Since the announcement The Ocean Race would use IMOCA 60s, designed for solo racing, there has been much talk about how these usually single-handed designs would perform with a full crew on board. Matthew Sheahan finds outHow much faster could an IMOCA 60 go if it were really pressed? Not in bursts, not for brief peak speeds, but at a sustained average pace over days or more. In other words, how much faster would they go if they could be pushed harder, for longer, than a single-handed sailor could cope with at one stretch? The Ocean Race will answer many of these questions, but with The Ocean Race Europe now finished, teams are starting to get a better idea.
\nIt\u2019s a question that has been discussed for some time, even more so since the 60-footers started to fly five years ago.
\nVend\u00e9e Globe sailors frequently comment that they\u2019re often sailing their boats at well below 100%, because they simply cannot keep up the intensity of going full-bore when they\u2019re sailing alone.
\nBut if you could keep your foot hard to the floor, day in, day out \u2013 just as a full crew would be able to \u2013 how much faster would one of these globe scorching monohulls go? And would their notoriously fragile structures be able to stand the pace?
\nAs soon as The Ocean Race organisers announced that the IMOCA 60 fleet would be invited to join the VO65s in the fully crewed multi-stage race around the world (formerly the Volvo Ocean Race), speculation ramped up.
\nHow could you fit a full crew into a boat designed for one or occasionally two? Just how many people is \u2018fully crewed\u2019 anyway? What would the crew roles be? And what would you do about the autopilot?
\nMany of the top solo sailors point to the fact that their advanced pilot systems can now steer an IMOCA 60 faster than a human at times. Putting a full crew on board, along with the associated weight of people and provisions, and then making them hand steer, could actually slow the boats down. (Come The Ocean Race, autopilots will be allowed on the IMOCA 60s although details as to the limit of the pilot\u2019s intelligence are still being discussed.)
\nIMOCA 60s are designed for manoeuvres made step-by-step, by one skipper. Photo: Sailing Energy\/The Ocean Race
\nThe first opportunity to answer some of these questions was The Ocean Race Europe \u2013 an offshore event intended as a preamble to the postponed Ocean Race (which now starts next year, and in which crewed IMOCA 60s will join the VO65s around the world). It addressed some, but also shone the spotlight on other issues.
\nFive IMOCA 60 teams entered this summer\u2019s event, a four-leg 2,000-mile offshore from Lorient, France to Cascais, Portugal, then Alicante, Spain, to the finish in Genoa, Italy.
\nThe fleet included a range of designs and generations. The newest boats were Corum L\u2019Epargne, Bureau Vall\u00e9e (ex-L\u2019Occitane en Provence) and LinkedOut, all designed for the previous Vend\u00e9e Globe and sporting wing-like foils. Then there was 11th Hour Racing, previously the 2015 Hugo Boss, also sporting foils.
\nThe oldest boat in the fleet was Robert Stanjek\u2019s Offshore Team Germany and, aside from a cockpit that by today\u2019s cave-dwelling style looked open and spacious, the most telling sign of her age was her \u2018conventional\u2019 straight daggerboards.
\nAlthough quicker in the right conditions, the foilers do have limitations in lighter weather and upwind. Photo: Bureau Vall\u00e9e\/The Ocean Race
\nBut while this Owen Clarke design from 2011 might have looked a little dated alongside her flying friends, it was this boat that went on to win the event. It was no fluke either. Not only did this boat and her crew remind the rest of the fleet what all round performance looked like when the breeze went light and upwind conditions prevailed, but the hands-on, inshore style of sailing that the crew adopted seemed to pay off as well.
\nCrew member Annie Lush was already familiar with the boat, having raced with Stanjek and his crew in the 2019 Rolex Fastnet Race. But for the four-time match racing world champion and twice Volvo Ocean Race competitor, the race around Europe fell between her two worlds and helped to redefine what was meant by fully crewed.
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOcean Race Europe: Leg two finish sets up close final leg<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe second leg of The Ocean Race Europe finished in Alicante, Spain on Wednesday 9 June, the culmination of three\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWorld\u2019s coolest yachts: Charal IMOCA 60<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cWhen you look at what the designers and engineers have put in place to get round quite restrictive IMOCA rules\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cFor over 90% of the time or more, the Vend\u00e9e Globe sailors are not driving, the autopilot is. So, for me, that was a bit of a shock, realising that we wouldn\u2019t really be steering in the race,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd even when you do it\u2019s quite hard with a tiller, especially when it\u2019s windy. It takes quite a lot of force and it\u2019s also tricky to find somewhere to sit where you can drive and still be able to see.
\n\u201cInside the boat, it\u2019s really designed for one small person, so it\u2019s pretty cramped,\u201d said Lush. \u201cBut when it comes to handling, one thing you notice straight away is that they\u2019re a lot lighter so you feel the acceleration, but you also become aware about the limits to how hard you should push.
\n\u201cI\u2019m pretty used to the Volvo 65, which basically you can just push and push and push and they don\u2019t break. But the IMOCAs can. So, knowing how hard to push and how far to take the boat is pretty new to me.\u201d
\nThis, by the way, is on a boat that by comparison with others in the fleet is pretty robust.
\nHighly protected cockpits on modern IMOCAs are a squash for a team of five. Photo: Sailing Energy\/The Ocean Race
\nAnother sailor with both crewed and solo experience to draw upon was Pip Hare. Having recently completed the last Vend\u00e9e Globe aboard Medallia, the contrast between sailing alone aboard an IMOCA 60 and sailing with a full team was very evident as she joined Louis Burton and his crew aboard Bureau Vall\u00e9e for two legs of the race.
\n\u201cIt was an amazing experience seeing just how different the new breed of IMOCA 60s is,\u201d she said. \u201cOn the leg from Cascais to Alicante we had the A2 up in 25 knots as we blasted past Cabo Vincente on our way towards the Gibraltar Strait. For me 22 knots of breeze would have been the absolute max and even then I\u2019d be pretty nervous. When I asked Louis what the limit was he sort of shrugged his shoulders in a relaxed way and said, \u2018I suppose around now\u2019.
\n\u201cAnd while I can see that he\u2019s naturally a relaxed sailor, it was also a clear indication that even for experienced solo sailors this was very new territory where the confidence of having a full crew to get the sail down was allowing them to see just how much further they could push the boat.\u201d
\nBut while the fast downwind sections of the race were good fun, light conditions revealed some of the drawbacks of a full crew. \u201cThe cockpit has been designed around one, maybe two people,\u201d she continued. \u201cSo, four or five is a squeeze. And when you\u2019ve got lots of water coming over the deck, or it\u2019s furiously hot, it\u2019s difficult to manage with people. You\u2019re trying not to be in the way, but it\u2019s difficult not to be.
\n\u201cWe did two watches of two with Louis floating. And when you\u2019re just trying to maintain boat speed in a straight line there is only enough for two people to do. In the super light winds, it was basically just go and lie in the bow. And that\u2019s frustrating because we all wanted to do more and be more involved.\u201d
\nGrinding is one of the few areas where adding more manpower can boost speed. Photo: Felix Diemar\/Offshore Team Germany\/The Ocean Race
\nHaving competed in three Volvo Ocean Races 11th Hour Racing\u2019s onboard reporter and crewmember, Amory Ross, is well versed in living aboard a carbon racing shell and keeping out of the way. Yet his blog outlined how different life was aboard an IMOCA 60.
\n\u201cIn contrast to the VO65\/VO70 all you do down below is sleep and cook,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThere\u2019s no room for anything else. Eating, navigating, telling bad jokes all happens in the cockpit. If you\u2019re important like Charlie Enright [skipper] and Justine Mettraux [crewmember] you get a luxury lee-cloth. We have no bunks. I\u2019m like a house cat and roam. I enjoy the freedom.
\n\u201cSifi [Simon Fisher, navigator] is in the companionway with the tackable nav screen. The MSR burner and red butane canister is under the tunnel and between the longitudinals. Very conveniently located, ideal for operation in excess of 27 knots. It gets wickedly hot, wickedly fast. The rest of the boat is empty, dark and scary. It\u2019s worth finding excuses not to explore!\u201d
\nOne of the biggest potential advantages of a full crew is the ability to change gear more quickly. A sail change which might take 45 minutes alone can be accomplished in 10 minutes with a full crew. But even this wasn\u2019t straightforward.
\n\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got two guys on the pedestal in the middle of the cockpit they pretty much fill up the whole space,\u201d said Hare. \u201cThrough manoeuvres, I managed lines and winches, but I had to squeeze myself down the side of the cockpit to grab lines. I\u2019d know what they wanted and in which sequence but I\u2019d have to squeeze round on the side of them so I didn\u2019t get an elbow in the face. And while we found efficient ways of doing that, it was constantly a battle not to be in each other\u2019s way.\u201d
\nSea state is of vital importance in navigation decisions for the foilers. Photo: Felix Diemar\/Offshore Team Germany\/The Ocean Race
\nCommunication was also an issue. \u201cWe had headsets, because if you are running the pedestal inside the covered cockpit and there\u2019s light reflecting off the windows there\u2019s no way you can communicate with the bowman,\u201d she continued. \u201cSo, for these situations they were wearing three headsets, one for the guy on the pedestal, one for the skipper and one for the bowman. As well as being able to carry out the manoeuvre you can do much more advanced peels and sail changes and can push sails right to the limit, so in that respect you can definitely push the boat harder.\u201d
\nEven when they could talk to each other directly, communication still presented challenges between those used to working as a team and those that have led more of a solitary life afloat.
\n\u201cFor the Vend\u00e9e sailors it\u2019s been about getting used to having other people on board,\u201d said Lush. \u201cThey\u2019ve [told me] that they don\u2019t really know how to \u2018be\u2019 on board with the team. They don\u2019t know what to do or how to communicate. For me, I\u2019m very clear on how I think the boat should run, I\u2019m used to that role, but maybe not just with four. So, it\u2019s a completely different viewpoint.\u201d
\nOnce routines and systems had been sorted, the advantages of being able to push the boat harder with a full crew began to appear. \u201cIn the Mediterranean when there was breeze and flat water you could get the boat into a mode where you\u2019d constantly be making small tweaks and seeing the improvements in boat speed,\u201d said Hare.
\nAmory Ross selfie shows how little room there is below on 11th Hour Racing. Amory Ross\/11th Hour Racing\/The Ocean Race
\n\u201cGradually, with the ability to work intensely for a short period and rotate through the crew we were achieving a pace that you simply couldn\u2019t do on your own because at some stage you have to do other things such as navigate, cook, sleep or fix something.
\n\u201cSo, we got to see the real potential of the boat. Plus, for me, I learned what \u2018good\u2019 feels like, which is a really important thing. On your own it\u2019s difficult to get to this level of performance and therefore difficult to know what you\u2019re seeking and I think that will be true for even the experienced crews.\u201d
\nAll-round performance
\nWith five Volvo Ocean Races under his belt, 11th Hour Racing navigator Simon Fisher is certainly experienced when it comes to crewed racing around the world. For him, IMOCA racing has involved learning how to race with a team of just four, as well as making the switch to double-handed racing with Mettraux.
\nIn light airs it makes sense to vacate the cockpit. Photo: Corum L\u2019Epargne\/The Ocean Race
\n\u201cI\u2019m certainly learning all the time about how you operate with fewer people on board,\u201d he said. \u201cI get to be much more involved in the sailing than I\u2019m used to and you start to see the French approach where short-handed crews need to be good-all round sailors. Everybody on our boat is capable of navigating as well as driving and trimming and going on the bow.
\nCorum crew and French solo rock star Sebastien Josse knows both the IMOCA 60s and fully crewed Volvo Ocean Races. What does he think a team looking to compete in an IMOCA 60 next year would need to succeed?
\n\u201cYou need to have a boat designed for it. If you use an IMOCA to do this race, you have to think about what life on board with five people for 10 legs around the world will be like, and then adapt it to suit. It\u2019s not the same as going to a designer with a clean sheet of paper, which would likely deliver a very different looking boat.\u201d
\nSo, while The Ocean Race Europe started out as a promotional preamble to the big gig next year, the learning curve turned out to be steeper than many had expected. It also offered some hints as to the potential pace this new style of sailing might deliver, with speeds well into the 30-knot range. The IMOCA 60 could yet have plenty more to give.<\/p>\n
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The post The Ocean Race: What\u2019s it like on a fully crewed IMOCA 60? appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since the announcement The Ocean Race would use IMOCA 60s, designed for solo racing, there has been much talk about how these usually single-handed designs would perform with a full crew on board. Matthew Sheahan finds outHow much faster could … <\/p>\n