Flying Dutchman

In Punta Ala we speak to one design specialist turned TP 52 owner, Mean Machine's Peter de Ridder

When it comes to enthusiastic keel boat owners, there are few people to top Monaco-based Dutchman, Peter de Ridder. The latest in his series of Mean Machines, which currently includes a Mumm 30 and Farr 40, along with a very smart cruiser racer, is his Hakes Marine-built, Judel Vrolijk designed TP 52, Mutua Madrilena.

"The Mumm 30 is in Miami and the Farr 40 is in Newport because we are planning to sail the Mumm Worlds in late November/early December in Miami," says de Ridder of the present whereabouts of his fleet.."And we'll go to Newport to practice for the Worlds. We’ll do two or three events before they start and we’ll do one event in the Mumm 30 [before the Worlds] because we know that class pretty well and the rest of the season is Med sailing - six events in this boat."

Campaigning actively in three different class means De Ridder's sailing schedule is at least as full as many pro sailors. "I don’t have any more time left to go for holiday, but I consider racing all the time as a holiday," he admits. Business-wise de Ridder has a venture capital firm based in his home country of Holland where he says his grown up family now lives and which he visits once for a few days every two or three weeks.



There was a theory that the advent and particularly the take-up within the TP 52 class would take the cream away from the Farr 40 class. However mostly this doesn't seem to have happened. Many owners have merely kept their Farr 40s too! "I think it is an exciting class, especially now," agrees de Ridder. "The Worlds will be held in Denmark in 2007 and that means we have an influx in the class of Danish owners and they are talking about having a Baltic fleet organised in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. I think this year they’ll end up with ten boats, both secondhand and new ones, so I think the class is still flourishing and it is a highly competitive. It is a big thrill on the starting line with 35-40 boats and if you come in on the port layline to the first weather mark you have a big queue up."

The only problem with the TP 52 firing up in such dramatic style, alongside with the America's Cup being a year away, is that there is now allegedly a shortage of top quality crew for the Farr 40s.

With his Mumm 30 program they tend to only do the major events, effectively the World Championship plus training beforehand. Following the Worlds this year de Ridder expects to ship his boat back to the Med or Holland. "Then we can use the boat as a practice boat to find new crew because I’m always trying to refresh my crew pool. Students finish their studies, they go to work and then you have to find new ones. In Holland we have a flourishing J/22 boats so many of the good ones we pick and they stay."

De Ridder says he made his first moves into the TP 52 class the moment the King of Spain became interested in 2004. "We knew that big boat IMS racing was dead in Spain and we knew that those guys would eventually go into the TP 52 class," he says. He attended an owners meeting held during the Rolex Farr 40 Worlds in San Francisco in 2004 and by September that year was already talking to designers, mast makers, sail makers, etc. "I wanted to see how the new generation of boats would develop, so I went to Palma Breitling Cup and Copa del Rey [in 2005], taking deltas at the marks and comparing them, etc." Very thorough homework...

The attraction of the TP 52 is not hard to apreciate. As De Ridder puts it - it is the pinnacle of big boat racing outside of the America's Cup and Volvo Ocean Race. "The moment it was kicking off in Spain you could be sure that all the good sailors would they want to go where the action is. And it is amazingly big class already. I remember the IOR 50 and you had 10 or 11 boats on the line and that was the fleet more or less. Now you already have 32 boats around the world and 19-22 are sailing here in the Med this year."

De Ridder attributes the huge number of boats and owners in what is not a cheap class, to the change in the global economy compared to 15-20 years ago. "I think the rich got richer and maybe there are more rich people," he quips.

Despite this he chose to go with Rolf Vrolijk because of their long association - the Alinghi designer had previous penned de Ridder's one tonners and his ILC 40. "They were pretty successful and we have a very good relationship," he says. "From then on he came up with proposals and we were looking at deltas. We wanted a boat that is pretty much like Cristabella, but maybe with a bit more upwind potential, so a bit stiffer so you have to give in a little bit of downwind capability. But the differences are fairly small."



With the help of some of his core crew they conceived many of the systems on board the new Mean Machine themselves. De Ridder says that the general idea was to stay close to the Farr 40 concept as possible, ie a boat that is very simple and easy to handle. One of the main differences between his boat and the other TP 52s is it has tiler steering. "I was convinced that the tiller was the way to go on these boats, because if you compare them to the IOR 50 they are so light - they are 60% of the weight, they have a far better hull shape, they are flying asymmetric spinnakers so they are much quicker so you never have so much pressure in the sails because these boats don’t stop - they free themselves up." Because this was something of an experiment all the gear necessary to change over to wheel steering is in place and the conversion would only take a couple of hours, including a change in the rudder angle to put more 'feel' for wheel steering.

Sailing the TP 52 de Ridder says it is like a big version of the Mumm 30, effecitvely a big dinghy. For the light conditions in the Med, they zip along. Under asymmetric kite they have made 9 knots in 7 knots of breeze. In 25-30 knots as they experienced recently at the Palmavela event they are a rocket ship. De Ridder makes the point that even in the event of doing badly in a race, you still have the thrill of the speed, unlike his previous IOR boat which would be digging a large hole in the water, making 7 knots downwind. Compared to the Farr 40 he says these boats are much easier to sail downwind and gybe in big conditions.

So having sailed one designs exclusively in recent years how does he feel about returning to a box rule boat? "I think that is one of the reasons it is so successful, because you have guys - and I myself am a little bit like that - who like to start a project from the designer’s board. Your race starts when you say I go to Farr or Reichel Pugh or Rolf Vrolijk. That is part of the thrill. Because it is a box rule you can tweak around with it and have your own personal input into the boat. So that makes the project more interesting from the beginning. With a one design boat it is a bit like going to Marks & Spencer."

As with other owner-drivers De Ridder also enjoys one of the unique aspects of our sport at this level - the opportunity to go head to head with top pros, the Coutts and Cayards. "In the TP 52 class you have the best sailors so let the best man win. I don’t mind competing against Russell Coutts or the Paul Cayards of this world. If you lose - fair deal they are better. But if you win – wow!"

As to the inshore-offshore debate within the class (the preference of owners in the US for example is more towards owner-driver and longer offshore events such as the Newport-Bermuda) de Ridder says he is just fine with the MedCup format.He likes the 100-150 miles occasionally - but not too often please.

As to the future of the TP 52 class, de Ridder reckons it is nearing the top of its exponential growth curve. "You will see dripping in new owners for the coming years, so maybe we'll end up with 40-45 boat max in the world. I am overhearing that there are some projects on the go, more people thinking about it. Like Hasso Plattner - this boat is for him, he’ll come into the class for sure. And more of these guys. In the Med they were very quick to get the sponsorship going, putting a nice series together. I think it is very well organised."

In terms of cost de Ridder says he pays the invoices, but jokes that he is relatively happy not totting it all up. "Building a boat will cost you around 1-1.1 million Euros including mast and sails. Then you have your sail program - at least 1.5 to 2 sets of sails per year. Then you have your crew…If you sail with 15 professionals it costs you more than if you sail with ten or with five. I sail with 13 professionals. And then all the travel expenses and food. I would say you will end up at 75% of the building costs per year out of pocket. That is my rough guess."

His campaign costs this year have been eased by having his first yachting sponsor on board in the form of Spanish insurance company Mutua Madrilena. "I have tried to get sponsorship in the past but I gave up quickly because in Holland all the doors are closed. Now they are doing ABN AMRO, but before sailing wasn’t of interest for a company to sponsor. This happened by accident," he says of his present sponsor. "They ran into me and I ran into them. So for this year it is good, but then I think they will go their own way, build their own boat with their own team."

Crew-wise de Ridder still sails with a core led by New Zealand's finest, Ray Davies. He has also done a deal with Emirates Team New Zealand to get crew from them. "I can get up to five crew from them and at the moment we are sailing with five of them. After the Volvo two guys will come back, one is on movistar, the other on Pirates so at the end we’ll have three Team New Zealand guys, Stu Bettany doing bow, Jono MacBeth grinders and then the guys back from the Volvo and the rest of the crew stays the same. We only have two or three amateurs. For this regatta we have three. Then we’ll have two."

Having won three races in a row in Punta Ala yesterday it would seem that Peter de Ridder has got the formula just right for his latest campaign.