2020 MIDDLE SEA RACE, TYPE OF HULLS AND PERFORMANCES

The ones that follow the blog know that I follow top races, where the crews generally are competent, to access information regarding different types of hulls in different wind and sea conditions. One that I don't miss is the Middle Sea Race that is raced around Sicily, Stromboli, Pantelleria and Malta.

First 45 Elusive 2

Due to its course, due to the local climate, on this race the conditions are very variable, as they are usually in the Mediterranean. This year we had weak and medium winds with a predominance of low medium winds and a bit of all points of sail, with a lot of upwind sailing and a lot of downwind sailing with weak winds.

I would say these are the conditions most cruisers experience on the Med while cruising because, while cruising, most sailors avoid strong winds, staying on the marina or anchorage. Perfect winds for enjoying sailing, summer winds and not very usual this time of the year on this region where, after weak winds, normally strong winds follow. 

Ker 46

And the type of hulls that shone on this race were the ones that some would call old designed, the ones that we can find on the First but also on Jboats, on Comet, on JPK or even on Swan.

Narrow hulls by modern standards in what regards performance cruisers, hulls with the maximum beam not brought all aft, that perform especially well on light wind or light-medium wind situations, that perform very well upwind but that have not their performance maximized for stronger winds downwind.

Dufour 44R

The reason why there is a modern tendency on offshore racing boats to maximize downwind performance at the cost of a loss on upwind performance and of light wind performance has to do with two factors: 

 First, on most offshore races (out of the Med or Baltic) weak winds are rare and medium-high to strong winds frequent and second, what a maximized downwind boat gains in speed on strong to high medium winds (downwind) is a lot more than what it loses sailing upwind.

In this edition, that due to the Covid had fewer participants, we had two Swans, a 50,  a cruiser-racer more adapted to racing than cruising, with a relatively narrow hull (4.20m) and the new and beamier Swan 48 (4.58m), a heavier boat too. 

Swan50, below Swan 48

If we compare the performances we will see that even in compensate the 50 (6th) was much more at ease in these weather conditions than the 48 (23rd). Almost for sure, the Swan50 crew was better but the fact is that its narrower hull was much more adapted to the conditions and much faster.

The main reason for the bigger beam on the 48, as on most performance cruisers, is to give more volume to the interior, to allow a boat with less ballast and to sail with less heel. The reason has nothing to do with having a faster boat, quite the contrary, it will result in a slower one.

On the racecourse, in real-time, the new Swan 48 made all race fighting with another cruiser-racer, a J109, that finished very close. I bet most would not think that a J109 could be a match for the new Swan 48 or that a J122, a 40ft cruiser-racer, could be way faster. 

J122e

The race was won in compensated by a First 45 (Elusive 2) that was not only very well sailed but showed that had the right type of hull for the race conditions. 

The second was a Ker46, a race boat designed more than 10 years ago, also with a moderate beam and transom, a racer that is fast in different wind and sea conditions. Both boats were very fast not only in compensated but in real-time.

On the first 9, only two were recent designs, all the others were designed more than ten years ago. The two recent ones were the Swan 50 and the JPK 10.80, both great designs and among the few cruiser-racers that are extraordinarily polyvalent in what regards performance in very different wind and sea conditions.

The JPK 10.80 was not only one of the best in compensated (5th) but was very fast in real-time too, finishing ahead of the Swan 48 and not far from the J122 (Buran), that was 4th in compensated. 

JPK 1080

The J122 arrived very near a Dufour 44R (3rd in compensated). Considerably ahead of the JPK10.80 arrived the IRC winner, the First 45, that was all race fighting with a Farr 45 and a very well sailed Class40 (skippered by Kito de Pavan), beating both.

All the three J109 have done well, in real-time and compensated, being Chestress the 8th in IRC and the other two 13th and 14th but with Jubilee (13th) winning the Double-Handed class. 

A reference for the Comet 45s (16th in compensated) but 2nd on the Double-Handed class: the Comet 45S was in real-time almost 11 hours faster than the J109, lost in compensated by about one hour and was faster than the full crewed Swan 48.

JPK 1080

Looking at the disappointing performances, on the Duo-Handed class two boats theoretically very fast, supposedly designed to be Solo or Duo-Handed, a Class 40 (Vaquita) and a Pogo 36, had a very weak performance and I mean performance in real-time although it was even worse in compensated.

The Class 40 was in real-time only 2 hours faster than the J109 that won in compensated and about 9 hours slower than the Comet45s. 

Swan 50

The Pogo 36 retired after finishing, but was way slower than the J109, finishing among the last in real-time. Well, not really a disappointment since I was expecting it on these conditions, but certainly to all that think that cruising Pogos can be fast in all wind and sea circumstances.

A true disappointment was the performance of the single Dehler 30 OD, making here its debut on a big race. The conditions were not ideal for it but I hope that the boat was badly sailed because it was in real-time slower than all IRC6 (the boats with the smaller IRC rating).

If in real-time the Dehler 30 OD was bad, in compensated was incredibly bad. Racing in ORC5, the first in the class below (ORC6), a J109, arrived in real-time 3 hours and a half ahead and the first in its class (ORC5), more than 15 hours ahead in real-time and about the same in compensated.

J109, below J112e

As bad or even worse than the performance of the Dehler 30OD was the performance of a supposedly very fast catamaran, an Outremer 55 light. The crew, probably ashamed with the performance, retired very early, not even passing the Messina strait. On the first control point in Capopassero (Sicily), the boat was on the tail with all boats I have mentioned here well ahead, including the ones with a disappointing performance.

The results in this race, with conditions that are kind of typical to the ones most cruisers meet, show that the talk about some performance cruisers being faster, because they are not designed to perform specifically well in IRC or ORC (very beamy boats), is for the most part just talk, because overall, with mixed conditions, the boats and hulls that excel in ORC or IRC are the same that are faster in real-time.

J112e

Sure, for a limited set of circumstances other types of hulls are faster, even much faster, but the question is if those conditions are the ones that a cruiser will meet more often. 

For a circumnavigation made in the trade winds, yes, those light beamy boats are the right option regarding speed. For coastal sailing with variable winds, that is where most sail, they are not.

Comet 45s

A final point to say that these hulls that performed very well here, designed a decade ago, are not necessarily the faster, even if they remain very competitive. I would say that the faster in overall circumstances will be the last declinations of this type of hulls, like for instance the ones of the J112e,  the Italia 11.98 or the JPK 1030.

There is also a common misconception that this type of yachts only work well if they have a full crew seating on the rail.

The race results on the Double-Handed category on this race and others show that it is not true and the best example was the one of a JPK 1010 that some years ago won not only the Fastnet on the Double-Handed category but overall.

The tracker is still working, you can have a look at the race and you can make your own evaluation.

https://www.rolexmiddlesearace.com/tracker?