Winners!

Torbjørn Linderson of Marström Composites looks at the choice between increasing headsail overlap and reducing rig weight in the ongoing search for the ultimate ORMA 60 trimaran rig.

Working with Antoine Koch on the new rig for his Orma 60 Sopra has been an interesting exercise in fresh thinking. Sopra is a third-generation boat (the latest, like Groupama 2, are generation-four boats), which can be quick in heavy air but otherwise suffers from a straight rocker that tends to submerge the transom. This could have been solved with drastic surgery, cutting the canoe body off the boat and installing a new underwater shape, an operation carried out on the legendary Primagaz along with several other older boats, but too costly for Koch's campaign.

Antoine chose a different route: obsessive weight-saving with decisions based around shorthanded sailing. Thus simplicity that saved weight always won out over complex and heavier solutions which only increase performance if constantly monitored. The fore-and-aft canting capability of the rig was removed, as well as the ram for the Solent headstay. Sideways canting has been restricted to eight degrees, the same angle to which the traveller will release to leeward when the mainsheet is released.

To read the remainder of this and many other articles, please purchase your copy of the March 2007 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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