I declared that a tri would win the R2AK. That a cat couldn’t beat a tri in short-tacking through the islands. And the kelp excluded the use of foils.
A elderly looking M32 daycat with foils won that race. I stand corrected.
I declared that a tri would win the R2AK. That a cat couldn’t beat a tri in short-tacking through the islands. And the kelp excluded the use of foils.
A elderly looking M32 daycat with foils won that race. I stand corrected.
The Marstroem M32 is about 150k Euro, or about $175k. A smart choice for short tacking. It was designed especially with that purpose in mind. Enough rocker on the buoyant hulls make it turn quick and tack through with ease. Lack of upwind foresail makes it point up to 2 or 3 degrees higher with about the same speed, resulting in tacking angles of about 38 degrees. Also there is no drag from a flapping foresail acting as a brake though the tacks. And lastly lack of foresail and buoyant hulls make the cat relatively easy to sail without to much stress on the crew. Not unimportant in an endurance race. Best regards from Sweden (home of Marstroem 🙂
I was at the race and watched the restart at Victoria. It was truly stunning how the M32 rolled Bad Kitty, an F-85SR, an F31R, an F-25c, the Turn Point 24′ cat, and everything else in the race as it exited the Victoria breakwater. The superior power-to-weight of that boat was readily evident.
There is no doubt that sailing a M32 in the R2AK was a calculated, but huge, risk. These guys are good, but they were also very, very lucky. A capsize was a very real and significant risk and could easily have been race and/or life-ending. Any equipment failure would have been similarly significant. Breaking a foil or rudder would have ended it. And that boat has an interesting history of dropping rigs…
They were also willing to put up with some severe deprivation for the length of the race – they ‘slept’ in bivy bags on the wing nets.
So, I salute their impressive sail. They gambled, but with their eyes wide open, and won.
Kurt, I hope one of your designs – whether existing or custom-developed – is in the race in the future.
The human factor is deciding in racing. 30 years ago Toyota Landcruiser did not get into China becase an x-rally driver with a piece of crap car beat them in a challenge.
Perhaps you were objectively wrong about the kelp problem. But the weather conditions do vary…. I’d still go with your wisdom on a tri if it were me. And one of these years there won’t be any wind and a pedal/rowing forward design will win.
Also, I think that foiling cat runs about $500k new, right? It is going to take them quite a few wins at $10k per win to pay off the difference between that the F-boats!
Hughes wrong???? I don’t get it???
With C foils you can still lift the foil to clear the junk. The M32 isn’t a full flyer just foil assisted. I think the real winner was the lightweight nature of the boat as the M32 only weighs about 500kg with it’s full carbon prepreg autoclaved build. It also had a serious race crew who knew what they were doing and had planned the best route with a variety of different weather patterns taken into account. It’s a race boat versus fast furniture boats which makes a big difference too.