Little Cup - Defending Champions Prepare

by Robyn Ross on 4 Sep 2013 The sailing world will once again watch in awe as C-Class competitors battle it out on the water for the International C-Class Catamaran Challenge, ICCCC, also known as the Little Cup in just a few short weeks.

This year’s event will take place Falmouth, England, September 22nd – 28th. The regatta is making Little Cup history with over 10 boats from six different teams expected on the line. Two-time champion Fred Eaton is eager to hit the water with his new design. Named Fill Your Hands after the 1969 John Wayne classic movie True Grit, this old name in no way reflects the ingenuity of the new design.

Past success of the Canadian Team is in large part due to the forward thinking designs of Steve Killing and seamless execution by the Paterson Composites crew. Together the team has been training out of the Royal Canadian Yacht Club twice a week since May, with constant tweaks and boat work in between. The new boat was tuned against Canaan, the winning boat from 2010.

One critical construction element behind this new design is the use of a relatively new product from North Sails, Thin Ply Technology or TPT for short. TPT is carbon fiber tow that is pre-impregnated with resin, rolled and compressed extremely flat onto a plotter table and cut to precise shapes by the plotter head.

When asked why this new product is so superior, Paterson Composites team member Christian Pavey said 'it has just the right amount of resin and an extremely low fiber weight compared to most pre-pregs'. The result is both a lighter and sturdier bond. In fact, the new wing is 10% lighter than that raced in 2010.

This year’s regatta is truly momentous. Never before has the Little Cup and the America’s Cup so closely resembled each other. Both events hinge on the use of wings and hydrofoils to create lift for the hull. While the Canadian team tried to implement foiling back in 2007, it came with little success. Recent developments from the America’s Cup fleet have inspired the Paterson Composites crew to once again experiment with this technology.

Alternately, during the summer of 2009, it was the ingenuity of Alpha’s wing that attracted America’s Cup team BMW Oracle to RCYC grounds. After training with the Canadian team for several weeks, BMW Oracle went home to build their own 220ft wing and win the America’s Cup in 2010.

Most development classes experience change from bigger boats that trickle down into smaller scaled fleets. In the case of the Little Cup, wing technology travelled upwards to radically shift the course of sailing. 'I’m mostly excited to be part of an event of this magnitude' says Lucas McLaughlin, a Paterson apprentice, 'we are literally making history this year.'

The Canadian team is set to hit the water in England the week of September 16th. They hope to get over a week of training in with real race-like conditions before the regatta starts. Three full trailers have been shipped overseas to accommodate the inevitable repairs and maintenance required when racing a C-Class at this level.

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