangers of all, however, has been the introduction of course boundaries up each side of the racetrack. These become particularly important when the course is at all one-sided.

Like many of the recent innovations in high-level racing (including the America’s Cup itself) – the use of a windward gate as well as a leeward gate, the reaching starts, the less expensive penalties – these boundaries aim to give the trailing boat a better chance of getting back into the fight.

It was pretty clear from watching the racing in Copenhagen that even the world’s best pro sailors are still working out what the new tactics are when you can be certain that the umpires will hand you a stop-go penalty if you stray beyond those course limits.

Chris Steele was one of 20 skippers in Copenhagen who at times were almost as focused studying the racing from the shore as they were on the water in their own matches. Everybody else’s matches are a vital opportunity to learn the winning – and losing – moves before once more submitting yourself to the learning process in your next match.

‘A lot of new scenarios are developing as you go around the racetrack,’ says the young Kiwi. ‘We’re still learning the playbook. Or rather we’re writing it as we go along and trying to make the most of every practice opportunity; the more you practise, the more instinctive you become at making the right moves.’

In Copenhagen Steele went out relatively early in the competition, falling 3-1 to M32 rookie Iker Martínez in their Super 16 knockout round. Where others booked early planes home, though, Steele stuck around to learn as much as he could from the shore. He wants to minimise the loss of experience compared with those who progressed to the later rounds. ‘The further on into the competition they get, the more and more practice they get in the M32, and right now time in the boats is massive.’

Full face helmets, crews bouncing and sprinting across their lightweight and fast-accelerating new boats… but there’s still room for some serious old-school match racing (above) although with a new and much more modern twist. The change in ownership of the World Match Racing Tour and the switch to a multihull platform has both re-energised the circuit and brought it back into harmony with the biggest match race of them all – the America’s Cup. A lack of jibs on the M32 cats only adds to the aggressive possibilities

Some of the old rules of match racing are irrelevant, as a number of skippers have found to their cost. Trying to execute a slam-dunk or a lee-bow tack on your trailing opponent is extremely risky and will mostly result in you getting rolled… to windward or to leeward. Williams, the sixtime match racing world champion in keelboats, looked to have it all worked out in Fremantle where he dropped just one match in the whole of the competition. It was a very different story when he was taken to 2-2 by young Australian Evan Walker in Copenhagen. Williams did clinch the final race to go through to the quarter-finals but went no further after losing 3-1 to Yann Guichard and Spindrift.

Whereas the likes of Williams, Taylor Canfield, Johnie Berntsson and other experienced match racers have been working hard to learn the ropes in high-speed multi hull racing, Guichard typifies the other kind of sailor who has been drawn to the Tour this season. He has almost no match racing experience, but brings other vital skills to the party. The lifelong multihull sailor has campaigned Tornados for the Olympics, steered AC45s and Extreme 40s, and skippered Spindrift 2 in the giant trimaran’s attempt on the Jules Verne Trophy last winter. In fact, the quiet Frenchman was the most consistent performer during the early part of the season, being the only skipper to reach the semifinals both in Fremantle and Copenhagen.

But in Denmark his run came to an end up against Canfield and US One. The talented skipper from the US Virgin Islands is arguably the most complete package on the Tour at this stage, with both great match racing pedigree, including the 2013 world title, and a good 18 months’ experience of M32 racing. In the final Canfield was pushed hard by another sailor with great pedigree, Iker Martínez, but who has next to no match racing experience. The Spaniard drew on all the talent that has yielded gold and silver 49er medals at the Olympics, and his tenacity gained from skippering three Volvo Ocean Race campaigns. But Canfield’s superior firepower in the M32, and in the pre-start, won through in the end.

However, even Canfield very nearly came unstuck against American skipper Sally Barkow and her female crew on Team Magenta in their Copenhagen quarter- final battle – a tussle that went down to the final mark of the fifth and final match.

Ominously, Canfield had been sniffy about what he perceived to be a comedy of errors between Barkow and Johnie Berntsson in their previous match which also went down to the wire. Multiple lead changes in every match had left that outcome in doubt until the very last gasp before Barkow fist pumped her way through to the quarters, much to the whoops and delights of a Copenhagen crowd who wanted to see the one female skipper go as far as possible against 19 male opponents.

In the last two matches against Canfield it looked as if Barkow could again square it away and book her place in the final four. But US One has always prided itself on a ‘never say die’ attitude and this, combined with a lucky gust, carried Canfield past the hapless, drifting Team Magenta, eliminating Barkow from the competition. No fist pump this time from the American, but a helmet ripped off her head and flung down on the trampoline in frustration.

For Steele watching on, he shared Barkow’s anguish but also made some solid tactical observations. ‘The default move is you’ve got to make sure you protect the inside at the final turning mark to the finish,’ he said afterwards. ‘The girls could have won the last two matches if they’d done a gybe-set at the top of the final run to get in phase with Taylor.’

The most counterintuitive move, now that the boundaries are there, is to choose the opposite rounding mark to the side that you believe to be favoured. ‘Normally you’d go around the gate that takes you to the favoured side,’ says Steele, ‘but now the game’s a lot more about “where you are willing to give up time now, to get a gain later on?” One of those potential gains is to go to the opposite rounding mark so that you can tack over later and spend more time on the favoured side of the course before you reach the boundary.’

Some skippers don’t like the boundaries, full stop. But it looks as if they’re here to stay. And for the grand finale in Marstrand, where the winner becomes the 2016 world champion and takes away a cool $1million in prizemoney, the boundaries will be real… hard lumps of ancient Swedish rock that will come off a good deal better out of a collision than a carbon M32 catamaran.

The game has changed and in Marstrand we’ll see which team has pulled off the best transformation to meet the new demands of the World Match Racing Tour.

Keep looking forwards,
says RICHARD ASPLAND

Following the disappointing announcement that sailing will not feature in the Paralympic programme at Tokyo 2020, World Sailing and the Para World Sailing Committee have been working tirelessly to reinstate the sport for the Paralympic Games of 2024.

Since disabled sailing has fallen under the remit of the International Federation (IF) positive steps have been taken to move the discipline forward. Meetings between the IF and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) have taken place and continue with the intent of addressing all of the recommendations from the IPC.

New equipment and racing formats are being looked at in a bid to increase worldwide participation at the grass-roots level as well as on the elite level, changes which also make the discipline more media and spectator friendly to increase exposure for the sport.

World Sailing has recently announced the appointment of Massimo Dighe as the Para World Sailing Manager. As well as the skills needed to perform the role, Dighe has the added advantage of being a former Paralympian and has been instrumental in the latest equipment evaluations.

While the work continues to reinstate sailing into the 2024 Paralympics, looking ahead there is still the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games in which sailing has the opportunity to showcase itself to the world. But what can we expect from this September’s spectacular?

The Rio 2016 Paralympic Games will demonstrate wonderful feats of human endeavour, and in sailing during the Paralympic Regatta you will see that endeavour go up against and with nature.

Try to imagine New Zealand’s 49er team of Peter Burling and Blair Tuke pulling in the spinnaker sheet with their teeth. Can’t imagine it? Just tune in to the Paralympics to see it happen. Want to see someone steer a boat by blowing into a tube? Then tune in to the Paralympics to see that too.

The Para World Sailing Championships recently concluded in Medemblik in the Netherlands, a truly fantastic advertisement for what is to come in the first South American Paralympic Games.

The Para Worlds showed that Paralympic sailing has excitement. The very last race of the regatta, race 10 in the Sonar fleet, had people ashore watching the live tracking, exhaling and debating who was going to win gold. The Sonar teams from the USA, Australia and Great Britain fought it out to the very last metre with all three medals changing hands at least a dozen times through the race. In the end USA’s Alphonsus Doerr, Bradley Kendell and Hugh Freund took it by a single point from silver and two points from bronze.

Germany’s Heiko Kroeger won his eighth world title in the 2.4 Norlin One Design. But that does not tell the whole story. Yes, winning eight worlds is impressive, but what’s more impressive is the longevity and high competitive standards he has had to maintain to win those eight titles battling out against a succession of other world champions, Paralympic gold medallists and Sailing World Cup winners. There is a lot of depth and pedigree in this class.

In the SKUD18 Poland’s Monika Gibes and Piotr Cichocki became the first world champions since 2008 not to come from either Great Britain or Australia. Maybe a surprise is in store in Rio now that the two previous dominant nations know they can be beaten… and that everyone else also knows they can be beaten.

Just like the Olympics, the Paralympics will be centre stage at Rio with a spectacular backdrop and will be a superb opportunity to showcase the sport to the world. But one major thing the Paralympics will benefit from, the Olympics itself.

Sailing at the Olympics will be seen by millions of people around the globe. Sailing uses nature like no other sport in the programme. Add in to that the sheer range of disabilities that the sport of sailing can accommodate – and at a high level.

The Olympics is a great warm-up for the Paralympics. When people see the success of Olympic sailing in Rio they will want to come back for more, and they won’t have to wait long as the Paralympics starts a few short weeks later.

The Paralympics is a showcase of what is physically possible. Add in a beautiful backdrop, some amazing people doing some amazing things in a boat and you’ve really got something special.

Richard Aspland, World Sailing

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But TP52 and Maxi72 manager ROB WEILAND is just the sort of benign dictator to pull it off...

We had a great start to the 2016 Super Series in Scarlino, Tuscany, raced from the well laid out Marina Scarlino owned by Leonardo Ferragamo of Nautor Swan fame. Eleven boats at the start, battle hardened by a tough 2015 season, modified and upgraded over winter to do even better in 2016 – and sure enough more even in performance potential now than many one-design fleets. Behind an impressively consistent Quantum Racing it was a good battle between six or seven teams for the other two podium places, and perhaps even fiercer was the battle to avoid being last.

Some of the tacticians were more in phase with the often fickle and hard-to-read conditions, especially Alegre’s past 470 world champion Nic Asher and the ever sharp Terry Hutchinson who both made a solid impression. The designers’ battle, or if you wish the boat optimisation battle, has reached new levels of perfection in the sense that the teams seem able to read their boats much better and optimise more confidently for the daily conditions than last year. I feel that the work that went into the rigs and sails this winter is one part of the reason for this, but surely the game is more even now that all boats are able to set up for the high upwind mode that you need to survive in the tight 11-boat field.

Looking ahead to 2017, we have three points of interest coming up. First the announcement that our schedule for 2017 will once more include Quantum Key West Race Week plus an event in Miami, this time labelled the Miami Royal Cup; the Royal Cup Challenge Trophy, which was donated in 1995 by King Harald of Norway, Pasquale Landolfi, Willi Illbruck and Yannis Costopoulos as a challenge trophy for IMS50 racing, has now been reassigned to one of each season’s 52 Super Series events and so it will travel across the Atlantic for the first time. To get your name on this trophy ain’t easy, whether in 1995 or in 2017.

Going to the USA continues to be an important part of the 52 Super Series success. The fleet is truly international and many of the owners and sailors come from the US. Through Doug DeVos and his Quantum Racing there are strong ties with Quantum Key West Race Week and its organiser, the Storm Trysail Club. Miami has provided us with some of the best racing the class has seen over its 15 years of existence. Who is not thrilled to race in 20kt+ against the iconic backdrop of South Beach and its mix of high-rise and Art Deco buildings?

That has the first two events covered – later this summer we will announce the four Mediterranean Super Series events and the location of the 2017 TP52 World Championship. Nearer to this year’s final event in Cascais I also expect to be able to confirm further upgrades in our positioning as today’s leading grand prix monohull circuit. Bit cryptic, but it is better not to print the menu until all the ingredients are confirmed.

Of course in the USA we hope to see a few US-located TP52 teams joining our racing. One of them is the confirmed entry of Gwen and Austin Fragomen’s brand new Botín Partners-designed Interlodge that is now being built at Longitud Cero in Spain; a boat that is rumoured to have a few new ideas along with some interesting developments from the current successful Botín designs.

In a country as large as the USA, it is notoriously difficult to persuade owners to agree on what, where and how to race, resulting in a fragmented picture and low participation numbers in big boat racing.

Top: there’s no two ways about it, you just have to feel sorry for the TP52 Super Series fleet as they are forced to roam the world in search of the best destinations for their next event – run the racing for the owners who are paying for it and they will come. The writer makes the exact same point that in relative terms there was no more money about 30 years ago when Two Tonners like Intuition raced big events like the SORC (above)… All is not lost

I fondly remember the days I came over to Florida as a young man crewing on the Peterson 43 Caiman – amazed to see the enormous fleet of top big boats assembled for the annual SORC. I feel the lack of agreement on an international handicap system for true raceboats resulting in fewer, if any, true international championship events for rated boats is a major driver in the decline and disappearance of such hugely exciting and super-competitive regattas.

For sure it is not the only reason and everybody is entitled to their own opinions. But please do not tell me that in the 1980s the owners had more money and more time for their hobby.

Those days it was an honour to sail for your country and win or defend a proper title, it simply was worth it to invest the money and to create the time. Again a simplified view, but not without touching the essence.

By positioning the 52 Super Series as the world’s leading monohull circuit, created and supported by TP52 owners from three continents, combined with trying to diminish the tension of competition at this high level by keeping it relaxed both in terms of race format and on the shore, in a way we are trying to recreate the hunger and motivation that we saw in the past.

The owners driving the series, as well as most of their boats, I feel are the essence of our current success; and for sure the TP52 being a development class box rule boat, allowing you to create one-off perfection without losing sight of a realistic competitive lifespan, has something to do with it too.

It is an ongoing debate whether we should take what is in some eyes the obvious next step – require all the boats to be owner-driven or at least open to Group 1 drivers only.

So far a majority of current owners support the ‘open-driver’ concept. Sailing against the best is seen as inspirational. But sometimes also as a steep task. The closer it gets the more every small detail matters and it does not get any closer than at the first windward mark of a Super Series race.

There you sometimes see that the pro driver and the owner-driver live by different ethics – but based on the same rules of sailing. And although it is hard to explain the exact difference (for sure you also see differences within the ‘categories’) the perception is a real one, and when the debate continues on the shore you usually hear terms like ‘professional foul’ or ‘professional attitude’… indicating the real source of frustration.

I have no real solution to avoid such frustration, other than to say that both sides have to take responsibility to find common ethics for this specific element of our unique sport.

As organisers we have a few weapons to ‘soften’ the game, like on-the-water umpiring and ‘protecting the zone’ by laying a windward inner mark. However, ideas of ‘putting gloves on the fists’ or of heavy policing hardly ever receive wholehearted support from sailors, owner-drivers and officials.

The conceptual development that we so much enjoy when putting together our boats seems difficult to translate to the human element. But at least we discuss and we try, whether owner, pro sailor or organisation. And I am proud to see us doing so.

Rob Weiland, TP52 class manager

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