Crazy?

This time last year Swiss engineer Thomas Jundt could see no reason why a hull was necessary for the next step in his development programme. We thought this had rendered his project a little too off-the-wall. So who’s laughing now? Jundt’s hull-less experiment worked just fine, even though a tow was needed to get started. And a great deal was learnt by throwing aside the existing play-book

The editor starts a new decade by taking stock of a few things fast and nautical…

January 2000, so where exactly were we? Into the second generation of long, slim and heavy ACC designs, though the 30th America’s Cup in Auckland would confirm that the world had a way to go before hauling in designer Laurie Davidson and Team New Zealand. No big deal there, however. Similarly, in the Volvo Ocean Race where John Kostecki and illbruck were about to give the fleet a lesson in attention to detail in the final appearance of the once outrageous Volvo 60s (five years later and Paul Cayard’s Volvo Open 70 Pirates of the Caribbean would record a peak speed of 44kt while crossing the Atlantic west to east).

A little closer to shore and, though Alain Thébault’s Hydroptère was up and flying, the contest for the world’s fastest sailing craft was still being fought out between boardsailers and an asymmetric flying tripod. Elsewhere, without knowing it, the wonderful Orma 60 multihulls were entering their final flourish with the approaching launch of Frank Cammas’s devastating Groupama 2 – which would do for that class what Bill Koch’s Matador2 had done for the IOR Maxis 10 years previously.

Down at the beach the skiff classes were progressing nicely, if without spectacular advances. Better materials and better engineering were allowing useful improvements to self-adjusting rigs above the water, while beneath the surface advances in foil construction and shaping were more significant than any changes in hull design. And in the yet to be resurgent International Moth class the tippy, ultra-narrow skiffs were still busy extending years of dominance after seeing off the last ‘mothomaran’ scow way back in 1983.

Come and join us TODAY!!!!!
Please take advantage of our latest subscription offer or order a single copy of the March 2010 issue of Seahorse International Sailing

Online at:
www.seahorse.co.uk/shop/index.php

Or via email:
subscriptions@seahorse.co.uk