THE NEW FOILS ON THE OPEN 60: HOW THEY WORK AND SAFRAN AT SPEED

and a great movie with another of the new IMOCA, the new Safran Open 60: they really go faster!!!

SWAN IS BACK (Swan 50 club)

Swan has once produced the more prestigious, fast and well designed cruiser racers but on the last years has only produced well designed performance luxury boats that lacked the distinctive character that was the brand trademark and that have make them different from the others. 

Even the more racing oriented 42 and 45 lack the comparative modernity and performance of older models... but not this boat.
I believe that with this one they have returned to their origins: that will be a very expensive high tech boat but not a luxurious one. They traded luxury for performance and have it designed by Juan K the one that had designed the fastest VOR racers.

The Swan 50 look gorgeous to me and even if they present it, in what regards cruising, as fit for "comfortable short cruises or longer sport cruises" I would say that would satisfy a performance cruiser that tend to be more spartan then the habitual Swan clientele that is more luxury oriented.

It has a good storage, good tankage (500L of water and 300L of diesel for a 56KW engine) and only the galley seems small. Being the boat a semi-custom one that would not be difficult to modify since it is adjacent to a storage space. More 60cm to the galley (and less 60cm on the storage) it would make it adequate for longer cruising.

Of course, it is a carbon boat and not only the looks and design look great and very effective, specially for ocean racing (or cruising), as the dimensions point to a very, very fast sailboat that will be a lot of fun to sail. This 50ft has about the weight of a performance 42ft  cruiser (8500kg), a moderated beam all pulled back (4.20m), a big draft (3.20m) with an option for a swallow draft (2.20m) and certainly a big B/D ratio that in conjunction with the beam and the chines will make for a huge stability, that we can imagine looking for the sail it can carry upwind: 142m2.

In what regards hull design nothing really new, just a very updated design with an inverted bow, chines forward to create more buoyancy and to divert the water making for a drier boat, chines on the back to increase stability and making it easier to drive downwind and two rudders for a better and more efficient control on ocean conditions or downwind........ What a boat!!!   ;-)

FLYING ON LITTLE MONOHULL AT 40K

No that has not happen yet but it is the project of Hannah white on this beauty, a kind of overgrowth Moth with 6 meters:

The boat sails beautifully (or flies) and Hannah thinks she can make 40k on a real sailbboat, (well of a kind ;-) and beat the feminine sail speed record that belongs to Zara Davis on a windsurf with 34.74K. Hannah is no beginer with three transats solo and a Mancha Channel record, she may well fly that "thing" to 40k. A dangerous stunt since falling at 40k should be quite traumatic for her and the " Speedbird" that only weights 8kg.

MINI TRANSAT - THE FIRST LEG IS FINISHED

But of course the first leg means nothing and it is to win the race that counts. Even so the best are already on the head of the race. On Proto the first to arrive to the Canary Islands was Davy Beudart, the 2nd Axel Trehin and the 3rd Frederic Denis. Here some movies with them:

In what regards boat design nothing surprising, the bath-tube bow and a David Raison boat continues to win and with a considerable advantage over the 2nd that is an older Lombard design (2008). The 3rd is also a Lombard design, but a more recent one (2011). In what regards the serie boats (production boats) the battle for first has been a lot more hard, maybe because there are a lot more racers on this category. Ian Lipinsky came first followed closely by Tanguy le Turquais and Charly Fernbach. Some movies with them and their boats: Regarding boat design we also have three different designs on the first 3 places but in this case they are all new designs: The first is a Bertrand design, built by the NA himself, the 2nd a Lombard design built by Argo and the third a Pogo 3. Those boats are really amazing, relatively cheap and with a performance not very far from the protos, that are all carbon boats with canting keels. The difference between the first proto and the first serie was of about 18 hours but if we consider the 2nd the difference was only 10 hours and only 8 protos (in 26) managed to do better than the first serie mini. To really see that huge difference between the two boats, in what regards high tech materials and building, let's have a look at a Pogo 3 and Davy Beudart proto:

For following the race (in English, French or Spanish), with a real time map click here: http://www.minitransat-ilesdeguadeloupe.fr/. It starts again in some days (not all the boats have finished), now towards Guadalupe.

NEW AZUREE 41

The much awaited new Azuree 40, that will be a 41. What I don't like? Very little, the winches could be more close to the wheelsman and I really don't like at all that odd front cabin (maybe they change it). I love many features of this Humphreys design, that is very different from the previous Azuree 40, that was also a good but very different cruising boat.

The previous boat was a bit like a bourgeois Pogo, with more weight, less stability and a very good cruising interior; this one is nothing of that and it is on a completely different register. The previous boat had 4.22m of beam, this one only 3.90. The previous boat looked a lot lighter with 7300kg versus 8360kg on the new one BUT if we consider that the 40 had only 1762kg of ballast versus 3211 on the new one we can see that the hull is not heavier but lighter.

In fact I did not like the reserve stability and AVS of the Azuree 40 (that is a very fast boat) but I will certainly like that particular on this one since besides the huge difference in ballast the new boat has more draft as standard (2.40m versus 2.16). A huge stability and a very stiff boat for sure. In what regards length, if the overall length of this boat is bigger, the water line length is smaller on the 41 and the sail area only 3 m2 bigger on the new boat.

Probably the old 40 is slightly faster (except upwind) but this one will be a better and more seaworthy cruising boat...and fast by all accounts. The price is interesting too for a quality boat: about 190 000 euros vat excluded....but what is a great deal now is the old Azuree 40, a good boat that they are selling really cheap.

The "old" Azuree 40, a Ceccarelli design:

TOUR DE FRANCE (DIAM 24)

Ok, it finished some time ago but I was cruising and since this is a favorite race I will make a short post about it. This was the first year that the tour de France was raced on multihulls (Diam 24 trimarans) and it seems that the new boat satisfied all, even if in what regards seaworthiness it was far away from the previous monohull and that resulted on a cancelled race on the last day (more than 30k wind). That was really unfortunate since two teams were equal in points, Grupama (with Franck Cammas) and the Swiss-Franco team of Spindrift. With the cancellation Spindrift won because it had more 2nd places. The best movies:

This edition counted with a big number of famous sailors, many monohull top solo sailors as well as top maxi multihull sailors. Among the monohull solo sailors, Vicent Riou, Jérémie Beyou, Kito de Pavant, Bernard Stamm,and Tabarly. Riou has even won one of the races (with a little help of Billy Besson, triple world Nacra 17 champion). Buf for me the revelation was François Morvan. When he picked the tiller, Spindrift started to won almost all the races. François Morvan is not a kid and is the wheelsman of the big Spindrift (the biggest maxi racing trimaran, ex-Banque Populaire) but he had, on the last days, on the tiller of Groupama, Frack Cammas, as opposition. Chapeau Monsieur Morvan!!!

THE 2015 MINI TRANSAT HAS STARTED

That's a great race (84 racers) and I will be following it here. The weather this year will be very particular and strategy regarding routing (no outside help) will count for much. In 2 days they will get some nasty weather and after that several routing options are possible. Here is the tracker:

http://www.minitransat-ilesdeguadeloupe.fr/cartographie?lang=en

Remember that there are two classes, the proto and the boats that are produced (Serie). on the proto
Frederic Denis is already well ahead of the pack on this boat (proto):

Quite a surprise since he is not a top gun and the boat (designed by Marc Lombard) is not new, having made the 2012 race with Antoine Rioux and in 2013 with Gahinet. The boat had problems and Gahinet was recovered by fishermen. Later the boat was extensively recovered for the new owner and this race.

On the serie Benoit Hantzperg is leading but with lots of boats very near. This guy on a brand new Pogo 3:
Not also among the favorites...but it is a long race (4000nm) and it is just beginning.
 Here the main site and this year in English too: http://www.minitransat-ilesdeguadeloupe.fr/?lang=en