'Wired' - joins expanding 50ft canter fleet

by Sail-World on 16 Oct 2006 New Zealand’s increasingly competitive 50ft fleet has been joined by a new performance racer/cruiser from the design office of Bakewell-White Yacht Design.

Designed for Rob Bassett and Brett Russell, the brief called for a fast, fun, yacht that is offshore capable and able to be raced and cruised shorthanded. The resulting yacht is a mix of carbon fibre, grinder pedestals, canting keel technology, and a designer interior including LCD TV and entertainment system.

[Sorry, this content could not be displayed] The medium tech foam and carbon structure has been engineered by High Modulus and the build beautifully executed by the team at Lloyd Stevenson Boatbuilders at their East Tamaki yard.

Brett Bakewell-White explains the construction:

'The shells are foam core with carbon skins, the hull was molded in a female mold. The internal structure is foam and glass rather than foam and carbon, that was really a cost issue, with carbon capping.

'We’ve used carbon where it is most effective and the idea has been to be sensible about construction, build a light boat but not get silly over budget. You get diminishing returns in the end - so it is a case of being sensible, and save weight where it is most important.

'Essentially we work in conjunction with High Modulus and more or less zone the boat off in turns of cost and look at how much it costs to save a kilo in each area and that versus cost then you make a decision in each area. '

The canting keel system and lifting canard were designed and engineered in-house by Bakewell-White Yacht Design. The keel is canted by a pair of custom built hydraulic rams through an arc of 110º and controlled electronically from the helm or handheld remote developed by Onboard Systems Ltd.

Bakewell-White explains that the canting mechanism is handled by two large hydraulic rams driven off the engine.

'The canting control mechanism is interesting, it is all driven by a computer PLC, and we have wireless throughout the boat both from the point of view of tactical computer but also for the keel control. The helmsman can control it but so can the tactician. '

Like most canters you need the engine running when the boat is sailing if you wish to move the keel, otherwise it is locked off. The keel does have a central safety lock pin, for emergency use.

'If we’re around the harbour we’ll keep the engine running just in case we want to cant, says her designer. ' On a long course then you turn it off and there is a start arrangement at the helm. If you push the button to cant it then it starts the engine, gets it to revs and then shuts it all down again. The PLC is doing all of that. It has a number of buttons, it has an option to instantly centre the keel so it will just drop to middle, or you can go tack and the keel will go right through the range of movement or you can move it 5 degrees at a time.'

The keel operates under the control of a PLC – a programmable mini computer – which controls the cant angle of the keel and can reduce shock loadings on the hull that are cause by the keel.

Bakewell-White again: 'The PLC deals with a lot of the shock loading but also there are pressure relief systems in the hydraulics. Part of our workup will be to set those limits for what we think the sailing load will be. The end result will be the likelihood that the keel will drop and we will keep raising the pressure until the boat is sailing and not losing pressure.

'The idea being that if you just crank the pressures up until you know it is never going to relieve itself then if you do fall off a wave or whatever than the shock is being transferred to the boat directly. We figure if the pressure is set to a reasonable level then the keel will actually fall and relieve the boat of some of that load and it just means that you will have to work it back up again.'

An extensive testing programme has resulted in a hull form best described as ‘dinghy like’ and although of moderate beam, is highly form stable to maximize the huge righting moment generated by the 55º cant.

The carbon spars and rigging are being supplied by Matrix Masts using custom tooling developed specifically for this yacht.

A feature is the curved spreaders, the idea is to get a little more roach on the jib – about 80mm down the roach of the headsail, which amounts to a couple of square meters over the length of the leech.

The prodder extends to 2.75m and 'Wired' carries no spinnaker pole. Brett Bakewell-White explains that some consideration was given to taking a spinnaker pole, but 'our experience with Xana was that apart from massive rating gains under IRC we could actually sail as deep or deeper with a prod as with a pole.

'If you look at the boats as big or bigger that are sailing and the wind angles that they are generating you just don’t need it. It simplifies the sailing to just go away from it and have whole bunch of weight and deck gear.

'The sail makers are getting the design of the sails right and the reality is that we are never going to run deep with this boat. The apparent-wind comes forward so rapidly that you can be sailing at 150 degrees and are still sailing with 90 and 45 degree apparent wind angles. So you are really reaching the whole time.'

The sail wardrobe has been developed by Richard Bouzaid of Doyle Sails, Auckland, and draws heavily on his work both with Alinghi and the later stages of the Ericsson VO70 programmes.

With canters, the predicted polars are always interesting and 'Wired' is expected to be particularly impressive.

'At 10 knots of air the boat is sailing at windspeed at most angles,' says Bakewell-White. 'Below that it is exceeding wind speed and obviously you can’t get too near to maximum as you get further up the range. The downwind numbers don’t look hugely impressive straight out of the VPP but we know that VPP is not completely accurate for predicting downwind speed, but it is still up near 20 knots.

The Harken deck package features a full manual winch package with two grinder pedestals, bucking the recent trend towards power winches.

The social side of sailing is very important to the owners and the interior is very comfortable spacious, but still racing orientated. The dramatic interior furnishings are the work of Interior Designer Kim Lilley of Parkhurst Design.

Whilst not designed with regard to any specific rule this new yacht will join the growing New Zealand IRC fleet in time for the opening race of the RNZYS summer series. Then she will embark on an extensive programme in New Zealand and later Australia.

First up will be the Coastal Classic at Labour Weekend. Then it will be the full Squadron series and races like the White Island Race, which has been reintroduced this year; the Round North Island Race, with the Line 8 regatta in Wellington between legs in the RNI. The it is back to Auckland for the IRC Nationals with RNZYS.

After the completion of the season in New Zealand the plan is to go to the Pacific then Australia, Hamilton Island and then the Rolex Trophy in Sydney in 2008.

For a widescreen video of 'Wired' taken at her launch see: www.sailcam.tv

Prinicpal Dimensions:
LOA 15.85m
Bmax 4.15m
Draught 3.30m
Displ. 7.8tonnes
Sail Area 206m2