Terry Hutchinson is tactician for the Quantum Racing TP52 and nominates the team’s Botin-designed USA 52018. “The most recent Quantum Racing and this entire generation of TP52s have been a good step beyond the 2015 fleet,” he says.

The TP52 is a box rule class, with rules tweaked in agreement with the owners to maintain close racing. In 2017 the class voted that the latest updates, which included increased stiffness and rig refinements, would remain in place for three years.

That guarantee contributed to an impressive nine new boats being launched in 2018 (post-Covid the class has since agreed no further changes until 2025). Quantum Racing won the 2022 Super Series overall title, their fifth series win.

Photo: Nico Martinez/Martinez Studio 

“The class makes these boats incredible to race. It is the perfect balance of design, cutting edge technology, performance and teamwork that allows one to succeed on the water,” he says.“Top speed I have experienced is 30.9 knots – simply awesome!”

Make sure you check out our full list of Coolest Yachts.

Quantum Racing stats rating

Top speed: 30.9 knots
LOA: 15.85m/52ft
Launched: 2018
Berths: 2
Price: approx. £2.6m
Adrenalin factor: 80%

Terry Hutchinson

Terry Hutchinson (USA) is an 11-time world champion, tactician to the multiple series and World Championship-winning Quantum Racing TP52 team, and has been part of five America’s Cup campaigns. He is currently president of sailing operations and skipper for the New York Yacht Club’s American Magic Challenge for the 37th Cup.

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As the TP52 fleet sweeps around the bottom mark off Palma, eyes turn to the sky. This isn’t a predictable day’s racing in Mallorca. The 2021 Rolex TP52 World Championships were – unusually – held in early November, and the summer sea breezes that crews are used to have been replaced by a shifty, chilly, offshore wind that is fluctuating from eight and 18 knots.

It’s a mentally taxing scenario for the tacticians, who rank among the best in the world: Francesco Bruni, Tom Slingsby, Terry Hutchinson. This is the most competitive inshore racing in the world, and place gains and losses are decided on margins of inches.

Fluffy clouds are forming over the Bay’s north-western shore, and the Quantum Racing team scan the course for clues. The decision on which headsail to use on the next beat is toss-a-coin marginal.

Numbers are called thick and fast, in clear specifics: “There’s 900kg on the mainsheet right now.” Load readings from the runners, diagonals and deflectors, along with angles, margins to competitors… It’s a constant stream of information that captures the stresses and speeds the carbon boat is undergoing in minute detail. But we’re not on the TP52, we’re on a hard-topped chase RIB a few hundred metres away.

Quantum Racing at the TP52 World Championships in Palma. Photo: Nico Martinez/Rolex

The TP52 coach boat

All this data is streaming live from sensors all over the yacht to the RIB, where it is monitored by Quantum Racing’s performance team on laptops and iPads as we thunder around the short windward/leeward course.

It’s a set-up usually seen on America’s Cup chase boats tracking foiling test-runs, but here it’s deployed in a 52ft, conventional keeled, box rule fleet about to compete in its 17th year of European racing. These boats have raced each other hundreds of times – what secrets can possibly still be left to be discovered?

Running the RIB is Yorkshire-born James Lyne, widely regarded as one of the best performance sailing coaches in the world. Lyne grew up sailing a Mirror out of Whitby before moving into British Olympic squads for the Finn and Flying Dutchman, and the GBR Challenge Cup team.

He moved to the States, coaching the US Olympic Team before working in one-design keelboats classes like the Melges 32s and grand prix racing programs. Lyne was coach for the American Magic challenge in the last Cup and has worked closely with American Magic skipper, and Quantum Racing tactician, Terry Hutchinson for years.

Spy game skills

As the leaders sweep past us, Lyne reaches for his camera. It appears to be a standard SLR, not some tricksy James Bond Q-style adaptation. He takes quick shots of Quantum and some of their near rivals: full rig, sailing away. Despite the telephoto lens, we are too far away to see any numbers on the competitor boats’ 20:20 displays.

But the point of these images becomes clear the following morning. After breakfast the Quantum crew huddles in an ante-room of their Palma hotel. There are world champions, America’s Cup and Whitbread veterans, all weathered pros with decades of experience behind them.

James Lyne working from the Quantum Racing RIB, photographing rival boats and monitoring data. Photo: Keith Brash/Quantum Racing

Standing at the back, exuding leadership in a room full of alpha males, Terry Hutchinson is the only one I see making notes. Everyone else listens intently. Lyne has rigged up a large screen, and begins his morning briefing, sharing learnings from the data he captured during racing and analysed overnight.

First, they review their own performance. Lyne runs through figures from over the boat; mast jack tension, boom position, jib clew percentage, side bend… Drone footage of the start rolls alongside speed and sensor data, using a programme called Njord Analytics which pairs video and analytics.

Screen shots from Quantum’s onboard cameras illustrate a sail or rig setting being discussed. Then there’s analysis of two other Quantum Sails boats, Platoon and Interlodge. Their data is shared, so Lyne analyses performance using figures taken off the yachts, and members of those teams often attend the briefings (for 2022 Interlodge and Platoon have moved to Doyle Sails, while two other teams will join the Quantum programme).

But then discussion turns to Phoenix, a South African team which got off to a flying start at the Worlds. Phoenix is not a Quantum Sails boat, but the analysis scarcely seems any less detailed. This, Lyne explains to me later, is calculated from the photographs he takes on the water, to extraordinary degrees of accuracy.

Sail shapes analysis. Photo: Keith Brash/Quantum Racing

“Coming off our boat, we’re probably going to collect two or three million points of data over five hours of sailing. But for all the competitor stuff, basically we have a system of taking photos. We straighten the photo to take the bend out of the lens and then we’ve got some measurement programmes, so it’s our way of seeing comparatives for the day – we can say such and such a boat have got 2-3 millimetres more mast bend than we have. So we can get into the nitty gritty of why a boat was fast or slow.”

Being able to judge sail settings to millimetre accuracy from a photograph taken from a RIB is a skill Lyne has honed over years. “We’ve spent a lot of years working with cameras! It’s getting more and more accurate. Obviously, when we first started the photos didn’t have great resolution, so our accuracy wasn’t great. But over the last five to ten years it’s got pretty good.”

While it’s well known that Quantum has been employing such techniques, that doesn’t mean others can easily adopt them. Every TP52 has a chase boat on the course to offer spare sails, sandwiches and support between races, and many also have coaches taking photographs, but the resources that Quantum has devoted to data crunching is unique.

“I think most of the fleet are doing this to a certain extent,” says Lyne, “but maybe not as sophisticated and not with the ability to measure as many photos in one day. It’s great taking photos, but if you can’t measure them accurately then it doesn’t really matter.”

Numbers don’t lie

Back in the briefing room, all these numbers give empirical proof of when Quantum Racing was performing well, or below par. Owner Doug DeVos explains: “It’s easy to say, oh, it’s bad luck. Sure, you missed a wind shift here, and we kind of know that on the water. But by documenting it, you can see how much did we miss it by? What should we be thinking about next time so we don’t miss it? How’s the boat going through the water? And the data doesn’t lie, it doesn’t have an opinion. It just is what it is.”

Repeatedly during the briefing, Hutchinson or a trimmer say, “It felt”. “It felt like we were going well.” “It felt like the boat was fast.” Lyne’s analysis can prove the truth of those opinions, but the sailors’ perception is still important.

Lyne encourages it with open questions, asking at one point: “How did everybody feel about boat speed versus the fleet here?”.

He explains, “There are times where you see something in the data that really stands out and you’re like, guys, this was pretty significant. There are other times where you sit back and listen to the sailors as to what was good that day, and then you’re able to go into the log and see what they thought was good.

Part of a crew debriefing session. Photo: Keith Brash/Quantum Racing

“Sailing’s like science but it’s also a bit of art. We have optimum shapes of what to achieve, but every single moment the breeze is up and down, or there’s another different type of wave. And that’s the art of the trimmers and the speed guys. So we can give them performance numbers, but the art of actually making a boat go fast in the dynamic real world, that’s on them.

“I think what the data does is it gives them a real feeling of ‘we are right’ when the data and the feeling match up, and it also poses a question when the data and the feeling don’t match up. So it gives us this ability to say: yes, we can reinforce that, that was good.”

Aiming for TP52 perfection

Quantum Racing’s no-stone-unturned approach has brought great success – they are four times TP52 Super Series champions, and were 2nd or 3rd every other year (Platoon, their long-standing stablemates, have a hat-trick of overall 2nds). Quantum also won six World Championships, and was 2nd in 2021. But in a class this highly optimised, how much more performance can be found?

“I think if you said at the start of a season we don’t need to develop, by the end of the second regatta, you’d already be behind the fleet,” says Lyne. “This whole game is a game of evolution and it’s who can do it faster through the season is going to win. Much of this team’s ethos has always been ‘how are we going to improve today?’”

The 52 Super Series remains some of the most competitive inshore racing in the world. Photo Nico Martinez/52 Super Series.

Lyne estimates the potential performance gains made over the course of a whole season are less than 1%. But that, he says, can be all it takes. “The racing’s tight. You cross by inches, so maybe if you gain 10 inches in two minutes, that’s enough. You only need to be 0.1 faster. And if everything else is constant, you’ll win every race.”

These winning margins are even more remarkable when you remember that the TP52 fleet has an owner-driver. At the front of the fleet, amateur owners are helming with a level of accuracy many top professionals would be proud of, while near flawless crew work covers up any occasional mistakes in the pack. It’s all part of the attraction for owners like Quantum Racing’s Doug DeVos.

“If you’ve been sailing long enough, you want to sail against really good sailors and you really want to challenge yourself. And that means you don’t win all the time. But all the people here want to go against the absolute best,” he says.

The TP52 class is not only surprising in its longevity, but also the fact that it has continued to attract owners into it even as programmes like Quantum’s raise the standard required to win. There have been plenty of past examples where classes have folded as the bar to being competitive rises too high.

DeVos sees the razor-sharp competition as part of the attraction. “Even the newer boats joining are entering at a higher level than maybe in the past, because they see what it is and they really prepare themselves. Anybody can win a race, everybody has won a race and everyone’s competitive. But that’s what you want. You want everyone to feel like, hey, I’ve got a chance at this if I sail well.”

They are all looking for that extra advantage, even if it is less than 1%.

52 Super Series in 2022

The 52 Super Series returns in 2022 with racing in:

Abanca 52 Super Series Baiona Sailing Week, Baiona, Spain May 23-28

Rolex TP52 World Championship, Cascais, Portugal, June 20-25

Puerto Portals 52 Super Series Sailing Week, Puerto Portals, Sail July 21-26

Scarlino 52 Super Series Sailing Week, Scarlino, Italy, September 26-October 2

Barcelona 52 Super Series Sailing Week, Barcelona, Spain, October 24-29

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Yachting World is the world’s leading magazine for bluewater cruisers and offshore sailors. Every month we have inspirational adventures and practical features to help you realise your sailing dreams.

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Photo: Guido Cantini / Panerai / Sea&See.com

1. Mariquita

Built: 1911
Design: William Fife III

Mariquita is a living link between the ‘Big Class’ behemoths, such as Britannia, the J Class and all that went after, including the hugely popular 12-metres. The 125ft gaff cutter was launched as part of a new 19-metre class designed to pitch matched yachts against one another.

Just four were built. Mariquita performed well, particularly in light airs. She also, uniquely, survived. Having been used as a houseboat for many years, she was discovered in the mud in 1991 and lovingly restored to relaunch in 2003, and she still races today.

Photo: Oskar Kihlborg / Volvo Ocean Race

2. ABN Amro One

Built: 2005
Design: Juan Kouyoumdjian

Two Volvo Ocean Race-winning skippers nominated Juan Kouyoumdjian’s ABN Amro One, the 5.6m beam, aggressively chined winner of the 2005-06 race. Her skipper Mike Sanderson comments: “I am biased, but I think ABN Amro One was very special and really did change people’s thinking about what made a good offshore race boat.

“As this was the first generation of Volvo 70s it was always going to be an interesting time seeing how people translated the rule,” says Sanderson. The other factor was many of the team’s involvement in Open 60 sailing.

“We very much looked at the concept of the boat differently: no spinnaker pole, furling No.4 Jibs, twin rudders, lazyjacks, snuffers on spinnakers… They all went from being equipment that was only used on single-handed boats to our team thinking it could make us faster around the world, day in day out.”

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Ian Walker, winner of the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race, recalls: “This generation of boats smashed the previous 24-hour records and made the 600-mile day possible. ABN Amro was quite radical structurally but the key thing was she prioritised stability over anything else – such as wetted surface area.

“The Farr boats were lower wetted surface area and even started out with spinnaker poles! Asymmetric spinnakers meant sailing higher angles and more often needing righting moment.

“ABN Amro One also had twin rudders and more transom immersion, which meant it was slow in light winds but fast at high speed. There was some doubt when it was last in the first in-port races and because much of the race is in light winds, but it was so fast reaching that it negated any weaknesses.”

The black boat went on to win six of the nine offshore legs. Sanderson adds: “In all the Volvo 70s that where built – and to be honest in all the offshore boats that have followed (Rambler, Comanche etc.) – you can see a bit of ‘Black Betty’ as we nicknamed her.”

Photo: Thierry Martinez

3. TP52 Patches

Built: 2007
Design: Reichel Pugh

Originally created to produce fast yachts for the Transpac Race, the TP52 class developed into an owner-driven inshore circuit which continues to attract the world’s best monohull sailors (these days as the Super Series). One development refined on the TP was the change to wide aft sections.

“We started off with quite narrow sterns and the working deck stopping well over one metre forward of the stern,” comments class manager Rob Weiland. “We now see an almost continuous width of the working deck from Beam Max aft and the working deck continuing to the stern.

“The ‘powerful stern’ is now the norm in offshore racing. I’m not sure whether we started it, but for sure, we were the test bed for how to refine that hull shape concept for windward leeward performance.”

First to have a working deck all the way aft was the 2007 Reichel Pugh Patches, a style then taken a stage further by ETNZ (2009), which added slab-sided topsides with a knuckle to create more hull stability when heeled. ETNZ also saw refinements in deck layout, elements of which have filtered down to more mainstream designs, such as transverse jib car tracks.

Photo: Ivor Wilkins Offshore Challenges / DPPI

4. B&Q Castorama

Built: 2004
Design: Nigel Irens

‘Mobi’, as she was affectionately known, was the 75ft trimaran designed by Nigel Irens specifically for Ellen MacArthur’s solo round the world record attempt in 2004.

B&Q Castorama was highly optimised, being longer, narrower, and with more freeboard than the ORMA 60s, reducing the risk of a pitchpole.

She was also, uniquely, custom built for a petite female skipper, with a full-scale mock up of the cockpit created at Offshore Challenges office. The trimaran took over a day off Francis Joyon’s record to finish in 71 days and 14 hours.

5. J/24 Ragtime

Built: 1976
Design: Rod Johnstone

It took 18 months for Rod Johnstone to build this 24-footer in his garage in Connecticut. It was designed to be simple to sail, with few rig adjustments, and light enough to be trailable. Rod’s family helped sand and finish the boat, and she was called Ragtime. Competing at their local race series in the summer of ’76, Ragtime was so successful that many people asked Rod for a sistership. He quit his job, and with brother Bob Johnstone set up J-Boats.

Their confidence proved well placed. Just two years later the J/24 class had its own one-design fleet at Key West in 1978, with 20 boats on the line. Now over 5,500 boats have been built and sold worldwide.

The J-boat line expanded to include one-designs like the J/70, as well as cruiser-racers such as the J/109. It has since has become synonymous with asymmetric sailing, doing much to popularise the use of asymmetric spinnakers on big boats.

The post The Yachting World hall of fame: 50 yachts that changed the way we sail appeared first on Yachting World.

The original Transpac 52 Class (TP52) left an indelible mark on US west coast sailing, but the few that were left racing in California represented a wide range of vintages and race only under handicap. The launch of the Pac 52, a new offshore-specified 52ft class, in 2017 was an attempt to recapture some of that TP spirit and get level rating grand prix racing started up again in California.

The TP52 story began in 2000, when a contingent of Californian sailors sought a new racing class, something smaller than the 70ft sleds that had been surfing their way to victory in the 2,225-mile LA-Honolulu Transpac Race for the previous two decades. They were after a planing design of about 50ft that was simple to sail, could handle round-the-cans races and scoot across the Pacific in a hurry.

The Transpac Yacht Club, which organises the biennial race, proposed a new class to a few local naval architects, including teams from Alan Andrews Yacht Design, Nelson Marek and Reichel/Pugh. The club settled on a 52ft box rule concept, and enlisted designer Bill Lee to help form the rule. Their aim was to have new boats on the start line of the 2001 Transpac Race: the TP52 was launched.

A pre-regatta blackout period only allows teams to practise for three days out of the seven leading up to a regatta, to keep crew bills down. Photo: Sharon Green / ultimatesailing.com

For the following five years there was glory aplenty for west coast TP52s both inshore and offshore, including trans-Pacific races. But the TPs evolved rapidly, adopting square-topped mains and bowsprits. The first generation boats aged quickly as the costs of remaining competitive spiralled, and with no formal organisation or class association, west coast orders slowed.

In Europe, however, the Mediterranean circuit had surged in popularity. By 2006 the Audi TP52 MedCup had become the pinnacle of grand prix racing, with the original offshore element set aside in favour of hardcore inshore racing. The boats got stiffer, lighter and faster. They were largely built in Europe and sailed with European professional crews. If you wanted to race TP52s on a level rating, the Med was the place to be.

Enter the ‘core of four’: American owners Manouch Moshayedi, Victor Wild, Frank Slootman and Tom Holthus. These founding members banded together to form the Pac 52 Class Association, primarily to bring grand prix level rating racing back to the west coast of the USA. Although each owner comes from a slightly different yacht racing background, they all wanted to eliminate the handicap element in the new class.

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The first Pac 52 started life as a new 52-footer for Beau Geste Racing team. When Manouch Moshayedi, owner of the 100-footer Rio, heard that a new Beau Geste was in build at Cookson Boats in Auckland, he contacted Victor Wild, who was also keen to get into some grand prix level racing.

With the tooling already in place, a second boat could be built cost-effectively (now sailing as Wild’s Fox). If they bulk ordered material and found a couple of other perspective owners, they could save even more and have the nucleus of a new class. The Pac 52 Class was born.

The association was formed with three main elements at its core: a level rating class rule; cost effectiveness; and a mutually agreed schedule. The boats are intended to be lighter and faster than the Super Series TP52s (the current crop of TP52s that race on a purely inshore circuit including the Med, Miami and Key West) but capable of racing offshore and costing much less. Getting into the class with a new boat can come in between US$1.8-2.2 million, compared to a Super Series boat at about $3 million (£2.32 million).

The Pac 52 rig is around 60cm taller than the Super Series TP52s, with 10cm extra draught. Photo: Cynthia Sinclair

Four of the Pac 52s were built at Cookson’s, the sole exception being Moshayedi’s Rio, which was built at Premier Composite Technologies in Dubai. Rio utilised the existing plug made for Super Series boat Platoon, a Judel/Vrolijk design, while Provezza (another Judel/Vrolijk Super Series design) provided the mould for Beau Geste, which in turn led to Fox, Invisible Hand and Bad Pak. Theoretically any of the recent Super Series moulds would work, with a deeper keel and taller rig added.

While Beau Geste, Fox and Rio are set up for inshore racing, Invisible Hand and Bad Pak opted for an offshore package. By modifying the Vrolijk deck and adding 150mm freeboard to the bow and 125mm to the stern, Mick Cookson created enough room to allow crawling access to the aft cockpit bunks and make space for a navigator. The two offshore boats have removable galleys and bunks, and can carry watermakers.

The hull of the Pac 52 has a core of foam. The deck has a honeycomb core, which is a slightly less expensive yet more robust alternative to the Nomex construction of the Super Series sisterships. The offshore-moded Invisible Hand and Bad Pak run lines above deck and have eliminated most through-hull protrusions, making them much dryer. Invisible Hand’s steering can be switched from wheels to tiller with minimal effort, while Bad Pak’s owner chose a two-wheel configuration.

One of the biggest weight savings was in the engine. Pac 52s have Lombardini 40hp models, which provide a little less power than the Yanmar 57hp models specified for the Super Series TPs, but weigh 100kg less.

The new class sports a 600mm taller mast, which is placed further aft, increasing the J measurement (jib foretriangle). The smaller main improves the Offshore Racing Rule (ORR) rating when competing in non-class events. Brent Rhune, pro bowman on Bad Pak, says this configuration gives the boats increased power at the lower end of the wind scale.

“The Pac 52 starts planing in 14-15 knots, adding an extra gear or two,” he says. For quick-response rig tuning, Pac 52s have hydraulic headstays, mast deflectors and mast-foot adjusters, powered by a hydraulic rotary pump on the aft coffee grinder.

As with the Super Series TPs, the pit area on the inshore-moded Pac 52s is offset to starboard for fast port-hand mark roundings. It is recessed for reduced windage, with control lines run under deck. Photo: Invisible Hand Sailing

“Set-up on the Pac 52 is all-important: rig tune, mast butt [foot] and rake,” adds Rhune. “Figuring out the crossover of leaving the jib up versus taking it down and hoisting the staysail, thus keeping two guys off the bow at the top mark and three guys at the bottom, ends up earning you boat lengths.”

Cost control

Deck gear packages vary. Fox sports an array of top-end Harken ceramic winches, a hydraulic mast ram and forestay, carbon fibre gearing, and aerodynamic coffee grinders. Invisible Hand and Bad Pak carry a more conventional package with corresponding cost savings.

A key aim of the class association is keeping costs realistic, with an owner-driver rule and limit on seven professional sailors per crew. There are also limitations on new sails, use of support RIBs, and a ‘blackout’ period before each regatta to discourage expensive and lengthy pre-regatta training.

Invisible Hand’s chamfered bow is designed to encourage waves that break over the bow to roll off the deck. Photo: Invisible Hand Sailing

Five Pac 52 Class events were scheduled for 2017, the inaugural year, including the Rolex Big Boat Series in September, with a break in the middle to allow the offshore boats some bluewater time.

Brent Rhune says the fleet is living up to its promise from a sailor’s perspective: “The boats are a blast to sail, just like their predecessors. Although we have just five boats at this point, the racing is close, with nose-to-tail mark roundings, lead changes, camping [sitting] on opponents on the beat, and so on.”

Ruben Gabriel, who races on Invisible Hand, says the pro-am ethos of the fleet is also a big draw. “It’s half-pro, half-amateur racing against each other in a very competitive environment. Everything is rapid fire, everything rises another notch. Every action is precise and deliberate; there is no wasted effort.

“Even the pre-race and post-race debriefs are exacting. Sharing stories and hearing tales from the pros is a great learning experience.”

Specification

LOA (max): 15.85m (52ft)
Beam (max): 4.5m (14ft 9in)
Draught (max): 3.6m (11ft 9in)
Displacement (min): 6,900kg (15,200lb)
Sail area (upwind max): 171m² (1,840ft²)
Asymmetric (max): 272m² (2,927ft²)
TCF (max): 1.208

A version of this article was first published in the September 2017 edition of Yachting World.

The post Invisible Hand: This Pac 52 racer sees the TP52 class return to its offshore roots appeared first on Yachting World.

Celebrating its tenth anniversary in Europe this year, racing’s premier keelboat class, the TP52, is in surprisingly good health. Through careful management it has avoided the dramatic cost escalation that typically destroys ‘box rule’ classes and, three years ago, it survived the demise of its circuit, the Audi MedCup.

That the 52 circuit exists today is thanks to its salvage by three owners – Rán’s Niklas Zennström, Quantum Racing’s Doug de Vos and Matador/Azzurra’s Alberto Roemmers – the stakeholders in the 52 Super Series. Far from dying, the TP52 is again on the ascent. On the startline this season will be nine brand new boats, all built to the latest ‘turboed’ version of the TP52 rule.

In the past an embarrassment for the 52s was that whenever they were taken out of class to race, for example, under IRC, they ended up faster with deeper bulbs, more sail, composite rigging, etc. This is now no longer the case, thanks to sweeping rule changes.

These include increasing draught 150mm to 3.5m, reducing overall displacement (to 7,025kg), increasing sail area (eg main up to 98m² from 93.5m²) and using higher modulus carbon fibre in mast, boom and bowsprit.

Nine new boats is great news for the class, but it’s disappointing that they’ve emerged from only two designers. The two TP52 heavyweights, Quantum Racing and Azzurra, plus new 52 teams Alegre and Bronenosec, are all from Botin & Partners, built in Spain, while Rán, Gladiator, Provezza, Platoon and Sled are Judel-Vrolijk, built as far afield as New Zealand and the UAE.

Identical hulls

Quantum Racing, Alegre/Azzurra and Bronenosec all have identical hulls. The reason, says Botin & Partners’ Adolfo Carrau, is because their TP52s no longer target a specific wind range. Instead they are so adaptable that, with some rejigging of their set-up, they are competitive across a wide range of conditions.

The teams also prefer this, says Carrau: “If one has a ‘light air’ boat and another has one for ‘moderate’ airs then it just leads to frustration, because everyone knows the first will do better in sub-ten knots and the second will do better over ten. This leaves the crews to tweak the appendages, sails and rig . . .”

Botin & Partners is the most successful design house in TP52s, having penned the 52 Super Series/Audi MedCup winner every year since 2008. Of these, Quantum Racing has been the most successful, winning in 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2014.

Getting the new breed to plane earlier was one of the key objectives. Photo: Keith Brash

The most outstanding feature of the new Quantum Racing, the third Botin & Partners design for Doug de Vos’s team, is the swirly ‘time tunnel’ paintjob on the sails. This certainly makes the boat stand out and, of course, key to the campaign is not only to showcase Quantum sails, but to carry out R&D into sail shapes to validate the company’s iQ Technology software. Among the avenues under investigation are mainsails with shorter foot lengths.

The new-generation Botin 52s have softer turns rather than chines and redistributed volume to help offset the increased power of the rig. According to Carrau, the designers have attempted to improve downwind performance, an area where gains can particularly be made – as boats get lighter, they become more inclined to plane.

Significant work by Pure Engineering has gone into the structure, where the aim is to concentrate weight in the centre of the boat and lower the vertical centre of gravity.

Increase in performance

Carrau says the new TP52s have a three or four per cent increase in performance across the board, causing the TP52 to take another step away from being a ‘small big boat’ towards being a large sportsboat.

In addition, lowering the mast’s centre of gravity and fitting composite standing rigging – typically Southern Spars carbon fibre EC6 – has reduced pitching, improving performance upwind and in waves. “I think they are as up-to-date as they can be now. They have caught up and even exceeded the speed of the IRC 52s, which is good.”

Where TP52s are especially interesting is in the incredible lengths to which teams go to ensure not only that they sail to maximum efficiency both upwind and down in terms of cockpit layout and crew positioning, but can also turn corners and carry out manoeuvres in the most efficient way with the minimum of foul-ups. Modern TP52s represent the last word in ‘tweaky’.

And nowhere is this more evident than with Quantum Racing. From within its two 40ft containers – one a fully-speced workshop, the other a sail loft – the American team conjures up custom-built widgets in its quest for ultimate refinement.

With the companionway offset to port, the minimalist pit is to starboard and is recessed to minimise windage

Focusing on the sides of the cockpit, you can see a multitude of tiny control lines. Standard fit on TP52s, for example – to the extent that it features in the class rule – is a line that when pulled causes a small pole to extend out from the end of the bowsprit. This prevents sheets from dropping over the end of the bowsprit during gybes.

Over the years windage has become a big concern. The mast area has always been slippery, with the gooseneck covered by a neoprene sleeve, as is the mast where it penetrates the deck. On their previous 52, Quantum Racing pioneered mounting jib tracks below deck, leaving just a ring protruding through a narrow slot, while the carbon fibre pulpit is about as minimal as it can be with the lashings for the Dyneema upper guardrail running through the pulpit and terminating below deck.

The pit area has become reasonably standardised, sunken below deck height and with just a single winch – this is no longer driven by the pedestals, as halyards are instead fed to the spare primary.

Cockpit layout

The biggest differences boat to boat remain in the cockpit. Although all the boats have tiller steering and have their aft pedestal mounted immediately adjacent to the rudder stock, winch positions differ. Of the two circuit heavyweights, Quantum Racing has them further inboard and recessed, whereas Azzurra has them mounted on deck and further outboard, with bigger runner winches to crank up runner/forestay tension for the ultimate in flexible trim.

The after of the two grinders is mounted beside the rudder stock to keep weight aft when sailing downwind

Quantum Racing makes a considerable amount of custom gear in-house and this includes its own carbon fibre headsail furling drums and the reel system for spinnaker sheets. If you’re unfamiliar with the latter, they cause spinnaker sheet ends to be sucked up rapidly onto a spool below deck, keeping the cockpit free of excess rope. Although companies such as Diverse Yacht Systems make this rarefied gear, Quantum Racing has conjured up its own.

The team has also made progress with its spinnaker take-down system, a line attached to the centre of the spinnaker that ultimately ends up on a primary winch, enabling the kite to be sucked down below the foredeck hatch in just three or four seconds.

Whereas most take-down systems require a substantial roller below decks on the after side of the hatch, Quantum Racing has dispensed with this, relying on a curved underside to the hatch instead.

How much of this makes a difference on the racecourse is, of course, hard to quantify, but on a circuit today that is so competitive every little helps. Furthermore, what the big boys develop often has a way of filtering down to smaller boats.

Jib sheet tracks are hidden below deck. The vang this year is rope inside a carbon tube that can support the boom

Windage around the gooseneck is minimised with a neoprene sleeve

Down below looking aft, showing, on the front of the mast, the hydraulic ram for the deflectors and the metal frame supporting the keel. The lines running down from the deck either side are the enormous 45:1 purchases for the jib up-down

Specifications

LOA 15.85m/52ft 0in

Beam 4.42m/14ft 6in

Draught 3.50m/11ft 6in

Displacement 7,000kg/15,432lb

Mast height above DWL 23.80m/78ft 0in

Sail area:

Mainsail 98.0m²/1,055ft²

Jib 66.0m²/710ft²

Spinnaker 270.0m²/2,906ft²

Designer: Botin & Partners

Builder: Longitud Cero Composites, Spain

This is an extract from a feature in the July 2015 issue of Yachting World

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Images courtesy of Christophe Launay / Sealaunay.com

Here are some pictures of the new Ran IV – the 2011 TP52 designed by Judel/Vrolijk and built at Green Marine in Lymington, UK. It has just arrived in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Boat Captain Chris Hoskings who has built several TP52s, has made sure this race yacht is built and designed to such a high level we have not seen before.

According to Norse mythology, the sea goddess Ran lives at the bottom of the sea and uses a net to capture sailors and drag them down to her, where she also holds wild parties from time to time. The way to be safe and not be captured is for the sailors to hold a piece of gold.

That may be why the boat builders equipped the new Ran with a golden bulb that should be well visible from the bottom of the sea.

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For the last two weeks, Cookson Boats in Auckland have been constructing a new boat for Emirates Team New Zealand to take park in the TP52 regatta circuit in 2009. Project manager for the new boat – to be called Emirates Team New Zealand – will be bowman Richard Meacham.

TP52s are pure racing platforms, high performance monohulls capable of racing in both buoy regattas and offshore races. They are 52ft long and race with a crew of 15.

They do not have water ballast, canting keels or running back stays – owners preferring to keep it simple, safe and reliable. They can easily exceed 25 knots off the wind and can break 30 knots, and have won the majority of bluewater regattas they’ve entered.

The NZ team has started building a TP52 yacht in Auckland. It will be launched on 17 February next year and shipped to Europe in mid-March.

Emirates Team New Zealand skipper Dean Barker said the Grand Prix TP52 circuit is one of the most competitive in the world: “A team entry on the circuit is the next logical step in our preparation for a next multi-challenge America’s Cup.”

“The Med Cup circuit got going three years ago and each year has got better and better to the point where it is now the absolute top-end of keel boat racing outside the America’s Cup. The TP52 will give us the opportunity to continue to develop and test the sailing team in preparation for the next multi-challenge America’s Cup.”

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The leader during the three days of competition – TAU Andalusia – has finally captured the Trophy. The Andalusian boat secures its first triumph in this regatta and this class since 2005 when it competed in the IMS 600 class.

The sad note of the day has been the sinking of the Cam in front of El Saler. Taking in water from the bow during the final race, the situation got worse very quickly, and in spite of all efforts and assistance from the fleet and race committee, the boat sank. Luckily there were no injuries; the crew were all rescued safely.

Near Miss, the Swiss GP42 yacht flying the colors of the Societe Nautique de Geneve, dominated the 3rd event of the Quebramar GP42 Cup. After a total of 7 races the Swiss came first, followed by Roma GP42.2 and AIRIS. DesafIo is still leading the Quebramar GP42 Cup but Near Miss grabs 2nd place from AIRIS.

Podium positions:

TP 52

1. Tau Ceramica AndalucIa, Jose M. Torcida, 9 points

2. CAM, Luis Doreste, 13

3. ONO, Inaki Castaner, 14

GP 42

1. Near Miss, Bertrand Pace, 14

2. Roma GP 42.2, Paolo Cian, 22

3. Airis, Sandro Montefusco, 23

ORC 670

1. Navantia, Jesus Pintos, 11
2. Vindio, Fernando Pombo, 12

3. Tuvvik XIV, Javier Serrano, 13

ORC 570

1. Telefonica, Axel Rodger, 11

2. Icaro, Carles RodrIguez, 12

3. Power Plate-Hempel, Gustavo MartInez, 12

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Threading a fleet of 14 high octane TP52s together at the weather mark is quite a task when the course has been even on either side. Bearing away is tricky enough in the breeze when you’re a port tack boat trying to duck a starboard tacker, especially when you’re trying to manoeuvre on skinny foils. Add to this the problems of having another boat below you as you do and as Caixia Galicia discovered, suddenly there was nowhere to go but through the starboard tacker!

Today’s video clip shows the incident and aftermath. As the boat approach the weather mark, keep an eye out towards the back of the fleet. A complicated scenario that changes quickly for which the moral of the story seems to be – anticipate the unlikely!

Official news release as follows:
Platoon powered by Team Germany, steered by triple Olympic gold medallist and double America”s Cup Winner Jochen Schuemann (GER) emerged unscathed from a dramatic and exciting coastal race to take the best of the points available, winning both sections of the 39 miles passage to Cassis and back, on the third day of racing at the City of Marseille Trophy, the second regatta of the Audi MedCup Circuit.
It was the first ever winning gun for the German boat which is owned by Harm Muller-Spreer and helmed by Schuemann with Rod Dawson (NZL) calling the tactics. Only swift avoiding action by the helm, who saw at the last minute what was happening, saved Platoon from becoming involved in a nasty series of crashes and near-collisions when the leading pack converged at speed at the first windward mark.
A big wind shift accelerated the arrival and suddenly favored a pack coming from the left at the buoy, while those with right of way on starboard tack slowed and struggled momentarily. Lightning quick reactions and bold decisions were required from the line up of port tack boats. Sadly Matador (ARG), CxG Caixa Galicia (ESP) and Mutua Madrileña (CHI) all sustained damage and had to retire.
There were six protests from the incidents, all three boats are seeking redress, but CxG Caixa Galicia’s owner Vicente Tirado confirmed this evening that the damage to the bow of their boat is such that he is presently looking for a suitable replacement boat to continue the Audi MedCup season with.
Caixa Galicia’s bow was badly smashed after they hit Mutua Madrileña which sustained a one metre gash in her hull side just below deck level, while in a related crash Mean Machine hit Matador, who have much of their aft port quarter crumpled.
“I think these things happen sometimes because the boats are so evenly matched for speed but Mean Machine crushed Matador’s stern right in front of us and I had to do something quickly or we would have done the same thing.” recalled Schuemann,
“For us as a team it is great got get a win under our belt. The first coastal race we have won for a long time and the first Audi MedCup Circuit race for me and my crew so that feels pretty nice! We are happy after some problems yesterday, we were glad to get a win in! We made it around the top mark well in second and closed in to the Spanish team El Desafío who were leading. We had a long fight and stretched out there. Russell Coutts came close on USA-17 with very good boat speed but we kept them at bay and got a good lead, never risking our win. The learning has been big. Today we have made good decisions and we feel we are really moving up.”
The 39-miles course offered a good selection of points of sail to contest, with a short two miles beat up to the Islands of Ratoneau and Grand Salaman before a long, exciting sleigh ride, peppered with an array of wind shifts to make gains and losses on, down to the scoring gate, 26 miles into the race.

From the turning mark off the entrance to the beautiful bay of Cassis, there was a tough beat back up along the coast, the TP52’s dwarfed at times by the 200 metre high cliffs, which accelerated the Mistral winds to over 22 knots.
Platoon was ahead after about 12 miles when the spinnakers were set, passing early leader El Desafío (ESP). After a poor start USA-17, the regatta leaders, steadily picked their way through the fleet. As the leaders squeezed through the narrow gap between the Ile Jaire and the mainland, tacking only 15 metres or so off the rocky coast, and with the hard hiking crew regularly able to see the sea bed beneath their keels, USA-17 used the shifts and wind bends to get back to within a few boat lengths of the German crew. But Schuemann and his crew extended again to win by 37 seconds from USA-17, who left their Swedish sistership Artemis to pick up third place three minutes behind.
The Reichel/Pugh-designed sisterships, built to the same design from different moulds, shared the seconds and third places between them, ensuring that USA-17 still lead by four points ahead of Artemis going into the penultimate day of racing.
Russell Coutts (NZL), tactician on USA-17 :
“Conditions here are fantastic today the boat is going very well. We have some tuning to do in the lighter winds but in the stronger stuff it all fits together pretty nicely. We have got a pretty experienced team on board and that makes a huge difference especially in these very windy conditions.”
“The first part of the race was important that was how Platoon got the jump, but then the long downward leg was pretty key, and there were some gains and losses with some pretty big wind shifts and big wave surfing conditions. If you had good boatspeed that was a big factor. Coming upwind it was very tricky, puffy, shifty, and a lot of sail trimming – that was great! There is a lot of good banter going between us and Artemis but it is all fun – and obviously we have members of the team on both boats so it is good for both of us to be doing well.”
Guillermo Parada (ARG), Matador’s skipper and helm:
“Approaching the weather mark on starboard a couple of boats came in on port including Mean Machine who overstood. So they were reaching a little bit and by the time they approached us, they must have had a gust and were not able to come down enough and hit us in the aft port quarter of the boat, causing serious damage. ”
“We lost the spinnaker sheet system, three stanchions, structural damage in the bulkhead side, lost the traveller, there is a crack on the deck and obviously the whole port side is completely destroyed. In the middle of the boat there is internal damage and many other things we”re still exploring but we are trying our best to get it fixed and be back racing as soon as possible. We are flying people and materials here.”
Nacho Postigo (ESP), navigator on Mutua Madrileña:
“1.8 miles after the start on the first beat and approaching on port tack and trying to duck the boats arriving in starboard tack we had Caixa behind us and to weather. We bore away hard to avoid Quantum and found a gap behind them ahead of Bribón and behind Audi Q8. CXG had the intention to go behind us. But he suddenly found the Russain boat to leeward of them on port and although they had been shouting at them to avoid the fleet the Russian boat luffed and tried to tack, which forced them to hit CXG and then CXG hit us badly in the middle of the hull.”
“Luckily it was not a high speed collision and nobody was hurt. Vasco Vascotto, steering the boat, was a little injured, but not too seriously as he took about a four metre flight through the air. The boat has a crack in the outside skin, the Nomex is broken along with the inner skin in the panel between two bulkheads. It is possibly a one-week job to repair.”
“Another incident took place at the same buoy between Matador and Mean Machine where MM (similarly to us ) bore away to get behind Matador. Suddenly a big puff came along and they lost control whilst trying to bear away they hit the last few metres of the stern of Matador, but in this case the conditions fully influenced the situation.”

City of Marseille Trophy
Top 10 Provisional Results after six races (14 starters)
(Position, Boat, Country, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, R6a, R6b, Total Points)
1st USA-17 (6, 5, 1, 1, 3, 3, 2, 21)
2nd Artemis SWE (12, 1, 2, 2, 3, 2, 3, 25)
3rd Bribón ESP (4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 4, 5, 31)
4th Platoon by Team Germany GER (7, 9, 5, 3, 6, 1, 1, 32)
5th Mean Machine MON (1, 14, 3, 9, 4, 6, 6, 43)
6th Quantum Racing USA (3, 6, 12, 6, 1, 11, 8, 47)
7th El Desafío ESP (11, 10, 9, 8, 8, 5, 4, 55)
8th Matador ARG (2, 2, 7, 7, 12, 15, 15, 60)
9th Audi by Q8 ITA (8, 7, 8, 13, 9, 7, 9, 61)
10th CxG Caixa Galicia ESP (9, 11, 6, 4, 2, 15, 15, 62)
2008 Audi MedCup Circuit Top 10 Standings
Provisional Results after 14 races
(Position, Boat, Country, Total Points)
1st Bribón ESP 73
2nd Mean Machine MON 84
3rd Artemis SWE 85
4th Platoon by Team Germany GER 90
5th Quantum Racing USA 93
6th El Desafío ESP 120
7th Matador ARG 127
8th Mutua Madrileña ESP 143
9th Audi by Q8 ITA 147
10th CxG Caixa Galicia ESP 151

Click Here for Results 

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Brand new boats, a brand new headline sponsor and a list of rock star sailors that reads like a who’s who of professional yachting, the TP52 season in the Mediterranean kicks off with its first series in Alicante.

The opening day may have only been a practice day, but the level of competition meant that the fleet raced around the course as if the final trophy depended on it.

Watch out for the daily video summaries as the week long event unfolds. In the meantime, here’s a taste of what’s in store.

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This week the new TP52 left the Salthouse shipyard, New Zealand, on its passage to Europe. The mast and other equipment essential for the upcoming European season were loaded onto the cargo ship, alongside the new hull.

The shore crew will make their way to Belgium, where the ship is due to unload, before heading in mid-April to Valencia to start test sailing.

Five months of hard work have come together to deliver a brand new Mean Machine, ready to take part in what’s set to be the toughest TP 52 season yet, with the Audi MedCup and the TP 52 Global Championships in Puerto Calero (Canary Islands, Spain) to look forward to.

This season Peter de Ridder and his Mean Machine team will be looking to take back their MedCup title from 2006 and to improve on the third place gained at the TP 52 Global Championships last year.

For more information visit www.mean-machine.nl 

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Day one of the Rolex TP52 World Championship saw reigning world champion Eamon Conneely with his new boat Patches take a first and fifth in the two races of the day to lead the fleet in the overall classification.

Conditions in Sardinia put everyone to the test yesterday as driving rain and shifty winds replaced the previous day’s sunshine and blue skies. The Race Committee postponed the start of the first race for just over two hours before approximately 7 knots of north-westerly wind allowed the 15 competing Transpac 52s to take to the start line for a windward/leeward race of approximately six nautical miles. Towards the end of the first race the wind shifted right to 20° and gradually built up to reach 15-16 knots for the start of the second race.

Conneely’s Reichel-Pugh design, which was launched in May of this year and finished third overall in the TP52 Medcup circuit this year, took first place in Race One ahead of John Cook’s Cristabella (GBR) and John Buchan’s Glory (USA). Race two saw the course lengthened with each leg approximately 2.5 miles for a total of 10 nautical miles. As the wind picked up Torbjorn Torniqvists Artemis (SWE), with New Zealand’s Russell Coutts at the helm, took victory over Mutua Madrilena (CHI) and Riccardo Simoneschi’s Anonimo Q8.

Vasco Vascotto, tactician on board Mutua Madrilena, explained how yesterday’s races unfolded: “Unfortunately the first race we were over the line and we went back so started last in the first race but still we did a quite good recovery. The second race was nothing special but we played a couple of shifts quite well and at the end of the first beat we stayed in front and we stayed in front also the second beat and half of the last run; unfortunately Russell and Artemis gained on one wave and we were not able to gybe from starboard to port because they ‘closed the door’, so we came quite close but not close enough to win. It’s a good result.”

On competition in the class: “There are at least 10 boats here that can win this Championship, so we are really pleased that we could get a good result in the second race, so we are close enough in order to try to have a good result here in Sardinia. It’s a very good fleet; any of these boats can win a race for sure there is somebody that is a little more favoured but the others have exactly the same speed, so there is no difference.”

With a possible 11 races to be run over the next five days the fun has just begun but after two race Patches leads by just one point ahead of Artemis and Anonimo who both have seven points.

Today’s weather forecast foresees 10-15 knots of north-easterly wind in the morning which may shift round to north-westerly and prove shifty this afternoon.

Racing is due to start at 12 midday.

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The start of the final series of the Breitling MedCup TP52 championship in now underway in Ibiza with series leader Peter de Ridder and team aboard Mutua Madrilena currently leading the 20-boat fleet.

News this afternoon (1200) from Ibiza shows that while Mutua Madrileña has established a good lead in the light airs on the 25-30 mile coastal race up the coast to Benicasim, there’s a close battle developing between Bribon and the Roberto Bermudez skippered Caixa – currently battling for overall third/fourth position with Siemens (skippered by Ian Walker). Bribon is holding on to second.

More news when we have it.

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Following its General Meeting in Castellon (Spain) on Friday 7 July, the Mediterranean TP 52 association has announced the selection of Hyères as the first ever TP 52 event in France.

This particular stage of the Breitling Med Cup circuit will be held in Hyères from 10-15 September 2007.

The event will conclude the 2007 circuit after Castellon (13-17 June), the Breitling Regatta and the Copa Del Rey in Majorca (18-22 July and 28 July/5 August), Portimao in Portugal (19/25 August). The TP52 World Championship is also due to take place in the Mediterranean in October.

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