The combination of the Farr-designed, Goetz-built Esmeralda and Ken Read and his well-practiced sailing team has proven utterly dominant in American IMS racing over the last twelve months. In fact it is difficult to see this boat ever being beaten in the USA until - or unless - something new comes along. A trip to Europe to take on the best of the IMS 50s would be interesting, though no one doubts the boat would be very competitive

The bow and topsides balsa core going onto the new VO60 Tyco

Nature's Best

Long a fan of balsa in composite structures, Eric Goetz's choice of core for his newest VO60, Tyco, was even easier this time around following the latest iteration of Baltek's select density core material

SH: How did you initially start using Baltek Superlite?

EG: We originally began looking at balsa in order to find a material that we were comfortable with in regard to the bonds we were getting with prepreg skins.

SH: How was Superlite ultimately selected as core for the Tyco Volvo 60?

EG: First, let's go back a little further to the last Whitbread race, when we built both a Farr boat and an Alan Andrews boat. On the Farr boat, we ended up using balsa core in two places; in the forefoot, which in the Whitbread rule calls for a denser core material, due to the slamming incurred while sailing these boats around the world. We also used it in the water ballast tanks, in order to get the water as far outboard as possible. This was due to the fact that we could use a thinner balsa core along the side of the hull, thus marginally increasing righting moment. Balsa has better mechanical properties than foam core. The core used in the ballast tanks area is thinner than in the base hull.

...See Seahorse May 2001 for the remainder of this feature

© 2001 Seahorse Magazine. All rights reserved.