TP52 newbie

Ian Walker talks to thedailysail about Patches' first foray into the big time at the Breitling MedCup regatta in Sardinia

The general consensus was that Eamon Coneely's TP52 Patches was going to be in for a kicking when they pitched up at their first official TP52 regatta in Porto Rotundo, Sardinia last week to race against many of the world's top sailors who have been honing their boats and their skills all summer around the Mediterranean on the Breitling MedCup circuit.

In the event the Patches team led by Ian Walker, with Ben Ainslie behind the wheel and Pete Selby navigating, came second in the first race and won the coastal race, finishing the regatta in a respectible fourth place overall.

"We were pretty pleased, especially given the conditions because it was sub-10 knots all the time, which is obviously what all the other boats have been racing in all year in the Med. So I was quite relieved to be competitive against them," admits Ian Walker.

It has obviously helped that although this was their first foray into the America's Cup-level world of the TP52 class' Breitling MedCup, it was by no means their first race for the team, having sail extensively over this summer in the UK and Ireland.

"The crew did a really good job," continues Walker. "We had good boat handling. Ben did a great job steering. We had some good starts. There are lots of things we learned and we had to learn quickly as we went along, but there are lots more things we know we can do better such as the set-up of the sails and the technique and optimisation. So we’ve taken a lot from it and at the same time we put up a pretty good showing."

Prior to the regatta Patches had to be put into TP52 mode. This involved a two day job changing the draft - cunningly altering the way the bulb fits to the fin - and then adding around 750kg of lead to make the boat float to its lines and have the correct VCG to fit into the class rule. They also had to change their headsails as the way IMS (the TP52 rule requires IMS measurement) and IRC measure headsails is different. "Either we had to modify all the headsails and then modify them back - which is ridiculous - or we get different headsails," explains Walker. "So now we have done all that and we know where the lead goes and we have trimmed it and everything else, it is pretty easy to put it back [to IRC] for the Middle Sea Race and then put it back again for Key West and Miami."

At the regatta Patches was up against her Reichel-Pugh designed sistership, Lexus-Quantum, steered by the far from shy and retiring Russell Coutts. The two boats have virtually the same hulls but different appendage packages, different mast and sail packages. Their deck layouts also differ, Patches having a central, pedestal-driven main sheet winch while Lexus-Quantum has mainsheet winches either side of the cockpit.

"We are pretty pleased," says Walker. "We were tied on points with them [ Lexus-Quantum] going into the last race, and they happened to win the last race and beat us overall. But if you look at their performance through the year, they were very poor in the first regatta and made changes and got better and better. You have to hope that we’ll step up and up and up too."

Walker adds that where they are currently weak, compared to the other TP52 campaigns, is in their sail inventory, particularly for the lighter than expected breeze they encountered off Porto Rotundo. While the TP52 rule doesn't limit sail numbers, Patches at present has only got one mainsail. "You can have a light air round-backed main, you can have another main for when it is windy, so you have the potential to really optimise for all sorts of different conditions. We’re not at that level yet. We’re just happy to get there in TP52 mode, sail the boat nice and cleanly and to be honest we’re really quite relieved that we were on the pace a lot of the time. There were times when we struggled gear changing but essentially we sailed a pretty tidy regatta and going into the last day we could have still won - we were four points off the lead. So you have got to be happy with that really."

In fact the light, shifty conditions perhaps played to their advantage as although it made it tactically hard, they had one of the world's best shift spotters behind the wheel and the conditions caused the fleet to spread out reducing the tension at mark roundings. "It wasn’t as chaotic and hectic as I imagined it was going to be, because of the conditions," says Walker. "I think if you had a steady breeze and 15 knots, everybody would arrive at the windward mark at the same time."

One of the most telling observations Walker has to make is the TP52 racing compared to that in the Farr 40. Despite the Farr 40s being one design, he believes the box rule TP52s are closer. "Like all sailing, there are fast boats and slow boats and everyone has their moment and the guys who put in the most time and have the best set-up do best," he maintains. "But it is not an exaggeration to say you get as big a speed difference in the Farr 40s."

If there are slight boat speed variations between boats according to the conditions, then this is more than countered by the crew work on the boats. There are precious few weak TP52 campaigns... "You have the best people in the world," says Walker of the crews taking part. "You won’t get a better tactician than someone like Dee Smith and yet he is towards the back of the results because everyone is sailing well."

From here Patches is off to compete in the Rolex Middle Sea Race when Shirley Robertson will be back on the helm. After that Eamon Coneely's TP52 will make the journey across the Atlantic to compete at Key West and then at the TP52's Global Championship in Miami before returning to the Med circuit next season. Ian Walker meanwhile has scuttled off to Trapani where he is again sailing with Iain Percy's +39 team.