Turboing the TP52

Technical Director of the Audi MedCup Nacho Postigo tells us of the changes for the next two years

While the writing may appear to be on the wall for the TP52 class, within the context of the Audi MedCup, with just 10 boats regularly sailing this season compared to the 20-24 strong fleets that went into battle during the 2006-7 seasons, the class (ie the owners) have been meeting over the course of this season to work through a combination of measures that will on the one hand reduce their campaigns costs while updating the TP52 rule to turbo their boats significantly.

Last year, before the world went into economic meltdown, the proposal had been approved for a TP52 Mk2, a brand new, state of the art race boat, but this has now been mothballed, as Nacho Postigo, Technical Director of the Audi MedCup, explains: “The economy and the global situation has changed dramatically. The owners have been sensitive to these changes and have decided that it is not clever to make an interruption and leave the existing boats out of the game, especially when there is nothing wrong with them other than some details and fine tuning that is required.”

Thus in Cagliari at the end of July, the owners voted not to introduce the new boat, but instead to transform their box rule, allowing existing boats to be modified and remain competitive. “Basically it is a little bit lighter, sailed by less crew, has a bowsprit, a little more draft, more weight in the bulb, but not radically different from what we can do right now,” says Postigo of the changes.

So that was approved unanimously as an alternative plan for 2011, however then discussion turned to ‘what to do in 2010?’

One option was to do nothing, but instead it was decided that many of the changes to be implemented for 2011 could be made a year earlier. Thus for 2010 a TP52 Mk1.5 is to be introduced with a bowsprit instead of a spinnaker pole, a flat top main, twin backstays and will have 150kg of the present lead weight correctors removed from the bilge and added to the bulb. They will also have two crew less – at present a TP52 crew is limited to 15 85kg people and for next year this is to be reduced to 13. It is widely felt that even in their present configuration TP52s have too many crew and Postigo reckons that with the bowsprits they could be readily sailed by as few as 11.



This will leave the main movement of lead ballast from bilge to bulb until 2011, when all the present weight correction lead will be transferred to the bulb, leaving just a token amount of weight correction lead in the bilge to raise displacement to the 7,400kg minimum. Thus come 2011 bulb weights will be around 800kg heavier than they are today and in addition overall draft is also set to be increased. So the idea is that foils and bulbs will be changed for 2011, the modifications almost certainly requiring a beefing up of the internal structure to withstand the much increased lever arm affect of the new keel package within the hull.

“So the boats will have much more stability, and will be easier to sail and more fun,” continues Postigo. “And again the two guys that are disappearing will not be missed on the rail because of that extra stability.”

Changing to a flat top main will only add 1sqm to the mainsail area, but obviously will make for a more powerful high aspect ratio sail. “It is going to make it easier to work with the backstays, because at the moment we are always trying to pass the [single] backstay above the roach and it is getting really painful. With the double backstay and the square topped main it will be a piece of cake compared to what we have now,” says Postigo.

Meanwhile the A sails will increase by a useful 14sqm, but aside from this added size and the tack being attached to the end of the bowsprit rather than the end of a spinnaker pole, Postigo doesn’t reckon there will be a great difference in how the boats are sailed downhill. “We don’t really square too much the poles at the moment. The angles we sail in the TP52s are not too different from the angles we sail on Luna Rossa, the STP65 [on which he navigates]. You would expect that a boat with the pole squared would sail much deeper, but in the end you just sail as high as you can - you accelerate and then you go down. So the difference will not be very noticeable, other than that sailing downwind will be more fun.”

In addition Code Zeros have been banned – “a very expensive sail with little use” as Postigo puts it – while Cuben fibre and Spectra fabrics are also to be prohibited from use in spinnakers.

The TP52 class seems keen to keep their unusual two-part coastal race in the Audi MedCup race format (the rest of their races are windward-leewards while the MedCup’s little brothers, the GP42s, only race windward-leewards) and for this one race comes the necessity to develop and carry specialist reaching sails. Some view this as an expensive waste, however the coastal race and the required reaching inventory is to stay, says Postigo. “We are keeping the coastal - they are good fun, especially the one we did in Portimao last week. We are also keeping the boat focussed on all-purpose manoeuvring and all-purpose performance because even if the boats are very upwind orientated now, they still must have good reaching ability and downwind speed ability.”

There are a number of other issues still under discussion that may well also be implemented for next season, particularly relating to cost reduction: ““The idea that has been driving this thing is to drop campaign costs by 30%, which is a good drop,” says Postigo. An obvious cost saving is a reduction in the sail wardrobe size and the thinking is that this may drop from 19 to 15 over the course of the season. The make-up of the wardrobe is likely to remain free.

Aside from ‘turbo-ing’ the boats considerably, the proposed rule changes are also likely to make the new version TP52s more IRC-friendly, meaning that the boats should be able to race competitively in regattas outside of the Audi MedCup. Postigo summarises what they are trying to do with these amendments: “Making an easier boat to sail, trying to have a boat that requires less crew and less super professional crew when you don’t have to deal with the spinnaker pole, was another of the goals. One of the goals was trying to save money and running costs. Not very high on the list but another benefit is that if you look at the boats they will be more like IRC-modified TP52s and that in my opinion has two advantages: that could bring some boats that have already been modified to come and try sailing against other TP52s in the Med, and, something that has been one of the strongest points in the class: when the life of the boat is finished in the Audi MedCup [the owner] will now be selling a boat that is already IRC friendly, so the owner doesn’t have to make the modifications. So it all makes sense.”

At present Postigo says they are waiting for designers to come back to them with some VPP figures for how much faster the new boats will be compared to the existing boat. According to Class Manager Rob Whelan it will be at least another four weeks before the final rules changes for 2010/11 are completed.

As to what is likely to happen next year in terms of teams and new boat, there is at present one owner looking to build new but that is on the base of them selling their existing boat by November in order to have time to build afresh. Postigo reckons, hopes perhaps, that owners will hang back for the 2010 season and get in phase building new for the 2011 season.

While the Audi MedCup wraps up in Cartagena in mid-September, this is followed by the TP52 World Championship to be held in Palma over 6-11 October. Two or three non-Audi MedCup teams are expected to be competing at this and the Audi MedCup organisers will attempting to entice them into their circuit for 2010. There is also believed to be interest from three new teams and the possibility of two of five Spanish sponsors, who retired from the class for this season due to the economic decline, returning. “So it is not looking bad, but it is not going to be the year where everything changes,” concludes Postigo.