Upwind with the kite up

Several Tornado teams have developed a super-flat spinnaker for upwind in Qingdao

Yesterday, a press release was sent out detailing a new type of gennaker Mitch Booth and Pim Nieuwenhuis are planning to use at the Olympic Games in Qingdao next month. The sail is also being trialed by the US team of John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree.

The announcement came as a surprise to most outside of the Tornado fleet firstly because it was ‘announced’ at all leaving many wondering whether this is a sail designed to help at the Olympics or rather a stunt designed to distract other competitors.

The sail unveiled is a very flat, significantly smaller gennaker for the Tornado than usual that is able to be flown upwind in very light weather – think a code zero on a big boat. Of course where this is different to a keelboat code zero is only one gennaker is allowed to be used at the Olympics so this sail will also be in use downwind and throughout the event irrespective of the conditions. While it may be a weapon upwind, it could be majorly off the pace downwind.

The first thing to get clear is this is not a development we are likely to see on any other dinghy classes, multihull or otherwise. This sail has been specifically designed to deal with the extremely light winds that are prominent in Qingdao at this time of the year. “As soon as a regular Tornado is able to double trapeze, the drag becomes far too great and you go slower,” Booth told TheDailySail from an at present surprisingly windy Qingdao. With the Tornado being powered up in about ten knots of wind, the wind range this gennaker is valuable in is clearly a very small one.

In spite of this very small range, Booth firmly believes the gennaker will be a useful tool for the Games. He says below the ten knot mark it becomes significantly quicker and that speed gain is well worth the inevitable loss in height. There are some concerns that the loss in ability to point could make for tricky situations in close boat on boat tactics, however, the speeds involved in the sort of light weather expected mean you have some time to consider options as closing speeds are reduced. However, Skandia Team GBR Tornado representative, Will Howden has sailed against Lovell and Ogletree with their flat spinnaker and says they did seem to struggle getting off the startline with their gennaker up. Obviously this can be solved by only raising the sail when there is room around the boat but this is difficult to do upwind and it seems the teams would need to employ a slow, 2:1 purchase on the halyard to make this possible.

The fact that the gennaker is only likely to be used upwind in under ten knots of breeze brings us straight onto the next big question. If the spinnaker is significantly smaller and flatter isn’t it slower downwind? Booth argues that although this is the case it is, perhaps, quicker than people might expect. “Of course there is a lot less surface area and in the more moderate conditions the normal spinnakers will go a bit deeper. We were surprised that they did not really seem to go any faster. We seem to go a little faster but a bit higher. The VMG comes out fairly close actually,” Booth explains. It is worth noting that when the Tornado first made the switch to a three sail rig many teams experimented with gennaker shape and settled on a slightly flatter sail to allow them tactical options downwind as opposed to just being able to drive deep, though this sail is perhaps the most extreme expression of this.

Whle it may only have been revealed to the public this week, the new gennaker has been a long time in the making and is the product of three different teams’ testing: Booth and Nieuwenhuis John Lovell and Charlie Ogletree (USA) and the Puerto Rican Tornado team, who will not be attending the Olympics. “It has been almost a year since we have started doing the physical development and testing,” Booth continues. “We have had the idea for quite some time though. Straight after the [2007] Pre-Olympics where we experienced first hand what the conditions are really like, we started really working on it.” Since that time, Booth explains that they have been through 12 different spinnakers and seven different re-designs to get to the stage where they feel confident the gennaker is correct. Thinking about the concept is nothing new and a number of teams have been experimenting with the idea previously. “We were not surprised to see that someone had done it. The idea is something we thought about a while ago and even had a flatter spinnaker made,” explains Howden. Clearly then the idea is not too ‘out there’ and the Tornado sailors we have spoken too are far from shocked, perhaps putting an end to the idea this is just a gimmick to put off the competition.

Of course just because the two teams in Qingdao have a flat gennaker in their sail wardrobe, that does not mean they will necessarily be used. “It is a weather dependent choice and one of the tricks we will have to work out is how possible that will be,” says Booth.” There is such a long measurement period, the first Tornado is measured a full week before the first race.” This early measurement period combined with teams having to specify which sails they are going to use for the whole championships will mean any teams wanting to make a sail selection based on the weather forecast, as this gennaker requires, will be looking at a very long range and so not very accurate weather prediction. However, on further investigation the situation is not quite so bad, as although the first Tornado is measured a week out from the first race, Booth’s boat and sails will be measured four days out and Lovell and Ogletree’s just two days before the regatta begins. This means they will be reliant on significantly more accurate wind data.

So how likely are we to see one of the gennakers used in anger at the Olympics next month? The main factor in their use will be the forecast in Qingdao but is seems some teams are more likely to use the sail than others. “Mitch [Booth] is probably one of the heavier teams out in Qingdao so I would not be that surprised to see him use it,” Howden commented, adding that Lovell and Ogletree are already renowned for their light wind performance so it would be more surprising if they took the risk and measured in the super-flat sail. It is fair to say than anyone using this sail will be taking a big risk and it is bound to be slower downwind overall at around 7sqm smaller than other gennakers. However, it is not just the wind one has to worry about in Qingdao, it is a strong tidal venue too. If boats are struggling to make the windward mark in no wind and a great deal of tide this sail could be the extra horse power needed to make it round the mark and off downwind ahead of the rest. If this was the case it is not hard to imagine one boat finishing while the rest hang on the tide. Of course the opposite is true downwind.

Even if the gennaker is not a success or is not used in China, Booth still believes it was a worthwhile process. “What we have learned though is there is a hell of a long way to go to create better gennakers. It has really highlighted how a much smaller sail can be while being much more efficient. We are almost getting the same performance from something that is 35% smaller. I think we have got a long way to go with the downwind sails as they evolve that is for sure.”

It would seem this new sail is a genuine shot at having more upwind speed in a windless and tidal venue. Perhaps it will work, perhaps not. However, we always admire innovation and are hopeful Booth will use his new sail at the Games, if for no other reason than it will be great to listen to the T.V. commentary as he hoists his kite just before the start.