[PCP]

Vor70

Super interesting, like a chess play

It seems to me I was wrong about Camper. That move North was a big gamble but they sure new what they were trying to do and it worked out. He is where Telefonica would like to be . Telefonica failed for just some few hours its move and they did not reach the wind they were trying to catch but he seems they are going out of trouble in some few hours.

But Camper is better positioned and will be going to win over Telefonica on the next hours.

The gamble I was talking about regarding two possible different courses is on: Only Telefonica and Camper will risk the shorter route (with less wind). All the others are going North to get more wind.

I still think the shorter is the best option...but more risky.

Ir will be interesting to see who is right and who will pass the anti-cyclone first. That will be half way to victory. This is the more tricky part of the race, the one they can win or lose big time.

Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 | Race Data Center

 

[PCP]

Re: Salona 35

Indeed!

Lidingö runt 2012 offered very shifty and light conditions and I am not so sure the real time performances will be rightous to the boats. Might be useful though to compare boats in the same start. IIRC the wind was stronger during the early starts. What is really cool though is that a Nacra 20 was only 9 seconds behind the Marström M32 on elapsed time (same start group I think)!

//Mr W

Yes, I see what you mean, different time starts and I guess also very different racing performances by the crews. Huge differences in apparently similar boats. well, a fast boat can be badly sailed but a fast boat even with a very good crew cannot go faster than what is physically possible and that at least give us some information.

Anyway that is good only for light wind and no waves conditions. That should give an advantage to the lighter boats and that makes even more noticeable the time of the XP 38 that would be much more at ease with more muscular conditions:

Xp 38 - 02:05:54, faster than two IMX 40 - 02:07:04 and 02:07:40, leaving behind an Arcona 460 - 02:10:30, a Arcona 400 - 02:14:25, a First 40.7 - 02:13:08 and a Salona 37 - 02:15:53.

These guys were competing in ORCI and I assume they were between the best teams.

Yes, the times of some trimarans that departed only 10 minutes later were very good, with special mention to the Nacra F20 Carbon - 01:26:50 and the Seacart 30 - 01:41:16.

The Super Maxy 100ft racer that was the first boat on the water and supposedly the faster was beaten in real time by the little Nacra 20 by a considerable margin I guess that the guys on that big racer should thank the race organization not having the little boat racing along whith them. It would be embarrassing

But when we have a look to the time of cruising trimarans the story is different: a cruising Dragonfly 35 on its faster version (Extreme) only managed 02:31:00, a worse result than the one of a Salona 37 that has much more interior space. I guess that with more wind the story would be different. I guess that for trimarans even more than in monohulls weight is paramount to performance.

As I have said the Xp-38 or the Salona 37 are not light boats if we take as measure top cruiser racers, more used to race than to cruise and the performance was remarkable on this light wind conditions.

I will have a look at some other boats later. If you feel like please comment or add what you like.

Regards

Paulo

 

[PCP]

Dazcats

Most catamarans today are fat, slow and have lot's of interior space...but not all. I like the ones that are not fat and are fast.

I like Dazcats:

 

[PCP]

Europe warm up: Last test before the Vendee Globe

Groupe Bell, very nice boat. Arriving at Cascais in 6th place. This one going to be one of the main contenders on the Vendee Globe, with Kito de Pavant.

Here, the same boat last year duo sailed going fast:

The race:

http://www.europa-warmup.com/?mode=course

The first leg of the race (Barcelona - Lisboa) was won by Virbac -Paprec with its usual skipper Jean-Pierre Dick that is without any doubt one of the favorites for the vendee.

In second the kid and one that I think is going to be one of the main world sailors, François Gabart with Macif. In third, PRB with Vincent Riou. The 3 first boats arrived very close after many miles racing. That seems a good sign for the Vendee

The first leg:

 

[nemier]

Re: Dazcats

Most catamarans today are fat, slow and have lot's of interior space...but not all. I like the ones that are not fat and are fast.

I like Dazcats:

Hi Paulo,
I like Dazcats too.
But the Cat that really caught my attention last year when I was looking at Cats & Tri's - was the SCAPE 39 Sport Cruiser. Built in SA. Check it out.

39 Foot Sport Cruiser Catamaran

..sorry, I don't have a clue how to post photos

 

[PCP]

Scape 39

Hi Paulo,
I like Dazcats too.
But the Cat that really caught my attention last year when I was looking at Cats & Tri's - was the SCAPE 39 Sport Cruiser. Built in SA. Check it out.

39 Foot Sport Cruiser Catamaran

..sorry, I don't have a clue how to post photos

That's an interesting one and also a very fast one...but with a very small interior. I guess that the Dazcat offers a better compromise in what regards cruising, at least with the family.

Now for a couple...that is an interesting boat but then you lose the advantage cats have over trimarans (interior space). For the same interior space (and price) I would always prefer a trimaran over a cat

take a look at this trimaran:

http://framsblog.wordpress.com/

http://www.fram.nl/

Regards

Paulo

 

[PCP]

Vor 70

That has been a hell of a race. They have changed course plenty times and the moves are quite unpredictable. Just play back the race the last 36 hours and see that weird dance of changing courses. Right now they are all on the anti-cyclone zone and without no wind making ridiculous low speeds.

The first boats that got wind will gain many miles.

It seems to me that would be Abu Dhabi (that seems they have a really advantage) and Telefonica that will be able to recover some of the miles they have lost over the other boats or even overtake them.

Just some hours for them to pick that wind

Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 | Race Data Center

 

[Mr W]

Re: Salona 35

Anyway that is good only for light wind and no waves conditions. That should give an advantage to the lighter boats and that makes even more noticeable the time of the XP 38 that would be much more at ease with more muscular conditions:

Xp 38 - 02:05:54, faster than two IMX 40 - 02:07:04 and 02:07:40, leaving behind an Arcona 460 - 02:10:30, a Arcona 400 - 02:14:25, a First 40.7 - 02:13:08 and a Salona 37 - 02:15:53.

These guys were competing in ORCI and I assume they were between the best teams.

I can't say for sure what the reasons were for the good performances of this boat but I can think of a few possible reasons; the Xp 38 is new with new sails which is allways a good thing; it's an advantage to have a high rig in this area which is very close to land (many were probably of the same height in this start group but the First 36.7, Dufour 34 and X-332s, which were the smaller boats in this start, came in last); in these light and shifty conditions it might actually be good to have a heavy boat since they will drift through areas where there is no wind at all.

Yes, the times of some trimarans that departed only 10 minutes later were very good, with special mention to the Nacra F20 Carbon - 01:26:50 and the Seacart 30 - 01:41:16.

The Super Maxy 100ft racer that was the first boat on the water and supposedly the faster was beaten in real time by the little Nacra 20 by a considerable margin I guess that the guys on that big racer should thank the race organization not having the little boat racing along whith them. It would be embarrassing

The super maxi should actually, according to the Srs rating, be just slightly faster than the Nacra and significantly slower than the M32 and Seacart. It sure would have been fun to have the Nacra and the maxi in the same start group A reason for the results in the multihull division might be that the Nacra and M32 are light and fast enough to fly a hull and be very fast in these light conditions. The Corsair 36 (which btw lost its mast during the regatta I attended last weekend) is quite heavy (3,7T) and have a relatively high rig in this start field, which might have been good for them. The Dragonfly 28 (3rd place), Corsair 31 (6th place), Dragonfly 25 (7th place) and Corsair 27 (8th place) are allways in top positions, so good skippers I assume.

But when we have a look to the time of cruising trimarans the story is different: a cruising Dragonfly 35 on its faster version (Extreme) only managed 02:31:00, a worse result than the one of a Salona 37 that has much more interior space. I guess that with more wind the story would be different. I guess that for trimarans even more than in monohulls weight is paramount to performance.

I saw a picture of the Dragonfly 35 in this race with the asy hoisted with the sheet corner (what is the word for that?) forward on the bow pole, so I guess they don't really know what they are doing

//Mr W

 

[Mr W]

Re: Dazcats

Most catamarans today are fat, slow and have lot's of interior space...but not all. I like the ones that are not fat and are fast.

I like Dazcats:

I really like the concept of the Dazcats as well, though I'm not to fond of the design. I like the more modern design of the southern ocean 47. They claim that the Dazcat 10 used to be their bestseller, so I think it's a shame that they haven't made a new design of this size. They do seem to be fast boats in a breeze

Have you seen the new Broadblue Rapier 550, designed by Darren Newton (Dazcat) and Nic Bailey? Now that looks promising :

Rapier550 | BROADBLUE | The World's Finest Catamarans

//Mr W

 

[Mr W]

Re: Europe warm up: Last test before the Vendee Globe

Groupe Bell, very nice boat. Arriving at Cascais in 6th place. This one going to be one of the main contenders on the Vendee Globe, with Kito de Pavant.

Here, the same boat last year duo sailed going fast:

That is brutal sailing! I can see myself in a Pogo 12.50 on vacation with my family going fast just like that! :laugher

//Mr W

 

[wopalx]

The XP-38 seems to be doing well in europe, and we are enjoying ours.

The Kiel Yacht Clkub Regatta, in both light and heavy conditions they came second in their division, despite poor crew work / errors.

Maior Regatta 2012

In the Lidingö Runt, as already mentioned the XP-38 did well in very light conditions so that is promising.

We've had a mixture of no wind to 35knts in the series we are doing currently, not being profession sailors so learning the new boat but each week we are getting faster so I'm sure at some stage we will get a win.

Certainly the handicapper favors our chances as we give time to some quicker boats (Ringle 39 for instance) even a new X50 only starts a few mins after us

 

[PCP]

Broadblue 550 and Maursaudon B525

The Broadblue Rapier 550 is interesting but it is a luxury cat. Sure it would be relatively fast but would not have the same kind of performance as the Dazcats (taken into consideration its size).
You can see that the Rapier 550 is relatively narrow for a performance cat and that interior has to be heavy. But nice concept no doubt, even in what concerns the interior….and anyway I am sure it will be very fast for the kind of luxury it offers.

If we want to find on that size a cat comparable in performance with the Dazcat, or even faster I would point out to the new Maursaudon B525.

I had not posted about it because those guys are able to make some of the fastest and more beautiful monohulls around (racing and cruising) but are unable to post on their site decent pictures.

I have seen other pictures (not on the internet) and I can tell you that the boat is beautiful. These pictures are just too bad and don't make justice to this cat .

Marsaudon Composites - Chantier Naval - Lorient

Regards

Paulo

 

[PCP]

Vor 70

Huge storm on the way. In 2 days in a half it would be here:

I hope the storm will come this way and at this speed, that would give them just the time to get out of the way. An alteration of course or speed can have some worrying consequences. This is a force 11 storm

 

[PCP]

What happens when this guy:

Comes talk with JPK saying that the Figaro (the boat he is sailing above) is a bit dated and wants to race in a faster boat?

Well JPK and Corentin had a talk with designers Guillaume Verdier and Axel Beaufort and the result is this baby:

The same size (35ft), canting keel, 3000kg, with water ballasts ( 2x 350L), beamy but not too beamy (3.80m) and a huge pole for an asymmetric spinnaker. The boat has a big draft (2.75m) and even if they don't say I would bet on a substantial ballast ratio.

Of course, it is an all Carbon boat.

Jesus what a boat!!! I guess the old Figaro is really needing a worthy successor.

They are waiting to have five commands to start the production of this one series boat. They talk about 250 000€ for each boat. It does not seem much for a Carbon beast like this one, canting keel, water ballast, carbon and all

 

[PCP]

Vor 70

FANTASTIC!!!! After all those different moves, with the exception of Ian Walker and Abu Dhabi that is the big winner of the half race, all the others are quite close.

Puma is a bit better positioned and has some advantage over the others but nothing that could not be recovered in a day or two.

Ahead lay interesting options. It seem to me that a North route can pay off now but I am not sure that in a day or two it would not be better staying more to the South.

Anyway, the big and final gamble will happen after Açores where they will meet again weak winds and two options will be presented: Go North have more wind and came down along the Portuguese coast with the Portuguese trade winds to Lisbon or go directly to Lisbon and risk weaker winds. This one is going to be interesting till the end

Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 | Race Data Center

 

[PCP]

Fox 10.20 Capado.

Adrien and Capucine continue their fast and save journey around the world in their nice little boat and has time to make some nice movies:

For the ones that missed the previous posts about the Fox 10.20, a look at the boat:

 

[PCP]

The first commercial boat with a bath tube bow :

it is a mini aluminum boat. I confess that this one I was not expecting

It is a micro cruiser with an incredible interior space, a full head a galley and 1.80 standing height...well just incredible.

It is a well known professional French aluminum shipyards and not some crazy amateur that is doing this project. The boat has a sharp keel (that can go up) with a ballast bomb and I bet that is going to sail quite well

But pretty isn't at least to my eyes.

Design David RAISON; David ROY; Quentin DELOUETTE.

Hull lenght: 6,8 m
LWL: 5,75 m
Beam: 2,88 m
Light displacement: 1,6 t
Main sail area: 19,5 m2
Jib area: 13,6 m2
Draft 0,5/1,5m
Standing height 1,80 m

I am quite curious to see who is going to buy this boat. I guess that in the US probably there would be a market for this boat. They love small cruisers. Or maybe not because they are also very conservative.

Guys, tell me what you think about this boat. I am very curious to hear your opinion. I confess this one put me scratching my head.

 

[Mr W]

Re: The first commercial boat with a bath tube bow :

Guys, tell me what you think about this boat. I am very curious to hear your opinion. I confess this one put me scratching my head.

That really is ugly...

It do have an impressive amount of space inside due to the hullshape, so that´s a bonus. When it comes to sailing performance I´m not sure it will be a good allround boat. Wasn´t Raisons mini 6.50 rather lousy upwind? And that is compared to other 6.50´s that aren´t exactly top performers when it comes to upwind sailing, and probably not to comfortable upwind either. I´m not sure this concept is made for the large mass of sailors, but I guess many people say this about boats like Pogos as well. Seeing is believing, I guess we will have to wait for some youtube videos before judging this ugly duckling!

//Mr W

 

[DiasDePlaya]

I'm waiting for the first designer that launch a 38' - 40' cruiser/racer scow. I'm sure that more than one is now drawing it.

 

[PCP]

Re: The first commercial boat with a bath tube bow :

...When it comes to sailing performance I´m not sure it will be a good allround boat. Wasn´t Raisons mini 6.50 rather lousy upwind? And that is compared to other 6.50´s that aren´t exactly top performers when it comes to upwind sailing, and probably not to comfortable upwind either. .
//Mr W

The disadvantage to the other mini has only to do upwind with waves. Since that aluminium boat would be mostly a coastal cruiser (unless some mad one decide to circumnavigate in one) that would not be a big problem and the advantage in space are really huge. Downwind it will be even more stable than the other mini, almost a cat

The idea of taking advantage of the extra space in a small boat looks good to me, what I found odd is the aluminum

Regards

Paulo