Rolex Sydney Hobart- Rio 100 - A supermaxi is reborn + Video

by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com on 24 Dec 2014 'New boats for old' seem to be a common catch cry on both sides of the Tasman, at present.'

This year two supermaxis have gone into the building shed for major surgery and emerged as new boats. They will both be competing in the 2014 Rolex Sydney Hobart Race and sailing in their first major offshore race since being born-again.

Five times America’s Cup Challenger and doyen of the Australian ocean racing scene, Syd Fischer has added a new hull to the deck of the Elliott designed supermaxi Maximus, and behold, there is the new Ragamuffin.

US owner skipper Manouch Moshayedi acquired the Bakewell-White designed supermaxi, originally named Zana, which first contested the Sydney Hobart in 2003, finishing second to Skandia. Next year she was leading the race until almost the finish, when she suffered a deck compression failure and was forced to withdraw.

Moshayedi moved to New York from Europe in 1979 and started sailing in 1987 after another move, this time to California.

In conjunction with this brother Moshayedi founded a company developing solid state drives used in corporate network computer systems, before easing out of the business in 2013.



Moshayedi who had raced two TP52’s plus and IMS boat was looking for a boat that was capable of winning the Barn Door Trophy in the 2015 Transpac Race from Los Angeles to Honolulu.

The trophy is for manually powered boats only – no engine driven hydraulics for canting keels or winches are allowed. 'The worst time on a boat is when the engine is running. I have a grave objection to boats that have their engines running all the time.'

‘The trophy has a good tradition in California. Most California sailors want to win the Barn Door Trophy. We think this boat, and size of boat is a good boat for the Barn Door Trophy, not just in 2015, but for the years to come. I don’t see any other 100fters being built that are without canting keels,’ he points out.

'All the new boats that are being built use canting keels and water ballast. I specifically wanted a very simple supermaxi for the Barn Door Trophy. Most of the racing in California is done with non-canting keel boats. So I thought this would be a very good project to have, and I am so glad that we did it. The boat is very fast and goes downwind very nicely.'

Ideal for the downhill slide in the Tradewinds for which the Transpac is renowned.

'When the project was put forward, by one of my friends, Bill Jenkins, we had to see if it would work,' Moshayedi explains.

'I got Gavin Brady and Brett Bakewell-White involved. We looked at the new designs that Brett was doing. Changed from a single rudder to twin rudders. We wanted to be able to get into any harbour in the West Coast, so we made a lifting keel for her. We also wanted more form-stability so we could get rid of the water ballast.

'We ended up cutting the boat around where the mast is stepped – and put a whole new back end on her.

'Maybe we were just lucky, but the boat came out perfect.'

'She feels just like the TP52 except that she is now a TP100!'

Moshayedi has no illusions that Rio will be unable to keep up with the canting keelboats.

'We are very competitive downhill, but when it comes to reaching the canters easily pass by us but if the conditions are such that they can’t use their canting keels 100% of the time, then we might have a chance.'

Certainly in one impressive recent hit-out in Auckland over a 240nm course, Rio proved that she could sail lower and faster than a Volvo 70 and a Botin 80. What was particularly noticeable was her ability to sail near conventional downwind courses compared to the much higher angles of the canters.

For sure Rio has made some trade-offs. Her mast - still the original from Southern Spars is only 38 metres long – about the same size a Beau Geste, canting keelboat that is only 80ft long.

While she has had her beam increased the designer has been careful to keep her wetted surface area low to minimize drag.

Rio100 has been fitted with a full suit of sails from the Doyle Sails Auckland loft, and will have some very experienced crew on board for the Rolex Sydney Hobart, including one of the world's top navigators and sailors, Peter Isler (USA).

The lack of a canting keel also drops her rating below that of the other newer supermaxis in the Hobart fleet.

'When we got involved in the project and realised what it was going to cost, we didn’t even think about building a new boat,' says Moshayedi. 'If I were to build a brand-new boat, I would go along with the rest of the crowd and just build a canting keel boat with water ballast and all that which would have been a lot more costly than Rio.'

And of course there would be no tilt at the Barn Door Trophy either.