Super maxi Alfa Romeo set to smash records

by Edward Rowe on 16 Aug 2005 New Zealand super maxi Alfa Romeo has the potential to shatter race records around the world, predicts owner and skipper, Neville Crichton, having spent two weeks testing his new yacht prior to the Hahn Premium Race Week at Hamilton Island (20-27 August 2005).

After the Whitsundays regatta, the first major goal in Crichton's sights is the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race record of 1 day 19 hours 48 minutes 02 seconds for the 628 nautical mile race through the notorious Bass Strait.

‘Given a relatively constant breeze of 15 knots, with slightly sprung sheets, the new boat will average 22 knots and we can sail the course in one day and five hours,’ he says with confidence.

The new Alfa Romeo, the 30-metre (98-feet) successor to the 27.5-metre (90-feet) world champion of the same name that took line honours in some 74 races in the Southern and Northern Hemispheres, including the 2002 Sydney Hobart, is the most technically advanced ocean racing yacht in the world today. She is a magnificent example of the latest concept in design, engineering, construction, rigging and sails.


Designed by the US firm of Reichel/Pugh, and built of carbon fibre composite by McConaghy Boats in Sydney, Australia, Alfa Romeo carries a towering 44 metre carbon fibre mast built by Southern Spars in New Zealand, with the latest concept in 3DL and Mylar sails designed by the North Sails Sydney loft.

Each of the above companies has contributed to a racing yacht that can only be described as awesome in concept and a quantum leap in the already advanced technology of modern yacht design, engineering and construction. McConaghy Boats, which have now built 10 maxi yachts in carbon fibre, describe the building of Crichton's boat as the biggest and most complex project they have ever undertaken.

Race performances are expected to be just as awesome with race record predictions no idle threat. Overseas in 2006, the new super maxi will be an outstanding example of Australian and New Zealand boat-building techniques and workmanship.

Like her predecessor, she is registered with the Royal New Zealand Yacht Squadron in Auckland, and carries the sail number NZL 80.

Alfa Romeo will begin her racing campaign at Hamilton Island this Friday. She will then be sailed to New Zealand for a final checkout before returning to Sydney in October to begin an intensive lead-up campaign for the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

In January she will be shipped to Europe to contest all the major offshore events in the Mediterranean and other Northern Hemisphere waters.

Owner/skipper Neville Crichton, a lifelong sailing enthusiast and, in his own right, a world class racing helmsman, commissioned Reichel/Pugh to design him a super maxi to the 30-metre length overall (LOA) maximum set for two of the world's great traditional races, the Sydney Hobart and Fastnet Races.

‘I would have liked to stay with a 90-footer, but when the CYCA (Cruising Yacht Club of Australia) and the RORC (Royal Ocean Racing Club) set their maximum LOA at 30-metres for the Hobart and the Fastnet races, we had to go up to 30-metres to be competitive,’ Crichton explains.

As it is, his new boat will face some strong competition in the 2005 race to Hobart, with four other maximum LOA boats expected to compete - the new Maximus, owned by fellow New Zealanders Charles St Clair Brown and Bill Buckley, the rebuilt Australian boat Skandia, owned by Grant Wharington, a yet-to-be-launched new Wild Oats for Bob Oatley and another New Zealand boat, Stewart Thwaites' Konica Minolta which, like Skandia, raced to Hobart last year - and also did not make it.

‘The 2005 race is shaping up as an extraordinary clash of the super maxis and a race that could well see the record broken,’ predicts Crichton. ‘Around the world we will see race records shattered by this new breed of yachts.’

Although Crichton's new yacht has yet to sail in fresh to strong breezes, he and his crew are predicting amazing numbers from the new 98-footer.

‘My gut feeling is that she will be 20 per cent faster than the previous 90-footer; capable of 35 knots downwind in any sort of a reasonable fresh breeze, 20-22 knots on a reach in 18 knots of wind and 12 knots hard on the breeze to windward. The big difference is that this new breed of 30-metre boat is capable of sustaining high speeds,’ he says.

‘If we can get 15 knots of constant breeze all the way to Hobart we will break Nokia's record!

‘Of course, it all hinges on the weather. The Hobart record set by Kialoastood for 21 years, until just bettered by Morning Glory in 1996. Then Nokia shattered that time in 1999.

‘If we get the same conditions as Nokia, strong winds on the beam, we could do it in a day, but realistically we could reach Hobart this year in a day and five hours.’

When he commissioned this new boat, Crichton himself was making a quantum leap forward in the many yachts he has campaigned so successfully. Not only would the new Alfa Romeo be the biggest racing yacht he had ever owned, but it would be the first for him with a canting keel.

While he says there is not a lot more that can be done in developing super yachts sailed by small crews, some significant advances have been made with the new boat. In addition to the canting keel, the boat has water ballast, two rudders fore and aft of the keel, and hydraulic winches. The rig is taller than any super maxi built to date, enabling the boat to carry a huge mainsail and massive asymmetric spinnakers.

The planning, engineering and building of the hull, keel and rudders of Alfa Romeo, the tenth maxi yacht built in carbon fibre composite by McConaghy Boats in the Sydney, Australia, was the biggest and most complex project yet completed by the internationally renowned boat-builders.

From a male plug, McConaghy's built the carbon fibre composite hull using the latest prepreg systems developed by Structural Polymer Systems (SP), which sent out from England three of their technical experts to assist with the project.

Extensive use was made of high modulus carbon fibre over the Nomex honeycomb, with Corecell foam used in high load areas. Because the hull is so narrow, many longitudal stiffening planks were also used for added strength. Having the canting keel operated by a single hydraulic ram, added to complexities of the engineering, as did the extensive electronic control systems required for the canting keel, two rudders and the hydraulic winches. Precision alignment of bulkheads and canting keel structure was critical, with all jigs being computer milled.

Highly specialised steels were also used for the components of the hydraulic ram which was built by Central Coast Hydraulics. ‘It was a new generation of complexities in boat building,’ a spokesman for McConaghy Boats added.

The metallic silver painted hull is long and lean-looking with a short bowsprit. The coach house is low and encases the hydraulic systems that control the jib cars and Cunningham controls.

The open cockpit runs from aft of the coach house and main companionway to the transom, clear except for the twin steering wheels set on stylish individual consoles with instruments in front of the helmsman. Instruments are repeated on the mast. Remarkably, the new bigger boat still weighs only about a tonne more than Crichton's previous yacht.

Below decks, the stylish interior is white with highlights of black carbon fibre and warm red upholstery for the bunks/seats. Even the head is carbon fibre! A large part of the accommodation is taken up with the encased engine, the twin hydraulic systems (for keel and winches) and encased electronic systems, with the fully equipped nav station set just below the helmsman's position on deck.

Apart from through the main companionway, light comes into the interior through a series of small ports through the deck, and with the white interior, the long open saloon