Flying on the GC32
by Gordon Upton 4 Jul 2015 09:47 BST
24-27 June 2015
Forward WIP safety gear was deployed and in action this week at Cowes as the GC32 teams came to town for part of their Bullitt Racing Tour series. This was the second round of five, which started in Traunsee and continues on to Kiel, Rome and finally Marseilles in late September. The Cowes event was also timed nicely to allow these fast cats to enter the Round The Island race too.
The Teams
Six teams have thus far competed in the 2015 series - former America's Cup winner Ernesto Bertarelli's Alinghi team from Switzerland; The Sultanate Of Oman team skippered by 2 x winning Extreme 40 helm Leigh McMillan; New for 2015 are the French Engie Team with Sebastien Rogues at the helm; Another new team and the only 'privateer' on the circuit, although just doing the one round this year, is Team Argo 32 from the USA, skippered by double Melges 32 World Champ Jason Carroll; The other hotly tipped Swiss team here are Flavio Marazzi's Armin Strong team, who are supported by, amongst others, Forward WIP; The other French team, Spindrift, did not attend this round.
The Boat
The GC32 catamaran is a 10m (12m if you include the gennaker pole), 950kg all carbon speed monster designed by Dr Martin Fischer to be a fully foiling machine. With a conventional catamaran type rig it is designed to be sailed by 4 fit, but not necessarily Olympic athlete level fit crew. It was designed without the need for any hydraulics, as used on the America's Cup boats, and has large foils for easier and more stable foiling. It is a one-design class specifically to reduce costs and with 173m2 of sail area, including the gennaker, gives the boat a top speed of nearly 40 kts.
It also has the capability to carry a passenger in the right conditions, should they be crazy enough to have a go.
The races
The format and course is basically familiar to anyone who watched the AC series. A short reaching start leg, then downwind with a split at the bottom mark, back uphill, repeat twice and a short reach to the finish, but at the top rather than the bottom, so the same committee boat can be used. 6 legs per race taking about 25 mins total. 5 races per session. With the boats foiling, if conditions are right in the downwind legs, this makes for some serious crew workouts and spectacular racing for both crews and spectators alike.
Sailing the GC32
Anyone familiar with fast cat sailing will feel reasonably at home on one of these beasts. It is just that everything is bigger. Imagine a double sized Flying Phantom with a few more strings about and you have the picture.
This is what happens. You have a little red square to sit in on each side of the boat on the trampoline net in front of the forward beam. Any deviation from this area, you are warned in the safety briefing, will result in the instant loss of digits, limbs etc. You will also be required to switch sides during maneuvers in a timely manner. Things can go wrong and that is why you and all the crews wear a proper impact vest, supplied by Forward WIP and helmet. The vantage point on the tramp gives you a grandstand view of the onboard action. My boat was to be the Argo 32 Team and a friendly bunch of lads they were too. 'Hey!' complained Argo's Sailing Master Mischa Heemskerk to his rib support crew upon seeing a fellow 'A'class cat colleague clamber aboard, 'You promised us priddy gulls, not him!'
So, after having the potential loss of bodyparts risk re-explained again, you settled into your allocated square and the crew readied for the pre-start sequence. As this was their first event, they were still in shake down mode and still had to get more familiar with their new boat's handling intricacies and techniques. After a couple of quick speed runs up and down to check things out, the start sequence commenced. Keen to see how these top lads positioned the boat in the pre-start maneuvers, they somehow ended up being pushed out to the windward committee boat end of the line, a position I was personally all too familiar with, so at the start gun, we were instantly left behind as the other 4 boats quickly bore away and charged off. But the rate of acceleration of these things is breathtaking. Quickly deploying the gennaker, Argo shot after the pack and almost caught them all as they rounded the first mark and headed further downwind with a couple of them on the foils. This is where the speed differential between the foiling and non foiling mode was most noticeable. The flying boats were about 25% faster.
So trailing again, it was decided to gybe and look for better pressure on the left. These boats make a lot of noise when going fast. There is a hum from the foils that changes pitch when the boat foils. Snaps and bangs from the rig as it is loaded an unloaded and over all this was the Dutch accent of Mischa shouting different settings for the board rake and rig control adjustments, all dutifully carried out by the others without question. Changing tacks is where the real crew work is done. The helmsman announces the intended maneuver and starts a countdown. The various crew jump to their allotted tasks of dropping the windward board, furling the kite, easing the main. On the 'Go' the boat is swung in the required direction, the new windward board hauled up, sheets reset, winches wound in and the kite unfurled again. This is really hard work and why you need fit folk to sail them. For the real muscle, Mischa takes over. Hauling up the windward foil fast before it loads up too much is his specialty.
The steering is very light, precise and effective. They proved this at the bottom mark, when they met the Armin Strong boat, who had rounded earlier and was coming uphill on starboard as Argo was still coming down on port with the kite full on. They stared hollering when the boats were about 2 boat-lengths apart and closing at close to 25 knots. A swift tug on the tiller saw Argo glide past their stern with a good 24" to spare and no-one on Argo said a word about it.
By now, the wind had dropped so foiling was not an option and Mischa engaged their light wind mode. Going back upwind towards the finish, keeping the windward hull flying was the main concern and the crew positioned themselves to enable this. The bowman shouted out pressure timings so the crew reacted accordingly. In common with most multiple crewed boats, various discussions took place as regarding laylines etc. Watching the boats ahead gave a good indication of who was correct and who needed extra tacks to make marks after misjudging tide drift. Finally it was all over and Argo brought up the rear of the fleet which was to be expected when alongside seasoned GC32 aces like Alinghi etc.
I was impressed with how little shouting there was on the boat. They all seemed to take instructions from the Sailing Master without question. However, they were all puffing like blown horses, so possibly not capable of shouting back anyhow. Another Forward WIP guest sailor who was on the Engie boat, said all they did was yell at each other in French all the way round! However, they were faster, so maybe that's what Argo needs to do next.
Later in the week Engie, Alinghi, Oman and Argo all took part in the Round The Island race, only being beaten by the monster that was the MOD 70 trimaran Concise 10!
Bring it on, Kiel!
So, many thanks to Jason's crew on Argo and all the teams that took part. Particular congratulations to the Armin Strong Team for winning the series! To Bullitt for their sponsorship of the GC32 circuit, it's a great format to watch! And to Forward WIP for providing the top quality safety equipment of the impact vests and helmets.
www.gc32racing.com
www.forward-wip.com/en