![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.guillaumeverdier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/190824-11HRT-AMO-boat-design-0057-1030x688.jpg\")
190824_ROSS_PLF_0057.ARW – The 11th Hour Racing Team at their training site in Port La Foret, France.<\/p><\/div>\n
More than a hull<\/b><\/p>\n
What better place to start than the hull shape? Charlie Enright explaines the priorities for the design of the new boat as such: \u201cIn our experience, in The Ocean Race a lot of the leg starts and finishes are upwind, not something that Vend\u00e9e Globe sailors typically experience. So, we really tried to make an all-around boat with no weaknesses, and once we felt like we had that we tried to enhance its ability to VMG [Velocity Made Good] downwind, basically, without taking away or detracting from the overall objective of an all-rounder.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the priorities \u2013 and we learnt it a little bit with 11.1 [the team\u2019s first boat, the 2016 Hugo Boss] \u2013 is to be able to quickly get on the foil,\u201d said Verdier. \u201cThe quicker you go on the foil, the quicker you lift a big portion of the weight of the boat. So, you want a lot of heave [vertical] stability, so that has been quite a priority. The other priority was really just the safety of the boat. There is going to be a lot of water on the deck and you don\u2019t want to put people at risk so I think that would be the ultimate priority.\u201d<\/p>\n
The result? \u201cThe bow shape section \u2013 the section and not the profile view \u2013 are quite different from anything you\u2019ve seen before,\u201d says Verdier.<\/p>\n
The bow \u2013 along with the aerodynamic look of the hull shape \u2013 is one of the more striking elements when you first lay eyes on the boat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hull shape itself is an evolution, I would say, of previous Guillaume designs, but with a lot more flair in the bow\u2026\u201d Enright says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really want to give up too much waterline because we are trying to make an all-around boat. One of the big things is VMG running, keeping the bow up and out of the water. So, we have these splashes in the bow that are very, very pronounced, and when the boat is just sitting there on its waterline, it\u2019s skinny in the front, but the second the bow submerges [if it does], the shape gets really beamy and protective [adding buoyancy quickly], keeping the water off the deck and trying to keep the bow nice and buoyant.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you design boats, it\u2019s always a two-in-one,\u201d Verdier says. \u201cYou always try to design a boat that is OK in light [winds] and during the transition [to foiling]. A boat that has a high righting moment when reaching and is very stable downwind; one that is not going to put the bow down in a wave trough or roll over every time you have a gust or a Southern Ocean squall\u2026 you need to have a very resilient boat in a gust.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.guillaumeverdier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/imoca-guillaume-verdier-1030x579.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Foils full of tricks<\/b><\/p>\n
The other big development area that the team had to get right to achieve these goals and create a resilient boat are the foils, the design of which is inextricably linked to the design of the hull. \u201cYou can make foils that ventilate [air being sucked onto the surface of the foil reducing lift], for example,\u201d Verdier says, \u201cso people always say, \u2018Oh, look at the ventilation\u2019 but ventilation is a smart way to self-regulate\u2026It\u2019s a damper. You can have foils that twist under the load, there\u2019s plenty of tricks to play\u2026 we have made safe choices in order to avoid burying the nose\u2026 And you have to have a boat that if you have no foil is still really safe and really fast. I\u2019d say good luck to the guys that take the option to make a boat that is actually useless once they break the foils or once they have an issue with the foils.\u201d<\/p>\n
The foils can be controlled in one of two ways, the rake can be changed through 5 degrees of rotation, and they can be extended in and out of the boat. \u201cThe way we made the foil shape is that when we extend the foil, we have different righting moments and different stability,\u201d Verdier says\u2014so both extension and rake will change the performance of the foils. Verdier was clear on their innovative direction. \u201cThe foil shape is very different from what we\u2019ve seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Enright was also clear on the impact the foils were going to have. \u201cWhen you see them roll out of the shed, they\u2019re not really an evolution of what\u2019s already out there. They\u2019re definitely a revolution. We\u2019ve had four different foils, not sets, but different foils on the boat [11.1] since we purchased it in 2019. They have allowed us to improve our construction method, the stiffness, the profile, the section shape: everything that goes into them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The aero package<\/b><\/p>\n
If the hull and foils have been a powerful focus, then the aero package \u2013 sails, rig and aerodynamic treatment of the deck \u2013 has not been sidelined. \u201cThe aero package is not to be underestimated and we\u2019ve invested a lot on it,\u201d said Enright \u2013 something that\u2019s clear from the boat\u2019s aerodynamic look. \u201cWe did a lot of work on the aerodynamics of the hull itself\u2026 all our furlers are flush-deck, all the headsails will be perfectly end-plated. We have a big aero fairing on the bow that encompasses the base of the mast and hides a lot of the halyards and deck spreader terminations. It\u2019s made of foam, which also helps with instability in the 180-degree righting test which has an effect on our bulb weight.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just the headsails either, when I ask Verdier what would strike the casual observer as new and different, one of the things he says is, \u201cThe fact that the mainsail can be sealed [against the deck].\u201d The whole sail plan will be end-plated for greater efficiency.<\/p>\n
A great deal of work has also gone into the sail inventory, not just the sail designs and crossovers, but also the constructions. \u201cWe\u2019re making sails that are probably lighter than any offshore sails that have been built to date, but still fit for purpose,\u201d Enright says. \u201cAny issues arise not from the loads, nor the modulus [lack of strength], it\u2019s the continuous sail handling repetition that breaks down the strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
Control systems for the sails have also been a focus. \u201cAnother priority for me is that we can easily tune the sails,\u201d Verdier says. \u201cWhat you want for these boats is the ability to be accurate when you trim. You want to have fast trimming; you want to make sure the sailors are super strong so they are not going to slow down. You need more information and feedback to do that. You need more strain gauges and you need more hydraulics for responsiveness and things to move quite fast.\u201d<\/p>\n
A change in the rules has worked to the team\u2019s advantage in this respect, as Enright explains. \u201cWe have a lot more hydraulics on the boat than traditional IMOCAs do\u2026Once they opened up the rake in the boards [to allow movement] you needed to carry hydraulic oil to make that happen, so the marginal weight-cost to add other hydraulics throughout the boat came down astronomically. So, you already had the pump, you already had the reservoir and the oil, so to throw an 800-gram cunningham ram on or something like that, it became a no-brainer in some areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are other elements that will see a change in style from the traditional IMOCA culture. The team\u2019s Build Manager, and the man responsible for coordinating between all the contractors and the team for the new boat is Wade Morgan, a sailor with three America\u2019s Cups and a Volvo Ocean Race on his CV. \u201cIn terms of our trimming style, we\u2019ve got jib tracks and a straight traveler for the mainsail, so we\u2019re more of an \u2018angle of attack\u2019 style of sailing rather than a \u2018twist\u2019 style of sailing, which is how a lot of the French guys do it, so that\u2019s a real difference with this boat. We\u2019ve got huge visibility forward and [all] around for the trimming to exploit the fully-crewed nature [of the boat]. We\u2019re not \u2018set-and-forget\u2019 because we have the manpower onboard to trim a lot more.<\/p>\n
So, the ergonomics of the trim and then the visibility out to our sail-plan have been key decisions for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Systems and handling<\/b><\/p>\n
The other aspect of trim onboard a short-handed boat is the autopilot. The Ocean Race originally looked to a rule that would only allow heading-only pilots, and the cockpit was originally designed to allow hand-steering. Now there\u2019s to be a more sophisticated one-design autopilot supplied for The Ocean Race.<\/p>\n
\u201cAutopilot design has come a long way, and in addition there are so many contributing factors to improving performance, from software to better measure our structures and systems, to hardware development in areas like the compass and other advanced sensors,\u201d Enright says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that hand-steering will probably no longer be necessary doesn\u2019t really matter according to Morgan. \u201cOur view has always been to use our on-deck systems and design them in such a way to exploit the extra people onboard to trim harder. If the autopilot comes in, which it has done, then that\u2019s no problem. We\u2019re still going to have the same ability to trim well and make our boat go quicker with the autopilot. So, it\u2019s like an extra set of hands, I guess, but it won\u2019t really affect anything we do too much. We\u2019ll be setting the boat up for that style of sailing and probably that\u2019s more what the crew\u2019s used to from the tradition of our Ocean Race standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the most striking visual aspects of the newly launched boat, and a departure from what has gone before, is the wide, low profile, covered cockpit with its big windows. It was, along with the interior layout, the result of a long and intensive process that started with a blank page.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe boats are typically single-handed, short-handed machines, and we were just trying to figure out where to fit everyone,\u201d Enright says. \u201cThe Ocean Race crew-configuration rule means we have to fit multiple people on the boat. While the IMOCA 60 Class rule incentivizes low freeboard and maximum water ballast, where are the people going to go? Where do the food and spares go? How\u2019s everyone going to sleep? Eat? It\u2019s hard. And being able to start from scratch with the new boat on some of those ideas has been helpful.\u201d<\/p>\n
The use of full-size mock-ups substantially helped with this aspect of the design. \u201cThe mock-up process was intensive,\u201d Enright says. \u201cIt helped with the ergonomics of crewed sailing, where all the people were going to fit, how were we going to do maneuvers, where things were going to lead, where wheels would go, potentially tillers would go, pedestals would go, winches\u2026There were center tunnels, two tunnels, a split pit, left and right, fore and aft. All these different permutations got addressed one way or another in the mock-up process. And then down below, where are the bunks going to fit? The whole IMOCA rule is governed by the 110- and the 180-degree righting test, so where, volumetrically, can you fit things for as little cost as possible? And when you have to create more volume, what does that mean for the bulb weight and everything else?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are an infinite number of loops that can get run on this rule. It is well known how complex it is. It\u2019s not a mystery when you see boats so radically different, because once you change something, the knock-on effect of that one change takes you so far from where you\u2019ve been, and potentially where you were trying to go\u2026 We have a whole playbook that we drafted from spending days in the mock-up. It\u2019s different. You used to have a bow man, a mid-bow man, a pit man, a mast man. Now we just have position one through five, and you rotate around as space allows. Whatever winch you\u2019re closest to in a particular maneuver, that\u2019s your job. You don\u2019t have a label. There\u2019s not enough space.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mock-up was a potential hit to the boat\u2019s carbon footprint, but some careful planning in advance took care of that. \u201cThe deck mock-up was built with FSC certified woods and was fitted together in an almost jigsaw-like way, without any adhesives or too much metal work,\u201d says Amy Munro, the team\u2019s Sustainability Officer. \u201cYou could actually just unclip it all at the end. And then the panels were used for container set-ups and fit-outs and some of the boat builders from CDK even took them home for shelving! The wood at the end of it was of high enough quality that it could have a nice reuse application. So, designing for disassembly, re-use and for end-of-life at the beginning really paid off.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.guillaumeverdier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/191208_11HRT_PLF_0394-1030x688.jpg\")
Designer Guillaume Verdier discussing 11th Hour Racing Team\u2019s new IMOCA 60 boat design for The Ocean Race 2022-23.
December 5, 2019
Photo by Amory Ross | 11th Hour Racing<\/p><\/div>\n
Next steps<\/b><\/p>\n
Now that the boat has been launched, everyone I spoke to is clear on the next steps as the boat prepares for its first big test \u2013 the Transat Jacques Vabre in November 2021. Guillaume Verdier outlined the process: \u201cWell, first things first, everybody\u2019s job is to make things work\u2026 Having the electronics really well set up and having all the fiber optics delivering the data we need. Inspecting the boat, a lot. Pushing the boat in hard conditions to make sure there\u2019s no damage. And then finding the good tuning set-ups and comparing those with the predicted ones\u2026 We then ask ourselves, what is the discrepancy? What are the foil strain gauges saying when we are pushing hard, are we comfortable with it? Inspecting the foils, inspecting the hull; all these things have to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Enright and Morgan are blunt with their assessments: \u201cMy ultimate focus between now and November is reliability,\u201d Enright says. \u201cI just want everything to work and the performance will come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgan agrees: \u201cShort term, reliability. What\u2019s most important to us right now is a reliable boat that can do the Transat Jacques Vabre and not limp in, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given the care and attention that has gone into the build, this seems a very reasonable hope, and it\u2019s the construction process that we will examine in the final part of this series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
From the hull shape, to the dynamic foils, durable sails and advanced systems of 11th Hour Racing\u2019s IMOCA 60, every area of this around-the-world machine has been optimized. Now it\u2019s up to the sailors to get it to its full potential. \u201cThe marine environment is harsher than any other, even outer space; the salt, wind, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6889,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,178],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-en_news","category-en_newscast"],"yoast_head":"\n