Alex Thomson\u2019s bold new Hugo Boss will change how the solo skipper sails, but will it win the 2020 Vend\u00e9e Globe? Helen Fretter got on board to find out moreAll photos: Alex Thomson Racing \/ Hugo Boss\u201cWhat\u2019s my speed? What\u2019s the speed? What\u2019s the boatspeed now?!\u201d Alex Thomson hollers into a microphone. Thomson, at the helm of his brand new Hugo Boss, is pumped. As we headed out for today\u2019s photoshoot he said they weren\u2019t going to push the boat too hard. After all, they\u2019re still getting to know her. Instead the aim of the day is mainly to get some drone shots of this futuristic yacht flying high.
\nBut with 18-20 knot westerlies as we thunder out and back from Gosport, it quickly becomes all about the numbers. \u201c32 knots boatspeed in 18 knots of wind with a\u2026 a\u2026 storm jib up!\u201d Alex gesticulates at the rig, \u201cThat\u2019s amazing isn\u2019t it?\u201d
\nIt\u2019s not really a storm jib, it\u2019s a J3 with a single-reefed main, although it\u2019s definitely not all the sail area this machine of a yacht can carry on a moderate inshore day. And we haven\u2019t even opened a valve for the water ballast. But Thomson\u2019s enthusiasm is infectious, and the boat truly is amazing.
\nYachting World deputy editor Helen Fretter at the helm of Hugo Boss
\nAt one point Thomson is so buzzed he does a little happy dance, then wiggles the tiller mischievously from side to side. He\u2019s clearly having a whole lot of fun.
\nHe\u2019s not the only one. The sensation of speed is astonishing \u2013 a foiling IMOCA does not scoot forwards like a dinghy being hit by a big puff of wind, nor does it have the thundering momentum of a Maxi powering up, or even the screaming white-knuckle ride of a foiling catamaran. Instead it is like a jet plane taking off, or a turbo kicking in \u2013 a relentless acceleration that makes you involuntarily hold your breath. It feels as if it will simply get faster and faster forever.
\nIt doesn\u2019t, of course. The IMOCA 60s don\u2019t have T-foil rudders for constant flight, so some of that fighter jet surge of speed levels out, until you are simply hammering along at 30-plus knots.
\n\u201cThe hot pink coachroof rises in a curve like a classic Buick\u201d
\nIt is tricky to judge how high you are flying until the boat crashes down again. On our Solent sail, those plunges back to sea level are not particularly violent, although the next day my legs ache from bracing. It\u2019s impossible to comprehend how bone-shattering and relentless the motion would become in a big Southern sea.
\nThe reason Thomson is shouting into a headset to ask for his windspeed and boatspeed is because he can\u2019t see them. The radical design of his seventh Hugo Boss means there is no outside cockpit. There are no number displays on the mast or anywhere else. Thomson is perched, temporary tiller in hand, on the scooped transom, one foot on a small brace point on deck, the other balanced on some taut lines. Clearly this is not a helming position designed for trans-ocean racing.
\nIn front of him the hot pink coachroof rises in a curve like a beautiful 1940s Buick. But this is the wacky races cartoon car version, because Thomson is standing on the equivalent of the rear bumper to steer, while invisible accomplices control his accelerator and gears inside.
\nArticle continues below\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tCharal: On board the radical IMOCA 60 that takes foiling to the next level<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn St Malo for the start of the Route du Rhum in early November, every inch of the IMOCA 60\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tAlex Thomson profile: Understanding the man behind the suit<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEveryone knows Alex Thomson. He\u2019s not only one of the most immediately recognisable IMOCA 60 skippers, but one of the\u2026<\/p>\n
Immediately aft of the mast is the cockpit, quite unlike any other I\u2019ve seen on a monohull \u2013 a closer comparison is the enclosed cuddy of an Ultime maxi trimaran. If you stand at the mast base you see a bank of winches and clutches in front of you, and above them four screens.
\nBut over your head is a solid coachroof, and at your back a solid bulkhead. And coming through that bulkhead are two tiller extensions. It is a room, and it is in here that Alex will navigate, trim, play the keel and minutely adjust foils \u2013 and helm \u2013 for 28,000 miles around the globe.
\nFor the drone shoot, two or three crew toil in this engine room, grinding the main on, constantly shifting the keel cant and angle of the enormous curved foils to power us ever higher. Through the closed comms headsets Alex\u2019s questions and instructions come thick and fast \u201cWhat\u2019s my angle of attack? Keel up. Main on. Let\u2019s go!\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not just about producing spectacular photographs, every time Alex takes out the yacht he calls his \u2018crazy science project\u2019 he wants to see what it can do. And the first impressions are very good indeed.
\n\u00a36 million machine
\nThe \u2018science project\u2019 is a \u00a36 million gamble. The latest Hugo Boss is designed to win the 2020 Vend\u00e9e Globe, that\u2019s it. All of Thomson\u2019s yachts have been built, or optimised, to win the solo round the world race. But this time around the boat has literally one job.
\nThe result of the Transat Jacques Vabre is irrelevant. There is no double-handed Barcelona World Race or multi-stage Velux 5 Oceans on the calendar any more. Any notion of building a boat that could also work for the crewed Ocean Race IMOCA class was dismissed at a very early stage.
\nAfter retiring from the 2004 Vend\u00e9e, and abandoning ship in the 2006 Velux 5 Oceans, and being crashed into by a fishing boat in 2008, there was a time in Alex\u2019s career when he simply needed to get around, to finish a solo round the world race. But with a 3rd (2012) and a 2nd (2016) place under his belt, that time is over. Now he only wants to go one better.
\nFor the 2016 Vend\u00e9e, his last Hugo Boss was already one of the most foil-reliant IMOCA designs of that generation. Thomson, famously, broke a foil during the race, but managed to push ferociously hard despite it to remain in touch with winner Armel Le Cl\u00e9ac\u2019h and finish 2nd.
\nThis time around all the new IMOCA launches (eight for 2020) have committed further to using foils for lift and stability. But whilst there are big variations among the different designs, Hugo Boss is arguably again the most radical of all.
\nThere are rotating cameras on the mast, stanchions and rudders
\nThere are a few reasons that led them to this point. One was the central cockpit. \u201cThis was my idea. I wanted to stop being wet and I wanted to see more of what is going on,\u201d Thomson recalls.
\nHe suggested the concept to his design manager, Pete Hobson. Hobson in turn discussed it with the yacht\u2019s structural engineers and designers, who worked out that it could bring big weight savings.
\nClass rules define how much structure is required around the keel, Thomson explains. \u201cBy moving the cockpit here, the sides of the cockpit become the structure. So it\u2019s free, essentially it\u2019s cost us nothing in terms of weight.\u201d
\nThe hull shape is designed to be low drag for foiling
\nThere are other benefits \u2013 by moving the pit to the mast base, it reduces the need for heavy line tunnels and reduces friction. Although it feels restrictive, Alex is adamant that the visibility is, if anything, improved.
\nThe cockpit roof just skims the top of Thomson\u2019s head at 5ft 10ins; for anyone shorter the visibility is obscured, but for Alex it\u2019s a panoramic view. There are portholes looking forwards and to each side as well as directly upwards, and there are rotatable onboard cameras \u2013 seven at last count \u2013 which can be viewed on the nav station tablet screens.
\n\u201cMost people assume you\u2019ve got no visibility but actually it\u2019s more than what you had before,\u201d Thomson explains. \u201cThe cockpit was at the back of the boat, you could never see past the mainsail or the boom, whereas now you can see everything.
\nThe enclosed cockpit includes the nav area
\n\u201cWhat if you want to see the jib? On the old boats you\u2019d have to come out, and then walk up the side of the boat, look, then come back in, do a bit of winding, then go back out and look again. It\u2019s unsafe. It\u2019s a big use of energy. Whereas now you can just look up.\u201d
\nThe team was able to make other gains from the set up \u2013 the roof over the forward cockpit is solid, but it doesn\u2019t have to be. The coachroof, further aft, provides all the stability the boat needs to right in the event of a capsize, which also saves keel weight.
\nBy lowering the boom to the coachroof there is an end-plating effect on the mainsail, and it also generates a vast space for solar panels \u2013 some 19m2, all part of Thomson\u2019s plan to rely on electric power rather than carry diesel.
\nThe new Hugo Boss has an electric motor. Thomson plans to reduce the amount of diesel carried from over 220 litres to just 80.
\nTo make every design decision work on so many multiple levels meant that Thomson\u2019s team had to have a very complete vision of what they wanted to achieve before the design was finalised. Besides working closely with VPLP again, for their newest yacht they also took a huge amount of the development in-house, with Hobson, who Thomson introduced as a \u2018genius\u2019 at the boat\u2019s official launch in London, working relentlessly on the design.
\nHobson was able to invest near-limitless amounts of time and energy in trying different iterations of each design, looking to find the neatest, lightest solution to every requirement. It was, he admits, a true passion project. The hull shape is by VPLP and, with its low freeboard and reverse sheer, clearly shares some genetics with J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Beyou\u2019s Charal.
\n\u201cBasically you chop stuff off the bow until structurally it makes no more sense,\u201d explains Hobson. \u201cWhat you\u2019re doing is taking panel weight out of the corners, and as you take that structure off the boat gets lighter, you give up some form stability at high angles of heel that make your Angle of Vanishing Stabiilty (AVS) worse, which would eventually involve adding weight to the bulb. So what you do is you keep cutting it away until the point where it starts to penalise you in other ways.\u201d
\nThe tiller extension is visible at Alex\u2019s shoulder
\nA recurring theme in the design and build was an obsessive control of weight. Thomson says Hugo Boss weighs 7.6 tonnes, of which the hull structure itself is just 2 tonnes (the keel accounts for around 4 tonnes, with everything else \u2013 mast, engine, winches \u2013 another 2).
\nSome of the cleverest details of the yacht are almost invisible. \u201cThat little tube in the cockpit that you can hold onto is actually a tension bar that takes the structural load of the sheets,\u201d explains Hobson. \u201cThat saves 4kg on a bulkhead. It\u2019s a step, and Alex\u2019s seat will sit on it. So that little thing that weighs 0.3kg replaces something that weighs 4kg, but then how much else has it saved? Those are the coolest little bits around the boat that nobody knows about.\u201d
\nEverywhere you look there are custom modifications. The pedestal winch in the cockpit is actually a structure that supports the winch deck. The winches themselves tilt 12% forward, which means the lines at the mast base don\u2019t need to be deflected for the most efficient lead angle.
\nBut the most visible innovation on this IMOCA 60 is the foils. Whereas the other IMOCAs sport foils with angular \u2018elbows\u2019, Hugo Boss\u2019s enormous 7m foils are drawn in a near constant curve.
\nDrawn in a foggy car window
\nThe curved concept was originally doodled by Alex and Hobson in the condensation of a car windscreen. \u201cThe minute we sketched it out we knew what we wanted to do. We ran it past VPLP, and they ran it through their first VPP programme and it immediately came out percentages faster than what they were calling the VPLP 2018 foil, which we knew was Charal,\u201d explains Hobson.
\nThe design is a response to the IMOCA rule change, which now allows skippers to adjust the angle of attack of the foiling daggerboards.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re focusing on control,\u201d explains Hobson. \u201cAnd what I mean by that is this translation in the top bearing allows you to control directly the angle of attack of the foil, so as you push that by 2\u00b0 you get 2\u00b0 of angle of attack. If that was a straight shaft with a tip on it, you might change 3\u00b0 there and sort of change that by 1\u00b0. The curve is a trick to get control within class rules.\u201d
\nSeven moveable cameras can be controlled from inside the cockpit
\nAgain, there is other sorcery going on here. The structural spar inside is constructed in such a way that as it flexes under load it has a self-dampening effect. The additional depth of the foils also means that they don\u2019t aspirate as quickly.
\n\u201cOn a lot of the boats their foil is basically a flat lifting surface, and when it comes out of the water you lose all your lift, and you drop back down again. On our foil as you lift you proportionally lose the foil area so it\u2019s a dampened lift and loss of flight. And when we get it set up right the boat starts regulating it\u2019s own flight when we get it just right,\u201d Hobson explains. So why is no one else doing it? \u201cI don\u2019t know, that\u2019s the worrying thing!\u201d
\nThe main reason no one else is doing it is probably because the Hugo Boss design and build (at Jason Carrington\u2019s yard in Hythe, UK) was a very closely guarded secret. The team decided from the outset that they wanted to be the last to come from the VPLP drawing boards in this cycle, and they are one of the latest to launch ahead of the Transat Jaques Vabre [Hugo Boss was to retire after hitting a submerged object 380 miles west-north-west of the Canary Islands.]
\nThat\u2019s not to say that the Hugo Boss development is finished. Thomson will be building a second set of foils (each set costs around \u00a3500,000) after the TJV. The final decisions will need to be made quickly \u2013 designer Vincent Lauriot Pr\u00e9vost tells me that he thinks teams need to have committed to any foil design changes by November in order to build and test in time for next year\u2019s Vend\u00e9e.
\nThere are still plenty of other details that haven\u2019t been finalised. As yet Thomson has no bunk, or even a chair. \u201cWe\u2019re not really that bothered about where I\u2019ll sleep, maybe I\u2019ll have a nice comfy seat. We need to start thinking about suspension. On the Route du Rhum I felt like I nearly broke my coccyx.\u201d
\nThe access hatches (open, aft) and windows of the enclosed cockpit
\nMore important is avoiding impact injuries. One of the advantages of the small cockpit area is literally not being able to fall very far. \u201cI took a rugby scrum helmet on the last two Vend\u00e9es already. I think we\u2019re getting close to being in body armour now,\u201d he muses.
\nCertainly Thomson will be able to trim without putting on oilskins, or even sunscreen. More problematic will be the heat. \u201cMy concern is the tropics, in could be 50\u00b0C in here,\u201d he admits. Hugo Boss\u2019s black livery uses a specially designed light reflective paint to \u2013 theoretically \u2013 reduce the amount of heat absorbed.
\nOther elements have been kept the same where possible. The sail programme is very much a development from the previous Hugo Boss. Even the lines running into the cockpit are in identical colours as on the last boat.
\nEliminating errors remains a huge part of any successful Vend\u00e9e campaign. Alex has, famously, had some of the worst luck in sailing. He came down with appendicitis days before the start of the 2010 Barcelona World Race. Before that his 2008 boat was dismasted and ruined by a French fishing boat days ahead of the Vend\u00e9e Globe.
\nAt the time, that collision felt like the cruellest luck ever. Afterwards, Alex says, they examined their own failings and did everything they can to ensure something similar can never happen again. They took a similar long hard look at the decisions that led up to his previous boat being rolled, dismasted, and nearly sunk in the TJV four years ago.
\nBut yet, stuff just keeps on happening to him. Having never won any of the IMOCA transatlantics, last year he was on course to take 1st in the Route du Rhum when he went for one last power nap before the finish. Exhausted, after averaging 21\u20442 hours of sleep in 24 over the course of the race, he set his infamous electric \u2018shock\u2019 watch to wake him up. The watch ran out of charge and Thomson overslept, Hugo Boss crashing into the island of Guadaloupe on autopilot.
\nThe keel cant controls
\nSo does it feel like a risk to go to such a radical place? As Thomson will use cameras to help him trim and keep watch, is the chance of some technical glitch causing a knock-on problem something that concerns them?
\n\u201cActually it wasn\u2019t the tech that failed,\u201d Thomson says of the Route du Rhum grounding. \u201cI failed to make sure that the tech was fully charged. So we\u2019re putting a lot of effort and energy into making sure that\u2019s not going to happen.\u201d
\nThomson even plans to start from his indoors helming position \u2013 be prepared for the surreal image of an apparently pilotless Hugo Boss lining up with 30 other yachts on the start line for the 2020 Vend\u00e9e Globe.
\nThe whole point of this latest Hugo Boss, and of Thomson\u2019s entire 2020 Vend\u00e9e Globe campaign, is that it is genuinely uncompromising. \u201cThis whole campaign can only be measured on whether I win or not. Whether I like it or not, there is only one place we can go.
\n\u201cWhat that means is I didn\u2019t feel like I had to compromise in any way with this. Normally you look at what the other boats are doing. Whereas we just said \u2018**** it, let\u2019s go as far as we possibly dare\u2019, and that\u2019s what we did.\u201d
\nFirst published in the November 2019 edition of Yachting World.
\nThe post Hugo Boss: Sailing on board Alex Thomson\u2019s \u00a36million foiling machine appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alex Thomson\u2019s bold new Hugo Boss will change how the solo skipper sails, but will it win the 2020 Vend\u00e9e Globe? Helen Fretter got on board to find out moreAll photos: Alex Thomson Racing \/ Hugo Boss\u201cWhat\u2019s my speed? What\u2019s … <\/p>\n