Greetings yachties, have you Googled Kill Devil Juice yet?
Giant Slayers – Labour Weekend
Winged Keel,
Jessica Watson,
Ankida,
Line 7 – New owner,
? A New Mast ?,
IBI News – Nautor’s Swan & SP,
Round The Americas,
NASA – Tropical Storm Patricia,
Vestas Sailrocket,
ALL4ONE – A New Team is Born,
Rolex Middle Sea,
This Week on Coney Island,
Scuttlebutt – Nanoparticle Coatings – SLIP coating was up to 8.0% faster,
Enjoy
Giant-slayers have good chance of keeping Labour Weekend race win local. The international supermaxi entered in this year’s HSBC Premier Coastal Classic certainly has the waterline length to overshadow other entrants, but will she have the speed? When Alfa Romeo II set a new race record from LA to Hawaii earlier this year, she achieved an average boatspeed of just over 16 knots.When, back in 1996, Split Enz set the record for the HSBC Premier Coastal Classic race from Auckland to Russell, she achieved an almost identical average boatspeed of 16.3 knots.
These numbers leave the outcome in next Friday’s famous Auckland to Russell yacht race wide open for speculation, says HSBC Premier Coastal Classic spokesperson Jon Vincent.“It could be very close. On one hand, Alfa Romeo – which already has 141 race wins to her name – has the size to deliver top performance in all conditions. But given the right conditions, a number of the multihulls can easily sustain speeds in excess of 20 knots. However, they depend on exactly the right conditions to do so.”The last supermaxi to appear in the HSBC Premier Coastal Classic, Zana, was able to beat the existing monohull record comfortably in a time of 8 hours 29 minutes and 50 seconds, but still failed to come close to touching the overall race record – Split Enz’s best time of 7 hours 20 minutes and 51 seconds.“What’s remarkable is that Split Enz’s record has stood for 13 years,” says Jon. “Sailing technology has changed drastically since then, yet so far our record is untouched. It goes to show how incredible the 1996 race was in terms of serving up exactly the right conditions.”Split Enz, which has returned to the country after a number of years in Noumea, is still sailed in a very similar configuration to the 1996 race.
Stop the Press
Last night, mainstream media, Radio and TV, a breaking story about Australia 11′s winged keel design. This story was first published on Professional Boatbuilder, Scuttlebutt and then Yachtyakka in September here 
“Thanks for all the Support
I’ll keep this short as it’s a pretty busy time at the moment, but I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been offering their support, luck and best wishes. Thanks to everyone for commenting on my blogs, sending emails and to the constant stream of people stopping by Ella’s Pink Lady, bringing gifts and letters. I’m not doing a very good job of remembering everyones names! But have to say how lucky I am to have the chance to meet so many interesting people. Its pretty special to meet so many people of all ages who are so totally inspired by the voyage and what I am setting out to achieve!”
Line 7 has new owner
4:00AM Wednesday Oct 14, 2009
By Maria Slade
Australian-owned textile manufacturing firm Charles Parsons has confirmed it is the new owner of Kiwi outdoor-wear brand Line 7.
Receivers were appointed to Line 7 in July after foreign exchange problems and the recession caused the sportswear, outdoorwear and casual clothing maker to run aground.
Since then receivers KordaMentha have been seeking a buyer for the brand, which had long been associated with top sailing events such as the America’s Cup and the Round the World race.
There was a lot of interest, with KordaMentha receiving more than 50 serious inquiries.
Late last week Charles Parsons New Zealand chief executive Peter Allard denied the company was about to buy Line 7 but said it was one of four or five serious contenders for the label.
Yesterday Charles Parsons said it had bought the assets of Line 7, including the brand, intellectual property and all registered trademarks worldwide.
It would continue the proud tradition of Line 7 by ensuring continuity of supply to the existing agriculture and marine customers, the company said.
Nautor’s Swan teams up with SP
By IBI Magazine
SP will supply composite materials and engineering knowledge to Nautor’s Swan, in the building of their new range of yachts. The Swan 60 and Swan 80 are both high-performance sailing yachts, offering high levels of comfort and style, with fast offshore racing performance.
SP will use variations of its ST70 Carbon Structural SPRINT, SE70 epoxy prepreg unidirectional tapes, its Corecell P-Foam for the hull and Corecell T-Foam for the deck and bulkheads. SP’s Ampreg 21 laminating system and its Spabond 340LV will be used for wetting out and bonding components during the build process.
Graham Harvey, SP’s business manager marine, says: “The Nautor’s Swan contract is fantastic news for the SP team and we are delighted to be working with them to engineer and develop revolutionary boats for high performance sailing”.
Just before dawn, the first flashes of heat lightning illuminated the morning sky with sharp blinks of radiance, like a giant strobe light. By 8 a.m., the cutter Ocean Watch was entering the prominent rock jetties that signal the entrance to the main harbor. Not long after, the crew steered past the famous fortress to port known as Fort Sumter, and it wasn’t long before former Around Alone sailor Brad Van Liew was swinging alongside to deposit first mate back onto the decks of OW as the first hint of sunshine broke through the early cloud cover.
After an oftentimes bumpy ride down from New York City, Ocean Watch had made it to Charleston, her first port-of-call in the southern U.S.A.
It seemed pretty appropriate that Van Liew was the first to greet us. As the former race director for the Around Alone race, skipper Mark Schrader had been on dawn watch on several occasions to welcome Van Liew, the former Southern Californian who won his class with panache and resolve in the 2002-2003 running of the event. So when Van Liew idled alongside, the skipper couldn’t help himself.
“Nothing like role reversal,” he said.
It was also good to have Logan back onboard, who’d arrived in Charleston with his wife Joanna in advance of the crew for this leg to handle some logistical matters and scout out the territory. As it turned out, my watch-mate picked an ideal leg to skip, the “highlight” of which was a rough transit of the Gulf Stream.
“I should feel guilty,” he smiled. “But I don’t.”
Your turn will come, my friend.
Baja Watching Tropical Storm Patricia in the latest GOES-11 Satellite Movie
The nineteenth tropical cyclone of the Eastern Pacific formed over this past weekend, and strengthened into Tropical Storm Patricia. The GOES-11 satellite captured Patricia from her “birth” several hundred miles south of Baja California, to her track there today, Tuesday, October 13.
The National Hurricane Center has posted a tropical storm warning for the southern portion of the Baja California peninsula from Buenavista to Agua Blanca, including Cabo San Lucas. A tropical storm warning means that Tropical storm conditions are expected within the warning area, generally within 24 hours.
… and looking pretty as ever. In the end there was no need to rush to get out on the water as the weather didn’t demand it… so we took our time with the detailing. I am in no hurry to get to the next accident. After a big crash like the last one we need to spend some time just dialling the boat back in and making sure it is calibrated. This generally involves getting the steering system in sync with the foil alignment. We have a system of jigs and lasers to get it within fractions of a degree on land… and then we take it out on the water and check that it translates into the right rudder angles at high speed with the wing sheeted in. If it does… then we are good to go, safe in the knowledge that I will have very fine and delicate control at high speed that won’t upset the boat.
Although these crashes are far from desireable… they do allow you the opportunity to do all the little jobs that sort of needed doing… but weren’t critical before. We built new tip fairings for the wing… and a much safer storage setup for the super valuable TRIMBLE GPS gear. The wing has been fully re-skinned and re-rigged.
ALL4ONE: A NEW TEAM IS BORN
Paris, France – 2009-10-13
A new era has come, a new top level sailing team is born, gathering its members under the name of ALL4ONE
Imagine two nations that created the greatest success in the history of the European industry. Imagine two nations teaming up again to launch the first (but long awaited) sailing team of its kind.
That’s no imagination any more as another French-German connection is turning a vision to reality. Two sailing enthusiasts, Stephan Kandler (CEO of K-Challenge) from France and three times Olympic Champion and two times America’s Cup winner Jochen Schümann from Germany, teamed up to create the sailing campaign ALL4ONE which will stand out in the future.
Driven by congenial virtues and excellence in sailing, ALL4ONE has the goal to take up the most challenging and demanding achievements of international team sailing. And the story starts now with the participation of ALL4ONE in the Louis Vuitton Trophy.
Stephane Kandler, K-Challenge’s CEO : “This is an important step in our history after 20 years of investment and involvement in sailing first through K-Yachting our charter company created in 1989 and then K-Challenge who has participated in the last America’s Cup. We know each other with Jochen since a long time and finally we realized that we had a close vision and that we were complementary. France and Germany have many good sailors and those two countries have always been the leaders for European major projects, so we are now on the way to launch the foundation of a new international sailing force based on French-German background. This is why we decided to join forces: He will manage the technical and sailing area and I will take care of the management part. With our assets from the last America’s Cup, our common experience and all the other people working with us (like the French Sailing Federation, FFV), ALL4ONE is a trustful and powerful platform offering new opportunities for sponsors in our sport. And we are proud that our historical partners Canal+ and Saint Honoré watches are now joined by adidas, which is one of the biggest brands in sport.”
Jochen Schümann, Skipper and Sport Director : “ALL4ONE will build a new sailing team platform based on inspiration, respect, innovation and performance.
Photos credit: Rolex / Kurt Arrigo
ALL CHANGE FOR ROLEX MIDDLE SEA RACE
October 13, 2009
The Rolex Middle Sea Race, which this year starts on Saturday, 17 October, has witnessed many changes and challenges over its forty-one year history and 2009 is no exception. For the first time ever the race will start from Malta’s most famous natural harbour – Grand Harbour – a significant change to past routine. Perhaps more exceptional, though, is the change that has taken place over the past year to the Royal Malta Yacht Club’s premises, the headquarters for the race.
For those taking part in the Rolex Middle Sea Race for the first time, the enormity of the change may well be lost. The remarkable atmosphere created by the surroundings of eighteenth century Fort Manoel has been swept away and replaced by a stunning, modern enterprise that looks as though it has been operating for a number years. Nothing could be further from the truth. When the horn sounded as last boat home, Squibs, crossed the finish line of the Rolex Middle Sea Race last year, one chapter in the history of the Royal Malta Yacht Club and its flagship event closed and a new one was just beginning. One that was by no means certain with its ending.
John Ripard, President of the Royal Malta Yacht Club, sheds some light on the extraordinary events that have unfolded and seen the club shift its operation from Manoel Island across Msida Creek to Ta’ Xbiex, “sitting in this building today it is hard to imagine that twelve months ago we did not have title or really even the idea that we would be coming here. It has been a tremendous undertaking. I have to acknowledge that a great deal of the merit for having achieved all this: the acceptance that we had to move, dealing with the trauma connected with the move after so long in Fort Manoel, to actually creating a clubhouse such as this one in a very short space of time; we have to attribute to the indefatigable effort, time and energy that our present commodore Georges Bonello Dupuis has devoted to the whole project.”
It has been some achievement. Most clubs running a 600 nautical-mile offshore race attracting some of the world’s top offshore race boats and more spend a good eight months preparing for it. Very few contemplate or even execute during that same period a move of premises, especially to ones that need gutting and rebuilding. The move required verve and nerve. Negotiations with the Maltese Government were not finalised until two weeks ago when the lease was formally signed. In the meantime, the RMYC Committee pushed ahead with the design and refurbishment of the former Yachting Centre that used to house Customs, Immigration and Malta Maritime Authority services. The deadline for completion was always the 2009 Rolex Middle Sea Race, the thirtieth edition of this internationally acclaimed distance race.
The deadline was a real one. The Rolex Middle Sea Race now typically attracts over 70 yachts to Malta from all around the world – this year’s list currently stands at 77, the record fleet is 78. The need to make excuses for the RMYC’s archaic former premises was always lost in the bewilderment of the newly arrived foreign crews taking in the history of the place. Seasoned participants grew to enjoy the eclectic charm that formed part of the attraction of the race. Inviting these same well-travelled crews to a half-built club, even one with a magnificent view of Valletta, did not bear thinking about. Not for a club as proud as this one.
Chief Architect to the project, Godwin Zammit, is also Rear Commodore Racing and Chairman of the Rolex Middle Sea Race Committee. Initially he was sceptical that everything could be achieved in the time available, “I had my doubts initially, it was a big job. We had to move into a building before we had renovated it so we have had to move around within it, while we gutted and remodelled it, knocked parts of it down and rebuilt it. Once we committed to it we pulled our socks up and did what we had to do to finish.” What we see today would be enough for many clubs, with large open spaces housing offices, committee rooms, briefing rooms and a bar area overlooking the water. According to Zammit, though, this is only the end of phase one.
This is not the first time in its long history that the Royal Malta Yacht Club has moved premises. The club is reputed to date back to 1835, but its first true clubhouse was built in 1930 at Floriana. This building was demolished by a bomb in 1942, during World World II. The St Rocco Baths were used as temporary facilities in the immediate aftermath, until a new clubhouse could be built at Hay Wharf, Floriana, in 1951. In 1972, the RMYC moved house again to the Couvre Port of Fort Manoel, where it remained until last year, an official squatter. The RMYC’s position at Fort Manoel was at times as precarious as the building itself. The Club had never been able to acquire formal ownership rights and after more than ten years of negotiation with the Maltese Government and the owners of Manoel Island, suitable permanent premises at Ta’ Xbiex Wharf were eventually identified late in 2008.
As noted by John Ripard, whose experiences with the Club date back to the late 1950s, one of the prime movers behind the successful change has been Commodore Georges Bonello Dupuis. For Bonello Dupuis this was a move brought about by force of circumstance, but one that the Club needed to embrace positively. ” Staying where we were would have meant probable death for the Club. By contrast, this is an incredible opportunity for us, but it has not been easy. There were huge emotional ties to Fort Manoel; the start of the Rolex Middle Sea Race has always been conducted from the terrace in front of the old Club,” he says; continuing, “as Godwin says, once the decision was made we always had a target date to meet. The start of the Rolex Middle Sea Race has served to focus the minds of all those behind the move. It was unconscionable that we would greet the entrants to this great event from anything less than a fully functioning clubhouse.”
To say the Royal Malta Yacht Club has been successful is an under-statement, as any of the participating crews would testify. With the start of the 30th Rolex Middle Sea Race only four days away, the organisation is safely housed and the competitors being welcomed as only is possible in Malta.
Wednesday 14 October, sees a warm-up Coastal Race starting from Marsamxett Harbour at 10.00 CEST. The 2009 Rolex Middle Sea Race starts from Grand Harbour at 11.00 CEST on Saturday, 17 October.
Nanoparticle Coatings
In 2002, I was working with friends at a major Midwestern university on the use of nano-particle technologies in batteries, capacitors, fuel cells and combinations thereof. One of the most remarkable “chance” meetings took place when after contacting George David via “Tomac” (Tom McLaughlin at North Sails), I was put in touch with United Technologies then Chief of R&D– UTC was researching how to make better “inorganic” fuel cell membranes.
What came out of the discussion with our team and the UTC R&D guys was the fact that our nanoparticle coatings (consisting of 8-10 nanometer size particles made in my basement lab) were extremely “hydrophilic”– e.g. the opposite of hydrophobic (like beads of water on wax). We then tested a hypothesis that our coatings might make water flow faster and perhaps also produce a thin coating on a boat that would act like the mythical “dolphin-skin”- the ultimate sailboat coating. Here’s what happened and why it got mixed up in the America’s Cup 2003 challenge in Auckland, New Zealand.
We tested our hypotheses by first doing the “contact angle” test – drop 1 cc of water on a surface with many different preparations and, using a microscope mounted horizontally (a specific piece of kit I might add), measure the angle that the wall from the bead of water forms against the surface). The finishes that were tested included; (a) sandpaper finishes from #36 to #400 to #800; (b) wax; (c) silicon spray; (d) teflon spray; (e) gelcoat; (f) various soaps, (g) various thicknesses of our SLIP nanoparticle SiO2 coatings, and so forth. In short, our hypotheses at a “simple level” tested out correctly— other than soap which left virtually no contact angle, our nanoparticle coatings were so hydrophilic that most contact angles were well below 10 degrees. By way of example, #400 to #800 wet-or-dry gelcoat was next closest “standard” finish at over 30 degree contact angle.
Next, we decided to bite the bullet and do a real, honest-to-goodness test of our coatings with whom many consider to be one of the world’s foremost experts in hydro-dynamics and computational fluid dynamics, particularly with respect to test tank data and coatings for racing sailboats and ships– Prof. Ian Campbell at the University of Southampton/ Wolffson Unit in Southampton, England. We flew over and spent four days in Cowes, Isle of Wight, commuting across the Medina River early every morning to tow Ian’s famous “plank” and also a Laser2 daggerboard through the tank. We tested both (i) resistance using Ian’s famous “super-custom” Hewlett Packard digital gauges and (ii) visual flow using an underwater video camera and flowing ink.
In short, the results we produced were somewhat astonishing. For one, Prof. Campbell flat-out stated that in 40+ years of testing every conceivable crazy idea regards bottom coatings that NOTHING (other than the obvious soap) had ever tested as fast as our “SLIP Technologies” nanoparticle coatings (SLIP = Super-Laminar Industrial Products). What we discovered after testing both the “plank” and the Laser2 daggerboard was that once laminar flow was established (1 knot to about 12 knots), the SLIP coating was up to 8.0% faster than #600-#800 wet-or-dry sanded gelcoat/polyurethanes– e.g. several boatlengths on a 2 mile beat. And, more remarkably, the laminar flow separation on the Laser2 board was dramatically improved- moving the point of separation up to 30% further back on the chord length. What does that mean? Well, the boat moves faster through the water for one and, secondly, the foils provide significantly greater lift than with conventional finishes since the hydrophilic coating was behaving like an artificial “dolphin-skin”- holding a super thin-film of water molecules against other water molecules to promote laminar flow.
This post is tagged ALL4ONE, Ankida, Australia 11 Winged Keel, Coney Island, IBI News, Jessica Watson, karma Police, Line 7, Nanoparticle Coatings, nasa, Nautor's Swan, Rolex Middle Sea, Round The Americas, scuttlebutt, Tropical Storm Patricia, Vestas Sailrocket
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