New F18 hardware

Mischa Heemskerk shows us the ropes on the new Cirrus R

Lurking around at Eurocat recently were two new boats – the Phantom is the latest design from cat guru Martin Fischer with input from 2010 F18 World Champions Olivier Backes and Arnaud Jarlegan. One raison d’etre for the Phantom is for it to be included in the equipment trials for the new multihull class to be used at Rio 2016, but there is also a similar version fitting into the F18 rule (see the pics at the bottom of the page.)

However the stand-out new F18 twin-hulled weapon at Eurocat was the Cirrus R from Boulogne Conception, aka Manu Boulogne, the 2003 F18 World Champion who designed the boat in conjunction with a university professor of hydrodynamics. In this Dutch catamaran aces Mischa Heemskerk and Bastiaan Tentij demolished the fleet, including the rest of the Dutch podium, finishing the weekend in Carnac first on 14 points (discarding a BFD) to second placed Coen de Koning and Thijs Visser’s 37, and winning the final two races.

Heemskerk has been a cat sailor since the age of four and has been racing F18s for the last 12 years. Showing some aptitude– this was the fourth time he’d won at Eurocat, he’s twice won Round Texel and is a past F18 European Champion – has seen him racing on behalf of a number of different manufacturers including Nacra, when they spent two years racing an Infusion and with, of course, HobieCat, spending one year on the Tiger before moving into the Wildcat. With many of these projects such as the Wildcat, Heemskerk also added his input into the final product and this has also been the case with the Cirrus R.

With F18s, unusually, considerable development still seems to be taking place in the design of the hulls and in no way minor. This is true of the new Cirrus R where Heemskerk describes the hull shape has having a completely new design philosophy to it. “It is more like two big boat hulls, because it has a wide stern and therefore it creates more of a triangular print in the water. It also has very flat sides so it is more like a big yacht and there is quite some rocker in the boat, so as soon as the boat starts to sail on one hull it has a flat side on the outside and it is a rounded profile on the inside, which should also give it some lift.”

Such a fat profile (particularly if one compares it to the narrow hulls of the Hobie Tiger) you might think would be draggy in the light, but thanks to the rocker neither the bow nor the transom are typically in the water and this reduces wetted surface area. As Heemskerk says: “We sailed one event where there were eight races in 5-12 knots of breeze and we did really well and were very happy with the speed. We won six of the eight races and did a second and one we had to sit out because of a black flag.”

Heemskerk says that a feature of the new boat's handling is how well it manoeuvres, which is a function of the volume distribution through the length of the hulls and the rocker. “The boat turns very nicely. It is very sensitive on the rudder and is very easy to manoeuvre. There is a lot of margin this boat. You can really make a mistake and stuff the bow in, because of the volume.” He also points to the cross beams which are oversized making for an ultra-stiff platform.

The rudders have curved leading and trailing edges and according to Heemskerk their design has less ‘leakage’ at the bottom. However the part of the rudder system he particularly likes is the lever that is used to raise and drop the blade.

The daggerboards appear very narrow and high aspect. Heemskerk says they tested even more extreme boards last year - boards with a chord of just 18mm, but in the end opted for 24mm. “I think we are absolutely at the maximum now. Very quickly we start raising board, because they are too long in the bigger breeze.”

Heemskerk says the Cirrus R is both a challenging but ultimately rewarding boat to sail. He admits that with Eurocat having been only their fourth regatta in the new cat they are still learning. “This boat is easier to sail because it has more volume while the Tiger is also a very rewarding boat, but it is quite narrow and if you move your weight around you definitely feel it. With this one it is less sensitive, so it is easier to sail.”

Like all F18s the Cirrus R flies a hull in six knots of breeze and by eight knots the crew are twin stringing, as Heemskerk explains: “That is more to do with the rig. The whole fleet has gone for powerful sails so everyone flies the hull at the same moment. This is a rig which has been proven last year already and the sails and the sail design. Last year we were training with Innovation Sails, with Arnaud [Jarlegan] and Olivier [Backes], who this year are sailing on the Phantom, another new design. They are using the same beams, same rig and same sails. We are working together to make the new designs to try to have the best sails out there.”

To date there are seven Cirrus Rs sailing, but Boulogne Conception has a full order book, for one of the overriding features of the F18 class is just how popular it is with 180 spots available at their World Championship and several of the top nations having to hold Olympic Games-style selection trials to fill their allocated spaces. “That is a very cool thing,” agrees Heemskerk. “And the other cool thing is that we have such a wide variety of boats to suit every personality and identity - for everyone there is a spot. So it is really nice to see that the group is still growing, we are still attracting people from other classes.

“Another really neat feature of this class is on the starting line, which is usually when you can tell if you have boat speed or not, hardly ever does one boat disappear. That is still the case. I still believe the [Hobie] Tiger is one of the fastest F18s out there even though it was designed in 1997. If I had to sail that boat in the Worlds, I’d still be happy, because even with an older boat you can still win. Last year in November I raced the Canadian Nationals against all the new C2s with a Tiger from 2005 and in 5 knots and 25 knots of breeze, we also could beat them there. That is a cool thing about this class, there is a lot of potential for people to get in and there is a lot of good material because of the competition with different builders and different ideas.”

A title so far eluding Heemskeerk is that of the F18 World Championship, but he hopes his latest F18 steed will provide him with the tool for the job when the highlight of the season takes place on Lake Balaton, Hungary over 1-8 July.

More pics from Christophe Launay/www.sealaunay.com

 And some more from us... 

And finally some snaps of the Phantom F18