Quantum sail optimisation study delivers speed – and rating – advantage

A number of existing TP52s have been modified to race under the IRC handicapping rule; but Austin Fragomen of Newport, RI, who purchased a 52 project started by the late Dick Oland of Canada, decided to see what could be done if the optimisation process began before the boat was launched. As it turns out, the TP52 known as Interlodge 3 has proved to be extremely successful on the IRC circuit.

Dr Robert Ranzenbach, a consultant working with Quantum Sails on the project, says the only initial constraint was the use of an existing female mould designed by Botín Partners from which a pair of TP52s had already been produced. ‘This would ultimately prove an excellent starting point as one of these original TP52s, Quantum Racing, would later go on to win the 2011 Audi MedCup Series,’ notes Ranzenbach.

Exploring options
According to David Flynn of Quantum Sails, hull shapes in the TP52 fleet had become optimised to the point where there was only limited further potential. ‘So rather than focusing on optimising hull shape, Botín Partners proposed a study to identify an alternative mainsail planform that might offer upwind performance advantages under the IRC rule,’ says Flynn.

Adolfo Carrau of Botín says: ‘With the Interlodge project we proposed departing from well-known sail plan dimensions to explore what would happen if we designed the boat with a taller rig and a mainsail with shorter girths. This would be a big challenge for Quantum but, having worked with them closely for six years, we had a high level of confidence in their design tools. On Quantum Racing they employ VSpars, which enables them to check the real flying shapes of the sails as they are sailing on the boat.’

Early-stage communication
Whereas in the vast majority of racing projects sails are designed once the boat is built, the Interlodge project brought Botín and Quantum together from the very beginning. ‘It’s critical to begin at this early stage,’ says Carrau. ‘When we design a new hull shape or set of appendages we need to know if sails can be designed to work in a way that will justify a more powerful hull form or new appendage sizing and position. At this level, where we’re searching for tiny gains in performance, it’s critical to have early dialogue with the sail designer.’

Top: with a taller spar and reduced mainsail girths the latest higher aspect sail plan on Interlodge (second left) can be clearly distinguished when compared with her TP52 rivals. Not only is the higher aspect rig more efficient, it also saves rating…

According to Flynn, creating this interaction between boat and sail designers is moving from the rare exception to the norm, certainly at grand prix level. ‘On almost every big project we’re beginning to interact with the boat designer on the front end.

‘More often now project managers are getting the sailmaker involved early to work with the mast maker to look at things like stiffness of the tube and discussing fundamentals with the boat designers. Even if the rig height has been settled, sometimes we look at the positioning of it in the boat. For example, how big should the foretriangle be relative to the boom length? That’s a question that we can help answer by providing better aero models for the designer.’

A double win solution
In the case of Interlodge the analysis identified a critical opportunity: build a mast 600mm taller than a standard TP52 rig and a taller mainsail with shorter girths. ‘Bottom line is we got a taller rig with a more efficient mainsail planform,’ says Flynn, ‘and the boat received a rating reduction! That’s what you can do if you have sophisticated computational tools. If you don’t have these kind of tools you really can’t play the game.’ For Interlodge the result is a boat that’s faster through the water and slower on handicap – a double win.

For larger yachts the benefits are even more significant, says Flynn. ‘The integrated aero forces acting on the boat are one aspect impacting performance, but the aerodynamic forces acting upon the sail also form the basis of the next step in sail design, which is to use finite element analysis and hang the sails on a rig. This gives you the means to accurately predict the loads and strains that will go through the sails.

‘We can then place the fibres in the sail with much greater confidence,’ explains Flynn. ‘Conservatively this allows us to save 10-20% of a sail’s weight without compromising strength or durability. And if you can take a couple of hundred kilos out of a superyacht rig then the designers are pretty happy because they can take much more weight out of the bulb to reduce drag!’

The success of the Interlodge optimisation project, adds Flynn, shows why there’s a new world order where designers, mast makers and sailmakers are working together at an increasingly integrated level from the very start of a project. The result: everybody wins.

View the full optimisation study »

Click here for more information on Quantum Sails »

ROB WEILAND is very clear that a good rule or sporting regulation needs to be easily enforceable

This Flintstone pushing his rock up the hill knows that one should try to enjoy that daily labour, no matter how futile. Do not connect happiness or success too closely with simply reaching the top. Not only will the rock inevitably roll back, but also that brief moment at the summit is not much of a victory if it brings little or no added value. Am I merely tweaking the position of my own rock, day in day out, or am I actually doing something worthwhile?

At the end of the Royal Cup Marina Ibiza, after the prizegiving, at the bar with those who raced at the event and those who worked to make it happen there was one moment I really enjoyed. Such was the intensity of a week of light-weather racing, no matter whether one was competing or organising, that all present seemed to suddenly realise for the first time what a great week they had just had in a wonderful location. With the right and fair outcome, the best team (Quantum Racing) won and all behind finished as they deserved. To see the smiling faces around me, many of which I have known for many years, created a wonderful moment. It all seemed worthwhile.

Tony Langley and crew, guided around the track by tactician Chris Larson, took their best place ever (second overall and the best owner-driver) with their 52 Gladiator (ex-Artemis 2009) now in its fifth season. Paprec (ex-Artemis 2007, now owned by Jean-Luc Petithuguenin, eighth in the event) joined us for the first time this year; this is the oldest boat in the Super Series, followed by Provezza (ex-Desafío 2008, now owned by Ergin Imre, fifth in the event). But each and every one of our boats has been optimised in such a way that they rate the same – old or new.

In Ibiza the three owners of the 52 Super Series itself sat down and agreed to continue their support for another three years. So from 2014 to 2016 we continue to push this pretty rock up the hill for sure. A formidable commitment, rare in our sport.

And they will not just continue to fund the series but also have each committed to building a new TP52 for 2015; which it is hoped will encourage further new builds using the same tooling plus the chance to move their existing boats on to new owners who commit to joining the 2015 Super Series. This pledge should be enough to give others, interested in our quality and style of racing but not totally convinced we would survive the demise of the MedCup, the certainty that the 52 Super Series is here to stay and will very likely grow and improve.

To enhance the quality of our racing and stay in tune with where we feel yacht racing will go in the five years following 2015 the TP52 Class Rule will once more be modified to produce a racing yacht that is even faster, better looking and more fun than the current version. Then from 2015 to 2020 there will be no more big changes, just simple rule ‘maintenance’. Time to get onboard.

In short the main changes scheduled for 2015 are: reduce displacement to 7,000kg (-200kg), draft goes up to 3.5m (+15cm), composite rigging (-30 kg), longer bowsprit (+70cm) and more sail area upwind and down.

Furthermore, the rule will be modified in such a way that the deck and cockpit will become even more efficient and will look even racier than on existing boats. For 2014 it will be possible to build to these numbers, but the 2014 boat will be reined in for that year keeping draft, displacement and righting moment on a par with existing boats.

Then come 2015 and the existing 52 Super Series boats can be adapted to match the latest new builds with surprising ease. Certainly the boats that were built between 2009 and 2012, once brought up to the newest numbers, will still be competitive and at a reasonable cost. We have written the new rule to keep the upgrade, excluding new sails, to no more than 100K euros. Some of the 2007 or 2008 boats that might still be around can also upgrade, but with a more dramatic adjustment in draft.

You have to remember that there is surely no precedent anywhere for a seven or eightyear- old one-off racing yacht still being competitive at the highest level?

The 52 Super Series is now heading for Palma and the Copa del Rey. There we will have nine or ten 52s on our startline. A very encouraging number. By the time you read this the results will be known and the teams will be on their way to Porto Cervo to compete in the Settimana Delle Bocche, the Week of the Straits. We will also shortly confirm our 2014 Super Series calendar, again made up of six events shared out between Florida and the Med.

Also this year the 52s have continued to do well in other events, racing boat for boat and on handicap, under both ORCi and IRC. In Ancona, after the dust settled, three 52s filled the podium at the 2013 ORCi worlds. Due to some poor communication the event used a rating ceiling too slow for a 52 in normal trim; however, three keen owners butchered their pride and joy and slowed them down by filling the bilge with lead to race 500kg above design weight… also slightly reducing their sail area!

They were generously rewarded with the top three places overall. Nevertheless, ORC and the event organisation should have been more alert to what was going on, with the expense of lifting these boats out of their optimum trim for just one event. But well done Hurakan, Aniene and Enfant Terrible!

Rob Weiland, 52 class manager

Click here for more information on the 52 Super Series »

Patrice Carpentier talks to Franck Cammas about his victory in the 2011-12 Volvo Ocean Race and how the gameplan has changed for next year’s race in one-design VO65s

Seahorse: Run us through your pre-event strategy in the last event…

Franck Cammas: The decision to enter the race was made in October 2010, two years before the race start. With the benefit of secure funding, the first steps were simple. We bought the previous winning boat, Ericsson 4, and ordered a new boat to be built by Multiplast and designed by Ericsson designer Juan Kouyoumdjian. For us it was easier to work with a local shipyard that we know well [Multiplast had built Cammas’s giant trimaran Groupama 3].

Meanwhile, at the Groupama base in Lorient we had already been operating with a permanent team for the best part of 13 years, and so we had good experience of building and developing a range of raceboats. As a consequence we had no need to suddenly create a special team for the Volvo Race, we simply had to supplement our resources. We grew quickly from 20 to 60 people, taking on a number of foreign specialists.

It was very important for us to seek out ways to lift our team’s performance since we knew that Juan K was also involved with two other teams (Puma and Telefónica). The added value in performance would have to come from our own efforts as well as from outside analysis. We knew we had the best designer to have a competitive boat, but Groupama would have to be audacious compared to the others.

Primarily that would be all about better optimising the details, but in the end our boat also went to the startline with some quite fundamental differences (from the other Juan K designs) in the keel treatment and in the transom area, where our boat carried more hull volume for better powerreaching performance.

In terms of sailing team, we started with a clear deficit for the simple reason that hardly any of us had sailed a VO70 for any serious length of time! That was a handicap at the beginning of the race; even with some imported additions to our sailing team no one onboard G4 had ever actually won a Volvo Ocean Race before. Compare that to teams like Camper Team New Zealand and Puma! On paper at least we were far from the strongest crew. Actually, we did try to recruit some of the big names of the modern Volvo era, but they did not want to join us, either because they lacked confidence in our team or because we did not pay well enough… So instead we focused on attracting motivated people who actually wanted to sail with us.

The other factor is that outside the Volvo 70 we had less opportunity to sail on other big racing boats than some other teams. The great bulk of our experience was on multihulls. I still remember sailing around the British Isles and thinking that this was our sole real long offshore experience with G4 before the first leg of the Volvo. There was a big gap! But that lack of relevant experience just made me more determined to ensure we had a fast boat.

Another handicap was that the construction of our boat lasted longer than predicted. I am thinking especially about our near-sisterships Puma and Telefónica. They began after us and their boats were in the water before us. Plus there was the risk that, as they started later, Juan K had time to incorporate more of his latest ideas…

One benefit we had was that Groupama had committed to a two-race programme which did give us less pressure. We could be more aggressive in our boat development and take a few risks. But we never once fell into the trap of thinking ‘take it easy, there will be another chance for us’. Nor did we ever feel it would be impossible for us to win at the first attempt. Indeed, from the start of the race we could see that in some conditions – especially in big breeze downwind – we were truly fast, we just lacked Volvo Ocean Race experience.

With a known fast boat it then became our responsibility as sailors to make good choices – not something that we always managed at the beginning of the race. By contrast, Telefónica rapidly started to justify her role as one of the pre-race favourites. The Spanish looked strong from the outset and it seemed hard for us to challenge them. But it happens quite often that the best does not stay the best for ever; once they lost momentum I believe that the cohesion of the Spanish team started to unravel.

Meanwhile, we knew we always had scope to improve, even going into those last few legs. We always thought we can do better and we maintained our fighting spirit. I would say that everything was OK for Telefónica in the first three or four legs. Then they slipped just a little and then their confidence somehow crumbled completely. At the same time we were slowly getting better, we were making fewer mistakes and we were starting to play at the front…

After rounding the Horn we had a good feeling. Then we dismasted, which badly hurt morale – especially following our first win in Auckland. Fortunately losing the rig did not cost too many points because of the general carnage in that leg. And there were still half of the total points of the race left on the board before the finish in Ireland. Arriving in Brazil under jury rig we were suddenly virtually neck and neck with the leaders and were also – at last – getting much better in the in-port races.

Now looking ahead to next year’s race and things will be quite different. Certainly the big effort that with Groupama 4 we put into improving our platform would no longer be relevant. With the arrival of a one-design, there is no longer that huge amount of time and money to be spent in R&D. That is finished. This big switch gives people the opportunity to enter the race later and also allows the race rookies to play better against the ‘old guys’.

This race will certainly be more open. And on the financial side you can forget about two years of expense – effectively that means you can at least halve the budget. Even the sails are one-design now!

Of course you still need time to select the right wardrobe for every leg. But in terms of the sailors you just have to get good guys and make sure they are ready physically, because it will not take them long to learn the Volvo 65. The benefit of a much longer training period will be much reduced. Put another way, an hour spent sailing a one-off custom design is more productive than an hour spent sailing a one-design.

Currently, with Groupama having won the race at its first attempt, my own goal is the next America’s Cup. With that in mind I am spending a lot of time campaigning a Nacra 17; as you know the level is always high in the Olympic classes and I want to become good enough to challenge the best sailors in the world. But for me to be selected for the 2016 Olympics is still going to be a big challenge.

Meanwhile, Team Groupama is also involved in the C-Class worlds (the Little America’s Cup) in England this autumn. I have been sailing a lot on a previous Canadian Cup-winning C-Class which we bought, plus Groupama is developing a new boat, co-designed with an exciting collaboration of experts including Guillaume Verdier, Benjamin Muyl, Martin Fisher and Denis Glehen.

We are entering the C-Class because it revolves around the same fundamental hydro and aerodynamics factors as the AC72 (by the way, expect this year’s crop of C-Class cats to also be fully foiling…) Meanwhile, we are also racing other events like the Tour de France.

And the door is still open…
With respect to next year’s Volvo Ocean Race, that is still a possibility for us. For financial reasons the Groupama group did not want to go again in the Volvo, but other opportunities may come up for us before the end of this year. I think we can wait until the end of March 2014 to enter the 2014 Volvo Ocean Race and still compete at the front.

Remember that our first sail on Groupama 4 was in June 2011, just a few short months before the race start in Alicante.

In the second part of our look at the prodigious output of Core Builders Composites in Warkworth, New Zealand, Ivor Wilkins talks to Tim Smyth and Paul Bieker about the creation of the elegant and highly loaded lift foils that are carrying virtually the entire mass of this year’s America’s Cup contenders

When the AC72 catamaran class was conceived for the 34th America’s Cup most of the initial attention went to the massive wing sails and the race was on to learn as much as possible about their design and development. Fairly quickly, however, it transpired that the real game-changer was going on under the water in the form of the daggerboards.

It was always understood that these boards would generate considerable lift, in effect reducing the displacement of the boat at speed. As originally drafted, the AC72 rule was intended to discourage full hydrofoiling and at least some of the early investigations headed in the opposite direction, looking to the windward foil to generate downforce and thus increase righting moment.

That line of thinking was quickly stamped out with a specific ruling against it – leaving the design groups to turn their attention to lift. And despite the rule’s discouragement in this regard, nothing is quite as seductive to an America’s Cup design team as an opportunity to beat the rule. If some lift was fast, more lift would surely be faster and total lift faster still. It wasn’t long before teams were experimenting with full foiling on smaller catamarans and once that genie was out of the bottle there was no going back. Every effort would be made to get the big cats up and out of the water.

In broad terms the foils have to present two different planes to the water: a horizontal plane to generate sufficient lift to levitate and support the seven-tonne structure in flight above the waves; and a vertical plane to limit leeway and provide directional stability through the water, all of which exerts considerable side force.