Sailing video project

I was recently approached by a documentary film maker to help create a movie about the highest tech/most interesting technological developments in world sailing. This is all very preliminary, but for now we are trying to determine what boats or classes would be worth investigating for the project.

Some of the considerations we are working under are:

1. Technological superiority
2. Absolute speed
3. Ability to get stock footage
4. Willingness of owners and classes to participate


Right now as a working list we are considering the following boats/classes though nothing is off the table. Listed in no particular order
1. Moth foilers
2. Open 70's
3. Extreme 40's
4. Mirabaud
5. Open 6.5
6. I-18
7. AC-45
8. the boat Cone of Silence

I am wondering if anyone has suggestions, comments, or problems with this list. While8 boats is too many to cover for this project we would rather start with a lot then pare them down than start with a small list and have to try and add toot later.

 

R Class foilers-the first two person, spinnaker equipped class to adopt full flying foils:
http://www.rclass.org/

--Hydroptere & Hydroptere.ch. Hydroptere is the fastest sailboat in the world-only kiteboards and sailboards are faster-but they aren't sailboats-and she carries 10 people....
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--Vlad Murnikov's Speed Dream-an attempt to design,build and sail the worlds fastest ocean racer-mono or multi: http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/sailboats/speed-dream-35-prototype-36205.html
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--Kiteboards and sailboards-extraordinary sailing devices with incredible speed-both planing and foiler versions,
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--Quant 28 and DSS foil assist technology- http://www.quant-boats.com/home.html
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--Nacra 20 with curved lifting foils,
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--Open 60 Virbac-Paprec 3-one of the first Open 60's to use curved lifting foils pioneered by the ORMA trimarans years ago
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--Keelboat foiler-now under development-I'm not sure the owner will go for it but if you want to include/follow his progress I'll ask.
--
--Self-righting trimaran-may be worth including next year-or not.


--pictures-rclass and Rush Randle foilboards-click on image:

 

Maybe you should consider iceboats.

 

Doug I'll take a look and see if they fit in. And at this point while it would be interesting to hear an owners perspective, we don't currently have anything concreet to show anyone. This is currently pretty preliminary.

Gonzo,

From a marketing perspective I am not sure that their is enough overlap between sailors and iceboats to justify their inclusion. Though it is an interesting proposal toad to the mix.

 

Gonzo you took the words right out of my mouth.

Having sailed a DN (Detroit News) Iceboat for three winters in Alberta Canada, I can tell you there are plenty of connections between them and "soft water" sailors. Their performance is staggering and exhilarating.

-Tom

 

there is also the wheeled version. Big group has a regatta on the sand flats every spring. There were some amatuer videos on SailingAnarchy a few months ago.

 

Ice boats are what got Harken and the Gaugeon Brothers into the market.

 

Gaugeon Brother you say, I had no idea, interesting, thanks.

Three things stand out in my memory: the outrageous rate of acceleration, the incredible speed (combined with my closeness to the ice) and, how f#@*$ing cold it was.

-Tom

 

More on the Gougeon Brothers iceboats, trimarans, wind turbines, epoxy here:
http://ewmag.epoxyworks.com/webpages/home/about.htm

 

Dogzilla (USA 17) would be an interesting boat to have on the list

 

In the world of open water keel boats the Mini Transat (Open 6.5) is definitely the breeding ground for innovation. Followed by the Open 60s and 70s.

The extreme 40s are very cool and great racing but seeing that you have put tech superiority at the top of your list, the AC 45 leaves the X40s in the dust.

The big ocean racing cats and tris are a whole world of engineering and tech wonders to themselves, along with AC17 the engineering figures are nothing less than staggering.

 

We would love to work with the AC cats, but due to licensing issues it looks like they are going to be out of the reach of this project. The teams are not really excited about inviting a film crew in they have no control over to look at their technology. Particularly in the AC there is in-house value to keeping the designs a secret, and we don't have thebuget to even try and crack that nut without their cooperation.

I looked at it, and while ice boats, and salt flat boats are very cool, the marketing just doesn't work. They are too small a segment of the worldwide sailing population to add much draw, and most of what their tech either comes from or is very quickly adopted by the sailing fleets.

This is one of the reasons we are focusing mostly on development classes, the best of the tech very quickly gets adopted, and that way even if we can't cover every boat, we can at least get an example of the major systems and cool toys they are using. The project is really geared towards a mix of 1/2 sailing jock drool feast, 1/2 techno geek drool feast, with a huge dollop of "god I want to go sail that".

 

The C cats could be another good option if the AC45s are out

 

Actually, it may not....

Moth foilers are the only fully-foiling class around or on the horizon now that the FF600 seems to have died;

Open 70's - have they actually started yet and aren't they a one design rather than a development class?

Extreme 40's - arguably simply a replacement for Formula and Prosail 40s.... what new tech have they created and aren't they a one design rather than a development class?

Mirabaud's technology hasn't been adopted by anyone, has it?

Open 6.5 - Yep, a development class that has lead the way, although 2/3 of the class use conventional ballast.

I-18: what are they????

AC-45: a one design, not a development class.

the boat Cone of Silence - Great boat, but what has she lead to?

I'm not trying to attack you or any of the classes mentioned, but whether many of them are actually that influential to sailing as a whole is an open question.

This year, there will be 1500+ people who will have to QUALIFY to get into a Laser worlds across the various categories. There was a staggering 120 (approx) boats in the ORCi worlds - the biggest "offshore" worlds ever by a big margin - which is mainly composed of comparatively slow fixed-keel production cruiser/racers like the Beneateau 40.7. And the fastest-growing dinghy classes (apart from the Laser and Opti) are slow-ish plastic popouts like the Feva and Bic O'pen. What's widely adopted is the stuff that is simple, practical and often pretty slow.

I'm not saying anything against the project or the boats featured (I just got in from a couple of days racing shorthanded trimarans offshore in measured 40+ knots, so I'm vaguely familiar with stuff other than Catalinas etc) but on the evidence, the truth is that the innovations in the spectacular classes are often NOT widedly adopted.

 

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The R Class foilers from New Zealand are a very small but technically significant full foiling class. The only spinnaker equipped two person class that has adopted foiling. See post # 2.
There are at least two other bi-foilers under development that are the same size as Mirabaud. There is a 30' keelboat foiler being developed as well.
Just a note: every year sees more development in multihulls and monohulls designed to use foil assist. Classes like the National 12, International 14, A Class, C Class, maybe the Cherub and others are using foil assist. And there are at least four full flying small multihull hydrofoils in development.
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RS600FF- I hope the class is not dead. The boat was a real achievement as a foiler conversion from an existing boat. Full Force boats appears to still be offering a full carbon version. http://www.fullforceboats.com/
--First singlehanded trapeze monofoiler
--First production monofoiler with viable fully retractable foils
--First production bi-foiler with a reefable rig

pictures,L to R: Two RS 600FF by Paul Wyeth, Carbon RS600FF by Full Force Boats