Archambault - still sexy, but even faster

by Media Services on 30 Apr 2007 Newcastle Yachting is the importer of the Archambault range of yachts and headlines a growing dealership network around Australia.

Sail-World spoke to Newcastle Yachting’s Glenn Coulton about the Archambault range of yachts and how they fit into the growing IRC focussed market.

‘The boats are the sexiest looking boats you’ve ever seen. They look like they’re going a million mile an hour sitting in the dock…They’re a good looking boat.’

‘With the growth of the IRC rule, and its acceptance and use around the world, Archambault have released some new designs to meet the customer’s needs for a good quality IRC yacht.’

‘Production and Custom IRC designs have been proliferate in Europe for many years but the rule’s acceptance in countries like Australia and now the USA and NZ have encouraged more yards to invest in this type of yacht’

As well as the A35, Glenn is confident that the newly developed Archambault A40RC will also emerge as a genuine IRC prospect on the local and international scene.

‘The IRC is a rule that cannot be strictly designed to, designers have however identified what it is that the rule likes and doesn’t like and accordingly have produced well rounded designs, that perform on the race stage as well as offer genuine club race and social sailing capabilities. In general new IRC designs tend to be medium displacement boats that have good interiors, modest rigs and great sailing attributes.’

‘Archambault Yacht’s design team ( the famous French team of Joubert / Nivelt ) produce fast, friendly boats that look good, sail well and the new designs are well favoured by IRC as they tick all the right boxes’

Additionally, Bateaux Archambault themselves are renowned in Europe as a yard that produces high quality yachts. They use advanced moulding and construction techniques but conventional materials.

The Archambault 35 ‘Alegria’ has certainly been performing well in local racing.

The ‘Alegria’ team is headed by Rod Jones, the Queensland Archambault distributor, with a blend of young and experienced Queensland sailors (with Glenn from NY aboard as well). The team is currently leading the Audi IRC Championships.

The first event of the Championship was Skandia Geelong Week. This was followed by the Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta. And next will be the Audi Sydney Gold Coast race in July, then Audi Hamilton Island Race Week in August. Coulton is justifiably proud of the boat’s performance to date.

‘We’ve had two of the four legs, or events in the IRC Championship. The first leg was Geelong Skandia Week…There were two IRC Divisions... We won our division.’

‘The next leg was Audi Sydney Harbour Regatta, from Middle Harbour Yacht Club. Here we were in Division 4, the smaller boat division.’

‘We also won that event. We won every race in that event.’

Sail-World asked how he thought Alegria would perform in the upcoming Sydney to Gold Coast race.

‘I think it should perform well. It’s a different type of racing. Obviously it’s a passage race and the first two events were predominantly windward/leeward courses. The boat is a good all round boat. It doesn’t really have an Achilles heel. It sails well upwind, well downwind. It’s an easy boat to keep going fast’

He acknowledges that the boat may face stiff challenges on this leg from boats designed or adapted to preform particularly well on certain points of sail.

‘I guess the only danger could be if there’s specialist boats, say for argument sake, downwind boats in the event. However the boats recent 6th overall in the Brisbane to Gladstone Race bodes well for the A35’s ability to mix it in a race where specialist conditions prevail’

The Gladstone was sailed in reasonably hard downwind conditions and the winner in IRC was Saltash II (for the 8th time), Ichi Ban, Quantum and Wot Yot also featured in the top five.

‘Obviously a specialist boat, if it’s a one leg event in terms of all downwind or all upwind, could do better.’

‘The boat is rated very well under IRC. Providing there is a mix of conditions in any event, it’s always going to be in the mix.’

Archambault’s performance on the European racing circuit is notable. At the Spi Ouest Regatta, which was held a short time ago, the A35 finished first, second and third in IRC division two. This repeated last years Spi Ouest results. The French regatta attracted a fleet of about 500 vessels.

Additionally the A35 has won its division in the Commodores Cup in 2006 and also the Tour de Finisterre. Locally the A35 ‘Newcastle Yachting’ (sailed by the Alegria team) won the 2007 Queensland IRC championships. The A35 has also won IRC regattas in Dubai in 2007.

The new A40RC managed a creditable sixth overall in IRC division one of this years Spi Ouest, this boat was launched only hours before the first race

Sail-World asked when the first of the new A40RCs would be arriving in Australia.

‘We can’t get one of those boats until late December.’ Coulton agreed that this would be a very nice Christmas present for some lucky skipper. He said that the new model had retained the low profile deck, large cockpit and sleek lines of its predecessor.

‘The original A40 was designed back in 2002. It was more of an IMS type but with no real rule in its sights. It was a boat that was designed to sail well and fast and that it does. The world hadn’t yet embraced IRC. It was still very much in its infancy then. But now that most countries are adopting it, they have this ethos of designing their boats to do well around the IRC rule.’

‘The new A40RC shares many visual features with the current A40, but the hull form is obviously different and is more akin to the A35 - with the new A40RC they’ve targeted its rating so that it will have an IRC TCC in the 1.090 to 1.099 band depending on rig , sails and weight. The current A40 design rates in the band between 1.092 and 1.22, again depending on factors such as rig, sails and weight.’

‘So it’s a better rating boat and it testing shows it’s physically a bit quicker. It’s a better optimised boat for the IRC circuit. The current A40 will also stay in production as it’s a boat that is well received in Europe for its sailing attributes.’

Coulton observed that the majority of his clients were people who took their racing seriously and wanted to be competitive both at a club level and at more high profile events.

‘The typical person that we’re selling to is a person who races week in week out at their local yacht club. And that also wants to venture a little bit further afield and do some of these regattas outside of their club environment.’

‘They want to pit themselves against other and better competition. And do the things like the Hamilton Island Race Week and the Audi circuit.’

Like any sport, if you change any aspect of the rules, or interpretation of rules, this affects the whole culture of the game.

‘A lot of yacht clubs now are starting to embrace an IRC result within their arbitrary handicap system. And so that’s what a lot of buyers seem to be looking for. As well as having a boat they can still go and do a little bit of day sailing and cruising on when they’re not racing.’

Archambault decks are resin injected: there is a male and a female mould, the deck’s core is laid in between the walls of the mould, then resin is injected into the mould under pressure. One of the benefits of injecting resin under pressure is that it creates a smooth surface.

‘There’s no headliner in the boat, which means you get a stronger, lighter deck and it’s a lower profile deck too. It’s not as thick between the top and the inside because there is no headliner unlike a conventionally constructed deck. This means that you can keep the profile of the boat low. This is obviously good for racing and good for windage…’

The hull is foam cored from the waterline up and solid GRP be