2006 World Team Race World Championships (Sardinia Cup) - Trans Pac 52 Med Style

I have always enjoyed racing box rule boats, IOR One-tons, IOR 50s, ILC 40s, MORC Maxis, it just doesn’t matter, I personally enjoy seeing the advancement of the box rule, so that fact that the TP52s that race in the Med appear to be distant cousins to the first generation of boats matters little to me. In the end the Sardinia Cup was a great opportunity for our team to trial one of the B&C designs built specifically for the Med, and for our owner to see if this is where he wanted to spend his sailing budget.

Trans Pac 52s in the Mediterranean

As I indicated last week, based on our promising performance in the Global Championships, we were invited to compete at the Rolex World Team Race Championships in Sardinia, Italy. Glory sailed a B&C TP52 under sponsorship of WOKITA.com, Gaastra, Balearia and Deporte Galego and I think that most of the team would agree that this boat held little in common with what we had been sailing. The evolution of the TP 52s for the Med began just after the Farr Gen 3 boats came out and while the Mediterranean IMS fleet was looking for the next stable rule (while the IMS 600 raters were quickly designing themselves to their death). Driven by a commitment from many of the principal IMS players including the King of Spain the feet had its first events with roughly 12 boats including Pisco Sour, Orlanda, and Balearia from B&C and Caixa Galicia, Atalanti, Bribon, from Farr and then the US Farr Gen 3 boats represented by Bambakou and Siemens (Sjambok). In the 2006 Sardinia Cup we sailed one of the 2005 B&C designs that were known for their high form stability, very thin keel section and the need to have their bow down to perform well. We struggled acclimating to this package in the short time we had available to get tuned, but it was good to see what designs were where in the design spectrum before looking to select a designer for 2007.

In 2006 the fleet grew to roughly 22 including new designs from B&C, Farr, Brenta, and the series winner (Mutua Madrilena MM) from Rolf Vrolijk. From 2005 to 2006 the fleet evolved dramatically from going fast in a straight line (I am oversimplifying here) to much more focus on holding a line upwind (since the fleet doubled in size) and keel and hull shape changes bore this out. However a strong showing from the 2005 Siemens (Patches – 2006 Globals winner) and continued bursts of speed from the 2005 B&C and Farr designs, it showed that you did not need the newest boat to win races.

It will be interesting to see what happens in 2007 as the level is upped even further than MM pushed it in 2006 and if the fleet can continue its rapid growth with a rumored 25 boats ready for 2007 and nine new teams hitting the water. However, 2007 will be critical year as the fleet appears to be hitting a plateau with key team such as Orlanda (2005), Atalanti (2006) and Rush (2006) appearing not to be returning this summer.

Observation 1: Spars - The standard for many years were two-spreadered Hall spars. Last year we used two different generations of the Hall spars and became quite familiar with tuning it but after attending the Sardinia Cup and looking closely at what was coming out of New Zealand, we had a big decision to make. At the time the 2006 boats were launched, several of the top programs – many of which were built in New Zealand sported three spreaders with minimum tube thickness. Much has been written about this in the press over the last year so I will not go too deep on this point, but the end story was that the top 2 finishers (Mutua MM and Warpath) both used three spreaders last year and a lot was made of this, especially when Warpaths sistership struggled with a two spreader rig (this is the presses observation and not mine). Hall Spars has come out with a new generation spar this year and it will be interesting to see how things play out over the course of the season as several team expecting to be competing for top honors have chosen spars for the US manufacturer. A lot of press was about Southern Spars masts and they indicated last year that in addition to three spreaders being more stable; their rig required less adjustment or tuning over a wider range of conditions. Additionally, with the increase in stability, the three-spreader mast was debated as to being superior due to achieving reduced windage through consequent reduction in mast section size and rigging dimensions despite a numerical increase in spreaders.

Observation 2: Sail inventory – The good the bad and the ugly – we saw all three over the course of the Globals and the Sardinia Cup. In my mind biggest source of evolution through 2006 and into 2007 is the transition between the Masthead Genoa and the Asymmetric A0 – we used our A0 spinnaker very effectively last year on Glory on the Swiftsure Offshore Classic but struggled with the Genoa/A0 combination during the Sardinia Cup distance race. We have been looking very closely at this set up over the last few months and we will need to do some serious testing in April and May if we are going to get it right come race day. One thing that really stood out looking at the sail programs while in Italy was the amount of money invested by several campaigns in proprietary sail designs. In my 30 years sailing and my 14 year sail making career it has always been apparent that there is an established pecking order driven by the amount of money you want to pay for a given service but this is overtly apparent in the TP 52 class where several of the top boats have a dedicated designer (often from AC syndicates) for headsails, another for mains, and another for downwind and reaching sails. At the same time, my observation is, that there are also several of the programs that use “off the shelf” designs, often with more durable membranes and fibers, fewer battens etc. Budget will drive the path that an individual program takes for their sail design and construction. Key in 2007 will be sail limitations and with the maximum sail allowance of only 25 sails allowed this year, designers and program managers will have their work cut out for them as they try to figure out how to stretch 25 sails over all 5 events - especially now that the last 2 venues of the 2007 Med Cup (and 2007 worlds in Sardinia) are slated to be sailed in significantly windier regions than the first 3 events.

Side Note: Sponsorship – everyone on our team was surprised at the level of sponsorship in the Med. What I think stands out the most for me, was the number of Farr 40s changing sponsorship between the Farr 40 European Championships and the Sardinia Cup. Teams were literally tearing 10-20 foot logos off the hulls and replacing them with the next batch of sponsors before the next event. We felt really lucky to be involved with a great group of companies with both WOKITA.Com and Gaastra showing us what could be done sponsor-wise in Europe.

Later this week – Overview of this summer’s sailing and the new boat.

2006 TP52 Globals - March 2006

So I will try to blast out three posts this week before I head for Palma Vela to set a baseline for my future writing. Today I will focus on the 2006 TP52 Globals and my experience sailing on the Gen 1 NM TP52, then later this week on Sardinia Cup and the Med focused B&C TP52s, and then a report with some general thoughts on this summer’s sailing.

Generation 1 Meets 2006

So to start with, Glory and the other generation 1 TP52s were designed specifically for the Transpac Race to Hawaii and racing down to Mexico. The design criteria stated that they should be lightweight and simple, with maximum headroom below decks. Glory/Yassou, Rosebud, Lightwave, and Flash all fall into the first generation of TP52s and when we arrived at the docks in Miami the differences between what we were sailing, and what the top teams were sailing, was quite stark (see above photo to illustrate the differences).

So the 2006 Globals started inauspiciously with us continuing to rig the boat and looking at our brand new Quantum sails on the way to the racecourse. What was a slow start gained momentum as we generally improved our gap to the top 3 boats in the inshore races from roughly 3 minutes behind to as little as 15 seconds by the end of the week. Overall I think that we could attribute a lot of that to getting use to the new modifications, improved boat-handling and a doing a better job of shifting gears downwind (between a more aggressive reaching mode or digging deep).

Observation 1: While the 2003 Glory was fast upwind/downwind with her new facelift, we continued to suffer from reduced form stability uphill, and we gave away a lot power reaching to the newer designs which sported much wider transoms. Additionally, we were a much different boat when it came to weight of hull and bulb and internal ballast. During the 12 months that we sailed this boat, we affectionately called Glory “the cruise-liner” because of her especially stout build, and we were amazed to see how light (and few ring frames) many of new builds had just 2 years later (driven by the Med conditions/designs). Despite the extra weight in the hull we were quick enough around the track, and especially later in the regatta we were often able to hold our own inshore against the newer designs such as the 2005 Farrs. When the Nelson 52 was sold to a new owners in Australia, we felt that we had really spent a lot of time getting the most out of the boat and that the design changes were worth it - especially when she went on to nearly win her class in the Sydney Hobart as WotYot.

Observation 2: Crew work/systems at this level is very refined – Well no kidding, anyone would all expect this but having started from scratch with the 2003 systems, we saw exponential improvement as we changed or upgraded. When designed, the sail handling systems for the generation 1 boats were designed to use one pedestal to drive the primaries, with drive shafts above deck for extra headroom below. They were set up with two halyard winches, two primaries linked to a single pedestal, two mainsheet winches with a full 2:1 German Admiral's Cup dedicated winch mainsheet system and then a set of secondary winches for in-line changes and peels (which we removed in the refit). This is a decent all-around system, but short on horsepower when compared with the latest generation bots when jibing and in prestart maneuvers. As time went by this proved less then optimal for round the cans racing and If I was going to single out one change that made the boat easier to sail – it would have to be the overdrive gears on the primaries. When we started jibing Glory we were taking around 18 seconds from initiating the jibe, furling the staysail, jibing the pole (disconnect and running it back until it cleared the hoisted staysail) and then completing the jibe, and unfurling. Over the course of the Globals we reduced that time to 8-11 seconds simply by changing technique for moving the pole and use of overdrive gearing.

Even with multiple pedestals linked together, the maximum power (according to Harken) a human can generate is 200rpm. That equates to a winch line speed of 94m/min. With the first gear of 1:1, the line speed is still too slow to get these big asymmetric around efficiently – the overdrive kit accelerates the winch by 2.4 times (Gear Ratio of 1:2.4). Now the overdrive turns the winch in first gear (1:1) and in overdrive (1:2.4), 1 turn of the handle generates 2.4 turns of the winch drum. This equates to a line speed of 225m/min. This means that you have to move quick keep up with the grinders as the rope is spit from the winch on the jibes - this is now a must have for asymmetrical kites (even the GP42 are sprouting pedestals) to get the kite around at blazing speeds.

Additionally while many of the 2005/2006 boats had two pedestals we only had a single one – so getting the main across in jibes was painful. Key through the jibes, was for our trimmers to be top-handling the guys back in addition to use of the pedestal (which is less than efficient). While the grinders were pulling the kite around in overdrive, they were also trying to muscle the guy back and relying on the offside trimmer to be on a handle to keep from bogging down mid-jibe. The 2005 and newer systems, and the new system on Glory, are able to lock all the pedestals (4 grinders) together to bring across the main, pull the kite around and the pole back at the same time. Additionally the majority of the boats this year will be using a pedestal to drive the cabin top winch to hoist the kite halyard (aiding in speed and smoothness).

Side Note:

One aspect of the TP52 class is that it requires distance racing in major events. Now I have never been a fan of offshore/distances racing since most of my memories are of slogging upwind on paper-thin one-tonners, through the night, riding the rail in the bow position. However, the distance race at the Globals had to be one of the most fun experiences of my sailing career as we crossed the Gulf Stream twice and were rewarded with blasting back from the Bahamas, at night, surfing at sustained high-teens and low-twenties under a near full moon. Bruce Nelson positioned us correctly on the first beat allowing us to round as one of the top three and then we spent the rest of the night chasing Beau Geste and the generation 3 Farr designs, while holding off Pegasus (who only just passed us an hour or so before the finish).

Later this week – Racing the Med TP52s in Italy

So how did Team Glory come together and what is our outlook for the 2007 Med Cup?

Over the last 18 months I started bumping into old friends while on the sailing circuit who wanted to know what was going on with the TP52 Glory and what it was like trying to get a boat and team to the Med Cup. Well, with Tac’s help I hope to consolidate all those mails and just blog a couple times a week, starting today, and ending at the TP 52 Globals in September. Now I am far from an expert on the pro sailing scene but friends have commented that my observations over the last 18 months have provided some good insight for those of us not getting paid to race.

Well preparation for the 2007 MedCup began in November of 2005 when John purchased a 2003 generation TP52 (Yassou) and immediately sent her to be modified to be as competitive as possible with the 2006 fleet at the Global Championships. While Yassou was under the knife, Team Glory chartered the 2005 Med Cup runner-up (2005 Farr TP52) and raced it in howling conditions at Key West Race Week. All I will say about this experience is that this is when the team decided we would never race a Med TP52 off shore without a significant work-up (and led to many protracted discussions on the merit of bow ring-frames). Any future Glory would be built with provisions that would ensure that it would be able to get to Hawaii and back.

After 5 weeks of non-stop work by Goetz Boatworks (www.goetzboats.com) Glory emerged from the shed with a new bow and stern (designed by Bruce Nelson), reworked foil and significantly stiffened spar. After a few days of ticking off critical jobs on the boat we put on the new sail inventory by Quantum and hit the water. As our first class event, we did not find our stride at the Globals until midway through the event, but better late than never. The bright point was that our team gelled and had led the offshore race and last two inshore races of the series.

Based on the promising performance in the Global Championships, we were invited to compete at the Rolex World Team Race Championships in Sardinia, Italy. After rushing Glory back to the Pacific Northwest to compete in the Swiftsure Offshore Classic Yacht Race (which we won overall) we jumped a flight to Europe to represent the United States in the TP52 class. Team Glory sailed a B&C TP52 under sponsorship of WOKITA.com, Gaastra, Balearia and Deporte Galego but unfortunately struggled with acclimating to the boat, the sails and the racecourse after losing 3+ days of practice to weather and broken equipment.

Although we are focused on running a Corinthian effort this year, it absolutely does not mean that we are going to a gunfight unarmed. Our team is primarily NW based with the addition of two sailors from Australia and Spain and includes Olympic sailing medals, World, North American, and US National Championships and Hobart, SORC and Key West winners.

Overall Team Glory expects to contend for individual race and event wins and compete for the season’s overall Corinthian trophy.

Next – Observations and insights from the TP Globals and Sardinia Cup.

Special Guest Star

Over the next few weeks, a good buddy of mine will be posting on this blog. Paul Andrepont used to work for the family back in the day and is quite a good sailor. Paul now lives out in Seattle where he has been sailing with the Buchan Racing team on various racers named Glory. In the last 18 months Team Glory has been involved in some really cool racing. The owner bought Yassou the NM Transpac 52 and totally modified it to make it competitive with the new boats. Glory sailed the 2006 Transpac 52 Intergalactics and finished quite well considering age of the boat and the relative lack of big boat experience.

Glory then chartered another TP 52 for an event in the med last summer and at that point the owner John Buchan decided to build a new boat for the 2007 season. They quickly settle on JV and built the 3rd boat out of the Mean Machine Mold at Hakes Marine. Mean Machine for those who do not know won the entire MEDCUP season last year!

Anyway the team is quite serious about making a run at the MEDCUP this season and in doing so have crossed trained in the MUMM 30 fleet, sailing the Worlds and also in the Farr 40, having bought the former Mean Machine Farr 40.

They have built a beautiful new TP 52 that is about to make her debut at the Palma Vela regatta over the next couple weeks. Paul will be doing some blogging from the event on the trials and tribulations of ramping up a brand new TP 52 against some of the top finishers last season. Looking at the entry list, I see Mean Machine will be there so they will have their full.

Team Glory are a bunch of good dudes and are putting a full 100% effort into winning the 2007 MEDCUP. I look forward to reading what Paul has to say as much as the rest of you.

Good luck to Glory for the 2007 Season.
Cheers

Tac