Bottom to top
Not the obvious choice, recruiting a swimming champion to help keep your clients' feet dry... but it all seems to have worked out rather well
Chris McGrath feels as if he has landed on his feet at Musto. He has been tasked with elevating Musto’s footwear range to a new level of technical performance, and finds himself right back in his element. ‘Working closely with athletes at the top of their game, taking feedback from high-calibre professional sailors, passionate people like Ian Walker and Pete Cumming, and trying to solve the challenges of creating what they want in order to perform at a higher level – that’s the stuff that I love.’
Above: those old-school blue canvas sailing shoes are now de rigueur for today’s fashion kids… but they are rarely if ever seen on the water (OK, other than maybe worn by stewards on a large and similarly fashionconscious superyacht). Today’s best performance deck shoes are much closer to what you will find at your local running track, yet they have to meet a vastly wider and in some ways very much more demanding set of performance criteria. To those still going afloat even in the best traditional ‘deck shoe’, go get some - thing less medieval. Leather deck shoes are fantastic, but when you’re trying not to slide around, sweating on the end of a winch handle, you really need to treat yourself…
In his youth McGrath was no mean athlete in his own right, winning a bronze medal for Great Britain in the Open Water Swimming World Championships in 1994. But since then he has forged a career with an enviable CV in the global sporting arena. ‘I started out working at the McLaren Formula One team for three years, working in 3D design creating gloves, helmets and so on. That’s when I really began to work closely with athletes, listening carefully to what they want. Often you find sports people are frustrated designers; they have some amazing ideas, but you’re the link between that creative spark and bringing it to reality.’
Since McLaren McGrath has worked at Speedo, Nike, Puma and Clarks. It was while working as head of design at Clarks Shoes that he first came across Musto. ‘I already knew the brand pretty well because of my wife’s involvement in the equestrian world,’ says McGrath, ‘but we were doing a collaboration with Musto in the lead-up to the London 2012 Games. That’s when I realised the potential of the wider sailing world, and the power of the Musto brand in particular, for creating top-performance products that the best sailors in the world want to wear.’
The past year has seen McGrath and his design team working hard on the latest footwear which now appears in the 2017 catalogue.
Gore-Tex Ocean Racer boot
The Gore-Tex Ocean Racer boot comes from McGrath’s in-depth conversations with Ian Walker MBE and other members of the Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing crew who convincingly won the last Volvo Ocean Race in 2014/15. ‘We listened hard to what worked well, and what could have been done better,’ says McGrath.
Much of the new boot is an evolution from Musto’s long history of ocean-racing footwear but nearly every element has been upgraded and improved in some way. The Gore-Tex membrane makes the boot waterproof and breathable so your feet stay completely dry. Feedback from bowmen – who frequently work in a firehose of fast-moving white water while kneeling on the deck – told McGrath that the previous system needed improving as water could seep in through the back of the boot as they were crouched on the deck, so now an adjustable gaiter minimises water getting in through the top of the boot and XPL drainage expels any water out at the ankle to prevent pooling.
‘Testing is what takes the time, it’s the most important thing we do,’ says McGrath. ‘I want the guys to wear these things to death, to really tear them apart so that we can make them better and stronger and build more longevity into the material. Sometimes the sailors will come back with some great ideas from other products that they think might work elsewhere. For example, on the new Ocean Racer boot the Cordura fabric on the gaiter is the same material as you find on the seat and knee patches on HPX salopettes. That brainwave came from the sailors’ feedback from the last Volvo Ocean Race.’
GripFlex
The revolutionary GripFlex sole pattern flexes and contours to the contact zone for 360° grip and traction. Musto’s own sticky rubber GripDeck sole gives unrivalled grip.
Dynamic Fit
The Dynamic Fit Gilly cords and lacing system close around your foot to lock it in place. It prevents sliding inside to give incredible stability and a sure stance.
XPL
XPL drainage expels water through the sole to prevent pooling and minimise weight.
Closed Cell Technology
The molecular structure of the mixed rubber compound in the heel prevents microbial growth for odour-free performance and a surface that is easy to clean.
A lot of work has gone into reducing weight in this boot. ‘Rubber is pretty bomb-proof and it’s unbeatable with regards to water penetration. But it’s also very heavy, and not the most nimble product. So now we have a mid-sole and outer-sole.’ The mid-sole is very light, taken from running shoe technology, and it provides underfoot protection which minimises vibrations through the bottom of the shoe. An impactresistant EVA foam midsole and footbed both absorb shock and repel the cold transmitted from the deck to prevent rapid heat loss in cold-water conditions such as in the Southern Ocean. It also means the amount of rubber used on the outer sole can be minimised, stripping out unnecessary weight.
The design team developed a new GripFlex sole pattern which is mathematically engineered for 360° grip and traction. Combined with Musto’s GripDeck sticky rubber sole, this is the most versatile and reliable grip yet developed. ‘The sailors want great grip in all directions, for it to be comfortable, protective and as lightweight as possible. When they’re trying to operate in 30ft swells they want to be able to move around easily and not feel as if they’re planted on the deck with massive, clunky boots.’
Also helping to minimise bulk is an adjustable gaiter, which makes it easier to get in and out of the boot and gives a better fit for different calf sizes. The gaiter incorporates scratch rubber which is well proven in the climbing world, and provides great durability and grip. ‘The adjustability of the gaiter makes it easier for putting on salopettes over the boots and generally reduces bulk below the knee,’ says McGrath. ‘The more dynamic the user feels, the more they’re integrating with their product, the less cumbersome and more mobile they’ll feel.’ Once the boots are on, there is a bungee lacing system that locks your foot in place to give you the best possible support and stability.
Dynamic Pro II
Among many innovations on the Dynamic Pro II, solving ‘stinky shoe syndrome’ was one of the biggest challenges. ‘Getting rid of the smell is really difficult,’ says McGrath. ‘You can treat shoes and garments but unless the treatment is impregnated it will wear off. Part of the solution comes in making the shoe as quick-drying as possible. The holes in the outsoles generate airflow and improve drying time, as does the mono-construction of the Dynamic Pro II. With the DP1 there were three layers of mesh but they weren’t bonded together. This means the bacteria can hang onto more surface area, so for the DP2 we have welded those three layers together, which helps reduce the possibility of bacteria hanging around and makes it a more compact piece of footwear.’
Like the Gore-Tex Ocean Racer boot, the DP II incorporates the same GripFlex sole pattern which flexes and contours to the contact zone for 360° grip and traction. McGrath says it has been designed to operate well in transition zones between two different types of surface, for example where a GRP surface or carbon-fibre decking meets trampoline netting.
Pete Cumming’s experience onboard all kinds of fast multihulls such as MOD70s and foiling GC32s has been invaluable in developing a close-fitting, lightweight deck shoe that works in a variety of conditions and environments. ‘What’s great about this industry compared with other footwear industries is that these guys are sailing all year round, so you’re getting good feedback all the time. We’ve got a great pool of guys who are really keen to use the kit and try it and tell us what they would like.
‘There’s a huge amount of trust in the Musto brand, and we’re lucky to have a loyal base of athletes who really believe in the brand and the product. For me, while I’ve worked for some of the biggest names in the sports industry, this is a career highlight, to work so closely with guys like Pete and Ian creating products they’re going to love using in the toughest environments.’
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Going to (altogether) another level
Put together superyacht designer Malcolm McKeon and Tornado cat legend Mitch Booth and the result was always going to be 'special'
Racing multihulls are continually setting new performance benchmarks, with the fastest trimarans likely to be covering 1,000 miles in a day within the next decade. Now imagine putting this kind of performance into a superyacht. Even with a 25kt cruising speed, 10-15kt slower than that of the speediest maxi-trimarans, this still equates to 600 mile-days or an ARC crossing of just 4.5 days – substantially quicker even than, say, Rambler 88’s ARC record of 8d 6h…
Such feats will be possible with the new BlackCat catamarans, conceived by multihull legend Mitch Booth and penned by Malcolm McKeon, one of the world’s foremost sailing superyacht designers.
Currently available in 35 by 14.3m and 50.4 by 18.5m versions, the BlackCats meld state-of-the-art engineering and design with high-tech composite construction, the end result being an unprecedented combination of luxury and performance. As Mitch Booth explains: ‘It is the natural evolution of materials, engineering and structures. You have to build a multihull like this in composites if you want it to perform.’
Multihulls are slowly gaining acceptance thanks partly to the America’s Cup going two-hulled, but also to the positive experience people have holidaying on them. The steadily reducing cost of carbon fibre also makes such a large platform more feasible fiscally.
The main challenge of creating the BlackCat multihulls has been their design and engineering. The (multi) million dollar question is how to ensure the structure is adequately strong while keeping the boat light enough to ensure a lively performance – because nothing kills performance in a multihull like weight. As a result the extensive structural maths carried out by our engineers has the BlackCat 50 weighing in at 193 tonnes.
This might be substantially more than the 40m Banque Populaire/ Spindrift 2 trimaran’s feather-weight 25 tonnes, but it is around half the weight of an equivalent 50m monohull superyacht, while offering an interior volume and deck area more comparable to a 60m craft. (Aluminium was discounted – a 50m aluminium BlackCat would weigh 50-100 per cent more).
Above: take your average 50m superyacht, then using your cursor carefully drag the same boat out to a beam of 18.5m and then get to work with Milanese interior designers m2atelier… having also briefed them that this is one ‘very large yacht’ that will not only stay level when sailing but, unlike its motorised counterpart, will also see very little unpleasant motion when at rest. And note too that the space above is the ‘honeymoon suite’, not the main salon… oh, that’s much bigger. As for the outside, imagine that (below) sliding over your maxi ‘racer’ as you cross the startline in Antigua.
As its present weight the 50m BlackCat’s ‘cruising speed’ will be 25kt and, as Booth says: ‘If you push the boat a bit harder, you can get into the mid-30s with a top speed close to 40kt, which is quite possible given the length of the boat. 30kt for a multihull of this size is not extreme.’
Even a specialist high-speed motor yacht would struggle to maintain such speeds, particularly over any distance, and of course would come with the high price of countless tonnes of fuel being squandered. And while it is hard to believe until you’ve experienced it, doing 25-30kt on a 50m multihull feels like you are standing still, which would not be the case on any other form of waterborne craft.
Also vital to the BlackCat’s performance calculations is of course righting moment, as this determines the loadings throughout the boat and ultimately its sailing weight. To keep righting moment sensible for a long-distance cruising yacht, the BlackCat 50 has a relatively modest beam of 18.5m… although this is still similar to Steve Fossett’s 38m PlayStation, the beamiest catamaran ever built.
Also, while the BlackCat is still structured to withstand flying a hull, there are mechanical measures in place to prevent this. If she heels more than 6°, safety mechanisms will kick in, releasing valves on all the sheets, easing everything instantly. While it is highly unlikely that what is effectively a giant raft would ever capsize laterally, let alone pitchpole, these measures are a further safeguard to keep everyone at ease in bad conditions.
As with all of Malcolm McKeon’s designs, aesthetics are central and the Lymington-based design house has even managed to get the 50m catamaran to share some common styling points with their popular monohull superyachts. In short, unlike some other big catamarans which resemble wedding cakes, with multiple levels, flybridges, etc, the BlackCat has just a single level on the bridgedeck. This, combined with her length, makes her one of the sleekest catamaran designs out there. It also means the boom is not several storeys up.
The BlackCat’s hull design is contemporary, with reverse sheer bows and low-volume foredecks to ensure the bows readily pop up when they inevitably bury in a wave. The topsides also have the concave, sucked-in, ‘been to the gym’ look seen in some of today’s best sportscar designs.
A vital feature, both for structural and sea-keeping reasons, is the central ‘flying hull’ running longitudinally up the centreline. Structurally this enables fore and aft rig tension to be cranked up, thereby improving upwind performance. Simultaneously, the underside of this element helps provide a curved surface beneath the bridgedeck to minimise the effects of slamming, which at best can be a bane of life onboard cruising cats or at worst result in structural disaster. Forward, there are beams between the central spine and the hulls, but these have little structural consequence and principally provide an attachment for the trampolines.
The amount of interior space – around 340m2 or close to 1,000m2 including deck areas – is staggering. On the 50m the hulls alone have a beam of 4.3m so spacious cabins can be fitted inside them. One of the arrangement options has quarters for the 10 crew in the port hull, four double guest cabins in the starboard hull plus a master stateroom, 18m across at its maximum, spanning the breadth of the bridgedeck and offering a panoramic view forward.
An 18m-wide stateroom would only be possible elsewhere on the world’s very largest superyachts. So one imagines that such a feature would make the BlackCat a big hit in the super-luxury charter market. As Booth observes: ‘On most superyachts if you have 20 guests, there is still often not enough space in one area to seat your whole party together for a meal. Instead there are lots of little spaces scattered around the foredeck and aft deck and on different levels. On the Black Cat there is just one big open space that flows through the whole boat.’ This space could comfortably host a party of 100 people.
A vast acreage of glass has been designed into the superstructure, which McKeon says will benefit not just the bridgedeck saloon, but the cabins too: ‘We’re carrying the sides of the superstructure over the top of the cabins which will bring natural light straight into them.’
While about the only downside of such a boat is the cost of stern-to berthing, there are a legion of additional benefits – not least the lack of heel when sailing. As McKeon observes: ‘When these big superyachts go out with guests, especially elderly ones, they can feel very uncomfortable with the boat heeling to 25° or so. With this boat you are heeling at 6° and going three times faster…’ Plus, the ‘raft-like’ nature of the big catamaran means it has little tendency to generate its own rolling motion when at anchor in a swell.
Arguably the biggest benefit of the catamaran configuration is draft, or rather the lack of it. While a 50m monohull might draw 6m or more, the 50m BlackCat is fitted with skegs (on which she can, in theory, dry out) giving her a draft of just 2.4m. Retractable daggerboards and rudders (the engine prop shafts also retract) can increase the draft to 4.8m.
As a result, the BlackCat can anchor in more protected waters, closer to the shore, making for more comfortable nights onboard as well as facilitating boarding. This also enables access to many marinas and smaller ports. As McKeon says: ‘You can park this superyacht on the beach while the kids swim ashore. And you’ve got so many areas where you can relax, sunbathe and spread out.’
With the BlackCats such cuttingedge boats, Booth and McKeon have sensibly chosen to work with top contractors and suppliers with, wherever possible, the maximum amount of relevant experience. For example, North Technology Group will provide the rig and sails and Harken the captive winch and deck gear, while Baltic is the builder.
The BlackCats will be constructed entirely in pre-preg carbon fibre with either foam or Nomex core as appropriate – Baltic Yachts was selected as the yard as it has already produced some of the world’s largest composite monohulls, including the biggest of them all: the 67m Hetairos.
In some areas the BlackCats could offer even higher loadcases so, for example, the yard’s previous experience in how to cook 50mm+ solid carbon laminate will prove invaluable. Baltic will build the BlackCats in several sections and cunningly intends to leave the topsides off while the interior fit-out is completed – this will allow much easier access through the boat than the traditional way of gaining access via the deck.
With the launch of the BlackCat 50, Baltic will not only have built the longest carbon fibre yacht in Hetairos but now the widest boat.
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Radial around the world
With a seven percent rise in turnover last year, near-maximum production, an unblemished Vendeé, renewed confidence from the boatyards... and an expanding DFi range, Incidence Sails are on a good trajectory for 2017
The Vendée Globe 2016 is about to come to an end, and for Incidence Sails – the first French sailmakers, now returning to offshore racing – this record-breaking round-the-world race was a resounding success. Six competitors were equipped with Incidence sails: Eric Bellion (Comme Un Seul Homme), Arnaud Boissières (La Mie Câline), Bertrand de Broc (MACSF), Morgan Lagravière (Safran), Paul Meilhat (SMA) and Rich Wilson (Great America IV) – and no one had problems with any of their sails. Three of the boats, SMA, Safran and Comme un Seul Homme, had foresails made in DFi and were very happy with them.
‘The results from this Vendée Globe and indeed from the whole 2016 season are very positive, at all levels, as far as my sails are concerned,’ explains Paul Meilhat, who had a superb race. Always in the top five, he was in the top three at one point, until his forced retirement two-thirds of the way through the race.
‘In terms of the choice, shape and type of sail, Incidence Sails did just the job for the Vendée Globe. We decided to go with a large J1 and a staysail, without a Code 0, and it was a very good choice. The J1 and J3 were made from DFi, which held very well – I didn’t have any problems with wear. The DFi really does bring more lightness and shape. I will reuse my DFi sails for the coming season, and we will make new flat foresails. The J2 and the GV were made from D4 as we had agreed with Incidence not to use DFi for the mainsail, and this also worked very well. I had absolutely no problems with any of the sails.’
Eric Bellion was equipped with a test gennaker designed in DFi-radial, a new material used for downwind sails, which completely fulfilled its requirements of: reliability, budget and keeping its shape. ‘I had no problems with the sails throughout this round-theworld race,’ he said. ‘They are all in very good condition, and I could have continued sailing for much longer. I loved my gennaker in DFi-radial; I used it all the time in the South Seas – well, almost all the time. It worked brilliantly. It’s still as good as new!
‘The work with the Incidence team was great – they were always responsive and helpful, and our design brief was respected. I came to La Rochelle and I was able to meet everybody. It has all been very positive!’ announced the skipper of Comme un Seul Homme.
Immediately after this roundthe- world test there was a close inspection of the gennaker: ‘The results are extremely positive,’ says Maxime Paul, head of Incidence Sails’ design team. ‘Eric got a lot of use from his gennaker, but it's still in very good shape. In fact, all of his sails are ready to use for another round-theworld trip!’
DFi-radial extends Incidence Sails‘ DFi range. The material, produced in panels, can be worked as a conventional fabric and used to create relatively hollow sections, which would not be feasible for sails made in one single piece, in oriented fibres. DFi-radial is produced in rolls, so the production is more economical than that of a sail made from made-to-measure membrane.
‘The DFi filamentary membrane has allowed us to regain the technical level we had a few years ago. It clearly adds value and enhances the quality of work for the entire R&D team,’ concludes Philippe Touët, sales director for Incidence Sails Group.
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Distilling the essence
Blue Robinson talks immovable objects, round-the-world navigation and Southern Ocean eather with routeur du jour Marcel van Triest
Seahorse Magazine: Before the last Volvo Ocean Race when Ian Walker on Abu Dhabi came to you, what was your brief?
Marcel van Triest: I discussed this with Ian not so long ago, asking what his philo - sophy was in getting me and Chris Bedford involved. Ian’s take on it was that if he took a blank sheet of paper and asked where he could become better with the resources that were available to him – as the VOR is now one-design, which doesn’t allow two-boat testing or new areas in sails to explore – one of the areas he identified where money and people could improve his campaign was navigation.
He then made a clear goal of trying to get the best he could, and the brief to Chris and me was not to focus on a certain area but to assist them by leaving no stone unturned. And that is really how I approached it, preparing the legs as if I was going myself, but with the benefit that I wasn’t and so I could really drain myself and be worn out by the leg start.
With navigator Simon Fisher some of the tasks we doubled up on, as simple as the two of us checking waypoints in traffic separation zones. I recall when the fleet were leaving Holland these got amended at least 11 times, meaning it is very easy to make an error. If you have somebody in the team administration checking this it just isn’t the same as another navigator. Plus you have all the Notices to Mariners, which is a big read if you are racing through different nav areas; all this can get away from you if you are on your own.
Me doing it all allowed SiFi to rest, take part in sponsor commitments and spend time with his family, knowing that everything was in hand.
SH: Are there various levels of support you offer – exclusive 100 per cent commitment to a team or advising on individual legs?
MVT: That would not be my preferred solution, because I become part of a team and the relationship is fine-tuned as things evolve. At the beginning of a project people are getting to know each other. Then over time things become more efficient, and so one-off advice for a single leg is possible, but I don’t think as effective. I have found in my routings that experience and common history pay off. I have had a long relationship with Banque Populaire, and before that a decade working with Franck Cammas and Groupama. The second Jules Verne attempt with Idec we just completed was so much easier than the previous time – from all our perspectives.
SH: With someone like Abu Dhabi, how do you structure your day?
MVT: With the VOR there is no outside assistance which simplifies things. This means the week leading up to the leg start with Ian’s team there were many nights I had no sleep at all. If the weather is complicated and there are big choices to make right out of the gate, I want to double and triple-check things and access new models as they come in. With Abu Dhabi and Chris Bedford we had a morning and evening briefing when often Chris and I would be shooting holes in each other’s theories, and SiFi was witnessing this – observing two knowledgeable people discussing options. Plus we always look at scenarios where a certain option doesn’t pan out, which would then generate a conversation leading Chris to focus on a particular meteorological problem while I would work more on the strategy.
All this meant SiFi could start the leg with all the information, the checklists and key points, so there was nothing new about critical decisions at key moments, including which information did he have to update onboard at which frequency to make a certain decision. A typical scenario would be that something is a 60/40 call in six days’ time, but he has to be aware of the factors that are driving this, and he should keep his eye on certain influences to see that it evolves into an 80/20 call as it should. SiFi summed it up when he said he felt both extremely ready and extremely well prepared to do the leg. When you run a lot of routes it becomes clear what the key decision moments are on that leg. To get to this stage, where you’ve distilled the essence out of it, takes time, and if someone does this for him SiFi can stay rested.
SH: You have been shoreside support for some incredibly successful campaigns, most recently Idec. What sort of level of certainty are the models giving you now?
MVT: It depends which ocean basin you are in and the timeframes. For the RTW multihull I usually look at the time to Cape Town for the decision on when to go. This means looking at an 11-14 day window, where it gets a bit fluffy at the end.
SH: Do you always trust the models?
MVT: There is a trend and I have a very probability-based approach. Say if you see a trend developing and you see that going your way in the six and 12-hourly updates, you can begin to believe that. If you think about the window we didn’t take with Idec, which was the day the Vendée Globe started and Thomas Coville [Sodebo] left, the reason we didn’t go then was because for me it was a very binary solution in the approach to Cape Town, with the St Helena High far south and the ice far north, giving a very narrow lane to sail between the two – if at all. If that lane is not present either you park in the high, or you start taking significant risks with the ice. To me, at that stage on 6 November – which was still early in our standby window – either it is relatively OK-ish, or it is a complete disaster. So it was too binary and I advised Francis [Joyon] not to go.
If you followed Thomas Coville’s record he said that he identified a no-go zone at 43°S, giving him a lane 75 miles wide where he gybed multiple times in 24 hours. He did sail into the no-go zone that he identified, but his sponsor Sodebo had the budget to purchase additional satellite images to assist him with this. Actually, his time to Cape Town was not very fast, and had Idec left at the same time we could have been only half a day ahead of him, so that panned out pretty much as I expected.
When people criticised us on why we didn’t go then, those comments were very much based on Coville’s excellent Southern Indian and Pacific Ocean performance. His time to Cape Town was good for a single hander, but would have been only mediocre for us on a fully crewed Jules Verne attempt, plus getting there with significant danger of losing two or three days if the St Helena High was now 60 miles further south. In contrast, when we left on the 10th, on Idec’s record-breaking run we had a pretty average time to the equator and a relatively slow south Atlantic, but knew from the start we had an 800-mile window wide open under South Africa.
SH: And then?
MVT: Then we were lucky and got completely in phase with a low that was behind us, the perfect timing of which I didn’t see when we started the attempt. If you talk about a two-week window you can have a significant certainty on the St Helena High and how that is ridging under Cape Town, but the timing of a low coming off the south Atlantic Rio de Janeiro cold front is more uncertain, as this can be a day sooner or later or not happen at all. So for some things you have high proba bility 10-14 days out; some things you know will happen, but with less accuracy on the timing.
SH: The VOR is heading back into the Southern Ocean on leg 3 to Melbourne. What are the big issues on this leg?
MVT: Firstly, it depends on how the VOR will deal with the ice. When Sodebo and Idec were in the Southern Indian Ocean ice was as high as the Crozet Islands. But the VOR is a year on from that observation, so we don’t know.
It is a fairly typical scenario to have ice in the approaches to South Africa pretty far north, as you have a cone of ice, with some getting away from that cone and drifting into the Southern Indian Ocean.
If you look at Antarctica there are two main sources of icebergs, the Weddell Sea and the Ross Sea – those are the two main iceberg factories. How it works out on the Cape Town-Melbourne leg is too early to say, but with Banque Populaire we had quite a bit of ice under Australia, which I haven’t seen since, and this time around after Crozet, coming into the Kerguelens, it started to fall away to the south.
It also depends on how safe VOR want to be. Do they want to ensure no one sees any ice? Also relevant is how much money you put into this – the more you look, the more you find. In the last VOR one study was done that advised that the Pacific leg was clear of ice, but with further research commissioned by Knut Frostad icebergs were located, some over 1km in length, so the exclusion zone was positioned around the new data.
SH: In 1997 Swedish Match had an amazing jump out of Cape Town… is that still possible?
MVT: It is always possible. It can be tricky leaving Cape Town if there is a situation where the St Helena High is ridging in. After 40 or 41°S it becomes more of a drag race, then the ice gates or whatever VOR choose will have a big impact. Exclusion zones give you the most water to play with, but if they choose to go back to ice gates the chances of a jump on other boats increase. The last Barcelona, VOR and Vendée used exclusion zones, and this gives you clearly defined no-go areas as opposed to an imaginary gate that is pretty far north, causing the boats to loop between the gates. In the Southern Ocean I don’t think there is a big opportunity to get away – it did happen to Armel and Alex in the last Vendée so it’s not imposs - ible, but it’s not likely.
SH: At the end of that leg 3?
MVT: Well, you can get fairly big differences in the approaches to Melbourne, with the Australian Bight high pressure which can ridge into the Tasman Sea.
SH: Leg 3 is double-points, and relatively early on in the race; with that in mind how important is shoreside support with someone like yourself now for teams?
MVT: I would like to think very important as that increases my value! This support is just a cog in the overall machine. But to give you one example of what this type of shore support could lead to, in the last VOR leg out of Lisbon I went through all the Notices to Mariners, and there was a surveying operation happening, towing ten 10-mile cables, with nine guard ships plus plenty of support vessels all steaming in a pattern. I was aware of this and kept track of its pattern for 10 days or so.
The morning the fleet left Lisbon this surveying flotilla was south of Porto, so I gave SiFi their latest position and heading and when I thought they were going to turn. The reality was the VOR fleet didn’t get close to the surveying operation, but if they had SiFi would probably have been alone in being aware of the size of the flotilla in front and having a plan, which could have been a leg winner. This is what I mean by leaving no stone unturned.
SH: And other obstacles…
MVT: With Idec I occasionally gave them positions of oceanographic buoys – which they had no idea were out there. These are not on any chart and after I sent an image of one to Francis, he said, ‘This is really dangerous, they are like small icebergs!’ He was off Brazil at the time and said, ‘No doubt some small sailing boats have been lost in the name of science…’
SH: Fascinating – and frightening.
MVT: So if you hit one of these steel buoys when you are doing 35kt you have an issue. If you look at the number of buoys floating around the world at a set depth, say at 1km down for a week then down to 2km then to the surface, it’s scary… there are over 100 of this type alone. I sent a screen shot to Idec of all the oceanic observations carried out in December from this kind of buoy, and it is a pretty dense pattern around the world. And these are not accounted for, they are drift buoys and just pop up at random. If you hit one with your foiling monohull, that is a UFO.
SH: The next VOR Southern Ocean leg is Auckland-Brazil, starting in March 2018…
MVT: Departing from Auckland on 18 March puts the fleet at the Horn around 1 April, which is late, though the issue of ice will not significantly change. In your approach to Cape Horn the ice tends to thin out – again you have a cone out of the Ross Sea and chunks drift out of that cone towards Cape Horn; but the closer you get the less dense it gets. My main concern is approaching Cape Horn late in the season means an increased risk of bad weather…
Two sides of the same coin… Abu Dhabi skipper Ian Walker works with Roberto ‘Chuny’ Bermúdez de Castro at the sophisticated combined nav/media station in the 2014/15 Volvo Ocean Race (above). In practice the tactical options in the last race proved narrow as the one-design nature of the VO65 fleet led to cautious strategies, the frontrunners relying on speed rather than radical routing once they confirmed who was fast and who was not. All the same tools in a more compact package for Vendée Globe winner François Gabart on his Imoca 60 Macif (below). The Imoca rule minimum weight… there isn’t one
SH: With the fleet so close now, will boats that are not performing well throw the dice more as the race develops?
MVT: I would say less. In the days of the Volvo 70s, if for instance you were up against someone like ABN Amro One you knew that being in the same stretch of water with those guys was useless as they were so much quicker, so you had to do something different to give yourselves a chance. If you have a slower boat you take bigger risks as you know you’ll be last anyway. If you have a one-design fleet there is no excuse and it is more tempting to stay together, as your losses are going to be minimal. If you are not going as fast as the next boat, as a crew you just have to work harder with the same boat and the same sails. Psychologically for a navigator it is a lot easier not to take the risks.
SH: Are you still available as an onboard navigator for the next Volvo Ocean Race?
MVT: (Pause) It’s a hard question that one. I can’t see myself doing a whole Volvo as it has become so intense timewise, but if someone asked if I would do a Southern Ocean leg – well, that would be hard to turn down. To do the whole race? Well, I have done five and that was with the four-year sequence – that means I have been sailing around the world for half my life, or preparing for it, so at some stage you have other considerations in your life.
To do it again would mean starting now, and finishing in around 16 months – that is a very big commitment. Also, it would mean stopping other things; I am doing routing for the Jacques Vabre, there’s a new Banque Populaire, plus a likely Jules Verne trophy attempt. I am under contract with Banque Populaire until 2020. I am also part of the Magic Carpet3 team. So to stop all that for a onedesign VOR, where I think the navigator has become less important and the ‘stay with the fleet’ mentality is common? The latter may change with the VOR considering ‘blackouts’ and less weather data for the navigators, but the rhythm of the race is brutal – I have seen that with SiFi. They get ashore and have a day off, then straight back into commitments and meetings, and part of having me involved is to help with this intense schedule…
SH: Did other VOR teams have the level of your support?
MVT: I was talking to Pascal Bidégorry on Dongfeng who had very little support last time. He said sometimes they left to start a leg and they were still plotting waypoints – they just had no time. And when you look at when the VOR fleet left Newport and how many boats infringed traffic separation zones on that leg to Lisbon, a lot of that is lack of preparation. I’m not saying it is unprofessional, people just didn’t have the time. And this stuff is very hard to allocate to someone in the campaign administration – when you talk about waypoints the margin for error is zero.
In a lot of other areas there is a margin for error; even in engineering and structure you have a safety margin, in navigation there is a massive amount that is binary – it’s wrong or it’s right. You have raced with me on Magic Carpet3, Blue, and you have seen occasions when we have lots of waypoints. Because I do these on my own I always get our trimmer and ex-Volvo sailor Emma Westmacott to proofread these. And to make sure this reading is done properly I always put a mistake in.
This is just another layer of checking, because even I am not 200 per cent confident that I haven’t made an error. Sometimes a mistake is staring right at you on the page but your brain skips over it again and again, so it’s great to get someone to check. SiFi on Abu Dhabi would do the waypoints, and I would do the waypoints, and we put them together. Neither of us ever made a mistake, but if we had it would have shown up immediately.
SH: Round-the-world records have been broken recently by significant margins with boats experiencing remarkably favourable conditions. I’m wondering if it is timely to remind people that extreme weather events do still occur down south.
MVT: Boats, equipment and people are refining and improving in the round-theworld attempts, meaning fewer incidents of sails delaminating or rigs breaking, and this is allowing sailors to push even harder. If you look at the footage of Armel and Alex racing off the Kerguelens, that level of pushing is now considered normal.
But don’t forget the Vendée Globe people were slowing down to avoid lots of wind and Jean-Pierre Dick went through Bass Strait, around 400 miles north of his rhumbline to avoid a storm. It hasn’t become any safer to race around the world and there is still ice in the Southern Ocean; and you would need the budget of a small country to gather the satellite images and check the ice with 100 per cent certainty. And of course within 24 hours everything will have changed.
Regarding weather scenarios, it doesn’t happen much these days but if you had a high pressure sitting towards South America with another high pressure towards New Zealand, and in between those a little tropical low pressure comes down… which is completely insignificant in itself, but the moment it mixes with the Southern Ocean it becomes more aggressive. The really nasty stuff is something tropical getting involved – some mass of warm humid air coming down and getting absorbed into a Southern Ocean low can significantly intensify the low, or more accurately a front. And then you get these little lows that are very deep and windy making for a very confused sea state.
The typical Southern Ocean lows are further south and to be honest are not so hairy; yes, they are large and can throw up a big organised sea state with 50 or 55kt of wind for a prolonged period, but it is manageable. The small phenomena are the dangerous ones…
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The fightback starts here
SCOTT PERRY and BETSY ALISON are two of the many people working tirelessly to ensure sailing’s early return to the Paralympic arena
In November 2014 World Sailing merged with the International Federation for Disabled Sailing (IFDS) to create a strong, sustainable organisational relationship to provide a solid platform to support sailing opportunities for people with disabilities. Less than three months later the competitive sailing community received a stunning blow. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced that sailing would not be included in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
As with most setbacks, our first reaction was anger and frustration. Upon further reflection at World Sailing we realised that, although the decision taken by the IPC was unquestionably a great disappointment, it provided us with a unique opportunity to carefully examine para-sailing as a whole; to address the problems that the IPC, quite rightly, faulted us on; and to make the necessary changes to get sailing back into the Paralympic Games.
Our challenge is to make para-sailing more accessible, more widely practised and more attractive from both the sailor’s and spectator’s standpoint. We are therefore addressing each one of the following three areas…
More accessible
The cost of equipment is always an issue in our sport. This is even more critical in para-sailing since, in many cases, the boats must be adapted to the unique needs of each para-sailor. Adaptations that can accommodate specific disability issues add to the overall cost of equipment. We are looking carefully at the cost and adaptability of five types of boats, three of which have been used as Paralympic Games equipment (the 2.4M Norlin OD, SKUD 18 and Sonar) and two ‘new’ boats (the Weta trimaran and Hansa 303). After careful evaluation of all five boats, we will select two or three as the Paralympic equipment.
Increased access to attend para-sailing events at a reasonable distance from one’s home is also critical to the growth and development of sailing worldwide for sailors with a disability. The cost of travel both for para-sailors and their boats is being addressed through the creation and use of regional qualification events not only to qualify for World Sailing events but to qualify countries for future Paralympic Games (once we get back into them).
More widely practised
After the IPC announcement in early 2015 the board of World Sailing took immediate action and approved an ambitious programme to attract more potential sailors to para-sailing, particularly in the less traditional sailing countries.
In the two years since its approval by the board of World Sailing the Paralympic Development Program (PDP) has been up and running in five countries (UK, Australia, Netherlands, Argentina and Hong Kong-Asia) with another two countries scheduled to join during 2017 (Poland and France). Over 35 potential para-sailors and approximately 25 coaches have participated in these programmes so far.
In 2017 we have already held programmes in Argentina and Hong Kong, with two more planned to specifically target sailors in eastern Europe and North Africa.
The results can already be seen in the increased number of countries represented at various para-sailing events. The PDP clinics are a vital part of World Sailing’s strategy to boost global participation in the sport and regain its Paralympic Games status.
An attractive competition
We are addressing this particular challenge by looking very closely at the racing format at our events. Several changes have been proposed but they will need extensive testing before they are adopted. Any changes to be made must be appealing to both sailors and spectators.
Shorter races, in an easily understood format, near to the shore for spectating, are central to the plan. Close racing, exciting and informed commentary, easily identifiable athletes and countries on the racecourse… these are all key elements to successful showcasing of para-sailing, both for live viewing and through media outlets.
World Sailing is fully committed to and looks forward to bringing para-sailing forward to the wider public in a way that allows everyone to enjoy the excitement of the sport of sailing as practised by an amazing group of athletes.
Scott Perry, World Sailing, and Betsy Alison, chair of the Para World Sailing Committee
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