Matthew Sheahan

HIGHER SLAMMING LOADS IN THE IMOCA 60S BEG THE QUESTION OF WHETHER THEY COULD BE REACHING THE LIMITS A SKIPPER CAN ENDURE

With so few games in town this summer, it was inevitable that the 3,500 mile race to Iceland and back for a fleet of 20 IMOCA 60s (see page 22) was going to attract a good deal of interest. This was much more than just a warm up event ahead of the Vendée Globe in November.

With so little sailing having taken place during the lockdown, this was a test of the boats and the skippers and their teams around a new course that had the potential to deliver a wide range of conditions. It was also the only opportunity for the latest generation IMOCA 60s to line up against the rest of the fleet on a race course.

Now that foiling an offshore 60-footer is no longer a party trick for the cameras but a reality, the stakes are even higher than normal. If the new boats are a success, offshore racing could see a huge step forwards. But if they can’t take the stress and break up, we could see the more modest older generation and proven boats succeed.

That risk was clearly evidenced in the first few days when Sébastien Simon’s new Arkéa Paprec broke a foil for the second time (the first one broke ahead in the Transat Jacques Vabre race last year). In addition, structural problems for Armel Tripon’s brand new L’occitane en Provence put it out of the race as well.

Aside from the issue of breakdowns, it appears that the latest iteration of the new generation boats such as Charal, Apivia and Linkedout have ironed out the weak spots in their performance curves.

The new boats are now on their second generation foils, which are more refined than the first and seemed to allow them to keep their noses ahead of the previous generation boats. Sam Davies’ Initiatives Coeur and Kevin Escoffier’s PRB, which have both had extensive modifications, including smart new foils, still carry the excess weight from the original structural elements, yet they kept the pressure on the new boats. However, they’re still unlikely to have the legs to stay ahead of the new breed.

When designing from a blank sheet of paper, the high loads from the keel and the foils are shared within the boat’s structure, which helps ensure they don’t put on weight. The previous generation don’t have this opportunity and have to build in extra structure to cope with the new loads making them heavier. Several of the older generation boats have also required strengthened hulls to accommodate the new slamming forces, which has added further weight.

But aside from the boats and the pecking order that has started to appear, another topic of conversation is the question of whether the fleet is approaching the limit of what a human can endure.

We all have stories to tell of a seemingly endless offshore slog upwind in which just moving around the boat is a mental struggle as well as a physical one. But the motion aboard these boats is absolutely brutal at speed.

As skippers build confidence in their sophisticated autopilots to steer at speeds that are simply not possible by hand, the bar is being raised. Sail wardrobes are changing to suit, as is the way skippers trim them: we’re seeing a huge step forward in performance, but also risk.

Could the weakest link now be the sailors themselves? From previous Vendée Globes as well as Volvo Ocean Races, we know the risk of serious injury is there. Now, the chances of serious injury after being thrown across an IMOCA 60 at speed must surely be increasing. So what could be done to help this?

Fighter aircraft dealt with this years ago, with autopilots taking the humans into areas of performance that were physically impossible to endure without an anti-g suit. Could this be a clue to the next step for IMOCA sailors? It might not be as daft as it sounds. In the motorcycling world, airbag suits that trigger in the event of a crash have proved effective and are starting to become increasingly popular among the bike riding public. Perhaps this is the next stage for offshore racing, or maybe the answer is using the armour that the America’s Cup world and others have been wearing for several seasons.

Whatever the way forward, the next Vendée Globe is shaping up to be a fascinating event,

with a great deal at stake.

‘Could humans now be the weakest link?’