Box clever

Merfyn Owen of Owen Clarke gets to grips with the rising 'Classe Quarante'

You may think that a truly performance-oriented boat like the Class 40 is not your cup of tea; but looks can be deceptive because she's not designed to be sailed with a rail full of crew, nor is she tippy or a handful in a breeze. The goals of the class association when they drew up the 40ft box rule were that the boats should be:

• fast and exciting to sail
• easy to handle either solo under pilot or with a family aboard
• adaptive and potentially dual purpose for both racing and fast cruising
• with development and cost restricted by means of a typeforming rule

Background
For many years there has been an undertow of interest in a restricted box rule class for a serious offshore/transoceanic raceboat in the 40ft range. Seahorse has championed this from time to time and now it's arrived. The yachts designed to this new 40ft box rule are targeting the performance inshore and offshore racer/cruiser market and are also a stepping stone for aspiring shorthanded and solo sailors.

To read the remainder of this and many other topical technical articles, please purchase your copy of the September 2005 edition of Seahorse International Sailing available at selected newsstands or by calling: + 44 (0) 1590 671899 or by email at: info@seahorse.co.uk

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