A Southern Man - AGD shows early promise in trials

by Sail-World on 26 May 2006 Graham Dalton’s new Open 50 has begun sailing and is working through some issues which have arisen as a result of the sea-trials.

Dalton is pleased with the performance of his Elliott designed Open 50 which is hitting better than expected performance numbers.

'A Southern Man – AGD', she is the first Open 50 class yacht built in New Zealand and features a canting keel and nine-metre retractable centreboard amongst other high-tech gear to aid solo ocean racing.

Designed by Greg Elliott, the carbon fibre composite hull, was constructed by Davie Norris Boatbuilders of Bromley in Christchurch, and is now in the Viaduct Basin being worked up for the prior to the start of the VELUX 5 OCEANS race which begins in Bilbao, Spain on 22nd October.

Elliott has an excellent track record in designing no compromise for speed, canting keel yachts and is noted for being the designer of the supermaxi, Maximus and the larger 140ft Mari Cha IV. The hull form of AGD is more slab sided, than the Open 60’s with a hard turn of the bilge amidships.

Dalton says that he expected the 30,000 nautical mile race, which will make just two stops in Australia and the USA, to take around 140 days.

So far AGD has been for three sailing sessions. Some work is being undertaken on the twin rudder linking mechanism to improve the steering, otherwise there are no major issues, and the combination of waterballast and canting keel is working well. Overall the displacement of AGD is about 5500kgs with 2250ks in the keel.

The mast is a 50fter section, supplied by NZ Rigging, stepped on deck and with a simple internal jack and plates system to maintain rig tension. Sails are by Quantum, and Dalton says he is is very pleased with their quality.

Dalton has received excellent support for suppliers for the project, which represented unfinished business for Dalton after his last solo circumnavigation race aboard Hexagon, four years ago.

All performance systems are by B&G, with Dalton keen to avoid the situation in the last race, when he had wind gear, from another supplier, working for a maximum of a 24 hr period before breaking down again. 'In these boats you sail off true wind and apparent wind the whole time, and you have to have very reliable systems to keep the boat performing and sailing at its best', he says.

Down below AGD feels like a mini-Maximus – another Elliott canting keel design, but twice the length of AGD. There is no standing headroom, everything is down at a crouch or in a sitting position. Currently the most spacious area of the boat is forward of the mast, below the fore hatch – but even so this is still very cramped.

The water ballast tanks are positioned in the mid section of the boat – without the forward tank of Hexagon, and are separated to permit the aft tanks only to be filled if required for stern trim in heavy downwind conditions.

Dalton is doing a lot of work in the area of sleep deprivation and the means of monitoring required body sleep levels to maintain performance. Similarly with food and 65 days at sea living on freeze dried food is not a tempting prospect. 'Last time, I tended to skip meals', Dalton says, 'which caught up with you after a while. Even just winding a winch really started to hit you, and after a meal you came right again.'

Her first ocean sail will be the Royal Akarana’s Auckland to Fiji race with a four man crew.

From Fiji, A Southern Man - AGD comes back to Tauranga where she is shipped to Savannah on the 24th July.

Dalton has no further word of his opposition except for the entry of Sir Robin Knox-Johnson who Dalton says he refers to as 'Father'. 'He’s sent me an email saying he will be watching my qualifying voyage very closely', Dalton says, 'and there is plenty of good banter between us.'

Other boats in the race are expected to be Open 60’s mostly from previous circumnavigations and updated in varying degrees for the 2006/07 event.