Design Analysis

Melvin, 38, and Gino Morrelli created the 125-foot long, 60-foot wide catamaran PlayStation that's competing in The Race. Melvin chose his warm desk chair and stayed shoreside to watch the race, while his partner chose a damp bunk aboard PlayStation. Here, Melvin comments on design differences he noticed among PlayStation, Club Med, Team Adventure and Innovation Explorer after touring the boats before the start in Barcelona, Spain. The interview was conducted prior to PlayStation's withdrawal through sail and collision damage.

What's your impression of how The Race has progressed since starting?
No one could predict what was going to happen, but it's interesting that the boatspeed among the three (Gilles) Ollier cats is relatively close. It's harder to draw conclusions with PlayStation because we're in different weather. But we're holding our own or gaining in the same conditions.

How did the crewmembers feel about the boatspeed when they stopped in Gibraltar after racing for two days?
They felt the boatspeed was quite good. They were next to Club Med a lot. In a straight line, they felt slightly faster. They did some extra manoeuvers, which cost time, and they'd probably rethink some of their strategy if they had to sail out the Med again. But that's behind us. They're all very upbeat with their chances and how the boat was going.

Has anything in The Race surprised or disappointed you?
Not really. Things seem pretty normal. It's early in the race, really. The conditions have been ideal lately. When they get into the mean stuff down south, that's really when I think we'll see some action happening.

It's unfortunate we've had problems with the mainsheet and mainsail breaking. We're hoping that we've spent most of those cards. I don't want to wish bad luck on anyone, but we know our troubles won't be the only ones happening out there. The front boats are pushing hard right now. They're going to have to back off in more extreme conditions. It will turn into a survival race down there. It'll be interesting to see the relative performance in heavy conditions.

I'm optimistic about our chances in windy conditions because of our length and the bows. The forward beam is about one meter higher off the water than the Ollier boats. We've seen a big difference compared to the boat before. When PlayStation was sailing next to the Ollier cats off Barcelona, they had a tendency to hit the water with their forward beam before us. That's a big factor, as we found out. That's really the limiting factor to how fast you can go when it's rough. We should be able to maintain high average speeds in rough conditions.

When you look at PlayStation compared with the Ollier designs, what strikes you as being interesting or different?
The rigs are very different. We've gone for a conservative approach, a non-rotating mast with single spreaders and a double set of diamond shrouds. We've had good success with that rig on other designs. We wanted the rig to be bullet-proof.

The French guys are thinking the same thing. They've got a spreaderless wing-shaped mast that articulates. They've used spreader-less rigs on the 60-foot trimarans for five or six years, and have a lot of faith in that geometry. It's the same thought process, just different results.

We think a rotating rig causes more complexity; there are more parts and more chances for failure. We debated it, but decided on a fixed mast. I think there is some advantage to a rotating rig. Aerodynamically you get more power out of a smaller rig; more lift for the same amount of sail area.

The disadvantage of a larger wing-mast section is in really windy conditions, over 60 knots -- then that thing becomes a detriment. You're struggling to control the boat because there's so much windage and power you can't get rid of.