Transpac 52s - designers notes 2

Merfyn Owen on the OCDG/Clay Oliver TP52 PLUS details of the new Vallicelli design

Owen Clarke Design Group, best known for drawing several of the latest crop of Open 60s such as Mike Golding's Ecover and Emma Richards' Pindar have been working with Emirates Team New Zealand designer Clay Oliver to create their new TP52 design.

While the project is being co-ordinated by OCDG, who are carrying out the VPP studies plus the geometry of the cockpit, internals, rig and sail plan, Oliver has brought his Cup resources to the design project and is handling the hull lines and adding input into the appendage shapes.

On the rule Merfyn Owen comments: "The rule is tight - I’d prefer it to be a bit more open, but I understand why the rule is so tight and the boats are really quick. They are quicker than an Open 50 upwind and they are not much slower off the wind." OCDG have also drawn several Open 50s such as Kip Stone's Artforms and Ukrainian round the world sailor Viktor Yazykov.

"It produces a relatively cheap boat," continues Owen, "which is simple and although the rule is tight there is enough flexibility within it for the sailors to choose their cockpit layout and to get the owners to input into various things. You can change the keels for reaching races or round the cans."



Significantly Owen thinks the TP52 rule has enough movement in it to prevent boats from becoming obsolete after a year and he believes they can be made to remain competitive even if they move waters. "So a boat optimised for the Med is going to work on the east coast of the States because you can’t put the boat so tightly into one corner of the box that it is going to run away with it if the conditions are perfect. If a TP52 rocks up to do Cork Week or a regatta in the UK, if the boat was optimised for those conditions, then it is not going to look out of sorts in the Med. There isn’t enough room in the box. The only exception is if you are going to the Transpac."

Karl Kwok's TP52 Beau Geste for example was initially designed as a Transpac boat moded to be fast on starboard gybe... Boats can also be heavily remoded in terms of their sail inventory and appendages between regattas and venues.

Aside from volume distribution in the hull and choice of appendages Owen says there are some cockpit options, such as the way to run the mainsheet, that can be dictated by the crew.

Price-wise, Owen Clark are quoting 850,000 Euros (ex sails and electronics) for a boat built at Southern Ocean Marine, where Beau Geste was originally built. "Because it is so simple, build costs and build hours are low relative compared to an Open 50. And I think that most of the cost of a TP52 campaign are not in the boat but in running them with professional crew. The boats are probably a good investment provided you stay on top of them in terms of maintenance and updating sails, etc. The boat will actually be the cheap part of the deal."



Dimensions - OCDG/Clay Oliver TP 52

LOA: 15.85 m
LWL: 14.422 m
BMax: 4.29 m
Draft: 3.2 m
Disp: 7,505 kg
Max crew weight: 1179 kg

Working sail area
Upwind: 155.1 sqm
Downwind: 339.3 sqm

Righting moment @ 25 degrees 11,100 kgm
AVS at lightship 147 degrees

See page two to read about the Vallicelli TP52