Meet the world\u2019s first foiling Maxi, Flying Nikka. Designed for Mediterranean distance racing, this 60ft spaceship is going to shake up the big boat scene, writes Toby Hodges after an exclusive first sailYou might understandably mistake this futuristic craft for another America\u2019s Cup foiler. Yet, although the aesthetics may look similar, Flying Nikka is a very different animal to the AC75s which ripped around Auckland\u2019s Hauraki Gulf during the 2021 America\u2019s Cup \u2013 and to anything we\u2019ve seen before. This 60ft foiling weapon is designed to be owner-driven and compete in key maxi and long distance Mediterranean races.
\nFlying Nikka has a keel and inherent stability as it needs to compete in displacement mode too. It also has the potential to embarrass any competitors by lifting onto its carbon foils and taking off at two to three times the speed of most other monohulls in existence.
\nFlying Nikka is the most complex, innovative and exciting big yacht of the year \u2013 a pure speed machine, a technological and engineering goliath and a brave endeavour. It pushes the boundaries of where displacement sailing and foiling technology meet for offshore (albeit non-ocean) monohull racing.
\nIt is the vision of Italian owner Roberto Lacorte, designed by Mark Mills and constructed at King Marine in Valencia. Not only was its development impressively rapid from concept to first foiling, but it was built to a repeatable budget, around 1\/10th the cost of a Cup boat. As Mills emphasises: \u201cThe core of the project was for reliable, easy foiling.\u201d It is sailed by Lacorte and his long-standing crew, rather than Cup all-stars.
\nAnd while I was admittedly sceptical about the overall purpose of Flying Nikka, I was privileged to be given an exclusive sail aboard during the team\u2019s early trials from Punta Ala, Italy, in July.
\nFlying Nikka looks rather Batman inspired, particularly the red leading edge of the black foils. Photo: Fabio Taccola
\nFlying Nikka \u2013 a need for speed
\nRoberto Lacorte, an entrepreneur, accomplished racing driver and serial yacht owner, explained how Flying Nikka materialised. His previous yacht, the Mills\/Vismara 62 racer-cruiser SuperNikka, has been highly successful on the Med circuit since her 2015 launch, and he asked Mark Mills to scale SuperNikka up to a 75-77ft pure IRC racer without compromise.
\nIt was at this time that the AC75 Luna Rossa was starting to foil in trials. \u201cIf that is happening, then in the middle [between IMOCA and AC] exists everything \u2013 a boat that can give us a lot of fun, use the technology and use the performance of the future,\u201d muses Lacorte.
\nDon\u2019t expect Flying Nikka to be attempting a Fastnet Race or Transatlantic though, as it is designed for Med coastal races. \u201cThe dream is to win the Med mid-distance races, like the Giraglia, in real time. Then to have something to compare to a supermaxi like Comanche or Skorpios yet be faster and more fun,\u201d Lacorte continues.
\n\u201cYesterday we went 22-25 knots upwind, and over 30 knots downwind, with sails trimmed like it was upwind!\u201d he grins with wide eyed enthusiasm.
\nHelmsman slot at the front of the cockpit to windward; immediately behind is the jib or mainsail trimmer (depending on tack). Photo: Fabio Taccola
\n\u201cThe goal was also to have a lower budget than a Maxi 72 and we did that,\u201d says Lacorte, who is convinced that this could make an attractive box rule class, for owner drivers wanting to ramp their excitement levels up.
\nThe realisation that the 60-footer could foil in 9 knots breeze, confirming the design theory and potential of the boat, was clearly a massive moment for the team (documented in an hour long film about the making of Flying Nikka). \u201cFlying first time was amazing, an emotion you cannot believe. But still nothing compares with what we discover day by day, hour after hour.\u201d
\nPoised
\nLacorte showed me to his futuristic-looking craft, leashed to the dock, its foils tucked below its body like a Transformers machine, waiting to unfold its arms and take flight. The forward sections have heavily chamfered topsides and a fine entry, then comes a concave foredeck, a sheer which rises significantly to the high midsection before tailing dramatically away like an AC75. Combine this peculiar shape with the severely raked, rotating mast, which seems comparatively short, and you start to realise how much revolves around aerodynamics and the need to minimise drag.
\nThe all-carbon black hull and rig is grand prix cool too, adorned with red highlights, the Italian colours and Lacorte\u2019s Cetilar Racing sponsorship. While Flying Nikka uses the canting foil arm technology of the Cup boats, where the windward arm lifts clear of the water to reduce drag, the key differences to an AC75 lie principally in the adjustable wingfoils and the ballasted bulbed keel, which ensures it can sail in displacement mode too.
\nChase boat trailing in Flying Nikka\u2019s wake struggles to keep up. Photo: Fabio Taccola
\nI was invited to join what was only the crew\u2019s third day in race training mode. Docking out made it clear that this is still very much a yacht, which manoeuvres under its own steam and on its own keel, but with a crew looking like a mix of racing drivers and Cup competitors in impact vests, helmets and goggles. This is not exactly normal windward leeward training, I thought, boarding the 40ft chase boat.
\nThe lengthy process of refuelling the Nikka RIB further hinted that we were in for a different kind of day, as the pump display nudged \u20ac1,500 for 750lt. Aboard was Fabrizio Marabini from data logging specialists Faro, who works closely with hydraulics guru Cariboni and monitors speeds, performance, loads and megatronix. As boat captain Fabrizio Turini entered waypoints on the RIB\u2019s B&G for the day\u2019s course, the speed with which Nikka then did a horizon job on us was sensational.
\nGone in 60 seconds
\nWithin a minute of bearing away Flying Nikka was sailing at over 20 knots, which is a job to catch however many hundreds of horsepower your RIB has. Immediately noticeable was just how reactive she is to gusts. Flying Nikka rises spectacularly high, like a great breaching leviathan. Ride heights and angles are then constantly adjusted as the crew dial the beast down while apparent wind shoots forward.
\nMy chance to board soon came when Nikka \u2018landed\u2019 for the crew to change headsails. I then spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying a white knuckle ride that could suit the most fearless of adrenaline junkies.
\nReFraschini built the carbon foils and rudders (having constructed the AC carbon plate arms). The foils are designed to take 10 tonnes load on one point. Photo: Fabio Taccola
\nSailing aboard Flying Nikka was an alien experience for a number of reasons, not least the inability to fully understand what was happening. Not only are the crew all Italian, but they speak into headsets in their helmets. Even had I been able to hear them over the apparent wind noise \u2013 which is always different degrees of a gale \u2013 I wouldn\u2019t have been able to interpret anything above the unrelenting engine noise. Reverberating through the bare carbon hull, this runs almost constantly at high revs to fuel the power packs to cope with hydraulic demands.
\nAn obvious difference between Flying Nikka and the AC75s is the fixed keel. Photo: Fabio Taccola
\nThen there is the foreign motion. When foiling it\u2019s largely level, so it\u2019s the speed wobbles from side to side which are trickier to predict. Still, it was a truly gripping, brilliantly memorable experience.
\nI\u2019d already witnessed how easily Flying Nikka takes flight. Yet even with the smaller J2 self-tacking headsail hoisted, as soon as there is over 9.5 knots true wind, it did what its name suggests and lifted up onto foils. Within seconds we were making 20 knots upwind in 11 knots at 20-25\u00b0 to the apparent wind. And with it came some gratuitous acceleration.
\nOur simulated race involved a five mile leg to the windward mark. Great stretches of Elba island\u2019s east coast became a distant blur as Flying Nikka maintained stable speeds in the low 20s and at one stage clocked 26 knots at 21\u00b0 apparent in 14 knots!
\nPhoto: Fabio Taccola
\nThen came something I really wasn\u2019t expecting: a tack. My surprise turned to panic as I gripped to hold on, then to amazement at the speed with which the boat turned, and finally to amusement at the G-forces I\u2019d just experienced. I was prepared for them after that. Once I saw the jib trimmer switch places with the mainsail trimmer I knew what was coming. The engine noise ramps up another notch as max hydraulics engage to dump the new leeward arm in the water, raise the now windward foil, pull the mainsail back up the track and trim sails.
\nFlight control
\n\u201cThe wing and [rudder] elevator are controlled by autopilot software, then we play manually with the cant,\u201d Alessio Razeto explained (after sailing, obviously!). The North Sails Italy sales manager has been Lacorte\u2019s main sailing representative since SuperNikka. He is also the relief helmsman and flight controller. \u201cWe can control everything manually, but have experienced that once the autopilot has learned from the human, it\u2019s way better at flight and elevator control.\u201d
\nIt\u2019s unusual to have the helmsman in front of the crew, but after two seasons struggling to see from the aft of the 69F, Lacorte and Razeto wanted a clear view from the wheel. It\u2019s also prudent as the foil can create a real fire hose effect over the aft cockpit when at surface level.
\nThe forward part of the cockpit is used by the helmsman on the wheel to windward, who becomes the flight controller on the leeward side. On the side deck to hand is a compact bank of switches to manually control height, pitch and trim plus a small wheel for elevation, while foot pedals allow the helmsman to drop or raise the arms to a predefined height.
\nHold tight, preparing to tack. Photo: Fabio Taccola
\nIt\u2019s one thing completing a standard two to three hour race, but what about the longer mid-range races?
\n\u201cSteering is not the hardest part, but doing flight control too on the other tack,\u201d reckons Razeto \u2013 it\u2019s a relentless demand for concentration. There\u2019s also a lot of pressure on the single mainsail trimmer, however the six core crew train to be able to manage all roles.
\n\u201cI\u2019m an endurance driver and I know what it means to manage time,\u201d considers Lacorte. \u201cThe auto control helps us a lot, allowing us to focus on steering rather than flying management.\u201d
\nThe mainsail or jib trimmer (depending on tack) takes the slot immediately behind the helmsman. Cunningham trim is particularly important because Flying Nikka uses Helix structural luff sails, with 80% load swallowed by the jib and just 20% on headstay, Razeto tells me. The 3Di Raw 140m2 main takes 7 tonnes of load. \u201cYou\u2019re bending the [rotating] mast like runners would be while preventing everything going to the verticals.\u201d With no backstays or heeling, the loads are extremely high, \u201cso you are trimming more for load control than [sail] trim, staying inside the safety factors.\u201d
\nAs she tacks, the windward arm drops and the opposite arm is then lifted once through the wind. Photo: Fabio Taccola
\nDesigned for easy flight
\nIf I was expecting warp speeds on the off\/downwind leg, it soon became apparent that Nikka lacked the extra grunt of a larger headsail in these fluky conditions. Yet even training with their smaller J2 we hit the high 20s \u2013 still at 25-30\u00b0 apparent, but at 120\u00b0 true as opposed to 50\u00b0 true upwind \u2013 but there were many more landings and longer struggles to lift off again.
\nI began to see why Lacorte referred to protecting the lead in a race. If the wind drops below 9 knots Nikka could haemorrhage valuable miles and angles in displacement mode by sailing at reaching angles to try to get foiling again.
\nAlthough Flying Nikka uses similar articulating foil technology to the Cup boats to lift one arm clear of the water, \u201cthe entire wing angle of attack changing when you want to add or decrease lift is a completely different solution to the fixed wing solution of the AC75s, which have trailing edge flaps,\u201d Mills explains. Photo: Fabio Taccola
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not true that it\u2019s easy to win a race with a foiling boat, you have to be able to defend what you can do in a boat like this,\u201d reasons Lacorte. \u201cSometimes we will be sailing in displacement mode and in that condition we have to protect what we do when flying.\u201d
\nIn reality, Flying Nikka will never be slow. Key to its design parameters, this is a super light build (only slightly more displacement than a TP52) so maintains slippery speeds even in displacement mode. After foiling though, it just feels comparatively like you\u2019re parked.
\nMills confirms that a non-foiling Nikka lies somewhere between a TP52 and a Maxi 72. The sail inventory currently includes a Code 0 and a reaching sail for displacement mode, set off a tack strop on the bow. The team is also considering a gennaker, but the jury is out on whether soft sails will ever be needed on this apparent wind machine. How to get rid of aero drag when foiling is the prime consideration.
\nWithin seconds we were making 20 knots upwind. Photo: Fabio Taccola
\nPotent potential
\n\u201cWe thought 20 knots of wind would be scary, but we had two days trialling in 23 knots and it was easier,\u201d reckons Razeto. \u201cIn more breeze it\u2019s actually easier because you\u2019re sailing with a flat main and small jib.\u201d
\nFlying Nikka\u2019s top speed to date is 37 knots, but that was before initial aeration issues in the wing arm junctions were sorted out. The team thinks over 40 knots is possible, but Mills cautions that soon after that figure they\u2019ll then run into cavitation issues. Nikka has been designed with big wing surfaces for early take offs to suit light winds, but if the programme changes to record breaking, they could look at swapping to smaller foils.
\nThe team\u2019s first regatta was the Maxi Worlds in early September, where they were focussed primarily on safety and performance. Flying Nikka is more or less a 100-footer in terms of performance and handicap, says Razeto. \u201cIf we have our wind conditions we could easily beat a 100-footer like Comanche\u2026 the boat is designed to fly and break records in real time not to win on handicap.\u201d
\nFlying Nikka took 30,000 man hours to build yet was completed in less than a year during a pandemic, on time and to budget. Photo: Fabio Taccola
\nInside the cave
\nIt is strange not to have any visual connection between the cockpits, which are shut off from each other by a deck sweeper below the boom, however there is a tunnel between the two abaft the mast. The crew expects this will be used more as a dry place to rest from the noise and spray, rather than to cross cockpits.
\nHatches give access to the interior, which is, as you would expect, predominantly black carbon fibre, in a mix of ring frames and stringers. On display are the massive titanium rams for the foil arms, while around the bulkheads a network of orange hydraulic hoses run off like veins to feed them with 500bar of oil pressure.
\nProject manager Micky Costa was confident there\u2019d be no chance the crew would want to live below decks, so there are no pipe cots nor engine insulation. The heavily modified 110hp Yanmar block, selected for its high torque, sits exposed aft, and is designed to keep working at 90\u00b0 heel. It has a PTO and separate power pump, while an accumulator keeps oil at a certain pressure \u2013 a demanding task when you consider the wings can move at four times per second.
\nAn intriguing solution is the water cooling for the engine, which is extracted from the keel so it can keep working during flight. As is the 200lt crashproof fuel tank which uses foam inside to prevent fuel sloshing from one side to the other.
\nLacorte and Mills (centre back) and core members. Photo: Fabio Taccola
\nThe right side of crazy
\n\u201cWhat do you think? Are we crazy?\u201d mainsail trimmer Enrico Zennaro asked when the sails were dropped and the helmets removed. I contemplated his question as we docked. Devoid of apparent wind the black boat was furnace-like in the late afternoon sun. And when the engine was finally turned off it felt like exiting a music concert, with just a dull ringing noise left in your head.
\nHaving spent a fair amount of my spare time foiling recently, the most enjoyable aspect of it is that initial feeling of silent flight, when you rise above the surface and skim over it with no sound other than an occasional high speed whistle.
\nSo for me, unless they spend a great deal of time and weight on insulation or an alternative power source, Flying Nikka will always have a fundamental downside in that regard: it is by far the loudest vessel I have ever sailed aboard.
\nTo contemplate that discomfort and noise for hours, especially an overnight race, yes, I think you\u2019d need to be a little crazy.
\nBut then when has anyone had any fun or pushed the envelope by staying inside their comfort zone? Any racing driver wants to be faster than everyone else. Once you sample such speed and easy flight, there is simply no going back.<\/p>\n
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Meet the world\u2019s first foiling Maxi, Flying Nikka. Designed for Mediterranean distance racing, this 60ft spaceship is going to shake up the big boat scene, writes Toby Hodges after an exclusive first sailYou might understandably mistake this futuristic craft for … <\/p>\n