The creative talents of Infiniti Yachts and Doyle Sails – between them responsible for two of the biggest breakthroughs in modern performance yachting – have joined forces to produce something more than special

The Infiniti 52 is the first modern racing boat to be designed and engineered to take full advantage of Doyle Sails Cableless technology – built around a highly efficient, single transverse DSS foil, providing proven performance but without the cost of more complex class-driven foil solutions. The DSS foil provides significant righting moment which allows you to design the boat for a smaller crew, sometimes half the number of a comparable yacht.

According to Stu Bannatyne, four-time Volvo Ocean Race winner, though DSS has been around for a long time only recently has it started to gain mainstream traction: ‘I have raced and sailed on many foilassisted monohulls – including Rambler 88, Wild Oats XI, Charal (Imoca 60), Wild Joe and Maverick (Infiniti 46),’ he says. ‘All of which provided valuable input into the ideal foil arrangement and concept for the new Infiniti 52.’

A simple-to-operate and reliable single transverse foil gives the best solution for this target market – a foil that starts working at low boat speeds (around 11-12kt) when reaching and running to provide righting moment and reduce displacement resulting in a faster, more comfortable ride.

Main picture: the new Infiniti 52 is the first yacht designed and engineered to maximise the competitive advantage of Cableless sail technology. With only half the headstay loads of a typical modern 52ft racer, there is scope for dramatic weight saving in all of the hull and rig structures.
Below: the forerunner of the new 52, the Infiniti 46 Maverick has proven herself to be able to beat TP52s on the water in spite of being 6ft shorter

‘At higher speeds (16kt+) the foil will provide really significant gains resulting in speeds far superior to 50-60ft traditional monohulls’. When upwind sailing in heavy airs and/or waves it will act as a stabiliser – reducing pitching and making the ride more comfortable and faster!’

When looking for gaps in the market, popular wisdom would suggest that 52ft is a little crowded in the performance sector, so you need to bring your A-game – something that redefines the genre.

Traditionally 52ft has been a good size for both inshore racing and coastal/offshore racing. It is is big enough to be comfortable offshore but small and light enough to have that exhilarating dinghy-like feel. Two versions of the Infiniti 52 have been developed, the R for racing-focused owners and the RC for those who would like to combine a more versatile interior with the outstanding performance.

The top requirement for potential owners was a competitive platform that can be raced or cruised with minimal maintenance, crew and systems, and so, coupled with the single DSS foil option, we settled for an appendage package with a fixed keel and single rudder.

Central to the design philosophy was an efficient, reliable swept threespreader carbon mast with a sail and rig plan optimised for coastal racing, plus a workable, comfortable yet lightweight interior with standing headroom, good bunks and a heads/shower option.

With a very efficient triple heading configuration designed for early use of single and multiple staysails when reaching and downwind, performance jumps markedly compared with existing set-ups for this size of boat.

Utilising Doyle Sails Cableless technology during the early design phase enables the rig compression and sail loads to be reduced by up to 50 per cent, resulting in reduced weight for mast, rigging and boat structure – a huge driver for overall improved performance and comfort.

The final sail inventory is tailored to suit each customer’s racing programme and the applicable rating rules. Extensive use of Doyle Sails CFD tools means that every sail is optimised to ensure smooth crossovers and optimum performance.

Finally, the design needed to look awesome – fast can be seriously good looking!

When you set out to sail with a small crew you have to focus on efficiency. The Infiniti 52 combines many synergistic design features, resulting in a fast, easy and fun boat. The design team includes experts in rig design, sail design, interior/ exterior design styling, engineering and naval architecture. This is a yacht designed holistically, as opposed to separate parts combined. Benefiting from 15 years of designing and building different foil-driven yachts, it sets a new standard.

On top of the extensive design process, several independent studies were undertaken using recent race data from yachts of the same size, comparing different design elements and VPPs for the same races. Historic data was then compared with different rating bands. This process clearly identified where the design could be improved and the strengths and weaknesses of each iteration leading to the final package. The design evolved constantly in partnership with the sail design and development, taking into consideration subtle alterations in foil geometry and dimensions.

Above: a very clean and simple deck plan with all controls led back to just four or eight powered winches and a sailplan optimised for coastal racing with three sets of sweptback spreaders and a very long bowsprit.
Below: the pure racing version of the Infiniti 52 has a stripped-out lightweight interior that is practical for offshore passage racing with comfortable bunks, standing headroom and a heads/ shower option. A racer-cruiser version with an ownerʼs cabin in the forepeak and a well equipped galley is also available

‘Tank testing, CFD and other tools are key parts of the design process,’ explains the Infiniti 52’s designer Hugh Welbourn, ‘but equally important are the results from existing DSS yachts and feedback from skippers and navigators. All of which has been brought together into a design that redefines the genre. Watching the Infiniti 46 sail past most of the TP52s in the 2019 Sydney-Hobart Race and in the final approach to Tasmania be in front overall of the eventual winner, Ichi Ban, prove that the potential for a larger Infiniti yacht to be competitive is very real.’

The question is always asked about the rating and when use of the DSS pays? The key is to have a foil that works over as wide a range of conditions as possible, both in terms of wind speed and true wind angle. The single transverse DSS foil has optimised geometry to provide good lift/drag ratios at low to moderate speeds, enabling an early transition from displacement sailing to the faster high righting moment, lower drag and smoother sailing regimes.

A simple system of powered winches and sail controls means that a crew of eight can handle the boat easily without any compromise in performance. They can race it hard by trimming sails efficiently 24/7 to ensure the maximum performance benefits are extracted from the sails and DSS foil. Fewer crew actually means more performance when using the DSS foil.

The 52-footers have dominated all types of racing in recent years and the Infiniti 52 builds on that pedigree. By starting with a very efficient size and optimising it for coastal sailing, the overall package is ready to win races.

The racer/cruiser version was developed from the same hull. It benefits from a more versatile interior with the forward area able to be utilised as a master cabin, with en-suite heads. The galley is more appropriate for short-handed sailing with friends and family but also perfectly appointed for offshore racing and passages. The mainsheet is handled by a captive winch, reducing the amount of rope in the cockpit, and there is a self-tacking jib. This allows the 52 to be sailed and enjoyed two-handed while retaining performance and thrill.

Tests on the Baltic 142 Canova reveal that the DSS foil reduces pitching by 42 per cent and heeling by 30 per cent, so there is much less need for crew on the rail and the RC version takes advantage of that.

Gurit have been involved in the development of DSS for the past 15 years, working alongside the designers and builders for projects as large as the 142ft Canova and as groundbreaking as the Infiniti 46 Maverick. ‘The Infiniti 52 allows us to benefit from their extensive experience in not only the TP52 class but also the current generation of foiling IMOCA 60s, ensuring a structure that is not only extremely light and stiff but robust enough for offshore sailing,’ says Infiniti Yachts managing director Gordon Kay.

Over the years Gurit have engineered dozens of DSS foils, without a single failure. As for all Infiniti yachts Gurit materials are used, which have repeatedly proven themselves to be the leader in the market for performance and reliability. The rudder, quadrant, bowsprit and DSS foil are supplied by Isotop Composite in France, long regarded as leaders in the supply of high-quality carbon appendages.

Lighter, faster, smarter – what’s not to like?

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Nevertheless for the skilled and experienced composites team at King Marine in Valencia the recently-launched Botin 85 Deep Blue was their biggest project yet. But only just...

It’s the largest project to date for yacht builder King Marine, if only by a small margin. One more milestone in the impressive history of this yard that has built all Azzurra / Matador MedCup / Super Series winners, many state of the art performance yachts and high-profile Grand Prix racing boats including Volvo 70 and AC 72 catamarans and an AC monohull. For project manager Micky Costa, this new Botin Partnersdesigned IRC 85 is a welcome challenge in a size that he is well accustomed to. He has also worked with Germán Frers and was involved with several Wally Yachts projects, among many others.

This brand new IRC 85 has turned out be a rocket, as expected. Built with top-of-the-range composite technology as a pure maxi racer (as opposed to most other yachts in this category which are in fact performance cruisers), its most striking feature – which has been the most challenging to construct – is a seven-metre lifting keel. The main ingredients of its very sophisticated construction were high and intermediate modulus prepreg carbon fibres and Kevlar honeycomb cores moulded in CNC female moulds, 3D scanned for best fit, in order to see the geometry and the perfect position to start laminating. Several key parts of the boat, like the rudder, were autoclaved. This is absolute cutting-edge build technology. Or as King Marine boatyard manager Pablo Santarsiero puts it, ‘pretty much top-of-the-range composite construction.’

The birth of King Marine was in 2005 with the construction of the 83ft IAAC boat for Desafio Español, the Spanish challenge for the 32nd America’s Cup. The DNA however goes back to a family from South America but with their roots in Northern Italy. King Marine CEO Gabriel Mariani explains: ‘We are part of a family of Italian immigrant entrepreneurs who left behind the comfort and beauty of northern Italy after the First World War. After many family ventures in South America and following the passion of boatbuilding, in 2005 we went the opposite way to our grandparents and travelled back to Europe with a very young Pablo Santarsiero. It was 2005 and we came to set up the King Marine shipyard in Alginet, 30km from central Valencia, taking advantage of the immense opportunity that Agustin Zulueta and his Desafio Español America’s Cup team had offered us. The boatyard was designed to build only highperformance yachts using the latest composite technologies.’

Increasing international demand for racing yachts built with cutting-edge technology helped King Marine on its way. As Gabriel modestly puts it: ‘At that time, our greatest virtue was our determination to face challenges and create efficient organisations.’ If cleanliness is a benchmark for efficiency and professionalism, King Marine certainly is right up there. This is a boatyard that looks more like a modern hospital. Clean white spaces, orderly workshops and precise work make the first impression.

The 3,000m² boatyard offers a range of advanced facilities: two huge ovens, one 32 x 9 x 6 metres and one 26.6 x 8 x 5 metres for large structures like hulls and decks; one 9 x 8 x 5 metre oven and three carbon vacuum tables for internal structures. All of these have exact temperature control to guarantee the best environment for pre-preg lamination. There is also a CNC milling machine and two clean rooms with controlled temperature for pre-preg lamination. Pre-pregs are the preferred material for laminating here, as only they can ensure the optimum resin-fibre ratio for maximum strength at lowest weight. Other facilities on site include an eight metre long autoclave, specialist warehousing areas for core materials, dry fibres and dangerous goods, and a pre-preg store that is kept at -17°C.

However, the company has now moved on even further. It has made a spectacular new HQ for itself in the former AC base of Team New Zealand in Valencia’s harbour that offers even more facilities, in addition to the site in nearby Alginet. Services on offer here include travel lift, offices, dining room, dry dock, boat storage, paint booth with filtered air, sail loft, a composite materials shop, boat maintenance, composite work, moorings, offices for representatives, an office for crew meetings and après-race performance analysis, a printing service, changing rooms, fantastic chill- out spaces and more.

Above and below: the clean white spaces and orderly workshops of King Marineʼs two shipyards help to leave visitors and customers with a very favourable first impression. Kingʼs in-house facilities now include ovens large enough to cure a superyacht hull, carbon vacuum tables, CNC milling, clean rooms for pre-preg lamination and an ultra modern eight metre autoclave

For quality control during and after the build, King Marine equipment for non-destructive testing including a thermal imaging camera and an ultrasound machine. The heat sensor registers different temperature levels and converts them into a video display where they show up in distinctive colours. This technology is a valuable tool for detecting voids, delamination and water in composites, and King Marine uses it for quick checks prior to the final test with ultrasound. Here, an ultrasonic transducer connected to a diagnostic machine is passed over the object being inspected. The transducer is typically separated from the test object by a couplant liquid, such as water, to increase the efficiency of the process by reducing the losses of ultrasonic wave energy that are due to separation between the surfaces.

Top-of-the-range composite construction is of course a highly specialised business. But as Pablo says, ‘composite boat building has achieved a degree of maturity, so nowadays the developments are technical evolutions rather than revolutions. This maturity has built a great reliability that wasn't there before. The latest generation of TP52 for example is much lighter than the ones from a few years ago but despite that they are sailing with twice as much forestay tension and we are not seeing boats folding in half anymore.’

The biggest challenges at the moment seem to be the design and construction of foils. ‘These are extremely complex pieces and as they are still quite new in this industry, the construction techniques are still under development’, says Pablo. And then there's the environmental footprint of boatbuilding. ‘This will also be one of the driving forces for new developments. I think that the introduction of composite materials in new fields, like the automotive industry, will require new and more efficient techniques for mass production of composite parts and also ways of recycling composite materials. So far, the scale of composite materials industry hasn’t been big enough to properly deal with this issue. I hope in the near future we can benefit from the development power that the bigger scale brings!’

Apart from building high-performance yachts to designs from the world’s foremost naval architects such as Farr, Botin, Frers, Judel- Vrolijk, Juan K, Soto Acebal, Reichel- Pugh and Nivelt among others, King Marine uses its professional expertise to offer a range of custommade composite parts: rudders for racing boats, daggerboard boxes and many other high-load fittings and appendages. And not only for boats: King Marine has developed a carbon fibre gantry for 3D manufacturing machines (such as laser cutters, plotters and printers). The aim was to make a much lighter gantry and reduce the energy needed to move it, whilst at the same time increasing the speed at which the gantry moves, thus making the whole machine more efficient.

In the meantime, the impressive IRC 85 Deep Blue is afloat and sailing to the huge delight of not just her owner and crew, but everyone involved with this benchmark project at King Marine.

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When you are building luxury semi-custom performance yachts 7,000 miles away from your main market you’d better get everything right first time. So far so good!

For Southern Wind, the delivery of each new yacht from their yard in Cape Town, South Africa usually means a passage of 7,000 miles for those heading to the Mediterranean. Little surprise then that a solid build and a reliable yacht has been one of their core values from the beginning. Since their foundation in 1991 Southern Wind have been acutely aware of their geographical distance from the yachting mainstream. They have not only built their business around it but have turned the distance to their advantage.

‘We have to be capable of building pretty much everything in-house,’ says commercial director Andrea Micheli. ‘Reliability is key but timing is also a big priority for us throughout the production process.’ All of which has seen the company become experts in semi-custom production.

It’s an expression that means different things to different ends of the boat building scene. For series production builders, semi-custom can often simply refer to a long options list while for high-end shipyards it means a common hull, different decks and a free hand on the interior layout.

For Southern Wind, semi-custom is a way of thinking as well as a smart and versatile way of building that provides a raft of benefits from cost savings to solid reliability, great support and backup and in many cases, a wider range of choice than most would expect.

Main picture: SW105 number two Kiboko Tres with twin rudders and removable bowsprit, racing at the 2019 SWS Trophy – the third yacht built by SWS for her Spanish owner.
Below: the SW105 is designed to take three keel options This flexibility is a key aspect of the shipyardʼs philosophy to meet different ownersʼ range of expectations

‘Our perfect customer is one who is scratching their head wondering whether to go down the custom path or not,’ continues Micheli. ‘This is a great starting point for us because, having been down this route several times before we know that there are so many advantages in a semicustom build, which could effectively turn into a “smart” custom.

‘It’s not that we don’t believe in custom build, we do, there are plenty of reasons as to why a client might want to pursue this. But we know that over the course of the entire project there will be a number of areas where we can build far more efficiently and accurately. Take tooling as an example.

‘Sharing the tooling costs is not only more efficient financially, we can invest more money in higher quality tools as well. In addition, we can collect accurate data more quickly, which in turn helps when it comes to working through feasibility and weight studies. This has a knock-on effect because it broadens the range of options that can be investigated rather than narrowing them down.’

Having built 13 SW100s and five SW102s (plus ten 90-96 footers) it is easy to see why Micheli speaks with such confidence, especially with a fourth new SW105 in build. Few other yards in the world, if any, have such concentrated experience in this size and style of superyacht.

Southern Wind’s knowledge and experience goes far deeper than simply anticipating an internal layout or deck specification. Farr Yacht Design has worked with them for many years and vice president and senior naval architect Jim Schmicker knows this approach well. ‘One of the pleasures of working with Southern Wind is their accurate assessment of the build weights,’ he says. ‘And that's not something you always get from other yards.’

‘Depending on the on the final hull shape, the interior layout and what the machinery and deck hardware is going to be, they know what their yachts will weigh and that is how they come out. Throughout the yard, every couple of metres, there's a big sign that says, “Weigh what you put in the boat.” And they do.’

Having an accurate handle on displacement and on centre of gravity are two of the fundamental factors when it comes to working up any design. It also allows the yard to make more accurate estimates on cost and therefore help the entire process, from selling to delivery.

‘When you are considering a particular style of boat at a particular spot on the performance spectrum while adopting a particular level of technology, there is a weight associated with it,’ Schmicker continues. ‘From there we know that the keel needs to be a particular configuration, so we then know the size of the rig and what it is going to weigh. From there we cross-check with the huge database of boats we've been doing with them for the past 30 years, before saying how the design will slot into their range.

‘Southern Wind can then figure out precisely what their cost is going to be and present it to the potential buyers. They are very accurate and owners really appreciate when they say it's going to cost this much and they stick to it.’ Micheli adds that ‘transparency in all phases of the design and construction process is one of our main core values’

Of the many 100 footers that Southern Wind has produced, the SW105 is the best current example of how the variety of options play out within a versatile platform. So how and where does the process start?

‘All the rigs are positioned in the same place. We don't try to move those around,’ Schmicker says. ‘ But the boats have different decks and Southern Wind is clever when it comes to installing them. They dry fit the deck first, take it off to do the interior installation and then do the final installation of the deck at quite a late stage in the construction.

‘So while the mast bulkhead needs to be in a given position, you can pretty much move things around as you wish such as cabins, galleys, that sort of thing.’

Hull construction can also vary more than clients expect, Micheli explains. ‘Simply changing the hull laminate material while retaining the same process and hull lines delivers big potential advantages,’ he says. ‘The SW105s hulls are an infused Corecell sandwich construction. The first boat Satisfaction had an hybrid Aramid outer skin and carbon inner skin whereas the second boat Kiboko Tres was full carbon laminate, which saved almost 500kg.

‘Some clients do ask about pre-preg laminates and boat number four will have a full carbon hull with Nomex and pre-preg foredeck and cockpit. Along with some other key areas of weight optimisation this boat will be more than three tonnes lighter than her sisterships, with a higher righting moment.’

The most obvious differences between the current crop of SW105s are also the best visual examples as to the variety of approaches that are possible with the semi-custom approach: the decks. ‘We have a deck saloon, a raised saloon and what we call a GT version that has a very sleek, low coachroof,’ Micheli says. ‘With a sporty deck the boat looks completely different. We have options for lower freeboards, a different deck, different keel configurations, different masts but the design platform is the same.’

While the decks are varied so too are the keels, which play a key part influencing other areas of the design.

Above: all hulls are laminated using vacuum infusion techniques with three-part tooling. Smart design and construction techniques allow owners to customise the design of their deck, cockpit and coachroof, giving each yacht its own individual personality.
Below: SW105 hull number one Satisfaction covered more than 35,000 nautical miles of cruising in two years, proving her dependability and achieving the ownerʼs desire for a fast and exhilarating sailing experience without compromising on comfort

‘From Day One we thought it would be good to offer three keel options: fixed, lifting and telescopic keels,’ Micheli says. ‘By considering this from the start we could then think about the implications for the engine room and how that affected the saloon. This enabled us to fix its position while allowing us to keep the three keel options.

‘We then looked at the height of the engine room and how that would affect the various deck options. Our tooling is set up so we can alter the camber of the deck mould, which will cater for boats of up to 140ft long. We then have semi-custom moulds for the coachroof and the cockpit so we can vary the height for decks.

‘When the owner of SW105 number four asked for a completely different deck we didn’t have to redesign and charge for the entire deck tooling and design. Instead, we just charged for the modification work on the coachroof and the cockpit which was half the cost of a new custom deck mould and tooling.’

‘We give you a well tried-andtested platform and we offer you options. If you ask for an option that we have never sold, then we develop it for you. If a client has stronger opinions, we push the boundary of the customisation more. If on the other hand the client wants a faster and already well proven option, we offer ideas based on configurations that we have already built.

‘Clients who have strong ideas in some areas don’t necessarily need to write the specs for the rest of the yacht but they can still influence in the areas that are important to them.

‘One example is technical systems, where we know that the equipment selection and installations perform well, having been tried and tested. All systems are standard across many Southern Wind yachts and the crews have all been trained in the same way. Even though the systems are being refined with each new build, the crews know them well enough to understand the SWS philosophy, which makes it easier to switch from boat to boat and from project to project.’

Scenarios like these start to highlight the benefits to both client and builder of drawing from previous experience and complementing them with new ideas and configurations. So while semi-custom may mean different things to different people, experience is what counts – Micheli is certain of it.

‘So long as we have the opportunity to put our experience on the table we can be confident of meeting the owner’s expectations.’

Click here for more information on Southern Wind Yachts »

Without modern media tools and satellite communications there would be no modern round the world racing... it’s that simple

‘The Volvo Ocean Race, formerly The Whitbread, and now renamed The Ocean Race doesn’t happen without Inmarsat, that’s how important it is,’ Brian Carlin says. ‘For the teams and their sponsors it totally hinges on being able to show people what’s happening on the boats in real time. It’s no good coming ashore after 26 days with a hard drive full of amazing footage and photos. People expect to see it happening in real time, that’s a much bigger pull for viewers.’

In a career that has covered many spectacular races and regattas including the astonishingly fast-paced SailGP circuit and the America’s Cup, some of Carlin’s most groundbreaking work has been done during his stints as an onboard reporter and media team leader in the last two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race. If you’ve seen the gut-wrenching footage of Team Vestas Wind slamming at high speed into the Cargados Carajos Shoals in the middle of the Indian Ocean and the crew’s subsequent ordeal in a liferaft, that’s Carlin at work.

‘Everyone else was doing their job and my job was to tell the story,’ he says. ‘So I just kept the camera rolling and shoved it in their faces.’ Even though the crash happened far beyond the reach of any rescue services – the crew had to fend for themselves for three days on the reef before help arrived – the Inmarsat Isatphone in the yacht’s emergency grab bag enabled Carlin to tell the story as it unfolded.

Inmarsat’s Fleet Broadband service has been a mainstay of ocean racing and commercial shipping for many years, providing crucial and reliable connectivity for vessels in the remotest, roughest and most dangerous parts of the world’s oceans for tracking, weather forecasts and routeing, ship-to-shore communication and more. But the rapid increase of available bandwidth in recent years has been a real gamechanger, transforming ocean racing from an obscure activity in most people’s minds into a compelling spectator sport.

Just a few years ago it was almost impossible to get aerial photos, let alone live-streamed video footage, of a racing yacht powering along in the Roaring Forties thousands of miles from land and far beyond the range of any helicopter. Now it’s just normal, thanks to Inmarsat and a small team of pioneering photojournalists like Carlin who have filmed, shot and produced some of the most memorable coverage of competitive sailing in recent years, bringing the thrills, spills, challenges and triumphs of ocean racing to life for millions of people around the world. ‘It’s relatively easy to launch a drone from the deck of a Volvo Ocean 65,’ he says. ‘It’s much harder to land it.’ In the last race, drones were regularly flown in winds of up to 40kts. They lost a few, unsurprisingly.

Only 20 people have ever raced around the world via the five Great Capes as onboard reporters and it’s arguably as demanding a role as any other job on board, especially aboard the notoriously wet, uncomfortable Volvo Ocean 65s. Set apart from the rest of the crew by the need to point a camera at them during moments of peak stress and exhaustion, confined to a tiny desk in the forepeak for long hours of video editing and writing with a full schedule of daily deadlines while the boat leaps, lurches and slams through brutally rough seas in a freezing gale, it’s a job that few journalists – or sailors, for that matter – are capable of doing.

Working in one of the harshest and most challenging environments anywhere on earth, the onboard reporters can at least count on Inmarsat’s FleetBroadband technology, which powers the alwayson voice and data systems they need to deliver their work, to be totally reliable. ‘There aren’t any other vessels in the Southern Ocean,’ Carlin says. 'We were the only boats for more than a thousand miles but when we wanted to show live drone footage Inmarsat was able to give us the bandwidth we needed.’

As for the next Ocean Race, Carlin will be sitting this one out ashore from the comfort of the office. And with two new satellites added to Inmarsat’s network since the completion of the last Ocean Race, taking the tally to 14, the bandwidth and reliability of the service will be even better.

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