The first boat (officially) to 50 knots

Macquarie Innovations co-pilot Tim Daddo on finally achieving their objective after 15 years of trying

After an impressive 15 years of trying, last Thursday Simon McKeon, Tim Daddo and the rest of Lindsay Cunningham’s Macquarie Innovation team, succeeded in becoming the first ‘boat’ to a sustain a speed in excess of 50 knots over a 500m course at their base in Sandy Point some 200km southeast of Melbourne. These speeds have of course been achieved last year by French kiteboarders Sebastien Cattelan and subsequently Alexandre Caizergues, who officially holds the outright speed record over a 500m course of 50.57 knots.

On Thursday Macquarie Innovation and her two pilots, McKeon and Daddo, recorded 50.43 average down the course and this corrects down to 50.18 knots taking into account the tide. These numbers are still awaiting to be ratified by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, but have been given the thumbs up by the official WSSRC measurer who was on site at the time. At present while it will not gain the team the outright speed record it will secure them a new C-Class record for vessels with 150 and 235sqft of sail area. This they had already broken last year with a speed run averaging 48.14 knots.

Tim Daddo talked to thedailysail about the record: “The project all started back in 1994 after Yellow Pages was timed for part of its run at somewhere between 52 and 56 knots, so pretty much from that stage on we have known that the concept is capable of doing a 50 knot average. Unfortunately it took a lot longer than we thought to get there, but we are very proud of the fact that we have got there.”

So what came right on Thursday night? “It has been a combination of a number of things, the most significant of which is the fact that we have finally been able to run the boat in its design wind speeds of over 20 knots. We have never run the craft, or certainly not in its current configuration, above 20 knots. I think the most we have run it in is 18. So from our point of view it was not a huge surprise what it did on Thursday, but obviously nevertheless it is somewhat satisfying that all the theory and all the indications we had leading up to it were right, because, as you understand, the theory is wonderful while it is on paper, but until it translates into reality it is only really hearsay!

“We are exceptionally lucky that we have both a team and group of supporters that have allowed this to progress over such a long period of time and put our ideas into practice. I’m sure there are an awful lot of people out there who have better ideas and concepts than we have and we are very thankful that our group of supporters and sponsors and the like have been able to stay with us for the duration. Most of our sponsors have been on board for 15 years and we consider ourselves to be exceptionally lucky to be in that position.”

So they had the right wind but also Macquarie Innovations has been undergoing progressive development over the years, particularly since she blew up so dramatically back in December 2005.

Daddo continues: “A lot of people out there are saying - have they done something special that has made it go fast all of a sudden, or it has been the sudden increase in competition from L’Hydroptere or the kites or the windsurfers or whoever. But the facts are – the boat has had things done to it, but we have put on just under four knots in the space of seven months and we couldn’t do that in the 14 years prior to it and the significant difference is that we have finally got some conditions we can run the boat in. But we have prior to that, and particularly over the last two and a half to three years, done a lot of work in trying to increase the efficiency of the boat, trying to reduce the energy bleeds in the boat and looking very carefully at the wing structure and the cross sectional shapes that are running in that, looking at the hull structures and more refining how they run through the water and the stiffness of them. And that has made quite a significant difference to our capacity in winds under 20 knots. We were really forced down that road because it seems that every time we went out sailing it was in 15-20 knots. And just prior to Christmas we set a new C-Class record: the boat was timed at just under 48.6 knots down the course in 17 knots of wind, so a lot of those changes did make significant changes to the boat speed potential, but at the top end it was basically all about wind speed.

“Really the biggest change that has been made to the concept since it was first put together by Lindsay in 1992 - obviously Yellow Pages went into the water in September of 1992 and set a world mark in October of 1992 which lasted for 11 years. And in 1994 we decided that given that Yellow Pages went so well, the only major change we made was to make Macquarie Innovation significantly more powerful. We did that by keeping the same sail area. We dropped the overturning moment of it and made a lower aspect rig and put a bit more leverage into the thing by making the beams wider. Obviously there was fine tuning in the control systems and that sort of stuff, but that is really the only big different between this boat and Yellow Pages.”

On Thursday night the record run was the second that they did. Daddo says that they only managed two runs that evening because they had been forced to start late due to the tide and their second run came just as it was getting dark. “We got to the end of run and because we don’t actually know what our average speed is until several hours after we’ve finished sailing, because of the all the processing that goes on, we were aware that we’d hit probably somewhere around 54 knots which we thought would have been very close to a 50 knot average. On the way back up, Simon and I had quite a discussion about the merits of making another final run. But we only run the boat less than 5m off the bank so being able to see the edge of the bank, and not ending up splattered all over the beach - that pretty much made the decision for us. So unfortunately it didn’t give us the option to do more runs, but that was the one we needed anyway.”

While the average wind speed of 24 knots was perfect, as Macquarie Innoviations is optimised for 20-25 knots, Daddo says the point of sail was not ideal. “It was a lot broader than what we would normally choose to run in. The course at Sandy Point has changed a lot since we first came here in 1992. There are a lot of quite sizable sand hills building up over the first 300-400m of the course and had we chosen our optimal wind direction we would have been sailing completely blanketed by those and with next to no run up. So we made the decision fairly early on to push the course around a bit further, so that we could sail in clearer wind but the downside of that was that it meant that the wind was a long way further behind us than we’d normally choose for our optimum angle. So hence I guess that is some surety that what we did on Thursday was not the best we’ve got. We averaged over 52 knots for just a fraction under half the course, so we have a reasonable degree of confidence that we have got a bit more in it.”

Ideally Macquarie Innovations wants the true wind angle to be 105deg off the bow. Instead they started with it at aroud 120. “That is getting very close to where our performance really starts to tail off. You can see off the speed trace towards the end of the course, because the course isn’t straight, we ordinarily only sail for 30-40% at the optimal angle. So the first part is always tight and the last part is always broad, but when you start off broad the end of it falls off the performance envelope and we were really struggling, plus we can’t be 100% sure that we didn’t lose a bit of wind strength on top of that as well. But from the cockpit point of view, I get a reasonably good indication of how well we are doing by just from where the wing is sheeted and for the last 100-150m I don’t recall letting the sheet out at all. I was just pulling in handful upon handful of sheet to try and keep it going. But that is one of the reasons we are doing 500m runs and not looking at instance speeds. It is all about taking the vagaries of the weather and dealing the best you can with them. So we think we have probably got a bit more in the tank given the right opportunity.”

Daddo reckons that in fact slightly less wind, than more, would be the optimum, the main issue being of course wave state. “Our underwater foils are only 300mm deep and while they will handle full load with only 50% of their area immersed, at Sandy Point when you start getting wind speeds around 30 knots, the wave heights are really pushing to 300mm and then you are bouncing almost your entire foil out of the wave peaks and through the wave troughs – and that’s never a very good look for us!”

On board Daddo does main while McKeon steers. “His job is to keep us on the straight and narrow down the course. We tend to do a bit of a compromise course between a dead straight run and hugging the bank, so it is not a smooth curve around, it is a compromise between running the shortest distance between the two 500m points that we can and keeping in the flatter water. Simon also has another related steering job involving the slow-down process which is probably one of the more technically demanding aspects of the whole procedure. The start up and the finish are the most challenging - the actual run itself tends to look after itself reasonably well."

As to his role he says: "My job is simply just to get as much power into the boat as quickly as I can and keep the crew pod about 1ft off the water, because there is quite a bit that goes on in terms of monitoring the boat’s condition in order to keep her that in that position. We split the jobs simply because they are both highly demanding in terms of your concentration and a mistake at 25m/second when you are only 5m off a bank, ends up not looking very good awful quick.”

The duo squeeze into their cockpit, a snug pod, slung off the end of a beam a long way up to weather of the two floats. McKeon, the helm sits in front in an F1-style cockpit with about the same lack of room, with a wheel to steer and foot pedal to operate a breaking mechanism to help slow them down at the end of the run.

“The steering wheel is connected up using carbon wires all the way up to the front hull where they operate the three underwater fins. So it is a bit unusual in terms of sailing craft that it steers from the front rather than the back, but that is just another one of the safety features which was put into the boat so that when we are operating at high speeds, where we are very close to our cavitation inception point, the foils most likely to have cavitation induced on them are the ones that are moving through the biggest range. So we figured that the steering ones are more likely to suffer that phenomenon. By having them up the front, if they do happen to cavitate and lose a significant amount of side force, the boat will veer away from the beach, rather than into it if they were steering from the back.”

Daddo sits behind McKeon and at 90degrees to him, with his back to the bank and looking down to leeward towards the floats and the solid wing rig. He explains: “My feet end up sliding up in to the fairing of the main beam. So I can’t actually see where we are going and it requires Simon’s input as to when to stop the boat, which is good in a way because I’m sure I wouldn’t want to see where we’re going! Knowing the sort of power that is in the rig and there is a fair amount of sheet load coming on. We run it 6:1 and there is around 30-40kg coming off that last purchase and you are sheeting one handed to try and get it in and out fast enough to keep the thing at its optimum.”

Although there are other adjustments to the rig that are made during ‘pre-flight checks’ prior to the run, Daddo only uses the mainsheet to control the rig during runs. “Lindsay’s always been very strong on this for this boat in particular, is to keep the human interaction with the thing as simple as possible because our reaction time are probably the thing that slows it down the most!” says Daddo referring to Lindsay Cunningham who is the design and technology guru behind the campaign.

Cunningham, who has been best known over the last years for this speed sailing campaign, was previously the mastermind behind the team winning the Little America’s Cup aboard The Edge series of C-Class cats. Despite now being into his 70s, Cunningham remains deeply involved with the campaign, particularly when Macquarie Innovations is back in her shed, although he is no longer so hands on when the team are in action down at Sandy Point. “He is still incredibly fit and his mind is probably sharper than when I first meet him,” says Daddo. “We are very lucky to have him involved in the project.”

So presumably the ride is fairly scary at 50 knots? In fact not as scary as the video one sees from the cockpit of Paul Larsen’s SailRocket it seems, mainly because on Macquarie Innvoations they are airborne. “Because we are 11m away from the action and in the air, it is actually relatively smooth…provided we are flying. The landing is significantly more complicated, but I guess probably the best description is it is very business-like inside the cockpit. We are both there to do a job. We have trained every day to do, not in the boat, but in the gym and mental picturing and all that stuff and we have brought in a lot of people who have done a fantastic job getting us into a situation where we can sail so it is important to us to get the best out of what we do. So there is a fair bit happening and we are pleased to have got it right."

However Daddo adds: “There is a lot going on! It is exactly the same at 45 knots. It is all relative. While we knew that we’d sailed fairly quickly and I have probably got the best view of that simply by looking at where the wing is sheeted when we are going at 45 knots or at 45-50, when it is fairly well sheeted right in. And once you are doing 48-49 you are flying a hull with the wing progressively sheeted out and we get a fair estimate of what it is doing. I would love to say it is adrenalin pumping, but we have a lot to do in that 19 and a bit seconds so make sure that the job is done properly and there is no time for soaking up the scenery that all goes by.”

From today there remain six more in their present 28 day window with the WSSRC measurer to better their speed and try and claim the outright record, but given the scarity of wind in the 20+ knot range the chances of them achieving this are slight. But who knows? “The boat is ready, the team is ready and I guess the pressure is off a little bit in that we can probably afford to lift the threshold on our speed restrictors a little bit now that we’ve broken 50 knots, that is basically what we spent 15 years doing. Now that is done we can afford to be a little more game with what we are doing. At the same token if we get the opportunity to get the best out of the boat and team that is what we are resetting our sights on.”

So presumably 55 knots wouldn’t be out of the question? “With our current machine – I don’t know,” admits Daddo. “I don’t like talking about numbers that could be. We have got first hand evidence that our boat is capable of sustaining speeds over 52 knots for significant lengths of time. We are fairly sure that we will run into foil flow issues or the cavitation inception point somewhere around 52 knots and we think it will remain reasonably stable up to 56-57 knots. After 58 knots we are not sure we really want to test that because the stuff that we have seen both on the computer and in the flow tanks at the Australian Maritime College show that we would be very lucky to walk away from a 58 knot run!! So we have a couple of devices, a speed limiter on the boat, purely to make sure that we don’t inadvertently extend that range, particularly early on. All that leads to the fact that potentially we have more to come out of the boat. We have good evidence that that is the case, but to put a number on that - I’m not going to do that. Having said that, since the kites were allowed in in November we have done a bit of preliminary testing on a very radical craft – it’s speed potential is mind-blowing. We have some decisions to make within the group whether we think that is a direction we want to take the event. Obviously the rule makers by stating that they are happy for slingshoting to occur and for boats to leave the water during the run – they think that’s okay, but as a competitor it is our choice whether we want to promote that or not. But it is not something we are considering just at the moment – we have six days left in our program with a boat that is going quick at the moment.”

Daddo says it is fascinating to see all the different speed sailing campaigns in action around the world now, from Sean Langman’s WotRocket up in Sydney to L’Hydroptere in the south of France to Paul Larsen’s SailRocket in Namibia to the sailboards and most recently the kites.

“We obviously have a reasonable degree of experience with our own boat, but it would not be smart of us to suggest that there aren’t other ways to do it. You only have to look at the proximity of the speeds of the kites, the sailboards, us, L’Hydroptere and a handful of other boats all around the world that are either on the water or due to come on to the water soon and they are all within 4-5 knots of one another and all are radically different approaches and all coming out with more or less the same final numbers. That was always one of the exciting things of the whole concept was that there are obviously a lot of different ways to approach this and while we were pretty confident that our way would give the results that we were looking for, who is to say that the other guys around haven’t been waiting for just the same opportunity that we have and away they go as well. I think the only one that is slightly different to that is the kite and obviously now that they have been allowed into the game having been told for three and a half years that they weren’t I think that opens up quite a new field of endeavour that previously we haven’t been given access to. I think that will be interesting.”

So for the team the game is changing. Sandy Point for example, their home for the last 15 years, they are rapidly growing out of due to local regulations and also to the new regulations allowed by the WSSRC. “The fact that slingshotting is now not only allowed, but encouraged, it is hard to see a boat such as ours that doesn’t utilise that concept as being competitive once that is properly developed. We got 30 knots out of a wind-powered catapult rig in about six knots of wind the other day, so the propensity for exceptionally high speeds on those things is just mind-blowing. We don’t want to make a big deal out of that at the moment and it will be a decision that is made within the team as to whether we pursue that avenue. As far as running our craft, it was built entirely around Sandy Point. It is too wide to run in the French trench, I don’t think Walvis Bay, Namibia is a particularly ideal situation for us. We have such little freeboard, we’d have to make fairly significant design changes to it just in order to get it to the speed strip in Walvis. So I’m not sure of where we would take it short of construction our own version of the French trench in Australia, which we have considered seriously but it is a bit beyond our scope just at the moment and probably now unnecessary given that it was all about doing the 50 knot run and that’s done now.”

Having tried for so long – as to be fair has Alain Thebault and his L’Hydroptere project – it feels right that the Macquarie Innovations team should claim to be the first boat to sustain 50 knots. We just hope they can pull out all the stops this week to beat the blasted kiteboarders without killing themselves in the process…