(Soon to be) the fastest boat in the world

Thedailysail takes to the water on board Bruno Peyron's new maxi-catamaran Orange II

In the 1990s Bruno Peyron put forward the concept of not only The Race, but the creation of a new generation of giant multihulls. When the first of these were finally created over 1999/2000 the sailing world witnessed the biggest ever jump in performance by wind-powered vessels. Peyron was personally responsible for the creation of two of these new beasts, since dubbed the 'G-Class', Club Med (now Maiden/ Qatar) and Innovation Explorer (subsequently Orange then Kingfisher II). Both were designed by Gilles Ollier and his design team and built at Ollier's yard in Multiplast.

The 110ft Ollier catamarans have undeniably been successful - they currently hold both the Jules Verne Trophy records (Bruno Peyron and Orange) and the 24 hour record (Brian Thompson and Maiden II) for example, but Peyron felt he could do better. Launched just before Christmas after 14 months and some 100,000 man hours of labour his new Orange II was launched in Vannes, France, the first genuine second generation G-class catamaran.

Thedailysail was lucky enough to be invited for a delivery on board the new beast on a brief passage between Lorient and the multihull mecca of La Trinite-sur-Mer. Inevitably this was in less than 5 knots of breeze...

	Club Med	Orange II
LOA	33.50m	36.80m
Beam:	17.50m	18.00m
Draft:	4.00m	5.50m
Mast height	41.50m	45.00m
Disp	20ish tonnes	25-30 tonnes
Upwind s/a	610sqm	800sqm
Downwind s/a	800sqm	1,100sqm
Mainsail	350sqm	470sqm

At 120ft long Orange II is not merely a scaled-up version of the first generation Ollier cats. She has enormous freeboard. When we walked down the pontoon she was tied up to off the Le Defi America's Cup base in Lorient, you could not only not see on deck but the bottom third of the mast was obscured. The bow of the new boat is an impressive 3.3m tall - some 0.8m taller than the previous generation - and this enlarged freeboard extends all the way aft.

The reason for the extra freeboard is to reduce the chance of burying the forward cross beam into waves. "The designers had to do something about the upwind sailing coming from the other boats because on those we had to slow her down sometimes to 7 or 8 knots because otherwise you were slamming so hard you just wouldn’t make it," explains Orange II watch leader, Herve Jan who sailed in The Race with Grant Dalton on Club Med was part of the original Orange Jules Verne crew, was with Ellen MacArthur on Kingfisher II and has recently been involved with Tracy Edwards and Qatar. "The only way to go other than that would be to fly the hull, but then you would be going so fast you would destroy the boat in another way. This thing we have been able to go in a seaway in 35 knots of breeze, we have been doing 12-14 knots, I wouldn’t say comfortably, but it was possible without breaking the whole thing."

Having a higher front beam should allow Orange II to to be driven harder for longer and should reduce the start-stop accelerations when crashing through big waves.

Jan says that the aft beams also take a pounding on the first generation boats. "The way to go fast downwind is to weigh her down at the back with water ballast in. That works really well, but the problem is that as soon as you do that you start to slam real hard on the lower section of the aft beam. For instance last year we got delam there in a matter of hours, so the boss said 'right, no ballast'."

In addition to the increased freeboard of the hulls the beams are mounted on top of the hulls rather than joining across both the hull and the deck. Structurally this has allowed the integrity of the unidirection carbon fibres in the topsides to be maintained, although it has been a nightmare to build with bulkheads having to be fitted inside the beam ends once they were mounted in the hulls.

Having the beams mounted on top of the hulls also potentially makes it harder for the crew to lug sails around on deck although they solved to some extent by attaching the netting higher up on the mast beam while it attaches to the bottom of the aft beam allowing sails to be wedged in there.

The deck being further out of the water also makes for a much drier ride.

The hull lines of the boat are more brutal than those of the previous generation with the deck line constant all the way aft and considerably less rocker. The overall effect is that the boat is not as good looking as the first generation Ollier cats in our opinion, although she certainly seems functional.

Orange II's hull section shape is also very different. Generally the hulls are considerably finer but deeper. "We have been working to have a boat that is a bit faster in upwind conditions to be able to catch the systems faster especially in the Atlantic or to cross a ridge or something like that," explains Bruno Peyron. The finer hull shape is also hoped to improve light weather performance.

The section is also much more V-eed in shape in order to make for a more comfortable ride on board. "The first generation boats are really very uncomfortable - to the extent that it becomes dangerous," says Franck Martin. "On Team Adventure a couple of the crew suffered broken vertebrae." The massive acceleration and deceleration mainly came about due to the affect of the forward beam colliding with waves but the V-eed section also means that the hulls no long slam forward.

"Upwind and tight reaching she is a lot more comfortable which doesn’t mean it is comfortable, but it is more comfortable," confirms navigator Roger Nilson, who sailed on Innovation Explorer in The Race. Jack Michal of the design team agrees: "I went upwind in 30 knots and it goes like a train. It was very smooth. It pitches quite a bit, but there is no slamming at all."

The downside of having finer hulls is that the boat pitches more so if the potential for bursting vertebrae is reduced the opportunity for seasickness is increased. The finer hulls are also likely to reduce the ultimate top speed of the boat but will increase her potential to make higher average speeds in a wider range of conditions.

Unusually the overall beam of Orange 2 has not increased much - it is less than a metre more than the first generation boats. The reason for this is to allow the hull to be flown at lower wind speeds and this, combined with the finer hull shape is intended to make the boat a flier upwind. "Last time we were flying in 16 knots," says Bruno Peyron. "Now we are flying at 13-14 upwind. The result upwind is very impressive, because the target maximum speed is almost 21 knots upwind at 50 degrees. That is a lot faster than the old ones." 21 knots upwind...my God.

Peyron says that the increased upwind performance is an attempt to give the big cat better all-round performance characteristics. "It was designed to be sailed in the perspective of the whole circuit, including The Race and The Race Tour and some races around the UK and Gotland and everywhere," he says of the general concept. "This boat is not designed just for the Jules Verne. It was designed to be the fastest boat in the world for the next four or five years - anywhere."

However the boat is expected not to be significantly faster reaching than the first generation boats. "I don’t know if we have increased the potential downwind yet, but that was basically not the goal," says Peyron. "If we are doing the same downwind as we were and going faster upwind, then the average will be a lot higher."

Franck Martin adds some numbers from the VPPs. "In light wind upwind we expect up to maybe 8% increase in flat sea. Upwind in heavy breeze we hope maybe 4-5% increase in average speed. Downwind in light breeze also we we expect 5-6% increase. And downwind in heavy breeze it is difficult to give numbers because it depends so much upon the sea state. But this is all theoretical."

Upwind potential has also been improved by a massive beefing up of the structure. When Club Med finished The Race she slightly ressembled the 2CV in a Pink Panther film where Clouseau gets out and all the panels and wheels fall off. This should not be a worry with Orange 2. A significant advantage of the stiffer structure is the increased opportunity to be able to induce good forestay tension. "With this one you can bend the hull with the rig like a monohull, so it is a lot stiffer than before. It is the first time a big cat has been so stiff," says Peyron.

A downsided of this beefing up is that the boat feels considerably heavier. Although exact displacement figures are a closely guarded secret it is guestimated that the first generation 110ft long Ollier boats were just over 20 tonnes. In comparison we believe Orange II to be closer to the assumed 30 tonne odd ton all-up-weight for Steve Fossett's 125ft long Cheyenne.

Several of Orange 2's crew we spoke to said that the extra weight of Orange 2 was particularly noticable in her performance being less 'twitchy', reduced acceleration and general a feeling of the boat having greater inertia. This and the higher freeboard further reduce any idea you have from on deck of the speed of the boat. "With this boat we went up to more than 30 knots and nothing was happening on board," says Jack Michal. "We were going at 20 knots upwind, and we bore away and the boat accelerates and nothing was happening... There is not much sensation of waves. You can feel the power but not the speed." In four knots when we were on board there still seemed to be a gale blowing in the slot between the blade light weather headsail and the main.

This added inertia across affects how the boat is steered. "For example say you start to down a wave and you want to bear away and keep the apparent wind afterwards it is difficult to bring the boat back because there is so inertia. You have to make a lot of turns," says Jack Michal.

See part two of this article tomorrow

More photos on the following pages