Beautiful design masterful construction
RM Yachts’ new 1080 is a more powerful and spacious version of one of the marque’s most successful boats… and it will be even faster downwind
Over the past 35 years RM Yachts has taken a unique, yet successful, path developing increasingly innovative and refined performance cruising yachts that harness the benefits of building in epoxy and plywood. The RM1080 is the La Rochellebased yard’s latest little rocket and is in many ways a direct development of racing Class40s, both inside and out.
It’s a Marc Lombard design that also retains key attributes of existing RM models, including exceptional attention to detail and standard of finish, plus bright interiors with excellent natural light thanks to the trademark big forward coachroof window. There’s also an option of very efficient twin bulb keels that combine moderate draught with the ability to dry out at low water, yet without compromising sailing qualities.
What are the big differences between this new model and the eight-year-old RM1070 it replaces? While that model was very well regarded, ‘the yacht design world has moved a lot in that time,’ says RM’s César Dohy. ‘The boats are getting more powerful and they are now much wider forward.’
The cockpit coamings have been moved outboard and raised, Class40 style. The result is improved shelter and more space in the cockpit. The backrests of the seats can be removed to create a couple of wide sunbeds
The waterline beam of the new boat is much greater, especially in the forward sections, even if displacement and maximum beam at deck level remain the same. As with many new out-and-out performance designs, the mast is also positioned further aft, with a lot more rake – five to six degrees.
As a result of these changes, ‘this boat will have the same upwind ability as the previous model,’ according to Dohy, ‘but much better reaching and downwind stability, with easy control and higher average speeds.’
That's where some of the changes to the cockpit layout become important. Given the overall length of only 36ft, when sailing fast in heavy seas there's potential for a lot of water on deck. ‘That's why we implemented the high Class40 style coaming,’ he adds. This runs across the side deck at the front of the cockpit, then aft along the gunwale. O There's also a big fabric sprayhood over the companionway. ‘She should be very dry when reaching in big seas and above 20kts,’ says Dohy.
Waterline length is quite short by today’s standards which reduces frictional resistance in light airs
A secondary benefit of the new coamings is that the entire width of the boat can be used for the cockpit when in port or at anchor. The backrests for the benches each side can be removed, creating enough space on each side of the boat for double sun beds. It’s another first for a performance yacht of this size. All four winches are at the companionway, where almost all sail handling operations can be carried out easily by one person. ‘It’s a big point,’ Dohy emphasises. ‘You can do everything there, apart from the mainsail traveller, which is controlled from the helm.’
This is a great setup for cruising because manoeuvres, including reefing, can be carried out really easily and safely. Even if you're on watch on your own everything happens in one place, under the shelter of the large fabric sprayhood. This has three frames – one more than is typical – to make it almost as stiff as a solid structure. It’s also fitted with strong stainless steel handrails along the aft edge and on each side, for use when going forward.
A choice of carbon and aluminium spars is offered and owners can specify the sail wardrobe that suits them best. However, most are expected to opt for a standard five-sail configuration of mainsail, genoa, staysail, asymmetric kite and code zero. This gives a flexible all-round inventory that will cover all situations, without unnecessary cost, while minimising the number of sails that need to be stowed below decks.
The plywood panels are connected fore and aft, then placed on a permanent jig that automatically creates the hull shape
The mainsail is exactly the same size as the genoa, while RM worked hard to make the staysail work as flexibly as possible, both with the gennaker and code zero. Sceptics might wonder whether such a sail is likely to get much use when cruising, especially as it's unlikely to add more than 0.4kts of boat speed. However, its presence, forward of the centre of effort, makes the boat more stable and easier to steer, especially when using the autopilot. That in turn makes for an easier motion and more comfortable ride, while simultaneously increasing average speeds.
For this reason, Dohy says, ‘we find staysails are used a lot on all our boats.’ It's also designed for use upwind when the true wind rises above about 16-17kts. This makes for a much more efficient sail plan than a part furled genoa. And it can be set up in winds well under 20kts, eliminating foredeck acrobatics in rougher conditions and a rising wind.
Why didn’t RM go for a full scow bow shape? ‘It just doesn’t make sense for this type of boat, says Dohy. ‘That’s partly because it's would be too uncomfortable going upwind for a cruising boat.’ However, there's a more fundamental reason as well. ‘We've tried hard to keep the displacement down, but if the hull shape is too wide it's impossible to avoid extra weight.’
How much of an attempt was made to minimise wetted surface area to boost performance light airs and thus minimise use of the engine when cruising? ‘It's a good question,’ says Dohy. ‘She's very beamy on the waterline, but as soon as there is a few degrees of heel the immersed area reduces dramatically.’
After the internal systems and load-bearing steel frames are fitted, a conventional foam sandwich deck goes onto the hull
At the same time, despite the broad bow sections, the RM 1080’s waterline length is relatively short by today’s standards at only 10.4 metres. This reduces frictional resistance in light airs. Yet, at the same time, the underwater profile has a flat run aft, akin to that of many motor boats. This is a crucial factor in promoting early planing.
Below decks the roomy two-cabin accommodation has the same general feel as existing models, with a lot of glazing and plenty of white paint. There’s lots of room, even though the entire design is quite simple to keep the weight down, and there’s less heavy joinery on show than typical heavier cruising yachts.
The biggest difference in the saloon compared with the 1070 is that the table is offset to one side and the new boat feels a little more spacious, simply as a result of the more powerful hull shape and additional waterline beam.
This is particularly noticeable in the owner's cabin forward, where there's roughly an extra 30cm of room. It’s enough to make a big difference to the feeling of space and to improve stowage, making this a much more appealing area than that of the older boat. It’s a factor that should be a key selling point, after the boat’s top-notch performance and its innovative cockpit layout.
As with all RM designs, there’s a very large and well-appointed galley, plus a dedicated technical area aft on the starboard side. This is accessed from the heads compartment and has all the core systems and electrics laid out in an accessible manner. There’s plenty of space in this zone, which is a huge benefit for routine maintenance, for troubleshooting problems and for retrofitting extra equipment at a later date. The technical area is also fitted with a foul weather gear locker with a drain.
When RM was founded in the late 1980s it ploughed a somewhat lonely furrow in producing plywood yachts with an outer layer of epoxy and glass to provide excellent impact resistance. However today, an increasing number of boatbuilders and owners understand the advantages of this type of construction. It’s lighter than monolithic fibreglass construction, and equal to foam sandwich, but with the added advantage that the shape of the boat, with multiple chines, massively increases stiffness.
This construction method also benefits from a beautifully efficient production process. At RM all parts are cut by a CNC machine well in advance of each build so that they can settle to the temperature and the humidity of the carefully controlled factory environment. The plywood panels are connected fore and aft off the boat, using scarfs and big jigsaw style joints to create a single giant full-length plank, which makes for a very smooth, seamless finish.
These are then offered up to a permanently set up jig that automatically creates the hull shape, without the need for a wasteful full mould. After fitting of internal systems, and the galvanised frames that distribute keel loads, the hull is then married to a conventional foam sandwich deck. It’s a well-proven and more environmentally friendly system that creates powerful, distinctive state-of-theart yachts with excellent longevity.
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Driven by data
Bruno Dubois
One of the most interesting aspects of yacht racing over the past 15 years or so has been the way in which performance has evolved so dramatically so quickly. It is a common picture both offshore and all the way to the close inshore racing in the America’s Cup.
If you look back at the French K-Challenge in 2005, for example, the ACC V5 yachts were rarely exceeding 12kt; today an America’s Cup AC75 will hit 50kt on a daily basis. And it’s the same to cross the Atlantic where the west-east record is now below four days. Both represent huge improvements within a couple of decades. And the point here is that it’s not the materials, the carbon or the alloys that have changed so much. What has changed is the data, what we are able to capture with sensors and how that informs our understanding across all sailing conditions, analysing rig and hull loads, allowing us to assess, for example, where additional stiffness and strength are most needed, and where not, continually saving weight while often increasing strength at the same time.
That data and its interpretation and application are what is driving the progress we have made at Orient Express Racing Team, in large part led by the remarkable team working with our head of design Benjamin Muyl.
When we go out sailing now we are collecting around four gigabytes of data every day, accounting for about 3,000 variables… Some of the data is harvested at a rate of 10Hz, so that is 10 times a second, and some at 100Hz, so 100 times a second. We also collect about 20 gigabytes of video every day which is used in later analysis pursuing constant incremental improvements.
All of this has, of course, gone hand in hand with the critical work done in developing the AC75 simulator which is playing such a vital role in our progress towards the America’s Cup. Benjamin’s company has been working on the simulator for almost a decade, creating and developing the software driving the simulations and refining the Human Machine Interface through which our sailors interact.
Using virtual reality goggles and cockpit mock-ups, the simulator allows us to create dynamic situations which can be continuously developed as it is all interwoven with the array of data we are collecting. We then use the data to validate the models we have and improve them, so it is all part of an endless ever-evolving cycle. It is also useful for the whole team as we prepare the same way, with a briefing and all the other preparatory work before a sailing session – whether it is in the simulator or actually out on the water.
Looking ahead we will be able to use the same system and process for our Youth and Women’s America’s Cup squads when they focus on the AC40 after the challenger squad graduates to the AC75 next year.
So Orient Express Racing Team’s performance in Vilanova i la Geltrú at the first America’s Cup pre-regatta was in large part down to the success of our simulator. We only had the AC40 for a few days before the event, a very short time compared with other teams, yet from our first time out on the water the crew was able to interact with the boat very naturally, just like on the simulator. They were able to complete a foiling tack successfully at the first attempt…
The sailors were also able to communicate effectively, again helped by their time in the simulator, and all this combined to help us take a podium place in Vilanova. It is not the only story of course, but it shows the importance of having good data systems in place.
Benjamin compares these boats with spaceships because of their speed and complexity, and, as he rightly says, to bring all the elements together requires all the skills of all the people taking part to come together as one team — it is not a one-man job.
While Orient Express Racing Team’s main focus is of course the 37th America’s Cup, it is also a key element of the project to highlight French excellence in technology, manufacture, design and associated specialist hi-tech areas.
Above: You’d be smiling too. The Orient Express sailing team only got hold of their AC40 a few days before the Vilanova pre-regatta, but because of the quality of the simulation work undertaken in partnership with the design and data teams they slipped seamlessly aboard the real thing… then won their first ever race
The K-Challenge Lab, started by Stephan Kandler in 2001, is now a world-leading sport-tech company which is at the core of this project, offering a technological crossover between America’s Cup level sophistication and commercial possibilities with the added benefit of maintaining momentum between Cup cycles.
Next year’s America’s Cup protocol also requires each team to have one 10m hydrogen-powered foiling chase boat on the water, so that also offers an opportunity for French expertise to highlight its quality, again with ongoing commercial potential. And, on a different scale, our title partner Orient Express has also embarked on a new venture with the world’s largest sailing ship, the 220m Orient Express Silenseas set for launch in 2026, marking a unique French partnership between the hospitality brand Accor and leading shipbuilder Chantiers de l’Atlantique. Similar connections now exist between Orient Express Racing Team and numerous other specialist local companies in nearby southern Brittany.
This techno-ecosystem includes Morbihan-based SMMTechnologies who will create the precise AC75 hull mould, and hull, deck and structures experts Multiplast in Vannes.
We are also depending on the experience, know-how and responsiveness of other sub-contractors who include North Sails in Vannes, Mécanique JLB in Theix for the deck fittings, Usibreizh 3D in Muzillac for machining carbon, small moulds and small parts, and Modul-Tech in Vannes for other tooling.
Then there is Heol Composites in Treffléan, who we rely upon for their almost invisible work on composite materials, to transform appendages and rudders into high-performance parts, and L’Atelier sur Mer in La Trinité who showcase the team and our partners on sails and hulls with minimum weight and no aerodynamic impact.
Finally, though we have a skilled team of in-house electronics engineers and developers, we can call on local specialists on an adhoc basis for very specific issues around the onboard electronics.
From the data to the simulator, from design to reality, the Orient Express Racing Team knows how to work together in-house and in the wider marine community.
Click here for more information on the Orient Express Racing Team »
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Man of the hour
The studio of Jean-Marie Finot once led the world in open class design, their wide and powerful 60-footers winning four Vendée Globes on the bounce between 1992 and 2004. For the current Vendée cycle they have teamed up with designer/racer Antoine Koch, once an intern of the now Finot-Conq office. The new pairing launched two new Imocas just before the Fastnet; distinct from the status quo designs, these two boats look able to not only match the best existing Imocas but in some conditions to sail away from them. Patrice Carpentier – himself another big name in Vendée Globe history – sat down with the man who is today the talk of Lorient
ANTOINE KOCH
Antoine, born on 14 March 1978 in Paris, is a naval engineer and navigator. At 20 he participated in his first Solitaire du Figaro and finished third rookie. After studying as an engineer at the mechanical engineering school in Compiègne, Koch took the famous naval architecture course in Southampton and then embarked on his first proper offshore race.
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The greatest race
In 1980 legendary New Zealand yachting commentator Peter Montgomery watched as two all-time greats of small boat sailing – who in their own way changed the discipline for ever – went at it head to head in the all-or-nothing final race of the windy Finn Gold Cup in Takapuna. The breeze never dropped below 30kt and on the final beat of the final race the two protagonists would tack no fewer than 32 times apiece. But immense though this gladiatorial contest was, it was just the beginning of a bigger political and sporting story that would later impact many members of a dazzling new generation of sailing talent
In an atmosphere of rising global tension with the USSR on the cusp of invading Afghanistan, the 1980 Finn Gold Cup turned into a battle of epic proportions between two extraordinary US sportsmen, 1978 winner John Bertrand and 1979 champion Cam Lewis. Lewis eventually triumphed for his second world title after a spectacular final race.
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Worry less and sail more
Rod Davis
You know we all need to have a rethink about our racing… as in when we race and, most important, that attitude around only ever having ‘perfectly fair races’. And I can hear your question from here: ‘Who be we?’
We be… race committees, parents, but mostly sailors, in particular sailors who have influence over owners, crews, race committees and regattas. Seriously ‘we’ need to lighten up, we need to look at racing sailboats as something to enjoy, maximising the fun factor. That is not just for you, our job is to ensure everyone else has a great time too.
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