Styles ready to Turbo

Hugh Styles can't wait to get his teeth into the souped-up Tornado, Andy Rice reports

The Tornado has now been approved for upgrade to the twin-trapeze, asymmetric gennaker, and the new rules will come into effect on 1 March 2001, Hugh Styles told madforsailing.

Although ISAF voted in the souped-up version of the Olympic catamaran, known as the Tornado Sport, at its AGM in Edinburgh last November, the decision still had to be accepted by the class. And that was not necessarily the foregone conclusion that might have been expected. There was a large contingent of club-sailing Tornado sailors based in northern Europe who would have preferred to maintain the status quo than see the upgrade take place. "That was partly the reason why the AGM was held at the Worlds in South Africa," said Hugh, "because the meeting was dominated by people who wanted to see the changes go through."

What's more, it may not even be called the Tornado. There was a discussion about possible name changes, and the international association has called upon all its members to come up with any suitable alternatives.

Now the upgrade has definitely happened, Styles and his crew Adam May will get involved in developing gear for the new configuration. "This is the last World Championships with the old-style Tornado, and that's why we only had 30-odd boats. A lot of nations stayed away to concentrate on working up the new rig. The French squad has been focused on that since around December, so they will have the early advantage.

"One of the Austrians stayed after the end of the championships in South Africa to practise with the new rig. Adam and I put up the new sails on our boat on one of the days off, and it is going to be hard work. The thing upwind with the Tornado is to work the mainsheet to keep the windward hull flying constantly just above the water. We tried this with the square-topped big rig and as soon as you released the mainsheet slightly, the barn door opened, and the hull was back in the water. It's going to be hard work keeping the hull flying.

"Also, working out a gennaker system with the bag and the pole will be pretty crucial. People can make the new boats go in a straight line, but no one has really sorted out a good hoist and drop system. I think, like the 49er, the speed of the hoists and drops will be a big part of where the race is won and lost. It's not going to be so much about who is half a percent quicker upwind."

Styles is disappointed the class has opted to stay with the existing mast height, as even with a square-topped main the sail will only carry an extra square metre of area. "There was a lot of concern to try to keep the crew weights the same after the change, but I think we will be throwing fullness into the rig to get the power we're looking for, otherwise it could be a lightweight's boat.

"But it's going to be awesome sailing. I reckon with the gennaker we'll be the same speed as the 49ers but deeper downwind, but there could be some real carnage. There's a big blind spot with the gennaker up, and it could be messy while we're all learning to sail these things. There'll be some pitchpoling for sure."

Now a rapid development programme commences, but Styles is going to begin with a basic Ullman Zuccoli set-up. "They've put in more effort than anyone else so far, and the majority of the fleet will be using them, at least in the early days. Then we'll begin some development work with Norths in the UK, in the same way we did with our jib programme in the build-up to Sydney."

Styles has also committed to train with the GBR squad for the next year or so, while everyone gets the boathandling sorted. "It makes things much easier to be based at home if you break something or want to recut a jib luff, plus Adam's going to be working for BAe in Bristol, so it makes sense to do a fair bit of training with the other Brits here."

And when he's not Tornadoing, Styles will be continuing to learn the ropes in the big boat world, and will represent Britain as a trimmer on Adrian Stead's Barlo Plastics IC45 campaign. "I'm just a nipper in that world, but Ado is keen to create an environment where new guys like me and Ben [Ainslie] can learn rapidly. And I'm learning loads."