Tornado Class Rules OK

One year on since new Tornado rules came into effect. Hugh Styles and Adam May assess the changes.

It is almost one year since the new Tornado class rules came into effect and within this short time scale the Tornado has seen considerable development. Such has been the pace of development that many established asymmetric rigged catamarans ( F18 for one) are adopting changes developed by the top Tornado teams.

The Tornado Class European Championships held on Lake Silvaplana, Switzerland, in August of last year provided an interesting look at how the Tornado has developed in its new configuration. The timing of revealing new developments was also quite interesting. The Austrian and Australian teams were first to utilise a self-tacking jib, and tested this early in the session. But for the Europeans a number or crews kept secret their spinnaker chute technology until the start of the regatta.

State of the class:Although many thought the addition of a spinnaker would change the established Tornado pecking order, it is the teams who have put in the time Tornado sailing that are at the top of the fleet. The ISAF world rankings are headed by Gold Medallists, Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher, with GBRs Hugh Styles and Adam May second, and Silver medallists Darren Bundock and John Forbes in third.

Mitch Booth proved dominant in the early season events, winning Palma, and Hyeres, but Roman Hagara piped him in Medemblik (SPA), Kiel and then finally the Europeans.

Rig:
There have been two options for mast selection, Marstrom versus Hobie sections. The Marstrom originated from the old rig configuration, mainsail and jib only. The mast was less tolerant and more flexible than the Hobie section. Following Hyeres regatta last year many rigs broke and there was a move towards the stiffer Hobie mast to ensure reliability. Now that people have learned to handle the boats better there are less problems with the use of the Marstrom mast. However in response to sailor's demands a new and improved Marstrom section is now available

Sails: Mainsail :There has been a conflict in ideas from manufacturers with regard to the head profile. The North & Jessenig sails have developed a rounded roach profile (similar to that seen on the Americas Cup yachts), which contrasts to the square topped Ullman mainsail. The top crews have been successful with both formats Hagara and Styles use the rounded head where as Bundock prefers the square top.

Spinnaker Systems: With the adoption of the new rules the majority of the fleet added bags to the centre of the tramp. Some experimented with off-setting the bag to port and always dropping to that side to ensure a leeward hoist at the windward mark. But it didn't take long before people experimented further, in search for a quicker drop.



Always a thinker within the class, Goran Marstrom developed a carbon 'device' nicknamed the 'snail', that looked like a motorcycle helmet, with a rotating drum inside it, around which the kite was wrapped upon dropping, by pulling a retrieval line.

Mounted on the bridle wire, it was quite large, and many were unconvinced of the windage effect, but it showed promise on occasions. (Although often it got caught and the Swedes using it could be seen sailing beyond the leeward mark)

Andrew Landenberger fitted his boat with a chute, Shearwater style, and the mouth extending forwards of the jib and bridle wires. The Spanish then created their own version with an enlarged pole nicknamed the 'Whales Willy' in which the spinnaker was stowed inside the pole, creating a much neater arrangement.



Hugh Styles and Adam May were also convinced of the benefits of the chute, but didn't like the idea of the windage from having it mounted so far forward, so kept it on the trampoline. Some French teams had tried a chute system on the tramp at Hyeres regatta, but without a chute mouth of any form it didn't demonstrate any quicker drops than the bag system.

Styles and May fitted a hinged chute mouth just behind the front beam that opened for hoisting and dropping and snapped shut onto the kite when down, allowing for a nicely profiled mouth for ease of hoisting and dropping, but protecting the kite once down. With a bag length of approximately the distance between beams, three patches are necessary to fit the kite in the chute. This system has now been adopted by most of the UK boats.

Bundock and Forbes also adopted a chute, but with a bag underneath the tramp, and a profiled hole in the tramp to drop the kite though.

Although there is more friction for the hoist compared to the bag system, due to the kite being pulled through the chute, the hoist with the chute appears no slower. In fact this has the advantage that the crew can actually start hoisting earlier as the kite cannot blow back along the tramp as can easily happen when hoisting from the bag.

Twin bags inset into the trampoline are also in use and were the preferred option for Hagara at the Europeans. Like many others sailing with bags, he used a split halyard system where the helm pulled the tack line out on a 1:3 or 1:4 purchase while the crew hoisted the kite on a 1:2 system. Even though it gave a quick hoist, ground was always lost on the drop against any boat with a chute. Anybody with a chute was able to drop later, in less than half the time and be on the wire going upwind before those crews who were sailing with bags.

Self-Tacking Jibs

The top three top boats at the Europeans used a self-tacking jib, and this is now the class norm. This has been made possible as the new jib rules feature a longer luff length and set below the bridle wire via a compression strut, the jib can be sheeted from the front beam. With a radius track attached to the front beam, the jib sheet generally has a 2:1 portion on the traveller car fitting, before leading to the base of the compression strut where it turns and splits out to each side, via another 2:1 purchase. The track has caused some problems though for the routing of the spinnaker halyard around the jib track.

Although actually not a self tacking jib, in the sense that the crew needs to ease a bit of jib sheet to prevent the leach catching on the spreaders, the self tacker comes into its own downwind as the crew can just concentrate on the kite. Now the jib sheet can also be controlled more accurately with the 4:1 jib sheet, allowing for much better jib trimming.


So what can we expect for 2002?

One thing is for sure; we have not seen the end of the developments within this class. Fine-tuning of the current systems will be the case in point. Many new designs of spinnaker chute will emerge and crews will be seeking the best trade off of ease of spinnaker handling versus windage of chute mechanism. Watch this space for developments!! On the sails front it will be a case of tweaking the base designs created last year and optimising sails for particular venues or sailing conditions.

Whatever developments occur one thing is for sure, and that is that the boat will get faster and provide for more spectacular racing with colourful spinnakers and racing at close quarters at speeds of around to 20 knots.