The relaunch of the M32 cat with a new builder and all new class management has been accompanied by the exciting adoption of the class for the 2016 World Match Racing Tour…

On 11 December 2015, on the island of Hönö near Gothenburg, a brand new, purpose-built facility was unveiled for mass-producing M32 catamarans. This gargantuan 3,050m2 climate-controlled hangar has been geared up to build 100 new M32s through 2016, with plans to further expand production the following year.

All this for a catamaran that co-designers Göran Marström and Kåre Ljung originally envisaged as a toy for them to enjoy with a few friends. They imagined just four or five would ever be built and raced locally in Sweden. But Swedish entrepreneur Håkan Svensson decided the boat deserved a bigger audience, and the new facility is part of his vision for populating the planet with hundreds, even thousands, of M32s. That vision is M32 World.

As many America’s Cup sailors have discovered after a lifetime of racing heavydisplacement keelboats, multihulls can be a surprising amount of fun. After a life changing outing on Lake Garda in 2012, the seed of an ambitious idea began to germinate in Svensson’s mind, until by early 2015 the entrepreneur was seriously wondering if this simple, easy-to-sail but very quick machine could become the vehicle to drive a revolution in sailing, an agent for lasting change. ‘I had organised the M32 Series in Scandinavia for a couple of years, and I’d started to have conversations with the World Match Racing Tour, and a lot of things began to come together.’ They came together in the form of a company designed to turn the M32 into a global class.

It’s hard to think of another marine business quite like Aston Harald, the company Svensson put in place to promote ‘M32 World’. It is not just a boatbuilding business, not just an event management operation, nor is it just a marketing company. It is all three, and Svensson believes this holistic approach will be key to M32 World’s success. He takes the view that it’s not enough simply to sell a 32ft, ultra-light catamaran to a customer. The buyer wants to learn how to handle the boat safely and to get world-class race training and coaching. He wants a great circuit on which to compete against other M32s. The product itself is a means to an end: a great sailing experience from start to finish.

Of course, the boat itself has to be impressive, and the M32 does offer outstanding performance, with an impressive power-to-weight ratio thanks to its 8.35m beam including hiking racks and an all-up weight of just 510kg.

The M32 quickly accelerates to about 15kt upwind in moderate airs, with crews regularly seeing over 30kt downwind. A big contributor to both performance and ease of handling are the C-shaped foils which, according to designer Kåre Ljung, will support up to 50% of the sailing displacement, reducing wetted drag significantly.

However, the M32 is not an all-out foiler, nor does it aspire to be, as Svensson explains. ‘Foiling is not our thing, because we are looking at the broader market. We are in the business of selling bicycles, not unicycles. Going full foiling, yes, it is faster, but it limits the venues at which you can sail, and the costs of construction and maintenance are much, much higher.’

While the top end of grand prix racing is well catered for with ultra-fast foiling options, Svensson prefers to focus on a bigger and more sustainable market at the level below that. ‘There’s a huge void in the market from when kids are 21 years old until they are about 35 when they, more or less, stop sailing. It’s not easy continuing in the sport during those years, and certainly not to make a living from it.’

Svensson plans for M32 World to plug that void, to create a sustainable pathway for keen sailors to be able not only to race on a regular basis, but for the best to make a living from it. ‘I believe I bring a mix of sports and marketing and business knowledge, with the view that you can basically create demand for a product if you create its own self-contained environment.’

To produce a world-class boat you need a world-class facility managed by the best in the business. Former America’s Cup sailor and winner of the Volvo Ocean Race with Groupama in 2011/12, Martin Krite heads up production. ‘We are now looking at building two to two-and-a-half boats per week,’ says the softly spoken Swede.

‘So we need to look at how we can speed up the production. It’s important to have Göran and Kåre overseeing how we build the boat, to ensure that all the boats come out exactly the same. Each hull comes out at approximately 127kg, and so far all the hulls are within 1-2kg of each other.’

Such an ambitious delivery schedule looks more feasible when you know that heading up boatbuilding is Killian Bushe. A longtime Swedish resident, the Irishman is best known for his unmatched record of producing Volvo winners. But Bushe has now turned his hand to the very different challenge of mass-producing boats to tight one-design tolerances. ‘There’s a lot of focus on saving weight, to use the minimum amount of adhesive,’ says Bushe.

‘Laminating is all carefully controlled, there is a fixed amount of pre-preg and the weight of that amount won’t vary by more than the manufacturing tolerance of the pre-preg itself, which is 1.5%.’

M32 World offers four circuits aimed at different levels of ability and ambition, ranging from the M32 ODC (Owner Drivers’ Club) up to the World Match Racing Tour with a prize purse of US$1 million. It’s a lot to get your head around but, judging by the reaction Svensson experienced on a recent world tour promoting M32 World, people ‘get it’. ‘Sailors see this as an interesting alternative, or maybe an addition to what they’re already doing.

‘The M32 can be a feeder into the big dreams of the Volvo Ocean Race and America’s Cup, the TP52 circuit and so on. I don’t aspire to be in that league, but we are the bicycle to keep the sailors moving through. Once they want to go unicycling and they want to get up into that higher level, then we can say we’ve done our job.’

Extending sail life: EPEX GLP

During the last two decades sailcloth construction has experienced tremendous advancements. Technologies developed to combine the best qualities of film and fibre have succeeded in producing sails that are not only light in weight but also robust enough to better retain their desired shape across the intended wind range. At Elvstrøm Sails this technology has become so effective in our own EPEX products that sails built eight years ago are still holding up with no signs of delamination. That’s a strong record.

One issue, however, that continues to plague many laminate sails is durability – the challenge of extending the life cycle of sails built in film and fibre. Physical abrasion from even regular handling on a raceboat can be extremely hard on the fabrics; this includes the repeated crunching and folding from dousing and packing the sail, the crushing the sail gets when in its bag and being trodden (or slept) on, and repeated floggings and beatings against the spar and standing rigging during manoeuvres.

All these abuses can cause significant damage to not only lightweight laminate race sails for grand prix racers, but slightly heavier club race and cruising sails as well. Simply adding thicker films to the laminates cannot completely defeat this damage, because the material then becomes just too thick to be easy to handle and may even become prone to brittle cracking. Adding taffetas certainly helped but only at the cost of adding more weight.

Besides cracking, other effects of physical abuse include surface abrasion, significant shrinkage and even fibre damage within the laminate, with all affecting the shape retention ability of the sail.

With this in mind, Elvstrøm Sails have developed a new material and process to combat these effects: EPEX GLP. Working at the Elvstrøm Sails EPEX facility in Denmark, our engineers developed a process where a thin non-woven layer of polyester fibres is bonded to each side of the EPEX laminate under heat and pressure.

‘We were looking for a way to improve on our EPEX technology to make a material that has a softer hand,’ said Jesper Bank, Elvstrøm Sails’ commercial and development director and Olympic gold medallist. ‘A softer material could be less prone to the problems in physical handling and significantly improve the working life of the sail. Because of the reduced thickness of the GLP laminate, not only is flaking easier but there is also less compression of the laminate and fibres on the inside curve of a flake. Thus the laminate will have less of a tendency to crease.’

Main picture: built using EPEX GLP, the mainsail on this Salona 37 Performance weighs 3kg more than an EPEX grand prix sail, but it is more robust and is equally suitable for cruising use. Technology in action (below) at the EPEX facility in Denmark – all EPEX membrane sails carry a 3-year warranty against delamination

The reduced thickness of GLP also means little weight addition to the sail. Bank cites an example: ‘for a 45ft racer-cruiser, an 80m2 mainsail if built in a film-on-film EPEX grand prix material would weigh 28.5kg. Built in a Light EPEX GLP the same sail would weigh only 33kg. So for an extra 4.5kg an inshore-only mainsail becomes a multi-purpose offshore sail with much greater versatility.

‘Our preliminary tests of EPEX GLP onboard a Salona 37 in the past season have been very encouraging,’ says sales director Per Weiskvist. ‘We did two races in very heavy winds: a 142-mile distance race with winds up to 45kt and a 29-mile race with winds up to 42kt. In both races the EPEX GLP sails were performing very well and nothing broke or looked worn afterwards.

‘The sails were then used in races in medium winds between 8 and 20kt, and the performance was still 100 per cent compared with a new sail. The results for us were two wins and two second places, so results were very satisfying. The same boat is primarily now being used for cruising, and because of the easy handling feature of the cloth the sails continue to work perfectly.’

While the EPEX GLP used on the Salona test platform used two outside layers of material, there is another option to add this material as a single layer within the laminate. This variation, called EPEX GLP Single Inside, shows promise for delivering similar abrasion resistance at a slightly lighter weight.

‘We’re very excited to introduce this improvement on our original EPEX technology for the racing sailor interested in extending the competitive life of sails he uses for racing but that he may also use occasionally for cruising,’ says Bank. ‘This represents a significant portion of our customers and we think it will be of tremendous value to them and others who use their boats in this way.’

Elvstrøm Sails will be offering a new concept in regatta support for its customers during the upcoming ORC World Championship to be held in Copenhagen in July 2016. For two days prior to the start of racing Bank and other coaches will be available to assist their customers in organised training sessions both on and off the water. The support will also extend into the event itself, with debriefs and repair services on site at the venue in Skovshoved harbour.

‘We feel this is another unique value we can bring our customers at an important event,’ says Bank. ‘Already the interest is strong’.
Jesper Bank and Per Weiskvist

Click here for more information on Elvstrom Sails »

North Sails go big in Europe

North Sails recently opened a new state-of-the-art sail-manufacturing loft in the historic UK south coast maritime hub of Gosport. With the expansion in Gosport, North Sails Group now produce sails in seven countries including the United States, Sri Lanka, Spain, France, Italy and New Zealand.

All of these production sites are wholly owned by North Sails Group. The facilities are centrally managed and scheduled, thereby operating with a single set of processes and procedures. While each site is unique, the work they produce is of a uniform standard. For example, a North TP52 jib made in the UK versus one made in New Zealand or Sri Lanka will be virtually indistinguishable. In addition to sail production, North Sails also own and operate their own cloth-manufacturing facilities in the US and Sri Lanka.

It’s changed a little since the original sails were made for the J/Class back in the 1930s. Laying down carbon fibres on a 3Di sail (below), a rotating machinist pit (above), the tracked machinist side-pits (top) and synchronised sewing (main picture)

The Gosport loft draws many manufacturing departments under the one roof: North Sails 3Di and Superyacht finishing, one-design sail production, European cloth and hardware distribution and North Certified Service. It is the first loft of its kind to specialise in Super - yacht sails. The Superyacht bay alone in the new facility boasts the largest free span, raised finishing floor in the world at 1,950m2. Once again pushing the boundaries of sail technology, innovation and manufacturing, this will be North Sails’ European flagship facility.

While continuing to design, manufacture and service sails for the company’s current customers in the UK, the new space allows for work on special projects and custom finishing – especially on larger projects – for all European markets. As North Sails’ European operations officer, John Welch, explains, ‘North Sails Gosport is a response to the ever-increasing size and demand for Superyacht sails and also delivers a healthy consolidation of many departments.

‘We are excited about the space that we now have and the opportunity to serve our clients with greater speed and efficiency. North Sails’ commitment to design and development is at the forefront, enabling us to keep pushing forward in all areas of sail manufacturing.’ In addition to the Gosport site, North Sails will continue to focus on strengthening their European network through increased sales support and expanded service capabilities.

Spanning two manufacturing bays, and housing UK design and sales staff, along with Europe group administration and accounting functions, the current 82 production and office personnel in Gosport benefit from proximity to global departments and the ability to see the final results of their work. ‘I'm proud of our end product, especially the Superyacht sails. It's nice to be a small part of something so inspiring,’ adds sailmaker Clym Arnold.

The new loft was designed to accommodate the world’s largest Superyacht sails – two J/Class headsails and one J/Class main can be laid out at the same time. The total sail area of Marie, an 180ft ketch, lies flat on the 1,950m2 raised surface with room to spare.

As with many North lofts, Gosport is equipped with the latest in sailmaking plant including a 3.2-ton overhead gantry, five rotating sewing machines and two travelling sewing machine tracks. The rotating machines assist in stitching large and hard-to-reach reinforcements without wrinkling or damaging the sail, whereas the travelling machines move atop a belt the full length of the finishing floor, stitching the luff or leech without moving the sail.

The majority of the machinery at North manufacturing lofts is designed and assembled by the company’s own in-house engineering team in Nevada, USA, to allow production teams to make and finish sails more efficiently than ever. In-house engineered custom equipment includes full-scale three-dimensional moulding tools, robotic deployment of structural materials, patented sailcloth weaving and laminating processes and the advanced stitching equipment described above.

‘Investment in the loft and the development of our processes has a positive effect on our total staff from top to bottom. Our new space encourages quality and attention to detail which are paramount at North Sails,’ said sailmaker Adrienne Fekets, who has been with the company since 2005.

Gosport is expected to produce up to 800 ‘larger’ sails each year on top of its already sizeable output of one-design sails. Combined with the production volume of lofts in the United States, Spain and Sri Lanka, and those with a more specialised focus in France, Italy and New Zealand, North Sails today deliver approximately 15,000 custom sails and 10,000 one-design sails every year…

Click here for information on North Sails »

Full hoist to full douse in under four seconds... 

The TP52 Class is perhaps today’s most important platform for research and development projects in grand prix monohulls. In 2015 nine new boats were built, creating a great opportunity to develop new products and systems to increase performance. Harken accepted the challenge and applied their engineering experience to developing new solutions for winch and pedestal transmission systems, hydraulic systems and block designs.

Another area to which Harken dedicated R&D resources is the spinnaker retrieval system, commonly called a string drop system. Dousing the spinnaker, whether symmetrical or asymmetrical, has traditionally been a slow and an occasionally even dangerous manoeuvre. There is a lot to be gained at the bottom mark if the kite can get safely below without having bodies forward of the mast that would be better applied turning winches or bent over lifelines.

Main image: Harken Air pedestal on Provezza.
The package (top) created for Alinghi’s winning AC32 campaign in 2007 was the first pedestal-driven drop system, with a moving feed (on the yellow track) which ensures the line is wound flat on the drum. Harken’s 1:1 Y-Box bevel gearbox (red, above) fits directly onto the hub of the carbon ratchet line drum below deck (below, Provezza)

The history of the offshore string drop
Harken began developing spinnaker retrieval systems with America’s Cup teams as far back as 2000 in Auckland. Spinnakers were retrieved by running a 6mm diameter drop line from the sail down the forward hatch, back to the aft bulkhead, and then back up into the cockpit and onto a large pedestal-driven, self-tailing halyard winch specifically designed to accommodate ropes between 6 and 12mm.

In 2007, for the 32nd America’s Cup in Valencia, Harken developed more advanced custom drop solutions housed entirely below deck where they could be hidden from competing syndicates. Onboard the winner Alinghi Harken had created the first pedestaldriven captive-drum drop system, which spooled the drop line in a single untangled layer along the drum.

Into the TP52s
Not long after 2007 the TP52 Class introduced this drop system technology and manoeuvre into their playbook. No doubt it took considerable practice to properly co-ordinate the timing of the tack line and guy release with the helm turn-down during the class’s spinnaker-pole era. This was even more important as, unlike the AC Class that preceded them, TP52s have stanchions and lifelines with a nasty appetite for sails.

In the beginning the teams developed their own drop systems independently, with varying degrees of success. Most of the boats started the process using the existing cockpit utility winch or an on-deck halyard winch.

The challenge with this winch solution was 1) you had miles of 6mm cordage in the cockpit after dropping the kite; and 2) the pit person had to be very fast in the pit to hoist the jib, unload the winch and then get it reloaded and ready for the drop. The tactical prospect of being able to keep the kite up and drawing, sometimes to within a single boat length of the mark, was so enticing that development was bound to continue.

Progress to date
Soon a few TP52 teams, where sailors coming out of the AC had seen the benefits of the below-deck systems and how well they kept the take-up line tangle-free and out of the fray, approached Harken. They worked with us to develop a new below-deck takeup system. The heart of the resulting solution is now a mechanical ratcheting hub that mounts directly to a gearbox and a large but lightweight carbon drum.

When engaged, the ratcheting hub prevents the drop line from unwinding, preventing sections of kite that have already been brought below deck from being swept back out of the hatch by breeze or water. Following the drop, in the process of tidying up, the sewer person disengages the hub to bring the kite back forward toward the forehatch for rehoisting. The retracting line stays either wound around the now free-spinning drum or slightly in tension between the drum and the centre of the kite now forward.

The red bevel gearbox with its 1:1 drive ratio was specially designed for this application. This gearbox is unique in having two disconnects that are linked to one control. Thus it operates as a ‘Y-Box’, where the crew is either grinding the winch or the drop wheel system – but never the two at the same time.

The TP teams are in different places in terms of the hardware they use at the hatch opening. These solutions remain unique to every boat and every project manager. The general trend has been to install a roller, often a Harken carbon drive shaft re-engineered to span the hatch or suspended from the underside of the deck just aft of the opening.

Most recently several boats have instead opted to incorporate larger radius hatch openings. This is simpler on the water and potentially just as effective. It just takes more time to create the tooling to form the amazingly fair hatch perimeter that is required.

These systems all integrate well with our various winch packages. Today Harken supplies winches to 100 per cent of the TP52 fleet, plus hydraulic systems driven by Harken MX Wing and Air pedestals were selected by eight boats; these pedestals offer the ability to accelerate output speed by a factor of almost three. This in turn rotates the carbon wheel very fast indeed, taking up the drop line and pulling the spinnaker through the hatch and down below within three to five seconds.

The future
For what other types of boats would equipment like this be appropriate? In fact, we’re already seeing racing monohulls of a wide range of sizes being designed and launched with these systems incorporated.

They are already well-developed in the Maxi 72 Class and are increasingly popular onboard custom and semi-production race boats between 40 and 50ft. Each design requires different sizing and system design, but all seek to apply the same general solution and are doing so with very positive results.

At Harken we stand ready to collaborate on new projects in this important, ever-evolving technology. We’re not standing still. Recently we’ve also begun to deploy hydraulic and electric winch powered string drop systems for much larger maxi-sized cruiser racers. Progress never stop.
Mark Wiss, director of new business development

Click here to see the Provezza crew discuss the development of their customised TP52 string drop system »

Click here for more information on Harken »