WSL catamaran design unveiled

70ft catamaran on foils to race Coutts-Cayard fleet racing spectacular

Today, the World Sailing League (WSL) unveiled the innovative design for their futuristic 70ft catamarans that will be raced in the new global Grand Prix series, the premier annual sailing competition. The spectacular speed-machines represent the next evolution of sailing and will be the fastest one design boats ever built.

With towering masts of over 98ft, two hulls bringing the beam up to 40ft and foils to lift them out of the water, these catamarans represent the forefront of yacht design technology. The boats will be crewed by nine professional sailors and one select guest and will be capable of speeds up to 40 knots.

Designer Vincent Lauriot Prévost of VPLP explained the design philosophy: "We are very excited about this catamaran because she represents a step towards the future of racing. If we consider that monohulls were the racing standard, then multihull design has stretched the performance possibilities and now ‘outmodes’ the mono. Now these multihulls armed with foils will be the next generation that will overtake the conventional multihull. WSL will spearhead this new evolution."

For WSL event owner João Lagos, the design launch represents an important step forward in the development of the World Sailing League: "We´ve been working hard for a long time to create all of the areas of WSL and have accelerated our efforts since our launch in February. While venue development is an exceptionally important aspect of the project, the boats and their spectacular performance characteristics are integral to the WSL vision for creating fast, equally matched and coast hugging fleet racing.  We always wanted to create something new and exciting in the sport and I believe that with this new design is the first important piece of our vision."

Built and maintained to a strict one design, no compromise philosophy, the catamarans will combine speed, manoeuvrability and the ability to sail close to shore for optimum spectator viewing while the sizeable sail plan and foils will ensure thrilling racing in a wide range of breeze.

The central pod and hulls will be constructed from carbon fibre prepreg foam sandwich to minimise weight, with single skin carbon fibre autoclaved prepreg used for the mast and beams. The centreboard in the central pod on the fore and aft beam running down the centreline of the boat will be 4.25 metres deep, with the option to raise it to 3.5 metres for racing close to shore.  There will be five sails available to the teams, ranging from the 72m² staysail to a 260m² gennaker.

Russell Coutts and Paul Cayard, founders of WSL, have been heavily involved with the design and planning process. Coutts commented: "Paul and I have been working on this project for some time now, so it’s fantastic to be at the point where we are starting to build these catamarans.  These boats are going to be extremely quick and should represent the future of fleet racing.  Vincent (Lauriot Prévost) and his team have done a great job and we can’t wait to take the first one for a test run on the water."

With the design now finalised, 14 of these spectacular catamarans will be built in Portugal, with the first due for completion in June 2008. The remaining boats will be built over the following 18 months, in time for promotional regattas around the world in 2009 and the first full year of the World Sailing League in 2010.

The name of this exciting new class will be announced at the unveiling of the first boat in July next year.

Design specifications
§ Weight: 5,700kg
§ LOA: 70ft
§ Width: 12metres
§ Mast height: 30 metres

Sail specifications
§ Main 168m2
§ Solent 115m2
§ Staysail 72m2
§ Code 0 155m2
§ Gennaker 260m2 (approx.)