How else to describe Botín’s new Melges 40 canting-keel one-design? North Sails and Southern Spars have been central to the launch of a potential market disrupter

When a new high-performance boat comes on the market the pressure is on to meet the expectations of everyone involved in the project: the designer, builder, class promoters, industry providers, media and – most importantly – potential owners and crews. The higher the performance is, the greater the expectations and lower the acceptable margins for error. New boats of this genre must be fast out of the box with little or no lead time before they can start competing. Everyone wants one, so the first boat built and launched is critical – it must start to deliver on the pre-launch hype right away if a successful new class is to follow.

The new Botín-designed Melges 40 is a perfect example of such a high-profile new design, with the global reputation of Melges on the line. Designer Marcelino Botín has said, ‘Melges is a sailing legend, and this was an opportunity for us to design something very new and different. The design complements the Melges brand, and upholds their top-quality ideals. We proposed a design that adopts best practice and introduces new concepts. The boat creates a new 40ft performance benchmark.’

Builder Max Waimer at Premier Composite Technologies said, ‘For sure the Melges 40 is a new starting point in the sailing world. We share the same passion as Melges and Botín for creating not only an exceptional boat, but a very new, competitive racing experience. We have put every ounce of our expertise into the Melges 40.’

So, against this backdrop, how is North meeting the clear need to have the fastest sails ready from the get-go? The answer is in the process. North Sails has been intimately involved throughout the design development of the Melges 40 to gather the details on the rigging, spar set-up and even the equipment onboard, to advise on solutions that will benefit not only designing fast sails but also contribute to achieving some ambitious project goals. Participation in these formative stages helps in ensuring accuracy in not only detailed sail geometries and shapes, but also in anticipating other key aspects of performance that affect the sails, such as crew work and deck layouts.

With this information the North Design Suite of computational tools can be used to replicate details of how the spar and sails integrate with the platform to deliver the available performance. These tools have been refined repeatedly on a wide variety of boats, ranging from small keelboats to Maxis; the process is well proven and has led to great success on the water.

Not only does this process drive good sail design, but establishing a detailed knowledge base on the ground floor of a new project has other benefits, such as anticipating the content for a tuning guide that is ready at the first launch rather than having to wait for the completion of sail testing. Being a regular sail trimmer on Steve and Heidi Benjamin’s original HPR 40 and now their TP52 Spookie, North Sail designer Chris Williams has a perfect perspective on the design and development process for the new Melges 40. ‘This boat really is unique,’ he says. ‘Besides having lots of sail, the canting keel gives it a righting moment 20 per cent greater than on an HPR 40, so there is some daunting power and speed potential… Modelling the sails to drive all this performance is not just about using variations of existing designs.’

The nitty gritty
‘We started work early with Southern Spars to identify the rig parameters so we could set up the sailplan in DesMan,’ says Williams.

‘On any boat the headstay characteristics are a dominant driver for jib design since they obviously govern luff deflections. For this project we knew there would be no hydraulic headstay ram, so we immediately knew that runner management would be critical. We then looked in detail at the runner set-up: the winch size and how much power it could generate, and the location of the runners and how efficient they would be in transferring loads to the headstay. We also pressed the design team to move the runners as close as possible to centreline so there would be the minimum moment to cause the spar to twist and confuse tuning calculations.

Melges 40 transverse rig deflections are modelled using Southern Spars’ and North Sails’ integrated design software for various wind strengths and mast jack pre-load. The ability to integrate the rig software allows an acceleration of the design spiral, which is particularly helpful in the case of a new one-design, where, for a new class to hit the ground running, all of the suppliers need to be 100% certain of having got things right when the first production example is delivered. Nothing puts raceboat owners off as effectively as the prospect of warranty work when all that they want to do is go racing

‘Once we had recreated the spar’s properties in DesMan, we used Flow and Membrain to model our first test sails on the virtual yacht and start iterating towards greater refinement in the designs. This allows us to give meaningful feedback to the class managers with some early parameters for the One Design rules as well as the build specs for the yacht itself.

‘An example of this is knowing the exact placement and geometry of the spar doubler to ensure that every yacht’s spars will work with every sail in a limited inventory. Modelling mast bend and jib trim through the different ranges of tune and jack loads also allows us to optimise the size and roach profile of the light-air jibs and their batten placement relative to the available space in the foretriangle.’

After this crucial first step the sail designs and their Membrain model data are forwarded to other members of the North design team who, with collective experience of dozens of projects, can further refine their accuracy. For the Melges 40 the North Sails team included Giovanni Cassinari, who is not only a North Sails designer and mainsail trimmer on the SuperSeries 52 Azzurra, but also will be racing on the Melges 40 Inga; Marchino Capitani, another North designer, coach to Azzurra and an Inga team member; and Per Anderson, North Sails’ head of design.

‘I’m sure the sails will be tweaked slightly to make sure that the first set built closely match the ideas and design concepts of the group as a whole,’ says Williams.

‘There are always many ways to skin a cat here. While all of us have our input, the hard part is to make sure the sails are ultimately not designed by committee, so all that input and experience does actually correlate to a fast suit of sails!

‘Finally, another important factor in the project was to work with Melges on new rules to determine a desirable sail inventory, mindful that all of us involved in the project are aware of the need to manage campaign costs. As well as agreeing on a sensible inventory, we also had to give thought to a realistic replacement cycle. For the Melges 40 it was determined that three full-sized jibs were the best solution, given not only the boat’s performance through the range of conditions but also the intended schedule of races and venues.

‘Part of this discussion is driven by the sails’ durability and their ability to retain design shape through an acceptable lifespan. 3Di RAW materials will be used for the new boat’s upwind sails, with a mix of tapes and composition to be determined when the mould shapes and designs are finalised.’

Williams believes that this new and very different one-design with its canting keel and massive sail area will present a steep learning curve for sailors. Yet the proven accuracy of the North Design Suite should ensure the first-generation upwind sails and rig set-up will be at around 95 per cent of their ultimate potential… This is encouraging news for those first few owners who will want to come out of the box with good results and continue to remain fast as the class develops.

Williams reckons that downwind the Melges 40 will meet or even exceed the pace of the latest TP52s. However, the refinement of downwind sails within the allowable 210m2 area will depend upon where each boat will sail and the local conditions: generally light or breezy, flat or choppy seas, and so on. The specific answers to these questions will govern not only the mould shapes chosen, but the location of cross-over points and the selection of materials. Williams is already tending towards the use of polyester/nylon composite rather than all-nylon for gennaker constructions, given the expected blend of high performance along with vigorous accelerations.

‘All told, we expect sails for the Melges 40 to be every bit as successful as what we produce for other competitive one-design classes,’ says Vince Brun, head of North Sails Offshore One Design.

‘They will be fast out of the box due to the quality of the tools along with the talent that we are fortunate to have throughout our team, boosted by a strict collaborative approach – the very same mix that has contributed to the long history of success in this company.’

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Italian fibre and rope specialist Gottifredi Maffioli is finding a fast-growing market for furling and aft rigging cables constructed with SK99 Dyneema

Much has been written about hightech rope as well as the benefits of carbon standing rigging in its various incarnations. But what about that grey area between rods and rope? Maffioli is well known across the yacht racing market for its ropes, but the Italian manufacturer is also now a leading supplier of composite cables, primarily using unidirectional Dyneema of which the highestperforming type is currently SK99.

Like its forebears, SK99 is an Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE), a family that also includes Spectra, although SK99 is a more recent product. This latest iteration follows the initial development of SK90 by Dyneema’s Dutch manufacturer DSM, working with Maffioli for the fibre’s use in running rigging onboard Alinghi’s successful defending America’s Cup Class yacht in Valencia in 2007.

With PBO and then carbon cables subsequently entering the market, Maffioli had contemplated exiting the cable market. But it was soon evident that Dyneema cables still had their place among their more heavily promoted counterparts. As Gottifredi Maffioli says: ‘We tried to position ourselves in a complementary spot, one where everyone else wasn’t heading.

‘And we were quickly successful, particularly among smaller boat customers. Carbon is very good for big boats but its impressive physical properties are not relevant for all applications due to its stiffness; it can be deflected but not bent dynamically around sheaves or at mast exits. We grew in the areas between ropes and cables, where no one else is working – now you even see applications for cables where traditionally rope has been used.’

If carbon fibre is ultimately considered to have the optimum qualities, such as strength versus diameter, for standing rigging and headstays, Dyneema cables, comprising bundled unidirectional fibres held within a braided outer cover, are better suited to pretty much every other application onboard. This includes aft rigging such as runners and checkstays, where loads are intermittent and there is a strong likelihood of repeated impacts. When minimising weight aloft is vital, with less emphasis on windage, SK99 still offers the best strength-to-weight properties of all the composite fibres now on the market, while also representing better value and durability than UV-vulnerable PBO.

Maffioli SK99 is also well suited for use as headsail torsion cables, as Dyneema cables can be coiled with the sail once it has been lowered onto the deck. Strength for strength Dyneema cables do feature a slightly larger diameter than equivalent carbon stays, but this makes them ideal as furling cables, particularly on downwind sails where the added windage of the SK99 cable has no detrimental effect. In fact, this larger diameter provides additional torsional force moment for easier furling.

SK99 cables can even be safely turned around corners, so can be used where a cable passes around a sheave, such as for deflectors or steering cables, jib up/down systems and barber haulers.

Maffioli SK99 cables come in various forms, tailored for different applications. While all contain bundled SK99 fibres, the main variation lies in construction, weave and the outer braid. With furling cables, for example, the outer braid comprises several layers which are then laminated with resin to improve torsional rigidity.

The ultimate endorsement perhaps is that the cables produced by Maffioli for gennakers, Code 0s, fractional spinnakers and runners, along of course with Maffioli’s well-known range of high performing ropes, have been chosen by the majority of the Imoca 60 teams racing in the current Vendée Globe. In particular, SK99 cables have been selected for every one of the latest-generation foiler designs with their much more violent motions, meaning that skippers are even more reliant upon these cables in terms of durability and reliability, as well as in dealing with the usual foes of UV and saltwater degradation.

And now this technology is being embraced by another increasingly significant and demanding sector of the market… the superyachts.

As Maffioli observes: ‘Until four or five years ago superyacht rigging solutions were fairly conservative. Now they’re being sailed by a new generation of former America’s Cup sailor whose technical skills are higher and the boats are being sailed much more aggressively as a result. They have new and much less forgiving sail constructions and deliver a completely different level of performance.

The packages we are providing the superyachts with are similar to what you’d specify for the top-end raceboats. Just a bit bigger...’

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Former Team Vestas Volvo Ocean Race navigator Wouter Verbraak has now joined his countrymen at market leaders Sevenstar Yacht Transport to focus on race yacht logistics with this fast-growing Dutch company

I f there’s anyone who understands the sharp end of racing yacht logistics, it’s Wouter Verbraak. The Dutch pro-sailor was navigating Team Vestas Wind during the last Volvo Ocean Race two years ago when the Danish entry struck a reef in the Indian Ocean. Rescuing the stranded crew and moving the stricken yacht off that remote reef was a major logistical challenge that led to Verbraak taking a greater interest in the process of moving racing yachts safely around the world.

At the beginning of 2016 Verbraak joined Dutch industry leader Sevenstar Yacht Transport to head a new division, Sevenstar Racing Yacht Logistics. Sevenstar’s Sander Schuurman says: ‘Wouter’s knowledge of the industry makes him a great appointment. When he talks to our racing clients they know they are dealing with someone who understands both the challenges and potential problems.’

Main picture: not the world’s largest glass bottom boat, rather one of Sevenstar’s extraordinary float-on, float-off yacht transporters. Considerable geometric accuracy during loading is required, with all of the boats’ cradles having to be precisely positioned (below) prior to ‘the sink’ if the complex exercise is not to need repeating. Compared to conventional shipping, however, the system is very efficient, with the big advantage that yachts can be delivered over long distances with their rigs left stepped

Sevenstar has already made a name in other marine industries with its specialist craft capable of lifting and delivering objects of all shapes and sizes. The company uses the Spliethoff Group’s fleet of over 100 ocean-going vessels. ‘They transport all kinds of dry cargo,’ says Schuurman, ‘but they also undertake heavy lifting of bridge piles, oil rigs, fishing vessels… plus superyachts and racing yachts.’

Three years ago Sevenstar bought two very large specialist semi-submersible vessels from Dockwise, for over 30 years the acknowledged market leader in heavy marine transportation. Now known as DYT Yacht Transport, these two vessels offer a floaton/ float-off service capable of accommodating everything from canal cruisers to sailing and motor yachts up to 100m in length.

Other vessels in the Sevenstar fleet also offer lift-on/lift-off and in 2016 one of these craft conducted the company’s largest superyacht movement to date, a 57m Bennetti that was hoisted aboard using a giant crane with a maximum working load of 750 tonnes…

Size isn’t everything
So size is not a problem for Sevenstar, but what is also vital for racing yacht owners is careful handling of relatively fragile craft – often with their masts in situ.

In practice we see exceptional co-operation between all parties involved, from the crew of the yacht to the Sevenstar loadmasters and the yacht’s shore crew. As in ocean racing it is all about working together to meet tight deadlines, and making the impossible possible so the teams can enjoy more exciting racing in the best racing venues around the world.

Verbraak says Sevenstar is well positioned for the growth in superyacht racing. ‘The boats are being raced harder and more often, so deliveries become more critical. Also, the crews don’t want to sail the boats from event to event all the time, as this puts unnecessary hours on the sails and engine, and switching from racing to delivery sails is not easy. Just changing a mainsail can be two days’ work.’

Rake’s progress
Verbraak’s experience helps him to better understand the peculiarities of racing yachts. For example, the Maxi72s now put 5°-6° of rake into their rigs, which creates new challenges. ‘It’s been difficult finding a good solution for a singlehoist lift with these rake numbers, because the yacht’s centre of gravity is so close to the masthead. So Sevenstar developed special gear to tilt the yacht forward at the correct angle, which moves the lifting hook away from the mast.’

Sevenstar now supports a number of top teams and events, says Schuurman. ‘In 2016 we became logistics partner of Land Rover BAR in the America’s Cup, we are supporting the AAR Atlantic Anniversary Regatta and the Oyster World Rally. We have also of course been long-time supporters of the Sevenstar Round Britain and Ireland Race. We aim to make the lives of the racing community easier by transporting not only their yachts but also spare masts, sails, materials, tenders and containers.’

As well as supporting the club’s Round Britain and Ireland Race, Sevenstar is logistical partner for the RORC Caribbean 600. Verbraak explains: ‘A potential hurdle for this event for owners is getting the boat there. A lot of the boats are too fragile to expose to a transatlantic delivery or the crew don’t have the time. Plus a recent court case following a delivery incident further complicated the legal position when using a delivery crew. Why put yourself through the hassle and stress when you can hand it all over to us?’

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