Happy chappy… Ian Lipinski dominated the Class40 for two years with his first scow, Crédit Mutuel 1, then once the performance of his ‘novel’ design became obvious the rest of the fleet rushed to follow designer David Raison’s lead and eventually improve on it; remarkably, following the launch of No 158, every single Class40 launched has been a scow. No157 now - and probably for ever - holding the distinction of being the last ever ‘pointy-nose’ Class40.

Winner of the Globe40 that concluded in April, the latest David Raison-designed Crédit Mutuel 2 Class40 proved as reliable as it was obviously fast in the expert hands of Ian Lipinski, Amélie Grassi and Antoine Carpentier.

A clear evolution of Lipinski’s previous boat, No 158, which had first introduced a then rather daring scow bow to the Class40, the current racer (No 202) has been conceived with a focus on medium conditions, while her predecessor excelled in stronger winds. Talking to Gurit engineers Paolo Manganelli and Nicolas Poidevin reveals just how big a step has also been made in terms of structural engineering for this latest Raison machine.

As skipper Ian Lipinski puts it, ‘The hull shape has changed and offers more power, with notably more beam towards the bow. What is also obvious are the tall side panels protecting the cockpit. But it is inside that we have developed the most important feature: an all new longitudinal structural layout to enhance global rigidity.’

Collaboration between scow pioneer David Raison and Gurit had already started, albeit with a lighter touch, for Crédit Mutuel 1; now there was a deliberate intention to deepen the relationship for the second boat. ‘We were already super happy with the first collaboration, working for Ian Lipinski,’ says Manganelli.

‘When he decided to build CM2, Ian had a bit more budget and asked us if we would consider being more involved in the design, working more closely with David.’

The brief was ‘push hard in all areas’. Much new work has been done on the rig and CM2 also has more advanced lifting rudders. In development terms the team were going to leave no stone unturned.

Gurit’s biggest contribution to this was to table the idea of a novel longitudinal structure: ‘It may not sound like much to write home about,’ says Manganelli, ‘but examining the solution in detail reveals critical nuances and significant gains.’

The team started from the observation that Class40s are getting wider towards the front as well as flatter. Added to this, one of David Raison’s signature features is coachroofs that tend to extend further and further towards the bow. ‘And this set us thinking…’ continues Manganelli.

‘As Class40 rules forbid carbon we’re always fighting to gain longitudinal stiffness, key to keeping sufficient forestay tension. Our idea was to make greater use of that distinctive coachroof by turning it into an integral part of the structure, to end up with a “thicker” boat essentially.’

To really grasp the idea, one has to do two things: first, picture the boat’s profile, looking at it side on. Second, consider the boat as a beam whose stiffness is directly dependent on its thickness (ie its depth from coachroof top to hull bottom).

Now allow me to add another image: the hull is essentially like a crossbow, flexing at its extremities under the tension of forestay and backstay, the top of the mast figuratively being the finger of the bowman. Now, on a boat whose coachroof is not integral to the structure but rather added to it, the effective thickness is measured (still looking at the boat’s profile) from the hull bottom to the side deck. But in the case of Crédit Mutuel 2, it goes from the hull bottom to the top of the coachroof - this is why Manganelli talks about a “thicker” boat.

Going back to the beam analogy… things become obvious: the thicker, the stiffer. Now the roof connects to the internal structure below, extending all the way aft to the runner anchors (Figure 1).

‘This is where we then needed to look at the adoption of longitudinal bulkheads,’ continues Manganelli. ‘Theoretically the wider you go at deck level the stiffer the boat… yet, due to shear lag (the non-uniform distribution of stress in the flange of a beam), the further you move from the topsides the less efficient the added material becomes. One solution would then be to go heavier on the exterior contours of the “box” (hull shell) and maybe also add material to the side deck…’

‘At the same time,’ chimes in Nicolas Poidevin, ‘the coachroof is usually considered non-effective and so is ignored when calculating a yacht’s overall stiffness.

‘That’s where the new Crédit Mutuel is quite different, since the coachroof’s longitudinal elements extend under the deck to connect to full height longitudinal bulkheads. So now we’re moving the side panels (the outer portions of the box, the “shear webs” in structural jargon) in towards the centre of the boat (Figure 2).

‘This brings another advantage, which is to provide a more efficient support for the hull bottom structure - all the more important because these boats are now so wide and so more prone to slamming.’

‘In a traditional structure,’ says Manganelli, ‘ringframes and bulkheads will span laterally from topside to topside.

‘But by introducing deep longitudinal bulkheads you drastically reduce the unsupported span of the ringframes which can therefore be lighter. The gain is most notable around the keel box area, as well as where you are resolving mast compression: instead of unsupported transverse elements that span the width of the boat, we now have a strong x-shaped structure.’

In terms of weight, the added mass of the longitudinals is offset by gains in the ringframes, which allows CM2 to still hit Class40 minimum weight (4,500kg). ‘And today this is less and less easy to achieve,’ adds Manganelli, ‘because as the boats become wider the surface area increases, which means more weight of material.

‘The temptation is to reduce grammes per square metre but then you pay a price in stiffness - a problem we avoided by rethinking our structure. Of course it wasn’t that straightforward, because now David had to adapt his roof design which brought additional complexity!

‘We also needed to make sure Ian was onside too, since freedom of movement below is clearly reduced.’

Both parties were enthusiastic about the idea, but first a full-scale mock-up was created as a precautionary step. This soon validated the idea as it immediately felt ‘liveable’.

The first sea trials also revealed another unexpected advantage to the longitudinal structure, for life onboard, Ian finding it rather reassuring to have something to lean against or limit a fall, bearing in mind these boats operate at greater heel angles than, say, the Imocas with their canting keels (forbidden in the Class40); heel angles of around 30° being common for a modern Class40.

Next the openings in the shell were factored in and dimensioned according to the size of the sails, to ensure stacking remains as trouble-free as possible. ‘We’re talking today about all these innovations, but they are all driven by Ian’s enormous experience of winning big races,’ explains Manganelli, ‘which is different from presenting untested concepts - now we can honestly say these are not theoretical gains.

‘During the Globe40 Ian felt he could really push the boat hard and remain confident, and he partially attributes his victory to this peace of mind.’ While other contestants suffered structural damage no major issues were reported on Crédit Mutuel 2. David Raison, for his part, has already said that, should there be another boat at some point, he’d embrace this new structural approach from the outset.

However, both Manganelli and Poidevin are very open about the fact that the principle behind this approach is really nothing new, and already widely understood. The reason its application remains limited is primarily because it is only fully relevant for these very wide boat types.

But the design evolution, towards flatter and beamier forward sections, makes it so logical that we will certainly see more longitudinal bulkheads in the future. ‘We have considered applying the idea to Imocas, but the benefits are not as obvious; the Imoca coachroof is set back aft and proportionally smaller compared with a Class40, plus the skippers we approached did not seem very keen…’ says Poidevin.

‘We could gain a bit in terms of shear lag, by adding structure in the middle, but not in terms of overall “thickness”, since the Imoca coachroofs are not only small but they also do not extend forward.

‘When it comes to ergonomics, our solution also constrains movements in the cockpit somewhat, since the sides of the coachroof are quite high where they meet the deck and go through to connect with the “inside walls”. The sides also had to be extended aft for the runner attachments, which changes the circulation for the skipper in and out of the cockpit.’

But on CM2 that aft extension contributes to giving the boat, viewed sideways, a nice convex shape on the top, precisely what is needed for optimal flex resistance - where the maximum ‘beam’ thickness needs to be close to amidships.

To return to the crude construction beam, if one was to design it optimally instead of sticking to the off-the-shelf rectangular section, a typical beam would end up tapered towards the ends. (This doubletaper shape is often seen on bridges.) ‘And the double taper is a staple of structural engineering vernacular,’ says Manganelli.

CHRISTOPHE BRESCHI
The interior of Crédit Mutuel 1 may be more spacious without CM2’s full-height longitudinals, but this boat cannot carry the headstay loads of its successor.

For the boat’s builders, compared to a traditional structure, the team at Gepeto (who built the hull) had to deal with quite complex intersections between transverse and longitudinal elements - an unusual set-up. Poidevin notes that the longitudinal bulkheads were placed first, and the crossbeams were then built in three parts to fit between and on either side of these.

The deck and coachroof combo was crafted by MerConcept, who did a textbook job in terms of resin infusion, much to the Gurit team’s pleasure. ‘The overall build quality of the whole boat is superb,’ says Manganelli. ‘All involved delivered a level of quality that is superior to anything I’ve seen before on a Class40.’

But 158 still did to the Class40 what Raison’s Mini Transat winner TeamWork previously did to the Mini class. Truly an extraordinarily influential designer.

An interesting lesson, again perhaps unexpected, is that the extra global stiffness is enough to require more delicate tuning of the standing rigging; it initially proved difficult to generate forestay sag in light conditions because the hull cannot be counted on to provide flexibility. ‘But perhaps this is actually a good outcome in so far as it encourages us to put less tension in the rig to begin with?’ muses Poidevin.

These new questions are interesting for designers and engineers alike, as new possibilities emerge to make gains where it previously wasn’t an option. ‘Due to this unusual arrangement,’ interjects Manganelli, ‘we also found ourselves able to suggest subtracting material from other zones including the keel and mast areas…

‘However, that led to raised eyebrows from both David and Ian - these are sacrosanct zones considered paramount for reliability and safety. So in the end, crossing that psychological red line was never an option. Still…’

But the point remains that having the possibility to go lighter forces us to think creatively (but still inside the box - not metaphorically): what can be saved somewhere can either be done away with completely, or reinvested as reinforcement somewhere else.

‘Certainly, as part of the initial brief, we also set ourselves the task of addressing slamming, which was becoming a real concern with the previous generation of boats, hitting the limits of their robustness due to higher speeds, fiercer impacts and the flatter bow sections. So some of the weight gains were deliberately reinvested to increase volume and density of core material,’ Manganelli explains.

‘We already touched upon the trust that Ian had in the boat, but for us it’s a great source of pride… and also of peace of mind, as we can’t help but worry when our boats are at sea. Ian sent us a nice message just after finishing the Globe40, saying “Not the tiniest of worries after all these miles in some difficult sea states, the boat really inspires confidence”.’

Arguably the best compliment the engineering team could get, together with a level of high performance that speaks for itself.

Jocelyn Blériot

More on Gurit

The new Swan 80 is a pivotal yacht in several ways. It’s positioned as both the flagship of the Classic Swan range and the entry-level Maxi Swan model. It’s a brand new hull, developed from the Swan 78, but takes its styling cues and deck design from the recently launched Maxi Swan 108.

In practical terms the new Swan 80 looks, feels and functions like a maxi in all ways but one. The hull length is barely a centimetre below 24 metres, avoiding the constraints of EC superyacht regulations, and thus allowed to anchor close to shore in the Mediterranean.

It’s also a pivotal yacht in the sense that this model completes a remarkably long running and successful evolution of Swan yachts designed by Germán Frers, which has been ongoing since 1981. The Nautor shipyard has a wealth of experience, both historic and recent, of building sailing yachts in this size and style.

Heritage

The early Swans of around 80ft LOA were maxi ocean racers, which differed from most of their rivals by having exceptionally well-designed and built living quarters for both owners and crew. Over the next three decades they gradually evolved into racer-cruisers, then cruiser-racers, while managing to steadily improve their sailing performance even as the levels of onboard comfort, luxury and refinement increased. The new generation of both Classic Swans and Maxi Swans are conceived, designed and built primarily as performance cruisers but the racing aspect of their heritage is still apparent in their hull shapes and sail area : displacement ratios. Big Swans are still keenly raced and competitive in major regattas, square-top sail plans and race-spec sailing hardware are popular options, and the cockpit furniture can be removable to allow a transition between cruising and racing modes.

Design

The conceptual phase of creating the new Swan 80 began in 2023, when Germán Frers was commissioned to design a replacement for the Swan 78. That was a notably successful model with 10 built since 2016, all of which are true sister ships – it says a lot about the quality of the design that none of the owners requested any modifications.

The new 80 has a significantly different hull shape from her forebears, with maximum beam carried further aft and a wider transom. Powerful aft sections provide a lot more form stability when immersed at a moderate heel angle, as well as giving a more spacious interior. A narrow waterplane when the boat is upright ensures low wetted area and thus good boatspeed in the lightest of winds.

That much is in line with current design trends for both racing and performance cruising yachts.

The bow profile, however, is different. ‘We wanted to preserve the boat’s gentle motion at sea,’ Nautor’s Swan 80 project manager Kim Sundkvist explains. ‘To avoid it slamming when sailing upwind like an outright racer, the forward sections are rounder and softer in shape.’

The deck design makes it clear that the new Swan 80 is part of the Maxi Swan range. The shape, styling and ergonomics of the deck and cockpit are by Lucio Micheletti, who designed cars for Zagato before moving into yacht design. The technical and functional aspects of the deck plan are by Germán Frers.

Below decks, the general arrangement is developed from the layout of the Swan 78, which has proven to be excellent in 10 years of use on the water by owners, crews and charter guests. Significant improvements were made possible by, among other things, the extra hull volume in the aft quarters of the new hull. Styling is by Nautor Swan’s go-to interior designer, Misa Poggi.

Construction

Frers delivered the hull lines to Nautor in April 2024. The structural engineering was done in house before the build team started work on the plug, then made the female mould.

The foam-cored composite hull is a glassfibre, epoxy and Corecell laminate reinforced and stiffened with generous, strategic use of unidirectional carbon fibre. This is the largest new-generation Swan with an e-glass hull, its larger sisters having full carbon hulls. The Swan 80’s deck and most of its load-bearing internal structures are full carbon composite, further strengthened with wide bands of unidirectional carbon.

On a boat of this size decisions about the use of carbon fibre or glassfibre are a balancing act, Sundqkist explains, and here Nautor’s great depth of experience comes into play. ‘As with all areas of the boat, attention to detail is something we take a lot of pride in,’ he says, ‘because that’s where quality is perceived in the end. Carbon is of course very light, very stiff but also transmits noise more easily. When we use carbon we also need to add more sound insulation, for example.’

Several keel options are offered. The standard one, with 4m draught, is a lead bulb on a fixed, high-aspect steel fin, bolted to an internal matrix that’s bonded into the hull for strength and stiffness. A 3.5m shoal draught keel is available, or alternatively a telescopic lifting keel can be fitted. This reduces the boat’s draught from 4.3m to 2.5m without any intrusion into the living space of the interior. The lifting keel mechanism retracts into the engine room, beneath the sole of the saloon, and Sundkvist says it doesn’t impose any constraints on an owner’s choice of engine or equipment options.

The Swan 80 has twin rudders, like the rest of Nautor’s current fleet. Here, two Swan signature design features hint at the overall quality of design, engineering and build. The rudder blades have sacrificial tips, designed to leave the boat with adequate steerage if they break off in a collision with an underwater obstruction like a shipping container. And their stocks are housed aft of a watertight bulkhead that prevents any ingress of water even in the event of serious damage.

On Deck

Micheletti’s sculpted curves give the Swan 80 a fresh, contemporary look that hints at her performance potential and works well with the subtle sheer that is a distinctive hallmark of hull lines drawn by Germán Frers. The foredeck is flush and the rise of the cabin top is neatly concealed with a teak finish, which matches the decks, on the lower half of the cockpit coamings as well as the coachroof.

The cockpit flares out at the transition from passenger seating to sail-trimming area, where two large Harken winches on each coaming handle the halyards and the sheets of headsails and offwind sails. Another big Harken drum on the centreline takes the mainsheet. The sail handling systems are all hydraulic, not electric, with oil pressure running at 250 bar. The deck layout and sailing systems are designed for routine operation by a professional crew of two, ‘but it’s a size of boat where the owners often like to participate,’ Sundkvist says. ‘So it’s designed for that too.’

Note the flared working cockpit, the outboard helm positions for a clear view forward, and the discreet crew companionway between the wheels

Further aft, it’s a step down to the twin helm pedestals, which are set quite far outboard to give an excellent view of sail trim and an unobstructed view forward outside the passenger cockpit. ‘It’s definitely more comfortable at the helm,’ Sundkvist says. ‘We have managed to get the coamings at a very good seating height.’

Between the twin wheels on the aft deck is an almost invisible crew companionway, and the general impression on deck is made neater and cleaner by mounting some of the fine-tuning sail and rig control systems below deck. The hydraulic backstay tensioners are in the lazarette, for example and the headsail car pullers are driven by cylinders under the side decks. The sprayhood and its frame are also out of sight in an almost invisible coachroof hatch until they’re deployed.

The design of the transom garage and stern platform derives from the Maxi Swan 88. ‘A 3.6m tender fits inside and stows athwartships,’ Sundkvist says. ‘We have an improved system for rotating the tender as you bring it in.’ A key Maxi Swan feature is the option for a double-folding transom that creates a large, sea-level beach club area when the yacht is anchored.

Down below

The electrically operated sliding glass of the yacht’s main companionway is a signature feature of the new generation Maxi Swan range. It’s a grand entrance to the saloon, with the practical benefit of also being a very large skylight. With another skylight hatch in the coachroof and large windows at two levels on both sides, the saloon is impressively bright.

Misa Poggi’s design concepts for the Swan 80’s interior have evolved towards softer, more organic lines, creating living spaces that feel warmer and more fluid while preserving the refined elegance that defines Maxi Swan’s distinctive style

Misa Poggi has developed four interior design concepts and there’s a wide range of layout options. In this latest project, her design language evolves towards softer, more organic lines, creating interiors that feel warmer and more fluid while preserving the refined elegance that defines the Maxi Swan aesthetic.

‘As this is a maxi, we’re very open to owners’ requests for customisation,’ says Sundkvist. ‘One improvement made possible by the new hull shape is the option of fitting one of the aft cabins with a double bed. On our previous yachts of this size, the aft cabins were configured exclusively with twin beds.’

Two standard layout arrangements have already been designed, one with four guest cabins, the other with three. Both of these have the master suite in the bow, and each cabin has its own private en suite heads and shower. In the threecabin version, the starboard-side forward guest cabin becomes a study or lower saloon. The crew area is aft, including the nav station and galley. One of the aft guest cabins is designed as a flex cabin which allows up to five crew to be carried separately from the owner and guests.

One stand-out feature of Nautor’s hotel system design, which isn’t yet widely known, is forced ventilation throughout the interior. ‘It works very well and keeps our boats much fresher inside,’ Sundkvist says. ‘The smaller yachts have forced extraction, the bigger ones and especially maxis also have forced ventilation with fans strategically located and fresh air coming in through concealed grilles and vents.’

The first Swan 80 is due for delivery around the time this issue of Seahorse hits the newsstands. She will make her boat show début at the Cannes Yachting Festival before joining the rest of the Swan fleet on the Costa Smeralda for Nautor shipyard’s 60th Anniversary celebrations at the Rolex Swan Cup, from 13 to 19 September.

More on Nautor Swan

The latest expression of Balance Catamarans’ thinking is the new 14.2m (46.6ft) Balance 464. Exactly where that balance lies depends on the owner.

‘Some of our customers are more performance-skewed and some lean more towards comfort,’ says CEO and founder Phil Berman. ‘But we’re always trying to provide a boat with good payload, comfort and storage while achieving the best performance possible.’

On yachts of 50ft and above, improved performance often comes naturally through longer waterlines and greater sail area. Designing a genuinely high-performance cruising catamaran in the 45ft range, however, presents a different challenge.

‘It becomes difficult because everybody wants the same equipment they’d expect on a 50ft or 54ft boat,’ Berman explains. ‘Two fridges, two freezers, a watermaker, solar panels – all of it adds weight.’

Balance has been systematically redesigning its 13.5-23.2m (44-76ft) range, drawing on in-house experience, input from du Toit Yacht Design and feedback from its owner community. When it came to replacing the 13.5m (44.3ft) Balance 442 – the company’s entry-level model, which has sold 30 examples since 2021 – the objectives were clear.

‘We knew we could improve in a lot of areas,’ says Berman. ‘If we made the boat a little longer, built it lighter and increased the sail area, we could move closer to a true high-performance cruiser without sacrificing the comfort our owners expect. That was the fundamental design brief.’

The longer platform would also carry the new Integrel E drives – hybrid motoralternators that attach to the back of the Yanmar engines – which add weight aft.

‘So we needed a boat that was a little longer, a bit wider and could carry more payload in the back,’ Berman says.

Balance had already experimented with increasing the amount of carbon used in its boats, alongside full glassfibre and vinylester resin construction.

‘We were pleasantly surprised by the amount of weight we could remove,’ Berman recalls. ‘So Mark said, “Why don’t we do the entire boat with a carbon substructure?”’

‘There is substantially more carbon in the 464 than even some of the larger models originally had,’ says Mark Delany, owner and director of the Cape Town yard. ‘With the additional length, the hybrid propulsion system and a larger lithium battery system – 36kW at 48V – we wanted to pull as much weight out of the boat as we could.’

Previous custom-build experience had shown Balance that carbon hulls brought drawbacks. They tended to be noisier at sea and raised concerns around conductivity and corrosion.

‘So the exterior shell of the boat is made from E-glass and full vinylester,’ Delany explains. ‘The interior structure, saloon tray, bulkheads, floorboards, daggerboards, trunks and appendages are all carbon. You get a substantial weight saving in the 464, probably 750-800kg. It delivers the stiffness benefits of carbon construction without the negatives that can come with carbon hulls.’

For performance-minded owners, the advantages are obvious. ‘The more performance-oriented people ask, “What can you do to make my boat faster? How much will it cost to make it faster?”’ says Berman. ‘The carbon structure, although expensive, is the best way to save a substantial amount of weight’.

Balance has also increased sail area on the 464, from 112m² on the 442 to 124m². ‘The forebeam sits below the longeron, and there are stays that come down from it, so the pelican striker is less than a foot tall,’ Berman explains. ‘That allowed us to push the forestay forward by about a foot. We’ve significantly increased the area of the selftacking jib and enlarged the mainsail slightly, so she’s lighter than the 442, longer and carrying more sail area. In every respect, her performance has been enhanced.’

What does that mean on the water? The 464’s polars indicate speeds of 6-8kts upwind at 40° TWA in 10-14kts TWS, increasing to 8.5-12kts on a beam reach in the same conditions. Off the wind, the yacht is capable of reaching 20kts at 120-130° TWA in 25kts TWS.

Those numbers aren’t simply about excitement; they’re tailored to the way Balance owners actually cruise.

‘Some people use their boats in the Caribbean for six or seven months a year and haul them out for hurricane season,’ says Berman.’ Those living aboard are either sailing in the Mediterranean or spending summers in New England or Chesapeake Bay. They want a boat that can comfortably handle a 1,200-mile trip to the Caribbean and back and still make respectable progress to windward.

‘On a typical production catamaran with keels, once the wind moves forward of the beam, you’re often not sailing much better than 60 degrees to the true wind. When your VMG drops to three knots or less, people start motoring. Balance Catamaran owners don’t want to motor – they want to sail.’ With the performance box ticked, Balance has also introduced a number of practical refinements. The hull windows have been slightly recessed to add visual interest and the cockpit benefits from having a wider helm seat.

Like all Balance Cats, this yacht has the VersaHelm system: a wheel that flips up or down to allow steering either from the cockpit or from the elevated helm position where the sail controls are located. But the 464 also debuts the VersaStern, which eliminates the need to find storage space for washboards. When not secured in place to keep following seas out and crew in, it folds neatly onto the engine access hatch, sitting flush with the deck. ‘The side benefit,’ Berman notes, ‘is that when the door is down, it really muffles the sound of the engines.’

The interior receives the same upgrades seen across the wider Balance range, including Italian-style frameless cabinetry built using cored panels and offered with a choice of five real-wood veneer and fabric combinations.

‘We think our boats are more luxurious in finish than our competitors’, says Berman. ‘They’re every bit the quality of the finest monohulls. The furniture is handmade and the materials and finishes are very upscale.’

‘It’s one of the things we’re proudest of at Balance,’ Delany adds.

Recognising that most owners prefer to dine outdoors, the saloon has also been reconfigured. Lower-profile settees and a coffee table replace the traditional dining arrangement. ‘You’re sitting in a living room to watch TV or read a book,’ says Berman. ‘Aesthetically, it feels more relaxed and elegant.’

As ever with catamarans, ventilation remains a priority and two developments being rolled out across the Balance range give the 464 a notable advantage. For the forward cabins, Balance has introduced ports that open into draining lockers located just aft of the trampoline.

‘At anchor, those hatches can be locked open’ says Delany. ‘That feeds air into the cabin, even in the rain, giving you fresh airflow even when you’re not running the air conditioning.’

The saloon of the new Balance 464 benefits from similarly thoughtful design. ‘We’ve gone for much larger opening flush hatches on the forward windows,’ Delany explains, ‘as well as in the coachroof, so we’ve almost doubled the available openings to bring more fresh air into the saloon.’

Accommodating the largest central hatch required a substantial structural redesign.

‘We had to redesign all the mullions,’ Delany says. ‘Quite a lot of structure goes into keeping that opening possible but, even with the mast in place, the whole saloon area feels much more open.’

The changes in the saloon have also delivered improvements in visibility – a longstanding priority for Balance.

‘We brought the windows down as far as we could towards deck level because visibility has always been central to the Balance philosophy,’ says Berman. ‘You’re piloting these boats through the windows in inclement weather, so we’re always trying to improve sight lines. From inside, I think the visibility on this boat is the best I’ve ever seen on any catamaran.”

Another first for the Balance 464 is the inclusion of hybrid propulsion as standard. The Integrel E drives, which are disc-like alternator motors mounted between the 45hp Yanmar engines and their gearboxes, enable fossil-fuel-free close-quarters manoeuvring while also delivering substantial charging capability.

‘If you’re at anchor and charging at 1,500rpm, you’re getting 15kW from one engine,’ Berman says. ‘With E Power, Integrel’s belt-driven alternator, you’re getting about 7-7.5kW. If you’ve got two E Drives running at 1,500rpm, each charging at 15kW, it doesn’t take very long to top off these batteries. That’s the fastest charging rate I know of in the industry.’

‘If you start your engines and you’re moving off from an anchorage, within an hour you’ve got a full battery bank,’ Delany adds. ‘Combined with 3kW of solar, if you’re using the boat efficiently, you’ve got a vessel that’s semi-off-grid.’

Following a complete coachroof redesign, up to five glass solar panels now sit recessed and flush with the surrounding surfaces, with an air gap beneath them to improve their cooling efficiency.

Buyers seeking a lower entry price can opt for Integrel’s E Power system instead of the standard E Drive setup, reducing the high-spec base price of $1,391,358 by approximately $55,000.

Accommodation is arranged across three cabins. The owner’s hull to starboard features a forward double berth with heads and shower aft, while the port hull contains two double cabins sharing a bathroom.

There are currently no plans for a four-cabin version. ‘To be honest, we’re seeing more interest in having fewer cabins,’ says Delany. ‘In fact, we’ve just completed a port hull that is configured as a second owner’s suite.’

‘The convertible office in the aft port cabin is a very popular option,’ adds Berman. ‘You have a queen size berth, but you can slide it away and create a really useful workspace.’

Prospective owners won’t have to wait long to see the new model on the water. ‘We already have 10 of them in build,’ says Delany. ‘The North American boats will appear at spring boat shows such as Miami, while in the Mediterranean there should be one at La Grande Motte early next year.’

For many Balance owners, however, the experience begins long before delivery.

‘I’d say 90 per cent of our customers really enjoy the build process,’ Delany concludes. ‘They come to South Africa, go on safari, drink good wine, and then there’s the bucket-list experience of crossing an ocean on your maiden voyage – something most of them have never done before. That’s a big part of what makes owning a Balance Cat special.’

More on Balance Catamarans

High-octane chases, aggressive close-quarters manoeuvres and long days exposed to relentless sun, wind and waves: the modern chase boat has become one of the hardest-working assets in a race team’s inventory.

For more than 30 years, Protector Boats has been designing and building high-performance support craft for some of the world’s most demanding marine operations. Today, its boats are widely used throughout elite yacht racing, including the America’s Cup, AC40 and SailGP fleets, where reliability, adaptability and performance are critical.

With yachts racing at ever-faster pace and in an increasingly technical sphere, the demands placed on support craft are evolving just as rapidly. Whether providing an operations centre for coaches and analysts, a platform for media teams capturing content, a hospitality vessel for sponsors and guests, a safety boat, or a transport solution for crew, sails and spares, modern chase boats are expected to fulfil multiple roles simultaneously.

For race teams competing at the highest level, having a reliable, adaptable and efficient chase boat is no longer a luxury; it is fundamental to enabling support crews to perform at their best and, ultimately, to enhancing overall team performance.

Protector Boats has used its decades of experience to shape a new era of support boat design. Through its Targa and Chase series, the New Zealand manufacturer offers two fully customisable ranges of hard- and soft-top 25-41ft RIBs, available in Europe through PB Europe, a subsidiary of the Ancasta Group.

Throughout the range, performance is a given. Equipped with twin or triple engines producing up to 1,350hp, Protector RIBs are capable of matching the pace of the world’s fastest racing yachts. Yet outright speed is only part of the equation. What distinguishes an effective chase boat from a merely fast one is its ability to operate safely and comfortably over long periods, while being easy to handle in demanding conditions. Engineered for stability with robust deep-V hulls, Protector RIBs are designed to excel wherever race support is required.

According to Ian ‘Andy’ Andrews, brand manager for PB Europe, these qualities, combined with the ability to tailor each vessel to a team’s precise requirements, are what set Protector apart.

Drawing on more than two decades in the Royal Navy, alongside extensive experience managing marine operations and equipment projects across Africa and the Middle East, Andrews brings a practical understanding of what professional teams need from a working platform.

Race teams account for the majority of Protector’s Targa and Chase customer base, and Andrews estimates that around 80 per cent of his time is spent on the water working directly with clients, identifying opportunities for bespoke design innovation.

‘The chase boat is really an extension of the race yacht,’ Andrews explains. ‘The more seamlessly it integrates into the team’s operation, the more effective that team can be.’

Working closely with race teams’ support crews allows Andrews to understand how each team operates and where bespoke design solutions can improve workflow, safety and usability.

Liaising with Protector’s design and engineering teams in New Zealand, he helps tailor each vessel to its intended role. Regular discussions with clients, often supported by hand-drawn sketches and visual concepts, allow new ideas to be explored and refined before production begins. Once a finished boat arrives in Europe, Andrews personally oversees its commissioning to ensure every detail performs exactly as intended. The result is a support boat designed around functionality rather than compromise.

As chase boats are increasingly expected to perform multiple roles, the ability to reconfigure quickly between functions has become central to Protector’s design philosophy. Modular layouts, moveable consoles, removable seating systems and flexible deck arrangements allow teams to adapt their boats to changing requirements without sacrificing comfort or practicality.

Large fore and aft deck spaces can be configured to carry equipment, sails or specialist gear. Deck structures can be reinforced where necessary, while upgraded tow posts and strategically positioned, flush-mounted tie-down points allow teams to tailor each boat to the specific demands of their campaign.

For hospitality-focused operations, removable sunbeds, bar facilities, fresh water systems, galleys and onboard toilets can be incorporated. Extended bimini arrangements provide shade for guests, while enclosed cockpit configurations available within the Targa range offer protection for coaches, analysts and media teams working with sensitive electronic equipment.

Enhanced communications and electronics packages can also be specified to support data gathering, live broadcasting and team coordination. Commercial coding requirements can be accommodated, while specialist features such as dive tank racks, extended swim platforms and expedition equipment can broaden a vessel’s capabilities far beyond race support.

Despite the extensive range of options available, Andrews often advocates a minimalist approach wherever possible. Soft storage solutions, for example, can replace fixed cabinetry, reducing maintenance requirements and improving long-term reliability. For professional teams operating within tightly scheduled international programmes, minimising service demands reduces both cost and downtime. This is a particularly important consideration for charter fleets and centrally managed racing circuits such as SailGP.

That reliability begins at Rayglass Boats’ state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Auckland, New Zealand, where every Protector RIB is built by hand.

Durability is central to every Protector build. Heavy-duty Hypalon tubes provide buoyancy and impact resistance, while solid fibreglass deep-V hulls deliver rigidity, stability and a comfortable ride in challenging sea states. Hull thicknesses ranging from 19-35mm exceed typical industry standards, contributing to both longevity and performance.

These qualities have also earned Protector the trust of military, coastguard and law enforcement organisations around the world, including the New Zealand Coastguard, customs agencies and the Norwegian Police, all of whom depend on reliability, transportability and multi-role capability.

The same characteristics align closely with the demands of elite yacht racing.

For teams competing on international circuits, transport logistics can have a significant impact on both budgets and preparation schedules. The Chase 330 has become particularly popular because it can be packed into a standard 40ft shipping container while still offering one of the largest working deck areas available in a RIB of its size.

‘The Protector Chase 330 can be packed down in just a couple of hours,’ Andrews explains. ‘Once the boat is placed on a cradle, the tubes deflated and the bimini removed, it slides straight into a standard 40ft container. It can then be reassembled just as quickly at the next venue and back on the water ready for action.’

The ability to simplify transport logistics delivers significant advantages in both cost and operational efficiency.

Of course, boats operating regularly in dynamic, close-quarters environments will inevitably require maintenance from time to time. Through PB Europe and Ancasta’s network of 22 offices across Europe, race teams have access to rapid technical support whenever it is needed. Understanding the time pressures of a race campaign, the team works to minimise disruption and keep boats operating at peak performance.

Testament to the durability of the boats themselves is the fact that vessels originally commissioned for the 2007 America’s Cup remain operational today. Strong residual values achieved through Ancasta’s brokerage network further reflect that longevity.

While annual engine servicing remains recommended, propulsion technology continues to evolve. Protector is closely monitoring developments in hybrid and electric systems as part of its wider commitment to sustainability. For now, however, Andrews says conventional propulsion remains the preferred choice for most professional race programmes due to its proven range, reliability and performance.

Ultimately, Protector’s goal is simple: to provide support craft that allow race teams to focus entirely on the task at hand. ‘When a team knows their chase boat is completely fit for purpose, that’s when they can focus 100 per cent on racing,’ says Andrews. ‘That’s what makes the difference.’

More on Protector Boats

The work of Doyle Sails’ small team of superyacht and grand prix project managers calls to mind those circus juggling acts where performers race about to keep dozens of plates spinning precariously atop slender rods. Their project management roles demand similar levels of concentration, constant attention to detail, instant responses to urgent requests and ability to remain calm under pressure.

They are constantly multitasking between new yachts under construction, servicing the requirements of existing large yachts and managing sail inventories across far-flung locations and time zones for a client base that includes some of the world’s most renowned sailors. Every Doyle sail is subject to the closest imaginable scrutiny.

Across the global Doyle Sails network, eight grand prix and superyacht project managers – five in Auckland, two in Newport, Rhode Island and one in Palma, Mallorca – are in perpetual motion.

Having just flown 36 hours to New Zealand after long days of inventory checks and maintenance of superyacht Aquarius’s racing sails at the Doyle Sails loft in Palma, project manager Chris Blunden, for example, is straight back to his desk in Auckland to focus on other superyacht build projects and sail programmes on his worksheet.

These include an 85m yacht in build at Royal Huisman, which will be the largest sailing sloop in the world, a 35m catamaran new build in Turkey and a 54m sloop being built in Greece. He also looks after the sails for the sloop M5 (formerly Mirabella V), which sports an 89m mast.

‘I generally manage four projects at a time. At any one time, there are 20 or so sails at various stages of production in our system that I am looking after. The current schedule includes a 900m² blade for M5.’

In March, Blunden was trimming the downwind mizzen staysail and gennaker aboard the 65m ketch Aquarius at the St Barth’s Bucket Regatta. Aquarius acquitted herself well, finishing third behind Hetairos* and Maximus in the Gazelles des Mers superyacht racing division. All three of the podium yachts were carrying Doyle Sails inventories.

Other successes with Doyle Sails were Whisper, (1st, Les Mademoiselles des Mers division), Perseus* and Rosehearty (1st and 2nd in Les Grandes Dames des Mers), M5 and Gitana (1st and 3rd in L’Esprit de la Mers-2) and Symmetry (3rd L’Esprit de la Mers-1). The Doyle Sails brand was well represented throughout the 31-boat fleet.

*_{Denotes Doyle Sails is part of a mixed inventory of brands}

Following the Bucket, Aquarius’s racing sails were shipped back to Palma where Blunden was on hand to supervise the service and maintenance checks on five massive downwind sails and a specialist racing jib.

‘It is a major undertaking involving a large group of people at the loft in Palma,’ he explains. ‘It takes up a lot of floor space and many people to unpack a 1,000m² mizzen staysail, or a 2,000m² gennaker and go over it centimetre by centimetre looking for signs of wear.

‘We attended to any maintenance requirements, did some small alterations and then packed everything away for storage until the next event, where everything comes out of the container to be ready to race again.’

At times the Palma facility looks like a racing pit lane, with multiple containers bearing the names of professional racing programmes: Leopard 3, Galateia, Hetairos, the two Aquarius ketches, superyachts, maxis, TP52s … The list goes on, with similar line-ups at Newport.

As soon as the sails have been checked and serviced and their hours of use logged, the containers ship out again, following the yachts from regatta to regatta on the international racing circuits.

Across the Doyle Sails network, the criteria for project managers to be assigned to an order come down to size and complexity. ‘The two main criteria are superyachts and grand prix yachts,’ says Alan Turner, who also works out of the Auckland facility.

‘For superyachts, the theoretical minimum size is 80ft, but mostly it applies to yachts around 120ft and bigger. Grand prix applies to the ultimate high performance racing fleets like TP52s, maxis, SailGP, generally up to 100ft.’ Many of these are racing virtually full time.

Turner’s current worklist includes 88 sails across 12 programmes, including 28 one-design SailGP jibs. ‘Much of what I do involves repeat orders, which really means you are constantly engaged. You basically never stop.

‘With the various race programmes, you are continuously dealing with recuts or maintenance, or working on what they are going to be ordering for upcoming regattas and campaigns.’

Turner’s current schedule does include one major new-build: the 69m ketch known as Project Zero, still under construction at the Vitters yard in Holland. The name relates to the ambitious goal of building a zero-fossil-fuel superyacht.

The sailing implications are significant in that the sailplan needs to deliver sufficient power to maintain decent cruising speeds, despite the drag of two large underwater hydro-generators charging the battery banks. It also means the yacht has to be under sail 80-85 per cent of the time at sea, much more than most superyachts.

The Project Zero sailplan is similar to Aquarius, which was built at Royal Huisman. They are both ketches with almost identical sail areas, but Project Zero’s rigs are shorter in order to pass under the Bridge of the Americas at Panama, while Aquarius has no such restriction.

‘The big thing about Project Zero was to make the sails as powerful as possible to cope with the hydro generators,’ says Turner. In addition, the sail-handling systems had to be designed to operate with the least possible electrical power consumption, while the requirement to sail rather than power through all weather demands ultimate durability.

‘The sail technology is all the same as Aquarius, but with more fibre and a higher dpi content. With the additional hours, the sail replacement rate will be higher,’ says Turner.

Blunden’s connection with the Aquarius programme began with the earlier 56m ketch and continues with the 65m, both as Doyle Sails project manager and as a member of the yachts’ racing crew. Most of his work tends to be on new-builds.

‘I generally come into the picture once a build contract has been signed,’ he says. ‘Before that signature, however, a lot of concept work goes on.’

Highly sophisticated computer modelling lies at the heart of these projects, informing performance and load calculations from the keel to the masthead. ‘To model anything, you need a concept sailplan with baseline areas and specifications,’ Blunden explains.

‘Ideally, all the supplier groups – from the shipyard through to sailmakers, sparmakers, riggers, custom hardware, winches etc – are appointed at the beginning of the planning and design stage. That helps ensure the project runs smoothly, as all aspects can be fully integrated throughout the process,’ he notes.

The Doyle Sails sail designers will mostly lead that preliminary work, which can sometimes go on for years before a final build contract is on the table.

A significant part of those multi-party design conversations is about ensuring that the integration of every aspect of the project takes full advantage of all Doyle Sails’ technology, but in particular Structured Luff technology.

Structured Luff sails can reduce rig loads in the order of 30 per cent, which allows a reduction in displacement and an improvement in righting moment, the benefits of which ripple across the entire supplier chain and into the handling of the yacht. As the overall design package evolves, it is crucial that all parties are looped into changes in displacement, rig geometries, loads, deck layouts, hardware decisions, sail areas. Behind the scenes, the project managers are often involved in chasing these details and ensuring that the relevant information flows to all the parties in a timely way.

‘We also sometimes get involved in the quoting process,’ adds Blunden, ‘just in the sense of making sure that we can actually produce what is being sold.’

With a great deal of custom hardware involved, there is constant cross-party communication. ‘We work very closely with the major spar-makers, for example,’ Blunden continues. ‘They are good about sharing designs with us before they start machining parts, so we can figure out how they will integrate with the sail. We might suggest a few adjustments and redraw it. That way you don’t have a surprise fitting landing on your desk with no idea how we are supposed to make it work.

‘Structured Luff is still a relatively new technology to some suppliers, who might struggle to get their heads around how much of the load is being carried by the luff of the headsail – which has a huge bearing on what they need to produce.

‘For example, it is very important that the connections between the sail and the rig are designed appropriately for the loads. It is not necessarily in our remit to forecast those things, but after doing multiple projects, the knowledge we can share is critical, so we pass that information on in a collaborative way.’

Occasionally, the sail designers also consult the project managers about sail construction details. ‘When it comes to the practicalities and finer details of actually building the sail, we might be called upon to step in with suggestions,’ Turner adds.

Eventually, all the design packages are settled and a build contract is signed. At this point, the sailmakers finalise their planning and scheduling details, but hold off on actually building sails.

‘We only sign off on the final sail designs and start building sails once the boatyard has surveyed the completed hull and deck structures to confirm that what they have built precisely matches the plans, including the chainplate positions and hardware locations,’ says Turner.

As experienced sailmakers, the project managers share a common language and knowledge with their colleagues on the loft floor as they oversee the construction of the inventory and ensure scheduling milestones are met.

‘When it comes to building the sails, our job is to have all the information the sailmakers need, when they need it. Likewise with all the hardware and parts, they have to be on hand exactly when they are required to be incorporated into the construction process,’ says Turner. ‘And then, most importantly, when the sail is delivered halfway around the world, whoever opens the bag at the other end needs to see exactly what they are expecting to see. No surprises.’

Extrapolate that out across the entire project and it amounts to a highly complex organisational ecosystem, spread across multiple locations, specialist skills and time zones, every part of it working to the highest levels of precision and accuracy, to meet strict milestones and deadlines.

‘If just one part of it is delayed, or changes, it ripples all the way through the system,’ says Blunden. Think about those spinning plates crashing down one by one. The fine line between success and disaster depends on a high degree of expertise, trust and constant communication between all parties.

It is all part of being a global multi-disciplinary team working towards a shared objective to bring a highly sophisticated and technically challenging objective to fruition in a way that will live up to – or preferably exceed – the client’s most demanding expectations.

More on Doyle Sails

For serious race programmes, the season isn’t built race by race. It’s built months in advance, with every decision shaped by what comes next. The boats may compete fiercely on the water, but success often depends on logistics planned long before the first start gun fires.

That is why many teams work with Sevenstar Yacht Transport well ahead of the racing calendar, securing both outbound and return crossings in a single strategy. For campaigns moving between Europe and the Caribbean, round-trip planning has become less of a convenience and more of a competitive advantage. It creates certainty around schedules, protects valuable preparation time, and allows teams to focus on performance rather than logistics.

On the dock in St. Thomas, just after the Caribbean racing circuit, that dynamic is easy to see. Boats including Bella Mente, Hummingbird and Galateia remain in place, but the atmosphere has shifted. Sails are stowed, rigs are quiet and crews are already preparing for the next phase of the season. Slings are laid out, cradles positioned and containers assembled along the quay.

What appears to be downtime is anything but. The race season never really stops. The moment one campaign ends, the next one begins.

Racing may be about performance, but performance depends on what happens beyond the racecourse. The yacht has to move again, the crew has to reset, and the entire campaign must be repositioned efficiently, without delay or uncertainty. The visible results on the water are only possible because the invisible structure supporting them is already in place.

A return leg can quietly decide the rest of the season
For Hummingbird, the key decision was made long before the first race. ‘We got in contact with Sevenstar Yacht Transport about a year in advance,’ says captain Josh Hill. ‘We knew we had a busy race season coming up, so we decided to book the return journey as well.’

The yacht departed Palma de Mallorca in January following a period of upgrades before arriving in the Caribbean for a demanding programme that included Antigua, St Barths and the BVI Spring Regatta. The preparation paid off, with the team securing three second-place finishes.

But a successful campaign isn’t judged by results alone. It’s defined by what happens afterwards.

‘The most critical thing about the round trip is the trip back,’ Hill explains.

Once the yacht returns to Europe, the schedule tightens immediately. Yard periods, crew rotations, training blocks and race entries are all fixed. There is little room for delay.

‘It’s tight to get back to the Med, and the most reliable way to do so is to come with Sevenstar and get there on time.’

The next destination for Hummingbird is already set. ‘Next stop for us is Sorrento,’ Hill says. ‘As soon as we come off the ship in Palma, we are straight back into it. A bit of training in midsummer and then off to the Swan Worlds.’

That immediacy is exactly why uncertainty on the return leg is not an option. Without secured transport back to Europe, the entire second half of the season becomes conditional. Round-trip thinking naturally becomes part of the campaign itself.

Build the season with Sevenstar, then sail it
The principle is simple, but it requires discipline. ‘We try to plan about a year in advance,’ Hill continues. ‘And we are already talking with Sevenstar about the return journey next year to match it with the race calendar.’

The process begins with the immovable dates: when the yacht needs to race and when the crew needs to be in place. Everything else is planned backwards from there.

Race schedules determine arrival dates. Arrival dates determine loading windows. Those windows influence yard planning and crew logistics. Without a secured return journey, the sequence begins to unravel. With it, the campaign remains intact.

‘There are many stages of planning for these events, especially when you have a busy race calendar,’ Hill says. ‘In the long term, knowing that you are going on a ship allows you to rest your crew and hit the ground running, starting at full speed again.’

Transport, in other words, isn’t an afterthought. It has to be one of the foundations of the campaign.‘We all love to do transatlantic delivery sailing; it’s one of the highlights of the year for a lot of sailors,’ Hill adds. ‘But when you are in a busy race programme, you just have to get the yacht from A to B as quickly and safely as possible. Loading her onto a Sevenstar ship removes the risk and the breakage that can happen during an ocean crossing.’

Not just a yacht, but a moving system of multiple parts
What moves between continents is far more than a hull. Hummingbird for example travels with two 20ft containers and a 40ft high cube. ‘We have a workshop, a sail container, and another container with equipment,’ Hill explains. Inside are sails, rigging, spare parts and tools – everything required to keep the yacht competitive.

‘With these kinds of boats, we really rely on our containers,’ he says. ‘Turning up without the full inventory means you don’t have the best opportunity to fix the boat when things go wrong.’

Racing yachts are systems operating under constant pressure. Performance depends on how quickly teams can respond to issues, and the yacht itself is only one part of that equation. The support infrastructure travels with it, and it all has to arrive together.

The plan versus what happens on the day
Behind what appears to be a straightforward operation lies weeks of preparation. ‘A lot of planning goes into it before the port call,’ says Sevenstar loadmaster Scott Aubinger. ‘From the stow plans to making sure all the lifting gear is correct and available.’

Yet no operation is entirely predictable. ‘During the actual operation things change,’ he says. ‘That’s why we are there, thinking on our feet and working with the crew and the captain.’

The positioning of each yacht on the ship, the alignment of lifting points and rig clearances have to be managed in real time. ‘It’s a lot of teamwork,’ Aubinger adds. The process is highly controlled, but never static.

Keeping the fleet together
For the captain of Galateia, the value of that structure extends beyond a single crossing. ‘We’ve been coming out here the last few winters with the same group of boats,’ he says. ‘It’s important that we race together and stay racing together.’

That continuity depends on transport. ‘Our boats can’t sail across the Atlantic. If we don’t go on a ship, we don’t come here,’ he explains.

Like Hummingbird, Galateia booked transport as a round trip. That certainty allows teams to schedule refits, organise crew and commit to European racing programmes without guesswork.

‘Transport makes our season much longer,’ he says. ‘It allows us to be here and then go straight back into racing in Europe.’

Looking across the ship’s deck, he describes the operation as a coordinated whole. ‘Everything is packed in – yachts, containers, support boats. It’s pretty impressive how it all fits together.’

Never a routine experience
Even so, the experience never becomes routine. ‘It’s nerve-wracking,’ says Peter Henderson, captain of Bella Mente. ‘You’re putting your baby on a crane and watching her swing in the air.’

Familiarity helps. ‘We’ve loaded with the same loadmaster a few times,’ he says. ‘You build a good working relationship.’

However, even the best plans require flexibility. ‘You look at the drawings and the stow plans beforehand, but when you’re on deck, things might be slightly different. You have to be flexible and if necessary find a way to make it work.’

As Henderson notes, ‘the logistics allow us to do all of that.’ Modern race campaigns depend on logistics not simply as a support function, but as an enabler of performance. Round-trip planning is where that reality becomes most visible.

Transport involves a commitment on both sides
Round-trip planning works because it represents a firm commitment from everyone involved. Yacht owners who secure transport early can build their campaigns around fixed sailing schedules. In return, Sevenstar commits to capacity and delivery.

‘We are already setting up the next racing season,’ says Sevenstar’s Sander Speet. Outbound sailings in January and return sailings in late March or early April are structured around the rhythm of the racing calendar.

Being part of the Spliethoff Group, Sevenstar’s access to a large fleet of company-owned vessels enables capacity to be secured well in advance. For race campaigns operating on fixed timelines, that reliability is essential.

A round trip provides certainty in both directions. The yacht has a guaranteed return. The schedule is set. The teams responsible for delivering that movement are committed to making it happen.

The race starts long before the start and ends after the finish
‘I think transport planning is a critical part of the whole racing operation,’ Hill says.

That is the underlying principle. Racing success depends quite heavily on what happens before the start and after the finish. It depends on aligning every part of the campaign and removing uncertainty wherever possible.

Round-trip planning does exactly that. It allows teams to focus on performance, knowing that the logistics have already been secured. And in a sport defined by timing, that certainty becomes part of the result.

More on Sevenstar Yacht Transport

For all its facets, guises, categories and genres, the broad, varied and beautiful world of yacht racing has one common denominator: yacht owners are the backbone of our sport. These dedicated sailing enthusiasts, with the commitment and resources to pursue their passion, make it possible for so many of us to compete at the level we aspire to. Even at the very highest echelons of yacht racing, with star sailors, sophisticated marketing operations and major sponsorship agreements, competitions such as the America’s Cup and SailGP would remain little more than ambitious concepts without the vision and investment of owners.

Recognising the pivotal role that owners play, Matt Cornwell and Cornwell Race Management have launched a bespoke service designed to support a select number of owners in achieving their racing ambitions. Drawing on decades of experience at the pinnacle of the sport, Cornwell Race Management provides highly tailored programme management, helping owners navigate the increasingly complex world of elite yacht racing while ensuring their goals, expectations and enjoyment remain at the centre of every campaign.

How, then, do we ensure owners continue returning to yacht racing year after year, decade after decade? Class managers, yacht clubs and event organisers all contribute by creating the global playground in which owners can compete. Yet it is equally important that the sport responds to owners on an individual level, understanding their motivations and helping them realise their ambitions. This becomes especially critical when owners progress from club and domestic competition to the international stage, where effective race programme management is essential to delivering both success and satisfaction.

Having spent his career operating at the highest levels of yacht racing, from four America’s Cup campaigns to some of the world’s premier regattas for privately owned yachts and superyachts, Matt Cornwell has shaped Cornwell Race Management around the lessons learned from elite competition.

‘It is often said that the America’s Cup is as much a design challenge as a sailing challenge, and there is no question that the fastest boat tends to win sailing’s most coveted prize,’ says Cornwell. ‘But when you compete in the Cup, you quickly realise that it is also, first and foremost, a management challenge. Although when supporting an owner in their campaign, the focus must align with their individual vision of what they hope to achieve from the sport, the management principles that underpin success in the America’s Cup are equally valuable in helping turn an owner’s ambitions into reality.’

Cornwell Race Management believes that these principles can be distilled into three key areas:

Recruitment – identifying not only the most talented sailors, coaches and shore support personnel, but the people who will complement the team and help drive it forward. Success depends on securing the right leadership, technical expertise and analytical capability, all of whom must be able to maintain the flexibility to evolve and adapt when circumstances demand it.

Culture – fostering leadership, accountability, mutual respect and strong teamwork, underpinned by a shared commitment to delivering long-term success for both the owner and the wider team.

Process – continuously refining the structures and systems that allow sporting, technical and support functions to operate as effectively and efficiently as possible, whilst staying ahead of the development curve.

Whether in Grand Prix classes where the emphasis may be overwhelmingly on performance, or in superyacht racing where safety, hospitality and unforgettable experiences take on greater significance, effective programme management plays a vital role.

‘This was the very premise that gave birth to Cornwell Race Management,’ Cornwell explains. ‘Too often I saw owners and teams searching for the person who could bring all the moving parts together, and sometimes receiving poor advice after finding the wrong fit. I realised that, with the knowledge and relationships I’d developed competing at the highest level against the very best in the world, I could help the right owner achieve something truly special in this sport. That became the motivation for launching Cornwell Race Management.’

While grand prix racing remains a major focus for Cornwell Race Management, the company also recognises the growing importance of superyacht racing within the wider sailing landscape.

‘I love superyacht racing,’ says Cornwell. ‘It’s a very different and unique challenge. Over the years it became clear that the management principles and relationships developed in the grand prix world could bring real value to this thriving side of the sport. While the owner’s experience may take precedence over pure competition, working closely with them and their captain to build the right team, culture and processes remains just as important.

‘Balancing enjoyment and safety with performance and cost efficiency helps create truly unforgettable experiences for owners and their guests.’

Across the sport, there are numerous examples of owner-led programmes that demonstrate the value of long-term commitment, clear objectives and effective management. Sustained success rarely happens by chance. It is built through strong leadership, continuity within teams and a shared understanding of what owners want to achieve from their involvement in the sport.

Perhaps another reason owners receive less attention is that, by most measures, yacht racing appears to be thriving. Participation in the 52 Super Series is at its strongest in years, the 44Cup continues to offer exceptional value at the highest level of grand prix competition, new maxi yachts are entering construction and the return of the Admiral’s Cup has injected significant energy and investment into the sport. Alongside this, the superyacht racing calendar continues to expand, attracting strong and growing participation.

With new owners setting their sights on the world’s premier events and established owners renewing their commitment to the sport, Cornwell Race Management believes it has never been more important to provide owners with the same level of focus and support found in America’s Cup campaigns.

Through expert guidance, a tailored approach and an understanding that success is measured not only by results but also by experience, Cornwell Race Management helps owners transform their ambitions into reality – ensuring they are best prepared to cross the starting line and enjoy every step of the journey.

More on Cornwell Race Management

The same Harken hydraulic engineers who helped keep Oracle Team USA and Ben Ainslie’s Athena Racing flying through three America’s Cups, and who equipped both Gitana foiling Ultims, have now turned their attention to Trinity – the newest yacht in the highly competitive 52 Super Series.

Trinity features a suite of hydraulic innovations that aim to set a new benchmark for the class. Adopting unproven technology requires confidence, the owner’s project manager Micky Costa explains, but the potential gains made the decision worthwhile.

‘It’s a leap into the unknown, but my job is improving the boat every chance I get,’ he says. ‘When I saw what they proposed, it was exactly what I wanted.’

Working alongside Costa were Harken’s head of grand prix sales Mark Wiss, director of engineering Steve Orlebeke and Ben Biddick, who leads hydraulic engineering at the company’s Pewaukee, Wisconsin headquarters. Jim Stone of Gorilla Rigging and Felix Schliebitz also played key roles in the installation.

Ordinarily, the sailing team would have significant input into the systems package. This project was different. ‘It’s a new team,’ says Costa. ’They came with no experience, so I tried to transfer my knowledge from other teams and make the boat as easy as possible to use. The goal was to get them sailing straight away with minimal setup time.’

The sailors provided input on the optimal location for the hydraulic controls, particularly for the jib trimmer, but simplicity remained the guiding principle.

The relationship between Costa and Harken spans many years, built on a shared focus on performance and problem-solving. ‘I’ve always felt supported and they give great service,’ says Costa. ‘If you have a problem, they won’t come with excuses.’

Biddick values the relationship just as highly. ‘Micky is exceptionally good at what he does and very demanding. He’s been a great partner for a long time, so we make sure we listen carefully to what he has to say. We’re always looking for every small advantage.’

For Wiss, that customer-focused approach is central to Harken’s culture. ‘It’s something Peter and Olaf Harken brought every day: listen to the customer and solve their problem.’

A cleaner, simpler solution
The challenge was to design and build the most advanced hydraulic system yet seen on a TP52. Earlier-generation boats relied on hydraulics for only two functions – backstay deflectors and headstay adjustment – while for most other controls they used rope purchases and block-andtackle systems.

As teams pursued cleaner interiors and lower overall weight, the prospect of having a more integrated hydraulic solution became increasingly attractive. ‘Compared with other projects we see, the loads are not very high,’ says Wiss, ‘ so we needed extremely compact equipment operating at very high pressure while remaining affordable.’

For Costa, the benefits of sophisticated hydraulics extend beyond performance.

‘If I didn’t have hydraulic jib up-anddown, jib tack and jib inhaul controls, and instead used traditional rope purchases, it would add another week to the build process. A jib-in system with a 48:1 purchase and spool boxes can use more than 50 metres of rope.

‘We still use rope purchases for the cunningham, outhaul and vang, but if every function used rope systems the boat would become a mess. With hydraulics you have a small cylinder, a strop, valves and hoses. It’s much simpler.’

Rethinking valve control
Class rules prohibit electrical actuation, so all hydraulic valves must be operated mechanically. To meet that requirement, Trinity carries four of Harken’s newgeneration hydraulic valves, with a fifth mounted as a spare. Six control lines at the jib trimmer’s station operate three valves that are responsible for jib clew up-and-down adjustment, inhaul and jib tack control.

According to Biddick, reducing operating effort was a major design objective. ‘Micky gave us very specific feedback about the positions the sailors operate from and the amount of force they can comfortably apply while maintaining control,’ he explains. ‘We took that to heart and made sure the lever geometry and ratios worked effectively in those real-world sailing positions.’

Serviceability is equally important. ‘If there’s an issue, we want the fastest possible path to maintenance,’ says Biddick. ‘Wear components are external and visible, so they can be replaced without having to dismantle the hydraulic system itself.’

Every valve is tested under maximum operating loads before leaving the factory. ‘When it reaches the boat, we know it has already experienced the worst conditions it’s likely to encounter and still performs as intended,’ Biddick says.

The design is also future-ready, capable of accepting electric actuation should class rules eventually permit it.

Self-sufficient jib trim
The valve system is only one part of Trinity’s hydraulic package. Equally important is how that system is powered.

To supply hydraulic oil pressure for jib trim functions, Harken developed a stand-alone recirculating line-drive pump that is mounted in the bilge and nicknamed “Evinrude”. The trimmer pulls a line integrated into the footrest, spinning a pump that builds hydraulic pressure. A bungee system then retracts the line, ready for the next stroke.

‘On Trinity, the jib trimmer is completely self-sufficient,’ says Wiss. ‘He has complete control of his sail functions. And nobody wants the crew leaving the rail to pump oil for him.’

The system can also be tuned to suit individual sailors by adjusting the spool diameter, altering the balance between pumping speed and hydraulic power.

The feedback from Trinity’s first regatta in Puerto Portals was immediate. ‘Their jib trimmer was over the moon with how well everything worked,’ says Wiss. ‘Hearing that from the sailor actually using the system was especially rewarding.’

Solving a subtle problem
Perhaps the most elegant innovation sits below deck in the bow: a compound forestay and jib tack cylinder developed through four separate design iterations. ‘That product is certainly not on any other boat,’ says Biddick. ‘We’ve only made two.’

A trinity of hydraulic innovations

The challenge it solves is deceptively simple. Traditionally, easing the headstay without easing the jib tack system can overload the sail and potentially damage equipment. By linking both functions mechanically, Trinity allows the relative position of the jib tack to adjust automatically as the headstay is eased. The engineering challenge was preventing damaging side loads.

Placing a 1.75-tonne jib tack load onto a forestay cylinder already carrying nine tonnes can create bending loads that compromise seals and reduce component life. Harken’s solution is a pivoting yoke that keeps the loads aligned in pure tension.‘It’s a triangulation scenario,’ Biddick explains, ‘that allows the loads to articulate and remain balanced as they increase and decrease.’

The result is a lighter, stronger and more serviceable assembly. Each cylinder can be removed independently without disturbing the other.

Costa was impressed by the final result: ‘It’s a new development and a very pleasant surprise. It’s light too. The guys in Pewaukee have done a good job.’

Learning through iteration
Arriving at the final design required several false starts. ‘We started producing it, then stopped and said, “This isn’t market-worthy,”’ Wiss recalls. ‘We tested it, showed it to potential customers and received some pretty blunt feedback. That told us we needed to rethink the concept.’

The breakthrough came unexpectedly. ‘One morning Ben showed up and said, “I have an idea.” We pushed him hard on it, and it turned into the solution.’

For Biddick, that process is simply part of engineering. ‘That’s why we test,’ he says. We test to learn and to make sure that our products don’t fail in the field. If a problem still exists, you keep working until you solve it.’

Every fraction of a second
The final piece of the package is Trinity’s new down-drive pedestal system. The design for this allows grinders to switch between full-speed and full-power modes using a foot switch without interrupting handle rotation.

Traditionally, crews had to stop grinding during transitions, costing valuable time and momentum.

‘Now you can switch between hydraulic and winch functions without stopping,’ says Biddick. ‘If four sailors are already at maximum effort, eliminating that pause can be a significant advantage.’

In the tightly contested TP52 fleet, even fractions of a second matter. Trinity finished mid-fleet on her competitive debut, but the early signs were encouraging.

‘The first days of competitive sailing are always a little nerve-racking,’ says Wiss. ‘You hope that everything works and has been installed correctly. But once Trinity reached Puerto Portals, everyone was happy. Then they went out and won one of the races, which was exciting.’

For Harken, Trinity represents the culmination of years of feedback, testing and refinement. By working closely with sailors and continuously iterating designs, the company has developed a suite of systems aimed at delivering meaningful gains where they matter most.

In a fleet where races can be decided by fractions of a second, those details can provide the decisive edge.

More on Harken

Wow, did we all just blast through the midpoint of the 2026 season in the buffeting trade winds of Lanzarote! The 52 Super Series went to Marina Rubicon in search of strong breeze and were rewarded – if that is the right word – with an average windspeed the strong side of 20kt. The third regatta of the year was a spectacular acid test. Few teams came through unscathed.

In the end, and befitting a team from the nation that has long dominated ocean racing, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin’s French team on Paprec proved very popular winners in Lanzarote. Winds of 20-30kt must have felt like a walk in the park for some of the Paprec team in Lanzarote… not least Vendée Globe veterans Loïck Peyron, tactician, and sometime navigator Yoann Richomme.

After coming within touching distance of the world title last year in windy Cascais – missing out by a single point on the final day – many came to Lanzarote expecting the French to be one of the strongest in the big breeze and big seas. They did not disappoint.

Main image: Loïck Peyron (right) seems to have officially completed his transition from oceanic racing god to outstanding Grand Prix tactician as a now longstanding member of Jean-Luc Petithuguenin’s (with trophy) Paprec team, winners in Lanzarote… If Banque Populaire and Macif lead the way with commercial support for sailing, Petithuguenin is surely among the most prolific private campaigners. As well as a winning TP52 team that tirelessly promotes young French sailing talent, there is the brilliant Yoann Richomme’s second Vendée Globe Imoca programme coming up shortly plus sponsorship of both the Figaro Solitaire (for now) and two-handed Transat Paprec.

That said, as one of the original teams to have transitioned from the MedCup to becoming a staunch supporter of the 52 Super Series in 2012, perhaps there were some within the Paprec camp who questioned if a regatta victory would ever come their way, even after finishing on the overall podium for the first time at the end of the 2025 season.

So when they finally made it happen in Lanzarote there were more than a few emotional French sailors docking in to enjoy the champagne showers ashore, not least Petithuguenin who, through the company he founded, Paprec, has given so much to French sailing over the years. Just to remind us, that longterm support, year in year out, has included sponsoring La Solitaire, the Transat Paprec two-handed race to St Barts and of course supporting Yoann Richomme who has a new Imoca in build funded by Paprec.

Stéphane Névé, mainsheet trimmer and project manager recalls, ‘Jean-Luc was just so happy. As was the case for all of us… It has been such a long time since we first started on the circuit. And, yes, sometimes we were thinking, “OK, it’s nice to be here, but maybe winning is not for us.” But finally we have done it.’

Paprec were among the fastest downwind in the breeze last year and they were again in Lanzarote. Another fundamental asset was reliability – helpful when their rivals were regularly blowing up sails; one team destroyed four chutes during a single two-race day.

Névé continues: ‘We have been working a lot on our sails. And unlike most teams we work on our own. We try to analyse what was good last year and the conditions where it was good, and when it was not so easy. We took our baseline from those sails, and we said, “OK, on the J1 we want this much change. On the J1-5 we want this. We keep it as simple as possible.”

‘But in the end we stayed close to the North baseline. We didn’t change much. In hindsight we didn’t change much at all!

‘But you can see that, especially with the kites, we had no issue during the event in Lanzarote when some of the teams were working their way through kites like they were going out of fashion.

‘That was the target we also gave to North Sails, including the choice of sail cloth. They had to be reliable. We knew it would be windy and we did not want to have to hold back.

‘I mean, on the A4, for example, we only use nylon while most of the fleet are using polyester. But we felt that in these conditions polyester is too risky, especially with frequent shock loads that can pop a polyester chute in an instant. If you hit a wave… poof! I mean, you have all seen the footage!!

‘Of course, on paper polyester is always better because it doesn’t stretch so much. But to win the race you need to finish the race and to finish with all your sails.

‘As well as sails, we have been working quite a lot on the hydraulics, the pedestals, the winches and everything else in the systems. Again, our call to the technicians, the shore team, was to make things bulletproof. That was our thing. Don’t try to save some weight. Try to make it as reliable as possible. In Lanzarote we really wanted to be able to push hard, no compromising.’

It has also been fascinating to watch Paprec tactician Loïck Peyron learn and improve regatta by regatta, year by year. Since joining the team in 2024 Peyron has brought a remarkable energy and team spirit – Loïck is of course a famous ocean racer, but he has learnt to love the new challenge of grand prix inshore racing.

The way the French go about their TP52 racing is both unique and admirable. For a nation so steeped in the greatest traditions of blue water racing, when taking on the toughest Grand Prix circuit – the 52 Super Series – not for them the call out to the brightest international stars and those enormous invoices. Barring emergencies, Eric de Turckheim’s Teasing Machine (above) and Jean-Luc Petithuguenin’s Paprec both go racing with 100 per cent French crews. And the heavier conditions of Lanzarote suited them to a tee 36

His own satisfaction at winning was obvious: ‘Finally I can die happy now,’ Loïck laughed at the prizegiving. He is of course an instinctive racer who reads the racecourse more by eye and feel. But Peyron contributes in every area.

‘Loïck is not a lifetime fleet racer like Terry (Hutchinson) or Vasco (Vascotto),’ says Névé. ‘So when we get close to the top mark and there are many boats around it’s more difficult for him. So, in that situation, most of the time he’s telling Cedric [Château], “OK, now I’ll let you decide.” It’s generally when we get to the upwind mark or the downwind mark and there is a lot of traffic. This is the kind of situation where Loïck is not as comfortable as he could be in other conditions.

‘However, on the trimming and the set-up of the sails Loïck is truly excellent. He quietly tells us what he sees and what he would like to do. Sometimes we do not agree. Sometimes we explain that we have been trying what he’s suggesting and that it doesn’t work. But always we talk together and between us we find the best option.

‘Loïck has recently been doing a lot of multihull sailing… so not surprisingly on the trimming, especially downwind, sometimes the way he sees things is not the way Cédric and I see it! The dynamics are different, especially on the main. But most of the time the comments he’s making are very relevant and useful.’

Helm Cédric Château is a sailor whose broad overall talents are maybe overlooked outside France. What other grand prix helm is a match racing champion, a dinghy and offshore coach, and a shorthanded Transatlantic race winner (Château won the 2025 Transat Café l’Or with Guillaume Pirouelle)? He also talent-spotted and coached the young Charlie Dalin in the 420 class and became a key influence during his early career.

‘Cédric’s very clever,’ Névé adds. ‘Because he’s not just a helmsman, he’s a coach and also a good match racer. He really knows the crew, he knows those guys because he has also been coaching them. He can say, OK, try this or try that. He has a really good feel, and he will tell the jib trimmer, “OK, I would like to see if this is an improvement. So we talk a lot together. Most of the time it’s easy communication with Cédric which then brings more performance.’

Again, coming from a nation of great offshore sailors, Paprec are very much a self-contained, self-reliant team. They have no big-name coach but instead work with a young Figaro sailor, Pierrick Letouzé, who brings his own raft of skills.

‘Pierrick’s on the chase boat. He’s looking at the sails, he’s looking at the trim of the boat, at the trimming of the sails. He’s our personal geek. He’s also a drone pilot, and he’s watching everything everywhere. All the data, everything,’ Névé explains. ‘He’s only 25. And he’s largely self-taught. But he’s very, very clever, and he’s bringing a lot of new things to the team. New ideas, new techniques. He’s constantly analysing sail shapes, sail design, the trimming of the sails compared with the other boats.’

Stéphane Névé: ‘We have not made any big changes. Our big goal for this season was to have no issues. Because we knew that the conditions would be tough in Lanzarote we tried to make every technical area as reliable as possible on the boat. And it paid off.’

Going forwards, the second half of the season looks set to be as fascinating as ever. Sled shed a dozen or so points of their hard-earned lead over the last two races in Lanzarote and look a lot more catchable than they perhaps did after winning in both Puerto Portals and Porto Cervo. Harm Müller-Spreer’s Platoon Aviation are making their customary late-season charge. Although they lost more spinnakers than any other team in Lanzarote they looked fast and otherwise are sailing very well!

So too Andrea Lacorte’s Alkedo, second in Lanzarote and third in the season standings. But there are more than the usual number of teams that have yet to show their very best at the midway point, notably Joakim Sundberg’s Trinity, Pieter Heerema’s No Way Back, Tony Langley’s Gladiator, Ergin Imre’s Provezza and Andy Soriano’s Alegre. All will take inspiration from Paprec and all will be pushing hard in every area to finish the season with a regatta win.

More on the 52 Super Series

It has been a great year so far for maxi racing, first in the Caribbean and now in Europe. That said, because of the unexpected turbulence in global shipping, our first events were less well supported than usual – the PalmaVela particularly suffering despite the imaginative addition of La Larga, a distance race around the Balearic islands. One day perhaps this could be tried as an alternative to our present IMA Maxi European Championship in Sorrento?

There were some changes to the format of the 2026 edition of our Maxi Europeans, organised jointly with the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia in the Bay of Naples and kicking off with the Regata dei Tre Golfi offshore race – the start always being memorable with the fleet departing from Naples with Mount Vesuvius as backdrop.

As so often with Mediterranean distance races it was a tactical battle to avoid as many shutdowns as possible – some teams suffering six or seven park-ups this year. It was a constant game of lead changes between the 100-footers Galateia, V and Leopard 3. The first two, both modified Wallycentos, have been arch-rivals for the last few seasons. V was only beaten on the water right at the finish and that left Galateia winning both line honours and on IRC corrected time. In the Maxi Grand Prix class similar battles were being fought. In the end Jethou got in first but Peter Dubens’ North Star achieved an impressive third win in a row on corrected time.

For the subsequent four days of inshore and coastal racing the wind remained very light and at times fickle but PRO Stuart Childerley held his nerve and the series was completed, with all planned races sailed including the traditional circuit of Capri.

The main change for this edition was to try to achieve fairer results by not mixing up the classes with their impossibly wide-ranging ratings – from the highest, the new Magic Carpet at 1.870, down to the lowest, the 50-year-old Swan 65 ketch Shirlaf at 1.102. Replacing the previous mass start this year the fleet was split into two, Maxi 1 and Grand Prix in one start and Maxi 3 and 4/5 in the other. We also scored the four classes separately, thereby creating not one but four new Maxi European Champions.

On the penultimate day V and Galateia continued their sparring but the smaller Capricorno was only one point behind. In Maxi Grand Prix Jethou was having a much better week although Jolt, North Star and Django7X were closing in behind. Class 3 was dominated by the canting-keel Mylius 60 Cippa Lippa X, chased home some way back by the new Manticore (a previous Jethou). These two raceboats were usually far ahead of their more ‘cruisey’ competitors.

It was down to the final race for the Maxi 1 and Grand Prix classes and the weather kept its best to the last. The forecast had suggested it would be too light to race but in the end reality served up the best wind of the series, touching 19kt at times. Leopard 3 relished these conditions and won; this result propelling her up to second overall sandwiched between V and Galateia. In Maxi Grand Prix Jolt also had a great final day allowing her to win overall by just one point from North Star, in turn one point ahead of Django 7X. There were no new surprises in Classes 3 and 4/5, won respectively as expected by Cippa Lippa X and Fra’ Diavolo. Unfortunately, the Tre Golfi Multihull Trophy only attracted three entries – won again by Irvine Laidlaw’s Gunboat 80 Highland Fling 18.

Barely two weeks separated this event from the Yacht Club Italiano’s Loro Piana Giraglia; what started in 1953 as an offshore race to help thaw post-WW2 relations between France and Italy is today preceded by a four-day inshore/coastal series held out of St Tropez. Sadly, entries were significantly reduced by an unfortunate clash with both the Rolex TP52 World Championship and the Sardinia Cup which ruled out a high proportion of professional crew.

As is often the case in Saint Tropez, winds were very light all week, one day lost to lack of wind and the final day reduced to a very short coastal race.

Class A’s inshore series was won by V – their fourth regatta win in a row. Second was Jethou and third Galateia although third to fifth were all on equal points decided on countback, with My Song and Proteus losing out. In Class B one unusual entry was Baruna, built in 1938 but recently immaculately restored. It was a test of the IRC rating system but she was able to compete and ended up sixth out of 11 in her class. The veteran Atalanta II also had an outstanding regatta winning all her inshore races, knocking recently crowned European Champion Cippa Lippa off the top spot.

At least all IMA maxi regattas are scored using the simple and efficient IRC system, with fixed TCCs, and so not dependent on the vagaries of the weather. However, the ORC classes in the Giraglia were relying on ‘predicted expected finishing times’ for each boat according to the weather forecast at the beginning of the race.

And the outcome was entirely predictable, the weather models proving wildly inaccurate with more wind than expected for the larger boats which arrived in many cases substantially ahead of their routeing while the opposite occurred for the smaller boats. Weather forecasting may be better than it used to be but to calculate – let alone try to predict – results in this way defies understanding.

Maxi racing is looking a lot healthier than some other areas of the sport. For owners there was further encouragement when the IMA Technical Office recently circulated a document confirming that no major changes are envisaged in the rating system, clearing the way to build new boats. IMA’s clear conclusions are:
1. IMA is not considering any changes to the rating systems.
2. IMA is not seeing instability in the rating systems.
3. IMA is not planning to change any of the class splits.
4. IMA is seeing one of the most stable periods in the past 35 years in maxi racing, with the fleet growing at unprecedented rates and events expanding. The IMA will continue to act to maintain this encouraging environment.

Finally, after 13 years in the role I am passing on the baton of running the International Maxi Association to my successor, also well known in the Maxi world, Giorgio Benussi. I wish him every success in continuing the development of international maxi racing with the excellent supporting team and relationships that we now have in place.

More on the IMA

Her predecessor established YYachts as an international avant-garde boatbuilding brand. The new Y7, designed by judel/vrolijk, takes the game a notch higher.

She proved her worth twice early on. And on both of these occasions, in a strong breeze and also in very light wind, her sailing performance exceeded all expectations.

In April, when under way from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean, where she would make her debut at the Palma Boat Show, the English Channel set the stage. This being a delivery trip, the new Y7 sailed conservatively canvassed for the solid force six from astern, under selftacking jib and reefed mainsail only. But it didn’t seem to tame her much.

For almost four hours non-stop she sat on a continuous plane, averaging more than 16kts of boat speed, topping out at 20.7kts through the water even without any help from the rather unruly sea state.

‘She sailed like dream, like on rails’, recalls Klaus Kurzweg. The skipper who has logged nearly 50,000 nautical miles on previous Y7 models met the new design “with a bit of scepticism”, as he admits. ‘I was really in love with the old boat’, he says, not sure the wider, bigger sister would match his expectations. ‘But she really does have significantly more power.’

Ten days earlier, during the very first sea trial in her home waters near the city of Greifswald, an ice-cold high-pressure system across the Pomeranian coast threw a pointedly different challenge at her. Together with YYachts founder Michael Schmidt, a highly experienced team of engineers from judel/vrolijk & co who were working with the yard for the first time, stepped aboard to get a feel for the Y7’s sailing performance.

As the 22m yacht slid away from the jetty under engine there was hardly any breath of wind. Further out at sea, the anemometer at the top of the 34.6-metre tall mast began to turn sluggishly, recording four to five knots, with puffs reaching seven to eight knots true. However, the light breeze did not reach the water’s surface.

Any conventional cruising boat would have become a drifting buoy in these conditions, even for the Y7 it appeared challenging. This 72ft luxury performance cruising yacht is full carbon sandwich construction and lighter than most of her competitors. The backstay-free rig, braced by extremely wide, aft-swept spreaders, allows for a square-top mainsail the size of a volleyball court. During the test, with the code zero unfurled, the boat projected a total of 500 square metres of jet-black Technora membrane. Yet it was also pulling the equivalent of a loft-style flat through the water, complete with four bedrooms, just as many bathrooms, a kitchen, living-dining room, boat office and separate crew quarters.

So, expectations were, shall we say, cautiously subdued. But no sooner had the sails been trimmed in than the log figures on the mast display started ticking merrily upwards. Before you knew it they roughly matched those of the wind sensor: 5.0 kts… 5.8 … 6.4… 7.0… 6.7. It felt like a quiet miracle in this wintery cool, almost motionless weather.

Matthias Bröker, who played a key role in designing the new Y7, was still marvelling at that moment weeks later: ‘The way she created her own wind on the oily-calm patch of water was truly surreal.’

Of course, the yacht was designed for this: challenging wind speed in the light stuff and outpacing most of her competitors. But experiencing first-hand the combination of tenderness and power on such a colossal scale is something else still.

Easily accessible performance has always been one of, if not the very essence of the brand. The boats are also distinguished by their own signature aesthetic. Clean hull lines and the flat superstructure with recessed, vertical coachroof windows define YYachts’ appearance. Michael Schmidt calls it “timeless elegance”, and rightly so. Even at 10 years old, the marque’s first designs still look fresh and distinctive today. Schmidt, a restless entrepreneur who has never been shy to challenge conventional wisdom, built the very first boat in 2015 for himself: Y8 Cool Breeze. It was to be his retirement project after 20 busy years as founder of Hanse Yachts, during which he had developed the yard into the world’s third-largest production builder and successfully floated it on the stock exchange.

Why did he not just buy from another yard, and happily cruise the Med, the Caribbean, the world? ‘The yachts available at the time just didn’t spark my interest’, he says. ‘Too heavy, too cluttered, too complicated’. He wanted a yacht he could handle on his own, one that is easy for a small crew to operate – ‘as easy as it goes for an 80-footer, a boat you can feel’.

It apparently wasn’t just Schmidt who liked the idea of sophisticated simplicity. A year after Cool Breeze was launched, he sensed demand – and an opportunity to postpone early retirement. He founded the company in 2016 as Michael Schmidt Yachtbau and then later rebranded it more internationally as YYachts. Today it is arguably one of the hottest brands in big-boat sailing.

Y7 technical specifications

Naval architect: judel/vrolijk & co
Interior design & styling: YYachts Design Team & David Thulstrup
CE classification: Category A
Yard: YYachts GmbH
Hull length on deck (LOD): 21.99 m
Length overall (LOA): 23.80 m
Length waterline (LWL): 20.55 m
Beam: 6.10 m
Draught standard/shallow keel: 3.50 m / 2.85 m
Displacement31.8tBallast / Ballast ratio: 10.7t / 34%
Ballast telescopic keel approximate: 10.4t
Mainsail: 180m²
Self-tacking jib (Std.): 126m²
Jib 105%: 147m²
Code 0: 320m²
Gennaker: 500m²
SA/D upwind with jib / genoa: 31 / 33
Displacement/LWL: 102
Engine (Yanmar 4LV SD15 saildrive): 150 hp, 110 kw
Fuel tank approximate: 850 litres
Fresh water approximate: 850 litres
Black Water approximate: 240 litres

The original Y7 was launched in 2018, a design by the American naval architect Bill Tripp. It became the shipyard’s bestseller: both a style icon and a highly successful business model. No other boat of this size and configuration has sold a total of two dozen units in just eight years. So it is no coincidence that the yard kicked off its 10-year anniversary with a new, refined version.

Judel/vrolijk designer Jan Kuhnert compares designing the successor to the task of “developing the next generation of a Porsche 911”. It’s a balancing act between sensitively preserving the heritage on the one hand and resolutely modernising the product experience on the other.

The design and engineering team, who also undertook the structural analysis, have mastered this thoroughly challenging task remarkably well. From every angle the new Y7 appears more taut, more defined, more elongated, more exciting while still maintaining the family DNA.

The reverse sheer line suggests agility. The forward section of the hull and deck look nicely tensioned, poised to spring forward. It also brings down the tack on the bowsprit for more sail area in the asymmetric spinnaker and the code zero. The transom is wider but significantly slimmer, giving the boat a distinctive lightness from the stern.

Not visible but certainly noticeable is the significantly higher stability. Matthias Bröker puts the increase at 30 per cent. This is due to nuances in hull design generating more form stability and a lower centre of gravity. These measures allow for more upright, efficient sailing in moderate wind conditions. The ratio of righting moment to heeling moment is improved by no less than 25 per cent.

The judel/vrolijk & co team optimised a total of 11 parameters relevant to sailing performance over dozens of iterations before finalising the Y7’s design in collaboration with the shipyard’s development team. ‘As naval architects we were tasked with creating much more space below deck without compromising sailing performance and ideally improving it,’ says Bröker.

The sail area to displacement ratio sits at 31 with the self-tacking jib, reaching 33 with the optional 105 per cent genoa. Displacement to length is 102. By common standards these indicators put the new Y7 firmly into the category of racing yachts. She can provide for pleasant daysailing in the notoriously light-wind Mediterranean as well as crossing oceans at pace.

On hull number one, only the rather stiff steering dampened the fun somewhat. The twin-rudder set-up had noticeable initial resistance even when operating without load. While it improved during delivery, the shipyard has now modified the push-rod steering system to deliver that light yet precise feedback which is part and parcel for a luxury performance cruiser.

Pedestals, electric winches, halyard clutches and line storage are situated aft of the guest cockpit, ensuring that the deck area remains clearly segmented. A companionway offset to port leaves the seating area around the large cockpit table as a relaxation zone, free of any traffic by other crew passing.

Access to the winches is excellent. They are mounted on pedestals further inboard than on most yachts, so to actively sail and trim the genoa sheet no one needs to brace all the way out and down on the side deck to leeward, allowing for more sheltered sheeting and easing. Features like this show the depth of experience and refinement in the design team as well as within the yard.

The Y7 has also gained enormously in terms of space below deck, far more than the 30-centimetre increase in beam would suggest. In fact, the increase is closer to 20 per cent in volume, due not only to the more powerful hull shape and wider forward sections but also to a more efficient layout.

This is particularly evident in the saloon, where in the yacht’s standard configuration the U-shaped galley adjoins the main bulkhead on starboard side. On the port side there is a lounge that can also be converted into an office or partitioned off to create a guest cabin. Those who do not choose the latter option retain the open character of the saloon, which then appears as spacious as on a typical 80ft yacht.

Equally impressive is the owner’s cabin, located forward in all layout variants. It features a slightly off-centre double berth, accessible from three sides, and has an en suite bathroom. A walk-in wardrobe is available on request. The optional VIP guest cabin aft on the starboard side is also a new and highly attractive feature. However, it does restrict the crew quarters aft a bit, as the crew lose their own mess.

Owners can choose from three basic layouts, which allow for a further five variations. All of this is available in four different styles – from dark and dignified (Baltic) to fresh and light (Glacier, as on hull number one). So the Y7 offers nearly three dozen different combinations without moving bulkheads or racking up extra cost and complexity for custom solutions – which the yard is, of course, still able to provide.

No matter what you choose, crew on the new Y7 can access the deck from their cabin via their own companionway, located in front of the mainsheet block. It is so seamlessly integrated into the aft end of the cockpit that it remains almost invisible.

The carefully insulated engine compartment is also accessible via this route. There is a second access from the forward end, via the central service tunnel, which houses the washing machine (on rails!) and much of the electrical system.

Whilst the first boat in the series is already sailing under her owner’s flag following the Palma boat show, the second is due to be launched in Greifswald shortly. Orders for three further yachts have already been placed. Ready to sail, they generally cost between €3.2 million and €3.6 million ex tax.

It looks as if the Y7 is continuing her successful course in swift style. So YYachts have given themselves a fitting gift for their 10th anniversary. And there is yet another one in the making. The new Y6, which at 65ft will become the brand’s smallest model yet, is set to be presented this fall.

More on YYachts

Today’s performance cruising multihulls are faster, lighter, and more highly loaded than their predecessors. They carry larger sailplans, sail at tighter apparent wind angles and often spend extended periods operating at speeds once associated primarily with racing yachts. At the same time, owners expect these boats to remain manageable offshore with small crews, long reefing intervals and high levels of reliability.

For sail designers, this combination presents a unique challenge. Unlike monohulls, multihulls do not heel significantly to dissipate load. With the loads transferring more directly into the platform, the rig and the sails themselves, fabric strength, reefing geometry, sheeting angles and load distribution all become more critical factors for performance, durability and handling.

Quantum Sails has been at the forefront of addressing these challenges through its highly customised approach to sail design and its proprietary iQ Technology platform. A design and validation system originally developed for high-performance racing programmes, iQ is now used as part of a broader design process that enables Quantum Sails’ designers to simulate, refine and validate the behaviour of complex sailplans before they are built.

This capability is particularly relevant in the performance cruising multihull market, where each project demands an individual balance of speed, reliability, handling and owner expectation.

A different type of design challenge
Modern cruising multihulls routinely operate at apparent wind angles and boatspeeds that create substantially different aerodynamic environments from traditional cruising monohulls. Large square-top mainsails, overlapping reaching sails and highly refined deck layouts create systems where relatively small geometry changes can produce meaningful differences in sail shape and load distribution.

Reefing adds another layer of complexity. Offshore cruising multihulls often spend extended periods at sea, which means that the sailmakers are not simply designing for a single full-power condition. Instead, they must consider how sail shape, twist and structural loads evolve across multiple reefing states and wind ranges.

Using iQ, Quantum Sails’ designers can evaluate those reefing states and wind ranges virtually, helping identify not only how a sail will perform when reefed, but also the conditions where a reefing transition may become the more efficient, controlled or safe option.

‘Multihulls don’t provide sailors with the same “feel” that monohulls do, to help them to identify when to reef, which can often lead to breakages or failures,’ Quantum VP of design Doug Stewart explains. ‘By looking at shroud loads, sheet loads and loads on the sail fabric, iQ can give owners the exact numbers they need so they know when to reef. Otherwise it’s just guesswork.’

Historically, much of this process relied on accumulated design knowledge and seatrial refinement. Experienced sail designers developed instinctive understanding of how certain sailplans would behave on certain platforms. Quantum’s approach builds on that experience with digital validation tools capable of modelling not only sail shape, but also the interaction between sails, rigging, deck geometry and aerodynamic loads.

Modelling the entire system
Quantum’s iQ Technology platform approaches sail design as a fully integrated system rather than an isolated exercise.

For projects such as the new S/V Delos expedition catamaran, that process begins by constructing a virtual model of the yacht which includes detailed deck geometry and rigging layouts. The longrunning sailing channel operated by Brian and Karin Trautman is building a new 53’ aluminium expedition catamaran designed by David De Villiers and built by Stradbroke Yachts in Brisbane, Australia, for extended offshore cruising and circumnavigation.

The project presented an unusually broad design brief. The yacht needed to combine offshore durability and manageable handling with the performance characteristics expected of a modern performance cruising multihull. Sailplan and rigging decisions therefore became closely interconnected from the outset.

Doug Stewart worked with the Delos team during the early development phase, helping evaluate both sailplan and rigging configurations before the final geometry was locked in. Once the configuration was established, Quantum designer Joan Subirats and the design team created a complete digital model of the platform within the iQ environment.

Winches, chainplates, sheeting tracks and hardware locations were incorporated into the model so the software could reproduce precise sheeting angles and trim geometries. Once the sailplan was established, designers could simulate airflow across the sails over a wide range of wind angles and velocities while simultaneously analysing structural load paths throughout the sail.

Subirats describes the process as a balance between aerodynamic and structural requirements. ‘It’s a kind of dance between the structural side and the aerial one,’ he says. ‘We adjust until they are in harmony at each stage.’

The practical implications are significant. Rather than estimating how a sail may behave under various reefing conditions or sheeting configurations, designers can evaluate those scenarios virtually before construction begins. Changes to running rigging geometry, sheeting angles or sail structure can be modelled and tested digitally, allowing designers to observe how loads move through the sail and where shape distortions may occur.

‘iQ helped us to understand what size patches we actually need for the different reefing configurations,’ Stewart explains. ‘For an offshore programme like Delos, those insights are really going to impact the overall strength and long-term durability of the sails.’

Another area of focus for Delos was fabric selection for the mainsail and headsails. Early discussions had pointed toward Dimension-Polyant’s Hydra Net radial fabric, a woven hybrid material combining polyester with Dyneema and Spectra fibres. Using iQ, Quantum modelled various Hydra Net weights against alternative constructions while observing how each behaved structurally across projected operating loads and reefing states. According to the designers, the simulations reinforced the choice not only from a performance standpoint, but also from a longevity and reliability perspective.

The same process allows sailmakers to compare construction and fabric options with greater precision. Different constructions and material weights can be modelled against identical sailing conditions to evaluate how each behaves structurally and aerodynamically across a projected operating range.

While the software itself does not replace the sail designer’s expertise, it acts as a validation tool that allows experienced designers to confirm assumptions and refine decisions using measurable data. For the sailor, the outcome is a sailplan intended to feel more predictable and controlled in the conditions where the boat will actually be used. A better-supported shape can result in smoother steering, more consistent autopilot performance, easier trimming, more confidence when reefed, and a construction plan designed around longevity rather than generic load assumptions.

Proof across the multihull category
While Delos provides a detailed example of the process on a custom expedition platform, Quantum’s work in the performance cruising multihull segment extends across production, semi-custom and owner-led projects.

For builders such as Vaan Yachts, which has specified Quantum sails across its range for a number of years, the value lies not only in sail construction but in the ability to support the boatbuilder’s broader design and performance objectives. A builder must deliver not only performance, but also a consistent sailing experience across boats, owners and conditions.

‘On a modern cruising catamaran, the sailplan strongly influences the overall onboard experience: how a boat accelerates, balances, handles and ultimately how intuitive and enjoyable it is to sail,’ explains Igor Kluin, co-founder and CEO of Vaan Yachts . ‘That is why we value working closely with Quantum from an early stage in the design process.’

The same approach can be applied to well-established performance cruising platforms. On owner-led projects, the design objective is not simply to replace sails, but to tune the sail package around the owner’s real use case: fast passagemaking, manageable loads, and confidence across a wide range of conditions.

On a recent project for an Outremer 55, the owner wanted to fine-tune his setup. ‘We worked from the sailplan and analysis on what has been done on similar boats and used iQ to estimate loads and refine all the systems,’ says Quantum sail designer Adrien de Belloy. ‘The boat is fast while easy to handle in all kinds of wind and sea conditions. The owner is particularly impressed with how the sails retain their shape and allow the boat to accelerate.’

Together, these projects show the broader relevance of Quantum’s process. The value of iQ is not limited to one-off custom programmes, nor is it confined to grand-prix raceboats. In the multihull segment, production partnerships, owner-led upgrades and custom expedition projects all contribute different kinds of insight into how modern cruising catamarans are actually sailed. Those data learnings can then feed back into future designs, creating a continuous loop between design, validation, real-world use and refinement.

Continuous evolution
For offshore cruising multihulls, the key objective is not always outright speed. Many owners are equally focused on stable sail shapes, predictable reefing behaviour, manageable loads and long service life over the course of their extended cruising programmes.

As performance cruising multihulls continue evolving, sail design is becoming more integrated with rig engineering, deck layout and offshore systems planning. Sails are no longer being designed independently from the rest of the core platform. Instead, the boat’s entire sailing system is increasingly evaluated as a connected structure.

For large multihulls, that can mean modelling apparent wind ranges, validating reefed sail shapes, analysing square-top mainsail load paths, comparing cloth weights and understanding how changes in sheeting geometry affect both trim and structure. The goal is not to remove the designer from the process but to give the designer a more complete picture of how the sailplan will behave before the boat goes offshore.

For owners preparing for passage-making, the result may be less about extracting another half-knot of speed and more about reducing uncertainty. And for a new generation of performance cruising multihulls, that shift from estimate to validation may prove just as important as outright pace.

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For A+T, the 2026 New Year began with the news that B&G had ceased production of its flagship H5000 display, which was supplied with all its high-end systems since launch in 2013. With no direct replacement, the A+T team got round the table and the HFD5 five-inch display was born as a drop-in upgrade and replacement. Below, we look at the design challenges and how these were overcome.

It had to be compatible

The HFD5 is designed to fit the same footprint and mounting as an H5000 display. The N2K compatible connection is plug and play. It displays all core data available on the N2K network, including custom channels, in a variety of formats. It does not support pilot applications or advanced calibrations which are better suited to a web interface.

It had to be better

The display is transflective, so the stronger the sunlight, the better the definition. Each unit is tested to 75°C and those recently shown at Palma Boat Show were working fine at an internal temperature of 85°C in the strong sunlight there.

Anti-glare glass is used, as in all A+T products, which enhances visibility and doesn’t show reflections or finger marks like other displays on the market. Like all A+T displays, the HFD5 has no breather hole and is hermetically sealed, so it is fully immersible in water for extended periods. Central to this is using control buttons with no connection to the internal electronics, using instead tiny magnets sensed from inside the sealed casing.

A wide range of data display formats is available from simple grids of data to analogue displays, trend graphs and bar indications. Any combinations of these can be selected and set up as custom pages. The display also allows for data-based context switching of colours to indicate good/bad/warning or point of sailing selectable layouts.

As with all A+T products, users are encouraged to request sensible additions and modifications which generally can be implemented within a few days.

Software updates are done by linking to each display with WiFi, so the display does not need to be opened or removed to do this. This WiFi may be connected to the vessel’s WiFi network, thus opening the possibility of running this display without a data cable. This is not implemented in the initial release.

Another possible application of this WiFi, especially for a smaller boat, is using it to drive the increasing population of watch, phone and tablet displays and applications being produced by people and organisations such as Campbell Field, Ian Moore and NMEAremote, iRegatta, SAILGRIB.

It had to be done quickly

Once the B&G-end-of-life announcement was made for the H5000 displays, clients were on the phone within days asking if A+T would step up and provide new and better replacements. The design team met in the first week of January, specifications were agreed and work commenced. Pre-production units were produced some three months later for testing.

It certainly helped to meet this time scale that much of the design of A+T’s seven-inch display, the QBD7, could be carried over to the new display. The QBD7 was launched at METS in November 2025 to great acclaim and many of the units being sold are to yachts that had Sailmon displays. Sailmon went out of business in 2025 and A+T specialise in upgrading these systems.

A substantial run of orders is being received and are now being delivered on a first-come, first-served basis. Many of these are replacements, but a good number are also for new-build projects.

Part of the family

This is the versatile little brother of the existing A+T range of vibrant and tough colour displays, 12in BFD and 7in QBD. All of these are tough, versatile, ultrabright, anti-glare and robust non-touch screen units. They are built with interfaces to Ethernet and to N2K networks (N2K compatible). They are fitted to many hundreds of large yachts and new builds including the new 65m Aquarius from Royal Huisman and Project Zero, currently finishing build at Vitters.

Note: A+T has no connection or affiliation with Sailmon, Navico or B&G. H5000 is a trademark of Navico, which is acknowledged.

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Whatever type of sailing you do, it’s vital to be able to trust your kit. Sails, electronics, winches, hardware, you have to be sure that it’s going to do what you need it to do. The same applies to foul-weather gear, and that’s why more and more pro teams are choosing Mustang Survival.

Mustang Survival’s reputation is built on decades of service to military, coast guard and special forces in Canada and the US. It’s that frontline experience, those industrial relationships, that allow Mustang Survival to use militaryspecification 6.5 GORE-TEX in its EP 6.5 Ocean Collection. That’s how its kit is exceptional for its breathability, durability, flexibility and waterproofness. Performance like that builds trust.

Cole Brauer, a brand ambassador, was wearing Mustang Survival when she finished second in the 2023-24 Global Solo Challenge. ‘I absolutely love the new EP 6.5 Ocean Collection, it’s perfect for offshore racing,’ she says. ‘I wore the previous version during my round-the-world race and I’m stoked to continue in the newly redesigned gear. It’s by far the best quality out there.’

Erica Lush (above) and Joss Creswell (below) are both wearing Mustang Survival gear for their current campaigns on the Solitaire du Figaro circuit, where high-speed spray from the boats’ foils demand very watertight wrist and neck seals.

Both Django and JOLT crews were wearing Mustang Survival’s Atlas 190 DLX lifejackets and EP 6.5 Ocean Collection smocks, jackets and salopettes for their memorable 2025 Admiral’s Cup battle. Black Jack 100’s crew were wearing the same kit when they won line honours in the 2026 RORC Caribbean 600, 2025 Rolex Middle Sea Race and 2025 Rolex Fastnet Race. It’s quite the roster of talent, and Mustang Survival is helping to bring more through.

‘You need to be able to rely on your kit,’ says Joss Creswell, Mustang Survival ambassador, a 27-year-old Brit racing his first La Solitaire du Figaro on board digiLab. ‘When you have the peace of mind that, whatever the conditions, you are going to stay comfortably warm and dry, it allows you to perform at a much higher level,’ he says.

Also on the start line, for her second La Solitaire du Figaro, is Erica Lush. Another Mustang Survival ambassador, the 34-year-old Rhode Island native is only the third American to complete this apex solo offshore event. ‘It takes huge pressure off to know that the gear is going to be well suited to the conditions,’ she says. ‘I have an amazing smock that has seals on my neck and wrists. It goes down really low so it’s an extra layer on the bum where you tend to get wet because you’re always sitting in water.

‘I’ve worn Mustang Survival gear before I started working with them. I wore it with the Canadian Imoca team when we did two Transats and in the Southern Ocean with Maiden Factor in the Ocean Globe Race 2024 and it stood up to those conditions. For me it’s tried and tested and it’s one less thing to worry about.’

Lush and Creswell have both recently emerged from the gruelling two-handed BGPO (Banque Populaire Grande Ouest), another Figaro 3 event. Creswell raced with Cole Brauer. ‘It was very hectic,’ he recalls. ‘There was a 14-hour leg reaching in around 35 knots. As a foiling boat, it causes a lot of spray and the kit held up very well. Cole and I both use the EP 6.5 kit, which has very good latex seals that really protect you from the elements, from side spray. I definitely feel the EP is the key to keeping core heat, and that means staying dry. That’s what the Mustang Survival kit was able to provide.

‘In solo racing, you’re managing your rest levels throughout the race,’ Creswell continues. ‘You need to be in this constant zone of quiet comfort and that’s what Mustang Survival gives me. Because it’s breathable, comfortable, easy to get on and off, it allows me to stay within that steady state where I’m able to focus on a lot of stuff. I’m able not to spend too much emotional capital on whether I’m cold or warm, but stay in a sensible mental state throughout.’

Another advocate for the kit is Germany’s Mustang Survival distributor ‘Broxe’, Lorenz Pinck, skipper of the Marten 49 Moana for owner Hanno Ziehm. ‘The owner doesn’t want to sail with pros,’ Pinck clarifies. ‘He wants to sail with his friends. We have really skilled people on board but everyone is doing it for fun.’ While it may be a Corinthian outfit, they clearly take their racing seriously. Moana placed second in IRC1 in the RORC Transatlantic Race 2025 and won IRC1 in the West-to-East Transatlantic Race 2025.

The latter Pinck describes as ‘intense, an awesome transatlantic race with some really mixed weather, everything you’d want.’ After a foggy start the wind returned south of the Newfoundland Banks before Moana parked up at the Gulf Stream. Then it came back.

‘The wind wasn’t so strong, 20-30 knots, but we had huge waves so the boat started diving and we had a lot of water on deck. We were on the edge, load-wise. We pushed the boat to 32 knots, which is quite good for a cruiser-racer and also a bit scary!

‘We knew we needed the best-of-the-best weather gear. The temperatures were not too bad, five to six degrees during the night, but there were waves going over the boat. You’re always sitting in water so it’s important that you have really reliable gear. Mustang Survival doesn’t just make gear, they engineer trust. And for those of us who live on the water, that means everything.’

‘The gear is really nicely engineered and executed,’ Pinck continues. ‘There’s Velcro behind the knees of the salopettes so there is less pressure on the shoulders, that’s a great little detail. Normal salopettes hang on the shoulders. The offshore smock hoods are removable so if it’s not raining you can take it off and replace it when you need to. It’s the gear you want if you don’t want to get slowed down by complicated, heavy gear and wet clothes.’

For Lush, as a female sailor, foul weather gear can present challenges unknown to her male competitors. ‘The EP 6.5 offshore cut is unisex and because of that there are quite a lot of adjustment features,’ she says. ‘I can cinch the waist and there’s a Velcro tab behind the knee, which means I can wear the small, which is still on the bigger side for me, but I can adjust it to my form. Whether I’m bulking up with layers or just trying to stay dry in warmer weather, it allows me to adapt the size to the conditions.

‘The kneepads are awesome,’ Lush continues. ‘They make you a bit fearless, especially in a Figaro 3, a boat where you’re always crawling around moving the stack, on the foredeck you always want to keep your weight as low as possible. It takes the hesitation out of getting something done. I find it really good to just know that I can kneel down, use my body hard and stay comfortable and uninjured through the process.’

‘It’s always been a struggle for me and for the other girls I’ve sailed with, they always had trouble with lifejackets resting in the wrong spot on your shoulders,’ she notes. ‘If you’re wearing your lifejacket 24/7 it’s important how it’s fitting. The Atlas 190s are really cool because they sit off the back of your neck. Because we’re always leaning down and pulling ropes, it’s an area that gets really tight so if you have a lifejacket sitting there it’s pretty uncomfortable. Their design is very well-adapted to the sport.’

Pinck also favours the Atlas lifejacket. ‘It’s lighter so you don’t feel it as much on the shoulders. One guy on the crew doesn’t like to wear lifejackets because the pressure on the neck makes him seasick. The Atlas has a really wide cut-out so that doesn’t happen. That was a game changer for him.’

Mustang Survival is also a great fit for grassroots sailors operating on a budget. ‘The company takes feedback from people who are using the kit really hard,’ Creswell notes. ‘Because Mustang supports Figaro sailors who don’t have an enormous budget, they’re a bit more community focused. We provide better feedback for the average sailor. They’re in a similar position to me. I have a budget that digiLab has given me and that’s great, but I don’t have four jackets’ worth of breakage in my budget. Because of the military background, all Mustang’s stuff is super-hard wearing. It’s designed to be tough and to last for a long time.

There’s another aspect of Mustang Survival’s approach to looking after sailors, as Pinck outlines based on his transatlantic experience. ‘I nicked my neck seal so I fixed it with Cuben Fibre tape and it was fine for the last five days. Afterwards I sent it into Mustang. We had two weeks before the Fastnet Race and they instantly took care of it and I got a new neck seal. They have a life-long warranty for the membrane and the hardware on it. Good after-sales service is as important as a good product. They take it seriously.’

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Getting hi-tech designs like TP52s to achieve their peak performance requires more than top crew work, perfect sail trim and outstanding steering and tactics. Having the right spars is also absolutely essential. A case study of a successful Class 0 entry at the ORC World Championship in Sorrento, Italy shows how MC1 Spars rose to the challenge of designing, fabricating and delivering a replacement mast on time and on budget, for a high-profile team entered in this very competitive event, and then providing full commissioning support.

This story starts at the 2025 Admiral’s Cup where Carl-Peter Forster’s TP52 Red Bandit, part of the Bayerischer Yacht Club team, showed tremendous promise. They came into the Admiral’s Cup after an overall win in the 2024 Middle Sea Race and scored some solid results in the opening stages of the AC.

The team was earning attention for these results because Red Bandit Racing is not just another all-pro programme loaded with decades of elite talent and the very latest technologies, like a typical Admiral’s Cup campaign. In fact, the Forster Offshore Racing Foundation that supports Red Bandit Racing is a decidedly pro-am effort that provides ambitious young sailors with the chance to get the training from a few seasoned pros and to compete at a professional level in a variety of inshore and offshore racing events. The foundation’s mission is to train and develop young sailors from one-design and dinghy classes (such as, 420, 470, 49er) the opportunity to transition into the world of big-boat racing.

‘So far we have invited more than 70 young people to sail with us in this programme,’ says Forster, ‘and interest continues to grow’.

Yet this positive start to last year’s Admiral’s Cup took an unfortunate turn. On the first of the inshore races in the Solent, Red Bandit’s mast crumpled and broke, fortunately without injury to any of the crew, but taking them out of the event and cancelling all other planned racing for months to come.

Enter MC1 Spars
In the search for a replacement mast, Forster contacted MC1 Spars’ manager Trent Justice to find out what options were available to get them back on the water.

‘We first looked carefully at the team’s goals,’ says Justice. ‘Their programme has a primary focus on serious offshore racing, with occasional inshore races as well, so we agreed that a mast of exceptional strength was a priority, especially after their experience in the Solent.

‘Cost was also a consideration, so we suggested high-modulus carbon rather than ultra-high modulus because the small difference in weight and centre of gravity did not outweigh the extra expense for the type of racing they were anticipating.’

Justice then contacted Steve Wilson, who he calls “the godfather of rig design”. Wilson’s development of the SailPack software system has led to extensive experience in designing many dozens of successful high-performance spars.

Wilson routinely works with the team at MC1 Spars to determine the dimensions and composites layup needed to optimise a spar to meet the customer’s needs. In this capacity he works alongside other experts, such as project manager Wade Morgan, who was available for this job after finishing his role with the new Mills 56 Denali built in Valencia, another highperformance boat with an offshore focus.

‘Working with this team at MC1 Spars was a great pleasure,’ says Forster, whose background in the 505 and Star classes, as well as in offshore racing, gave him a strong personal insight on the importance of having exactly the right mast to match the boat.

‘Our TP 52 is an older judel/vrolijk design from 2008, which is a little heavier with a shorter keel than the current generation boats, but has less wetted surface in the hull form,’ Forster says. ‘So we can do quite well in winds less than 10 knots.’ The sailplan is slightly different as well, with a smaller mainsail but larger headsails and spinnakers. Other important features that needed consideration in the spar design were:

• the ability to increase headstay loads from 6.5 tons to 8 tons

• no less than six halyard locks to handle staysails and flying sails as well as the headsails and spinnakers

• while a new mainsail would be built for the new mast, the team wanted a workable deflector system to fine-tune the mast shape as needed throughout the range of conditions typical of most offshore races. This avoids the need to make too many luff curve adjustments in the new mainsail

• all other sails – headsails, spinnakers, staysails and code sails – would be from the existing inventory and used without immediate plans for replacement

Time to deliver... but also innovate
Another important target was to deliver the new mast to the boat in St-Tropez by early May 2026 in time for the ORC Worlds in Italy. Hopefully sooner, to have some time to check its fit and do some tuning before the event. This included ensuring the new set of composite rigging from Future Fibres was also arriving on time and on dimension to fit properly.

‘What also really impressed me about working with MC1 Spars,’ Forster says, ‘was the on-site commissioning service and how Trent and his team worked really hard to solve a few issues that came up in the commissioning. Their work was diligent and efficient so that we had time to not only make the event, but to have a few days of sailing before racing.’

The on-time delivery from the team at MC1 Spars started with completing the mast fabrication at its base in Zhuhai, China, ahead of schedule, allowing Forster to help find a shorter shipping route from the export location in Shanghai. He found a one-stop solution that landed the mast in Belgium and it was then transported by truck to St Tropez a few days earlier than the plan. In all, it was delivered four and a half weeks earlier than the contracted arrival date.

‘One thing we do for our customers is to maintain a constant flow of weekly reports that give not only the progress of what’s happened to date, but also a projection of completion targets in the next week,’ Justice says. This approach builds confidence and trust, effectively bring the client into the team to collaboratively arrive at outcomes that don’t just fulfil contract goals but provide an opportunity to exceed them, as happened with Red Bandit’s new mast.

‘We are deliberately careful in establishing timelines that may seem ambitious but are actually realistic,’ Justice says. ‘That avoids us having to rush at the end to meet deadlines, which is when mistakes can easily be made and we then fall behind in correcting them.’

Another interesting aspect of the Red Bandit mast project is the detailed innovations in spar assembly that make a difference in a variety of important ways, such as reducing weight and windage, increasing strength and adding useful functionality. Justice gives an example in the fabrication and installation of the diagonal shroud tangs.

‘When we were designing these we realised we could improve not only on reducing the weight from 510g to 397g by using titanium, but also reduce the fabrication time by building the tangs in one part and not three. We spoke about this with Carl-Peter and he said: ‘This is great, but how much more will it cost?’ When I said there was no charge for it, this is what we do, he could not believe it.’

Similar improvements in design were made to the six halyard locks by having the bullet travel over the sheave and positioning the flipper behind it. This makes the release under load more reliable when applied off-axis, which is typical when dousing even a furled sail while under way. For any foredeck team in modern offshore racing, a consistently reliable halyard lock system can be a game-changer.

Besides the full-service commissioning work performed by Justice and the MC1 Spars team, Forster was also impressed with the guidance they gave for an initial set of tuning numbers to get them started towards the ORC World Championships in Sorrento, which were fast approaching.

‘In our pro-am team we are without a specialist in rig tuning,’ Forster says. ‘Trent’s guidance was a tremendous help in getting us started. We would have been lost without that.’

At the ORC Worlds the Red Bandit team performed well considering that they were starting afresh. In Class 0, the toughest class at the event with 15 entries including eight seasoned, mostly all-pro TP52s and three Wallyrockets, Red Bandit finished fifth among the TPs and eighth overall. Included in their remaining season of four events are the always competitive Copa del Rey and a return to the Rolex Middle Sea Race.

Watch for this team as they grow in competitiveness while still completing their mission to also grow the sport.

More on MC1 Spars

From performance cruisers to superyachts, many of the high-end vessels built in Italy, and increasingly beyond its borders, rely on components designed, engineered and produced by a remarkable supplier based in Ancona: Advanced Mechanical Solutions, or AMS.

The trajectory of this thriving firm is impossible to separate from the story of its founder and CEO, Francesco Pelizza. His approach to marine structural engineering began long before Finite Element Method (FEM) calculations, carbon laminates and composite load paths entered the picture. At the beginning there was simply the family boat: a Show 29 designed by Alain Jézéquel, one of the glassfibre yachts that introduced a generation to offshore sailing during the 1970s and ‘80s.

For Pelizza, that early exposure became a genuine apprenticeship. By the 1990s he had built extensive offshore racing experience, including a PHS division victory in the Sydney Hobart Race and line honours with a course record at both the Middle Sea Race and the Giraglia, as well as second place in the Fastnet Race. All of that he achieved before graduating from university and launching his own engineering company.

‘I started in the Optimist like everyone else, although only briefly,’ he recalls. ‘The real sea school was the family boat, cruising and long passages.’

At the same time came his first offshore races out of Ancona, which during the 1980s and ’90s was one of the most active offshore sailing hubs in Italy. Pelizza joined local crews and sailed alongside some of the best-known names in Italian sailing including Andrea Giorgetti, who was the bowman aboard the Italian America’s Cup 12 Metre Azzurra.

‘I was mainsail trimmer for these round-the-can races,’ Pelizza says. ‘I also did countless deliveries between regattas, thousands of miles between the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian Seas.’

In those years the sea was more than a sporting passion. Pelizza also worked as a commercial diver for an Ancona-based offshore contractor servicing oil platforms in the Adriatic, while simultaneously studying engineering and continuing to race. There were periods, he says, when he spent more hours at sea than ashore. His first big offshore campaigns were in the early 1990s with the 500 x 2, the historic double-handed Adriatic race. Despite its enclosed geography, the Adriatic is far from benign. Violent summer squalls descending from the Balkans and steep, short seas generated by southerly weather systems make it an unforgiving training ground.

Pelizza belongs to a generation of Italian offshore sailors raised in an era when campaigns were run on modest budgets. Technical preparation was largely self-taught and success depended heavily on practical ingenuity. It was common to arrive at the start line of a race after days of offshore delivery sailing with a reduced crew, little sleep and continuous boat preparation under way. The same mindset would later prove to be invaluable in his engineering career.

One of the first significant results came in 1994 with victory in the Rimini-Corfù– Rimini aboard Pegaso, an Open-class yacht considered exceptionally quick for its time. But it was double-handed racing that truly defined that period. Pelizza competed in multiple editions of the 500 x 2 and Roma x 2 races, experiencing challenges that were central to both his technical and personal development.

One campaign in the 500 x 2 ended dramatically when, during a night return leg toward Italy, the 10m yacht he was racing double-handed – while lying second overall – was struck by a commercial ship. Nobody was injured but the race ended with a badly damaged bow and the boat dismasted. The following year he returned with Massimo Giacomozzi and won.

A long string of successes followed. Giacomozzi and Pelizza formed one of the most successful offshore partnerships of late 1990s Italian sailing and the two sailors also shared a Mini Transat project. Giacomozzi bought a Mini 6.50 that the pair prepared together for the 1997 race, while Pelizza competed in the 1999 edition, all while continuing their intensive offshore programmes in both the Adriatic and Tyrrhenian circuits.

One of the emblematic boats of that era was Vulcangas, a tiny but exceptionally quick Ami 30 designed by Alberto Fiorenzi. Spartan, light and aggressively optimised, the boat repeatedly defeated much larger rivals. With Vulcangas, Pelizza and Giacomozzi won the Roma per Due, the 500 x 2 and the Rimini–Corfù–Rimini, frequently beating yachts 10ft or even 20ft longer on real and corrected time.

Those involved in the Italian offshore scene at the time still remember that boat as a David-versus-Goliath project. Fifty and 60-footers regularly found themselves behind a stripped-out 30-footer prepared with obsessive care and sailed exceptionally well.

At the same time Pelizza joined the crew of Riviera di Rimini, the famous Andrea Vallicelli-designed 60ft design which was among the Mediterranean’s most competitive offshore platforms of the period. He raced in multiple editions of the Middle Sea Race aboard that yacht, including the particularly brutal 1998 race in which Riviera di Rimini established a record of 72 hours, 50 minutes and 42 seconds – a mark that stood for 12 years. In 1998, he also came second in the Fastnet Race aboard the same yacht. On board, Pelizza alternated between bow work, helmsman and watch captain duties. His résumé also includes the 1997 Sydney-Hobart aboard the Italian entry Orchidea, racing on the Farr 50 Seac Banche which the team had chartered in Australia. They won the PHS division.

Then came the 1999 Mini Transat and in many ways that was the moment when Pelizza chose his long-term direction.

He graduated in mechanical engineering from the Marche Polytechnic University in 1999 with a thesis dedicated to the structural analysis of a sailing yacht at sea. His experimental platform was none other than Vulcangas. Sensors, data acquisition systems and instrumentation were installed aboard to study real deformation and load cases during offshore sailing.

‘It was already an attempt to connect practical experience with structural analysis,’ he explains. ‘I wasn’t interested only in theoretical numbers. I wanted to understand what actually happens to a yacht at sea.’

The 1999 Mini Transat was meant to represent the natural culmination of that journey. His Mini, designed by the late Andrea Romanelli, had been heavily modified with a canting keel and revised systems to remain competitive in a class that was evolving at remarkable speed.

The campaign ended prematurely when the keel detached, causing the yacht to capsize. Pelizza escaped unharmed but the incident also marked the end of his top-level offshore racing career.

‘In reality I had already decided that after the Mini Transat I would dedicate myself entirely to engineering,’ he says. ‘Whether I finished first or last, that was going to be the moment I changed direction.’

The next step took him first to Rome, working in the office of marine structural engineer Giulio Ricci, before moving into the aerospace sector between Trieste and Rome with Aerostudi. Those years proved decisive. Advanced FEM analysis, carbon composite structures and aerospacederived calculation methodologies became his daily working environment. It was there that what later became the AMS method truly took shape: applying aerospace engineering principles to yacht design while retaining the perspective of someone who has deep and long experience of high-level offshore sailing.

In 2005 Pelizza returned to Ancona and founded AMS. One of the company’s first major commissions was the structural design work for the RC44 conceived by Russell Coutts and designed by Andrej Justin. That project became the company’s real turning point.

‘The RC44 was the project that made me realise I could build something of my own,’ says Pelizza. ‘Everything started from there.’

Today AMS operates as a multidisciplinary organisation comprising an in-house engineering office with more than 15 engineers and 30 people in the company, a composites division, a dedicated metalworking facility and a broad network of specialist external partners. In 2021 the company also launched AMS-Composites, a division dedicated to the direct production of in-house developed carbon components.

The company has worked and continues to work with many international shipyards and design offices across projects ranging from performance cruisers to full custom superyachts. Clients include Wally, Solaris Yachts, Cantiere del Pardo, Maxi Dolphin, YYachts and CRN. AMS is currently working on a 100ft superyacht project, the details of which cannot be disclosed.

Yet despite the company’s growth and the increasing sophistication of modern yacht engineering, Pelizza still sees a direct continuity between his offshore sailing background and the way AMS approaches structural design today.

‘When we size a component, we don’t think only about the numbers imposed by classification rules,’ he explains. ‘We think about the yacht slamming into waves, about real dynamic loads and what can happen during offshore sailing. Having lived through those situations helps enormously.’

According to Pelizza, the biggest change from the past lies not so much in structural principles themselves but in the design constraints that are imposed by the styling of contemporary yachts.

‘Today, structures have to coexist with far more extreme interior layouts,’ he says. ‘Yachts have greater internal volumes, fewer bulkheads and much more open interiors. Our job is to maintain stiffness and minimise weight within increasingly complex constraints.’

The AMS approach remains strongly focused on FEM optimisation and weight reduction, with a philosophy heavily influenced by the racing world even when applied to high-performance cruising yachts. It is no coincidence that many systems developed by AMS for large motor yachts are equally applicable to sailing superyachts: tender handling systems, retractable passerelles, automatic awnings, stern-door opening systems, anchor arms and numerous custom carbon-and-metal kinematic assemblies.

‘In the end the principle is always the same,’ says Pelizza. ‘It is to build structures that are light, reliable and as integrated as possible.’

In truth, the connection with yacht racing never entirely disappeared. In 2017 Pelizza won the ORC Corinthian World Championship aboard a Grand Soleil 43 whose structures had been engineered, a few years before, by AMS itself – a fitting full circle in which the designer returned to winning aboard a yacht shaped partly by his own engineering work.

In recent years he has returned to dinghy sailing, choosing the Contender.

‘When I was younger I sailed very few dinghies and always felt something was missing,’ he says with a smile. ‘The Contender is an extraordinary boat. It’s a 1967 design but it still feels completely modern in terms of acceleration, balance, sensitivity. Ben Lexcen really was a genius.’

And if he had to choose a yacht for a return to offshore racing today?

The answer comes immediately.

‘A modern Class40. I think it’s one of the most interesting offshore platforms in existence today. I would love to do a major ocean race aboard one of those boats – particularly the Musa 40, which is a completely Italian project.’

More information on AMS

The first regatta of the 2026 52 Super Series had it all. Three new teams, all led by very different, very committed owners. From a fleet of 14 eight different boats won races, Alkedo Vitamina being the only boat to win two. And, nothing new here, the first regatta title went to the wire on the last day, the seemingly super-dependable Sled taking the win.

And in Puerto Portals the script wrote itself. The brand new Swedish boat, Trinity, steered by owner Joakim Sundberg – a rookie compared to others on the circuit – chalked up a win in the second race before a halyard issue forced them to sit out Race 3. After a solid opening, finishing third with No Way Back, new Dutch owner-driver Pieter Heerema also left Mallorca with a big smile.

Built by King Marine, the immaculate Trinity is a head-turner. She was also exceptionally fast for a new TP52 fresh out of the box. Ed Baird is doing a great job as tactician, with Ross Halcrow, having moved from Platoon Aviation, onboard as lynchpin trimmer.

Main picture: Left turn please, JC. Provezza helm John Cutler tacks away from new Brazilian Super Series team Caballo Loco to leeward at the series opener in Puerto Portals. To say Provezza is dripping with talent is an understatement. Cutler steering, Mariano Parada tactician, Nacho Postigo navigating, Santi Lange strategist and for 2026 with Paul ‘Flipper’ Westlake coming back to trim main. After missing the 2023 title by a single point, it’s fair to say that for 2026 skipper Ergin Imre is throwing the kitchen sink at this.

Halcrow: ‘We are pretty happy with the boat, it felt good! I was surprised, to be honest, at how good it felt. It is the same as Alegre and Platoon but with a different appendage package. Joakim shows great focus and concentration. We have a lot of room for improvement but it was an incredibly good start to the season.

‘The Trinity keel is of a more rectangular planform than what we have had in the past. The chord thickness is also greater than what we sailed with in the early days on Platoon, which right away gave us good grip upwind. But we have the standard Botín rudder which Platoon and Alegre both used last year.

‘We certainly felt we could hold a lane well off the startline – we even held Sled off the line with Adam Beashel driving which is encouraging. Upwind we were good generally. And as tactician Ed did his usual good job of keeping things nice and simple.’

Trinity starts with pretty much the ‘standard’ North Sails package and runs full Harken hardware including all of the hydraulics – which now also take in the jib functions. Mickey Costa, who master minded the layout, drew particular attention to the work ethic the Swedes have shown in the build-up to their TP52 programme. ‘This is TP52 number 12 for me and teams like Provezza and Azzurra are my family. But I have hardly ever seen a team work as hard as these guys! The performance of the boat is good and the team is already progressing well.

‘Ed Baird is the professor. His articulation onboard is exceptional. In terms of cool stuff, as on Provezza we have a Pro Trim system moving the traveller, but mounted at the companionway; most teams still have them by the traveller, on the cockpit floor or down in the hull. So when tacking in light air, for example, this system is driven by the front pedestal keeping weight forward.

‘All the jib systems are now hydraulic and I hope that one day the TP52 class allows electro valves in these layouts. What we do now is we pump the oil by hand and then open the valves with strings… but that could easily all be electronic.

‘Nevertheless, we have considerably simplified the system. We have created a simple suite of valves which control jib up and down, jib in and out, and jib tack all on the same system. Conceptually it is the same as on Platoon and Provezza, but this time Harken made everything for us.

‘Also we are trying a pivoting mainsheet track, a T-track that pivots fore and aft as on some of the maxis, instead of a fixed X-track bolted rigidly in place. Loads align better and it makes it easier for the main trimmer to ease down the traveller. We also have new line-spoolers from Morfrac in Brittany. Instead of shockcord, these suck in the line with a single pull like a lawnmower start. One pull and it’s done. We are very happy with those!’

Among those admiring the new Trinity is Gladiator trimmer Simon Fry. ‘Trinity is definitely a step on. What is impressive is that before with a new boat you would be two, three, four weeks minimum to get up close to speed. Even with really good people onboard. These guys lack TP52 experience and yet overall they were up to speed super quickly.’

Looking across the fleet, Fry also believes that the new keel fins are working well. ‘I think some of the new bigger fins have now given these boats different modes. On Gladiator we might now be slightly exposed as we are probably the smallest keel fin.

‘If we can sail targets on our own patch of water that is fine, but we definitely have to avoid setting up in skinny lanes with the likes of Alkedo, Platoon or Sled. They have a different grippier mode which we are not comfortable with. Downwind I did not see much difference but upwind these boats with more grip have a mode we can’t match.’

Fry also points to Sled’s consistently good sailing as the reason Takashi Okura’s team have won the last two regattas. ‘Three or so years ago they slightly rejigged and went straighter rig, less luff curve, more headstay in the breeze. Super good in heavier air, as we have seen.

‘However, I think most of us have now followed that, but then in lighter airs in Portals they just sailed super well! They never missed a shift and were relatively conservative in not putting themselves in a position of risk. And completing the last day with a broken main halyard lock was impressive.’

Thailand bound

Adhering to the 52 Super Series philosophy of trying to race outside Europe every two years or so, plans are advanced for the circuit to be hosted in Thailand in 2027, heading to Asia for the first time ever. The Whitcraft family, who campaign Vayu, are instrumental in advancing an exciting initiative that has already secured the required commitment from Super Series owners.

The first regatta will run in February as Thailand 52 Super Series Sailing Week. Then the Rolex TP52 World Championship Thailand 2027 will run in March. Both regattas will be hosted at Ocean Marina under the flag of the Royal Varuna Yacht Club. From the balmy winds of Thailand then it’s back to Europe in May starting in Sorrento, then staying in Italy for the fourth regatta in Scarlino in July with the finale in Puerto Portals in September.

More on 52 Super Series

When you hear the word “Swan”, what springs to mind? Is it the gold standard of performance cruising, or an enviable stable of instantly recognisable yachts drawn by legendary designers? Is it the iconic topside arrow running from stem to stern emphasising the sweeping sheerline? Is it bespoke events with competitive racing in wonderful locations followed by well-run social events for owners and crew? Perhaps you think of Sayula II, the Swan 65 that Mexican businessman Ramón Carlin and his crew sailed to an unlikely victory in the inaugural Whitbread Round the World Race 1973-74, a boat that Carlin’s family still owns?

Whatever “it” is, there’s no doubt it will be there because few marques cut through like this one. ‘Nautor Swan is a name deeply rooted in the public imagination, even beyond the sailing community – it is one of the very few yachting brands recognised outside our world,’ says Massimo Perotti, chairman and CEO of Sanlorenzo. ‘Swan is the yacht every sailor dreams of owning because it delivers tangible achievements: winning round-the-world races, enabling owners to sail anywhere or compete at the highest level, always without compromising on elegance or performance. We are proud to be custodians of this beautiful brand’.

Nautor Swan occupies a unique niche in sailing, one crafted by a relentless focus on quality, performance, comfort and heritage, paired with vaulting ambition and sparkling creativity when it comes to promoting and developing its brand. And as the marque celebrates its 60th anniversary, those traits show no signs of diminishing. Indeed since joining the Sanlorenzo family in 2024, its plans are jaw-dropping.

The newly imagined Swanscape range, inaugurated by a 24-metre model developed with Rolf Vrolijk, takes them into the luxury blue water deck saloon space, while Swan Alloy sees the brand launch into the superyacht market with a 44m aluminium sloop designed by Malcolm McKeon and Studio Liaigre, scheduled for delivery in 2028. These are in addition to the existing performance cruiser Swan line, founded with the company in 1966 (soon to welcome a new Frers-drawn Swan 73), the Maxi Swan line, which began with the Sparkman & Stephens-designed Swan 65 in 1972 and will get a new entry-level model in 2026 with the new Swan 80, and ClubSwan, which features six one-design, all-out racing yachts including the Juan K-designed 28, 36, 43 and 50, and the Frers-designed 42 and 45.

For obvious reasons, ClubSwan Racing has been open only to the various one-design fleets – until now. In the interests of inclusivity and adding value for all Swan owners, two further divisions are being introduced: ClubSwan Legacy, for yachts designed and built up to the 1990s, and ClubSwan Spirit, for owners of post-1990 Swan yachts.

Nautor Swan was also the first boatbuilder to create an ecosystem of mono-branded events and racing to attract owners to the brand. These started with bucket-style regattas in Sardinia’s Porto Cervo, Guernsey in the UK’s Channel Islands and US ports like Newport, RI and Nantucket. Each featured entertaining racing by day, as competitive as the owner and crew choose to be, and slick, showpiece events ashore. These were well supported by owners looking to meet and compete with like-minded people and soon morphed into the Rolex Swan Cup, held every other year at Yacht Club Costa Smeralda in Porto Cervo. Again, it’s worth noting that Nautor Swan looks for premium partners and delivers experiences that make those partnerships thrive and endure: Rolex has been the Swan Cup’s title sponsor since 1984.

This year’s Rolex Swan Cup, taking place from 14-19 September in Porto Cervo, promises to be very special indeed, with a record entry list expected and a more family-oriented atmosphere ashore. It is an emotional bookending of Swan’s evolution that Tarantella, the S&Sdesigned Swan 36 #001, the first boat Nautor ever delivered in 1966, will be there, as will BeCool, the yard’s first Swan 128, which splashed in 2025. BeCool was designed to perform in 8-12kts, conditions typical in her home waters of Porto Cervo and will race alongside her sister, the dual energy Swan 128 Raijin, and the new Swan 80. To do so, the weight target demanded that the yard employed all of the knowledge it had gained in the build of the 125ft racing ClubSwan Skorpios, from carbon composite construction and resin infusion right through to foam-cored joinery and painting. As the yard itself has grown in size and output, so have the skills it has mastered.

Nautor Swan’s relationship with Sparkman & Stephens produced 824 yachts between 1967 and 1989, establishing the brand as a leading builder of performance cruising yachts. The partnership gave birth to designs including the Swan 48 in 1971, the yacht that introduced Swan’s iconic wedgeshaped coachroof, as well as the Swan 65, the world’s first production maxi. In 1981 Argentine designer Germán Frers’ star was rising fast and he was invited to draw the Swan 51. Over four decades, 24 designs and more than 2,000 yachts later, Frers continues to produce high-performance, easily-driven hulls, including the Swan 128, flagship of the Maxi Swan line, and the new Swan 80, due to debut at Cannes Yachting Festival later this year.

The Nautor Swan story began in 1966 in Pietarsaari, Finland, about 345 km south of the Arctic Circle. Shipwrights along the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia had been famed for their wooden boatbuilding skills since the 16th century, but in the mid-1960s, having built a boat for himself in his father-in-law’s garage, Pekka Koskenkylä spotted the potential of another material. ‘At the time, several yards were building fibreglass boats but they relied on in-house designs and performance was modest,’ said Koskenkylä. ‘Olin Stephens understood the potential of fibreglass to create lighter, faster yachts. That’s how we started.’ The desire for Swans to deliver quality, performance and comfort were ingrained in the brand from the very origins of the company: ‘I had to build the best boat in the world,’ he adds, ‘and I wanted to combine a racing boat with a cruising boat.’

That insistence on quality and craft was enabled by the generations of boatbuilding talent, the centuries of skill in the surrounding Ostrobothnian region. It is a resource that has shaped the brand’s evolution and continues to do so. Being able to draw on know-how passed down through generations is an extraordinary asset, as it allows for experimentation and innovation built on a very solid foundation.

The continuity of tradition is most obviously seen in the multiple generations of boatbuilders working at Swan, fathers and sons, mothers and daughters.

‘I am a second-generation boatbuilder,’ says Stefan Lillqvist. ‘My father, Runar, joined Nautor in 1970, working with Pekka Koskenkylä, he was the first generation in our family. Today my son is here as well.

‘The development I have seen over 25 years at Nautor is remarkable. Earlier the teak surfaces were only varnished, but today the customers are able to choose the type of wood and the finish on the surface. What stands out is the quality, even in the smallest details. Even what you don’t see is perfectly made. That is how you recognise a truly high-quality boat.’

‘I am the third generation in my family to work here,’ says Ralf Brännbacka. ‘I started in June 1970, and today my sons, Tommy and Robert, work here as well. If you look at the standard Swans of the late 1960s, they were very simple boats. Since then, both style and equipment have evolved. Thanks to our chief designer, Germán Frers, we have been able to create and preserve the Swan DNA. Because a Swan is a Swan – you shouldn’t have to ask. That is the essence of our brand.’

That essence, distilled over 60 years, has endured while the brand itself has grown, changing hands and growing in ambition. In 1998, fashion supremo and Swan owner Leonardo Ferragamo became majority shareholder having bought the company from Finnish industrial group Kymmene. ‘My admiration and passion for Swan was so deep that I dedicated every effort to the brand’s success, preserving its core values while evolving it into a modern, forward-looking organisation.’

The next step came when Italian shipyard Sanlorenzo bought Nautor Swan. ‘We chose Swan because it represents an excellence we could not have developed internally,’ adds Massimo Perotti, who will also be the proud owner of the very first Swan Alloy yacht. ‘Swan and Sanlorenzo share common values: both brands speak to an elite clientele of experienced owners who are passionate about the sea and appreciate refined, high-quality products.

‘With a new generation of yachts, the introduction of advanced propulsion technologies and an expanding global community of owners and sailors,’ Perotti continues. ‘Swan’s 60th anniversary becomes a statement of intent. It’s proof that the Nautor Swan brand’s most defining moments lie ahead, where tradition meets progress and the future of sailing is written under full sail.’

Sixty years after the story began, the narrative has grown in leaps and bounds. A bold future awaits as Nautor Swan brings its expertise to bear on entirely new markets with a confidence earned over decades of success.

‘I am proud to be part of this story,’ Perotti concludes, ‘not only as a manager of the company, but also as a future Swan owner. It is a pleasure and a responsibility because Swan is a reference point for the entire market. We are celebrating a birthday, but our focus is firmly on the future. With the support of Sanlorenzo we are charting new horizons, evolving while never losing sight of our legacy.’

More information on Nautor Swan

‘Racing yacht design is advancing rapidly but the growing gap between mainstream production boats and more extreme specialist designs is putting pressure on handicap systems, event formats and participation,’ says Frédéric Bouvier of J/Composites. From low freeboard and shallow, beamy cockpits to sailplans with square-topped mainsails and giant asymmetric kites, each capable of creating a partial eclipse, through to specialist double-handed racing yachts that are designed to promote shorthanded crews, these are exciting times for the racing scene. The recent success of some scow hull configurations have been among the latest developments to challenge what we consider as normal, yet despite their unconventional looks their growing popularity in some areas suggests that the sport is on the verge of yet another new trend.

But at what price?
Bouvier, a lifelong racing sailor who has clocked up many sea miles both inshore and offshore, says he is the first to acknowledge and celebrate the rapid and exciting growth in design.

As J/Composites’ commercial director his day job takes him to the heart of the sport where their own models frequently go head-to-head with some of the most extreme designs on the racing circuit. And while he freely admits that his prime commercial focus is on J/Boats, the combination of this and his long and sustained involvement as a hands-on participant in the sport provides both perspective and a useful datum to understand and comment on where things are heading.

‘It is definitely an exciting world right now with one of the widest ranges of options for owners and crew that we’ve seen, but this rapid, and at times extreme development, also comes at a cost,’ he says. ‘The technical improvements within racing design have been fascinating but they have also been responsible for a polarisation of sailing. Supporters of more radical designs would argue that innovation has always driven the sport forward and that rating systems must evolve accordingly. However, the result is that it has become difficult if not impossible at times to provide equitable racing across a range of similarly sized boats that were designed to excel in different ways. The problem now is that often we’re asking our rating systems to compare bananas with carrots.

‘Take the current and growing trend in scow designs as an example. There is no question that they are capable of raising the performance bar, they’ve already proved it. The way in which the limitations of these designs, particularly upwind, have been overcome is fascinating. But this is also a configuration that is very hard to build competitively as a production boat for mainstream racing as the performance benefits depend on creating large, voluminous structures down to a weight.

‘This in turn leads to an expensive path with boats built from advanced lightweight materials which in turn pushes the price up, ‘he continues. ‘And in simple terms, extreme designs, exciting as they are, have never been a good way of attracting people in big numbers.’

It is easy to see his point, but surely the argument is that rating systems are there to even out those differences?

Bouvier believes that handicap systems are now being pushed harder than ever to provide equitable racing between boats with very different performance profiles across a wide range of conditions and disciplines. And while the argument isn’t a new one, he and many others are concerned at what effect this will have on the sport and where the solutions lie.

According to the J/Composites team there are ways of tackling the issues. They see advantages and opportunities in their long term and wide-ranging experience where they have been immersed in the thick of strong domestic racing in France and in the varied fleets on the international scene. The ability to make their own assessments in how different configurations could be catered for to provide close equitable racing, by studying their own fleet of almost 200 J/99s, is a good starting point.

‘One of our goals here is to see whether it would be possible to bring a standard J/99 with, say, an alloy mast, back into contention with the more advanced specifications by adapting a handicap. If we can, then our longer-term goal is to apply this to other areas of our range.

‘To achieve this, we will be focussing on the J/99 to start with as it is a very versatile design which has proved to be successful in both fully crewed and shorthanded events across both inshore and offshore racing.

‘The design has also been pushed hard by some stiff competition too, so we know the data is good and that the results prove consistently that the J/99 is a highly adaptable and competitive design. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, after all it has smooth polar curves rather than those of more extreme designs that have performance spikes. Naturally, this is one of the clearest indicators to a good all-round performer.’

Making close comparisons across a varied fleet and establishing what works and why started at the Spi Ouest regatta in La Trinité this spring.

‘We had 10 closely matched J/99s in the middle of the IRC2 fleet which gave us a good datum,’ he continues. ‘All the boats in this class were of a similar overall concept and were separated by just a few points on rating which meant that the racing was about getting a good start, taking the right shifts, making good manoeuvres at the leeward mark and so on. Success was not defined by your handicap figure.

‘But what was particularly interesting was comparing our performance in the water and on handicap to boats of a similar size but with very different design concepts such as the new scows and others that were in IRC1. Because we had rolling starts on the same course we were able to look at the numbers and make good comparisons. And what was clear was that while they were quicker on the water we would have beaten them on corrected time by a big margin. And the reason is that these boats were having to race on a windward leeward course with a full crew which is at odds with what these offshore boats are designed for.

‘One of our main concerns is that in trying to account for this disparity with the more extreme, grand prix designs, that handicap systems forget about the bigger number of competitors in the mainstream classes. And when I say this, I mean we are afraid for the sport as a whole, not for our business because if that does happen it actually opens a door for companies like ours that have a strong following to do our own thing – but that’s not what we want.

‘The Admiral’s Cup is a good example. There is no doubt that it was a huge success, great to watch and I’m sure great to be a part of. But the risk is that it is driving IRC into a very professional, expensive area and away from the mainstream. The same can be highlighted under ORC with latest new design campaigns. The investment into development, especially AI assisted, has set another standard to challenge the loopholes of the handicap system’

J/Boats has another way of collecting data, making comparisons across an impressively wide range of models and making their point thanks to their own well-attended regattas such as the J/Cup Europe.

But Bouvier and J/Composites believe that the future of keelboat racing is not simply about the numbers. Events need to be fun too. And while you might think this is a case of stating the obvious and unrelated to the technical arguments, Bouvier and the team argue that they are linked. They argue that time, money and commitment that has been invested to refine grand prix designs and the way that they are sailed has increased pressure to succeed which in turn has raised expectations at the cost of general enjoyment.

‘The simple fact is that if a crew’s goal is solely to win, then only one crew will be happy,’ he says. ‘Aside from the social events which are important of course, the changes that have taken place in the way that events are structured plays into whether people enjoy their racing. Spi Ouest is a good example again as it is typical of other events. The total number of competitors has reduced but the number of classes has increased which dilutes the racing while making it more complex to run for the organisers. It doesn’t make sense on any front. We believe that the answer is to bring more competitors together in fewer classes, but this means addressing the format of the racing itself along with tackling handicap issues for boats that are of different concepts.

For Bouvier, the problem is not only technical. Once boats become harder to compare fairly, events become more fragmented, more expensive and, ultimately, less enjoyable for the majority of competitors.

‘No one here is pretending it is easy, but we do believe that it is necessary for the health of the sport.’

More on J/Composites

For me and the many other race crew who spent much of March in the Caribbean, it was an unforgettable month of sunshine, smiles and strong winds, and a wonderful reminder of why the sport of superyacht racing is so important to this very special part of the industry

The Caribbean superyacht regatta season got under way in its usual style with the Antigua Superyacht Challenge, where a fleet of 10 sailing superyachts gathered at Nelson’s Dockyard. The programme began with an optional Round Antigua Race: a 46.8-mile anticlockwise lap of the island, or the shorter Part-Island Race. Pursuit-format series races filled the following days and rewarded precise timing, boat handling and strategic decision-making.

This four-day event remains proudly non-commercial, with the emphasis on safe, competitive racing and delivering an unforgettable experience that people want to come back to. Fleet diversity defines this regatta, from towering schooners to modern super-sloops, and devising a format that pitches these designs against one another on equal footing is exactly what the Superyacht Racing Association (SYRA) and the ORCsy rating system is about.

What unites the fleet isn’t just scale or design, but a shared commitment to racing well, safely and fairly, plus an equally strong emphasis on the camaraderie that defines superyacht regatta participation, both on the water and ashore. It’s a unique environment – if you’ve not yet been a part of it, give it a go.

Participants and spectators were able to follow the fleet and on-water action with the recently updated TracTrac software, and we saw it used for the first time in Antigua. A collaboration between TracTrac, ORC and SYRA helped develop the system so sailors, owners and guests can see how they’re doing on the racecourse and against the opposition in real time. You can assess your projected ranking during racing and see provisional results as yachts cross the finish line. The software shows sailors where they’re gaining, and losing, with greater accuracy than ever before, and really adds another layer to the experience.

For ORC and SYRA, the improved software will be vital for data gathering, allow for better race monitoring, performance reviews and rule observance, and we’ll also be able to replay and study on-water situations.

Ashore in Antigua, over 300 sailors – owners, guests and crew – came together for the prize giving. The Gosnell Trophy, awarded to the yacht best representing the spirit of the regatta, went to the 65- metre schooner and SYRA-member Adix, racing in her first Superyacht Challenge.

‘It’s a real honour to receive the Gosnell Trophy,’ said Captain Oliver Bell. ‘For us this regatta has never just been about results, it’s about the spirit of the event and the people involved. To have the other teams vote for us makes it incredibly special… the atmosphere on the water and ashore has been brilliant. I’m incredibly proud of our crew. Everyone pulled together and pushed the boat hard in some demanding conditions.’

There was also a standout performance from the 66m Hetairos, another SYRA member, which not only won the Stan Pearson Trophy but set a new race and monohull course record for the Round Antigua, completing it in three hours, 20 minutes and 35 seconds. For the record achievement, the Hetairos team were awarded the captain’s weight in rum.

Another boat making an impression this season was Spirit 111 Geist, new to both the Caribbean circuit and to SYRA membership. Lymington local and ex- America’s Cup sailor Matt Cornwell was aboard, alongside several other faces from the Solent, and he summed up their experience: ‘For the owner, captain Justin Pope and the team, racing the boat in Caribbean waters was something we’d really been looking forward to. Racing two events back-to-back, starting with the Antigua Superyacht Challenge and then the St Barths Bucket, was a great way to maximise our adventure in the tropics. Both are longstanding events with pedigree, they’re well organised and managed, but individual in their styles. We had 15-25kts every day, big seas, warm winds, great courses, and enjoyed an incredible experience that only superyacht racing can provide.’

In St Barths, the Bucket Regatta had its largest fleet since 2015. Forty-one yachts were on the list, with 34 racing. The boats were split across nine classes, including two Corinthian Spirit (CS) non-spinnaker classes. The CS has really become popular - it’s a “turn up as you are” kind of thing, maybe flying in a couple of additional talents to help the permanent crew. It provides an entry level to the superyacht racing scene without the fullon commitment, and it’s encouraging how many boats have liked what they saw and come back fully race ready the next year.

There were a couple of notable additions to the Bucket. A schooner class made its debut, bringing together three striking three-masted gaff-rigged yachts – a first for the regatta. And there was an optional fourth day of racing, giving teams more racing time and a chance to assess the competition before things got serious. With Sunday’s racing ultimately abandoned due to strong winds, that extra day proved a good call and it looks likely to become a permanent fixture.

Racing followed the pursuit format under the ORCsy rule. Topping their classes at the end of the week were WallyCento V, Swan 90 Freya, Swan 100 Onyx, Geist, Whisper, M5, Perseus 3 and Adix.

This year’s coveted Bucket trophy went to the mighty Hetairos team, who narrowly took back victory on count after a fierce battle with, Aquarius 2 (Royal Huisman) and Maximus (Vitters Shipyard). The trio of behemoths spent much of the event with only seconds between them and provided a captivating spectacle.

The 2026 Bucket was the first event for Tony Rey in his new role as SYRA president and he joined Maximus for the action: ‘Simply sailing a 60m ketch in 15-20kts of breeze in the Caribbean feels like a spectacular dream. Racing in the Gazelles class with the three big ketches, along with three iconic monster sloops, all in close proximity around islands and marks, borders on unreasonable! Sometimes sailing these yachts feels like racing a school bus on a motocross track, but we got it done, and safely.’

For Rey, it was particularly valuable to see the ORCsy prove its worth. ‘Race one had Maximus, Aquarius 2 and Hetairos all finishing overlapped after 23 miles of hard racing. After two races, we were in a three-way tie for first. We’ll have to wait until Bucket 2027 to properly break the tie on the water!’

Undeniably, whether you are stepping onto a start line for the first time or returning after many seasons on the circuit, the world of superyacht racing offers something truly special. ‘And SYRA exists to support that world,’ says Rey, ‘It’s a privilege to see these regattas from both sides of the sail. At its heart, SYRA is about community. Membership is not merely about rules or administration; it is about having a say, contributing experience, and helping to shape the future of sailing superyacht racing.’

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