WILD OATS AND COMANCHE: GREAT MOVIES

Some great movies have appeared recently regarding the two hottest maxis and they deserve to be shared :-)

ARCTIC SAILING

Just three beautiful movies on three different sailboats, two that we would expect to see on this waters, a Boreal 44 and a Garcia 45 and small 30ft Bavaria circumnavigating Svalbard,  the lonely Island near North Pole. That's my favorite: A bear attacked their dinghy. Fortunately they were not there and happily for us they filmed the action but I wonder how they manage to get back aboard LOL.

Georgie du sud-Delvoye family by voile-magazine

GF 42 TRIMARAN

One of the most improbable projects around designed by a trendy Architect  Greg Lynn that normally designs anything but boats in association with Courouble Design, a California Naval design firm, without experience in multihulls and with a short experience in fast monohulls.

I would not have looked at it twice if I had not looked at the guys that are behind them: HDS the French specialists in structural analysis, calculation and design....http://www.hds-design.com/

So what does Lynn after all?: the conceptual project. I tried to find information about that but without success, I mean the boat program. I found something but it is in Latin! No kidding, here:  http://www.couroubledesign.com/?works=gf42-3

The shapes seem interesting if it will sail well or not it will be a bit as a mystery as its use. That's a racing boat? a performance cruising boat? One thing is certain I am curious about it and about its sailing potential. The boat is already on the water and it should not take long to know how it sails. Here's a video with the boat being towed.

DSC 6369 from Greg Lynn FORM on Vimeo.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WEATHER FORECAST

You can zoom to any place. Enjoy ;-) 
https://www.windyty.com/?surface,wind,2015-01-11-18,46.286,-13.535,5

BARCELONA WORLD RACE: GREAT NEWS

And the good news is that we have a race not between two boats, as I feared, but between 4 boats. Surprisingly, at least for me, besides Stamm/Le Cam, Alex/Ribes there are two more competitive boats and teams. Not only Altadill/Munõz but Corbella/Marín are among the first. Corbella/Marín are leading at this moment. A Race that risked to be boring has been a very interesting one.

Also bad news, it seems to me that the boat of Riechers/Audigane is not able to follow the  leading group. They spent a lot of money and time trying to make it a competitive boat for the next Vendee Globe but it does not seem that they have managed.

A very nice movie about last edition and the crews on this one.

For following the race, a tracker with good weather information:
http://www.barcelonaworldrace.org/en/race-live/barcelona-world-race-2014-15-tracker

VOR: AND ONE FOR THE GIRLS!

Cheers to them that won nice and cleanly the Abu Dhabi in Port race. On the weak wind wins they showed that they are incredibly good sailors. My take is that on this type of boat, with lots of changing of heavy sails they are at disadvantage on stronger and changeable condition; Just less physical power to do all the heavy work (and those big sails are heavy). Curiously I think that on a solo boat, being almost all sails on furlers women are less disadvantaged then here regarding the different physical power.

They are all now at sea again on their way to China, all very close with the Chinese boat leading. If they arrive first at Sanya it would be a big party for the Chinese and would do wonders for the sail popularity there. I wish them good luck with that.:-)

http://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/dashboard.html

THE POGO CAT: TS 42

No, it is not made by Structures the shipyard that makes Pogo but I am not the only one to see the similarity in what regards the concept: A shipyard specialized on racing boats (Marsaudon composites), a cruising boat designed almost as a racing boat with a spartan interior that allows a relatively low price for this type of boat and performance.

I like it a lot, a design by Cristophe Barreau, a specialist in cats, the designer of the Outremer 49 and 45 also of many Catana, has a different approach on this design that is more radical than the Outremer 45, starting with beam that is fundamental for the power of a cat: 7.39m for this one against 7.1m on the Outremer 45 that is a bigger boat with 13.77m against 13.06m (LOA). 

The Outremer 45 weights 8.7T and the TS42 5.8T, a huge difference that is reflected on the needed sail area: 110m2 wit jib, 159m2 with the gennaker for the Outremer,  89.4m2 with a self tacking jib, 126m2 with the gennaker for the TS 42.

The boat is not a carbon one but a top Eglass, using infusion, cored hulls and decks (PVC as core), aluminium boom and mast. The interior is very simple but functional and comfortable in a zen kind of way.

For reducing costs and to make it simpler the TS 42 has fixed keels but I would be very curious  to see a comparative test sail of the two boats, on the water, and I am not sure that the Outremer would be faster, but I am absolutely sure that the TS 42 is much more affordable: It costs about 336 000 euros without VAT, the Outremer 45 also without VAT costs 470 000 euros. 

Of course these prices refer to basic boats, a well equipped boat will cost substantially more and that's the problems with Cats. Even the less expensive TS42, with the European Tax and some extras will cost 450/500 000 euros, much more than a Pogo 12.50 that costs less than 300 000 euros, with Tax and full equipped.

But the TS42 will cost a lot less than a Pogo 50 that costs more than 600 000 euros and I am not sure that if I had the 600 000 euros to give for a performance cruiser I would choose the Pogo 50 over the TS 42, probably not.

The Pogo 12.50 will make about the same thing as the TS42 boat, with the same or more seaworthiness and it will cost much less even sailing a bit slower and regarding that it will depend on whether the boat is racing or cruising. The TS42 will be certainly a blast but it will need a lot of attention to go really fast, not a thing that I would like to do on autopilot or solo, at least with strong winds.
There are a lot more sailors with 300 000 euros to give for a performance cruiser than the ones that can give the extra 150 000 to have the TS42 and that's a shame because the TS42 looks awesome and should sail like a dream. I am sure that the Pogo 12.50 will remain a very popular boat while the TS42 will be a much more exclusive sailboat, but I sure would love to have one ;-)

http://www.catamaran-ts42.com/TS42-plan-voilure-alu.pdf

http://www.justcatamarans.net/sales/outremer/outremer-45/#.VKyATCuDkus
Lorient. Un catamaran de croisière rapide... by Letelegramme
http://www.voilesetvoiliers.com/chantiers/grand-pavois-2014-ts-42-le-pogo-du-cata/