Fast? This is fast.

by Helen Hopcroft on 2 May 2007 When the carbon fibre Sports 8 boat ‘Vivace’ burst on to the Australian racing scene, crews quickly got sick of looking at the boat’s transom. She was fast. Very fast. Now Pierre Gal has teamed up with Bethwaite and Billoch Design, David Lyons and Sydney Yachting Centre to build a production version of the boat. Sail-World spoke to Pierre Gal about the slow work of making a fast boat.

‘…At the beginning I went to see Bethwaite and asked him to design me a sports boat. And basically this is my sports boat so I knew exactly what I wanted…We basically designed it together. And we came up with Vivace.’

‘That was a big breakthrough in the way of sports boats. It was clearly way quicker than everything else. And because that was so successful we decided to make a mould out of it. That’s when I went into partnership with Geoff Pearson. I wanted to produce these boats.’

Geoff Pearson from Sydney Yachting Centre explained how they turned the Vivace mould into a production sports boat.

‘What we have done is take a fast fun state of the art, unlimited budget sports boat and put it into a production package to make it possible for people all around the world to share the thrill of speed.’

Whereas Vivace was an all carbon construction, the hull of the production version is constructed from vinyl ester foam core. They have also introduced a canting keel to help build up the speed taken away by the heavier hull.

‘We now have a production boat that is twice as strong as and therefore heavier than Vivace. This was a one off carbon fibre boat. So it is still hard to beat Vivace because Vivace is a one off’ said Gal.

‘But the canting keel works extremely well and compensates for the extra weight.’

Gal is an America’s cup sailor with a successful background in sports boat racing.

He has continued to ‘tweak’ the production design to get every speed advantage he can out of it. Like many creative people, it’s obvious that he is not happy until things are as close to perfect as they can possibly get.

The team has been making alterations to both sails and rig.

‘With the rig we’ve been playing with the spreader angle. And also with the spreader length also. We basically re designed the rig from what it was. It’s now a lot safer. And works a lot better, so we can push the boat harder. It’s all good.’

The spreaders are elongated and now point more towards the stern. The sail plan has also changed.

‘…Being a sail maker I always play with the sails. I actually ended up putting a square header on the main. And that seems to be really quick too.’

Gal explained that changing the sails and spreaders allowed the rig to flex more when being sailed to windward. As a result, the rig is easier to de-power and this happens earlier than previously.

With about 30 square metres of mainsail sitting on top of 8 metres of hull, there is always going to be a fine line between going like a rocket and becoming dangerously overpowered.
.

The rig changes mean that whereas Vivace was comfortable with a crew of six, the production series can be sailed with just four people on board.

‘By sweeping the spreaders back, upwind the rig lays off more. So it gives me more twist. By adding the square head I’m also adding more twist.’

‘The whole thing generates a lot of twist therefore de-powers a lot earlier than before. And that seems to work really well.’

‘What’s happened in terms of speed is the rig downwind is a lot safer. Therefore by being safer you can keep pushing. So you push harder.’

‘It takes time to fine tune a boat and this boat is small but it’s still very ‘up there’. It’s high tech. And it took a little bit longer than what I thought to get her going quickly, but I think we’re basically there now.’


Geoff Pearson agrees

‘We have done a few little rig changes, tweaked it a little here and there but pretty much everything else is staying at is.’

Pearson is pleased with how the production version has been preforming out on the race circuit.

‘As you know Pierre Gal won the Audi regatta, two firsts and a third over the line...That was very pleasing.’

‘We managed to beat the very well sailed Thompson Seven, which was a pretty good effort we think because in the past he’s been pretty unbeatable on handicap.’


Contact details

Address :
Sydney Yachting Centre
Middle Harbour Yacht Club
The Spit
Sydney
NSW 2088
Australia
Phone : 02 99692144
Fax : 02 9969 4191
Email : sales@sydneyyachtingcentre.com.au

http://www.sydneyyachtingcentre.com.au
http://www.sports8.com.au