Odd man out

We look at Russell Coutt's unique RC44 class and see why it gets the thumbs up from its sailors and owners

In the context of other grand prix racing circuits that are out there - the Audi MedCup, iShares Cup, Farr 40, Melges 32, etc – the RC44 is an oddity. This is partly because it is the concept of Russell Coutts, based on the America’s Cup legend’s extensive knowledge about what is enjoyable in sailing and also what owners might enjoy from such a circuit. For Coutts may be one of the world’s greatest sailors, but he is also very much a pioneer.

Compared to what we have become used to in recent years with other circuits, new one designs such as the Melges 32 or the TP52s on the Audi MedCup, typically there is a massive ground swell and a humungous take up. This is generally because the boat represents a performance leap compared to what came before it and also, usually, because it filled a gap in the market. The MedCup and the TP52s got up to 20+ strong fleets, despite the sizable campaign costs, as it neatly came at a time when IMS grand prix racing had reached the end of the road in Spain. Having made its debut at the end of 2004, the Melges 32 class has the support and marketing clout of a sizable boat builder behind them and 30 boats recently competed at their World Championship in Porto Cervo. So 10-12 boats campaigned the third full season for the RC44 might seem slim when weighed up against this.

To recap a little about the class – the RC44 is a high performance one design, conjured up by Coutts and Slovenian naval architect Andrej Justin, who’s best known boat is the canting keel Maxi Jena, those who have raced in the Med will have come across. The boat doesn’t have what we perhaps think of as a contemporary yacht racing hull shape with a lot of beam and a fat transom. Instead the boat resembles, above the water line at least, a mini Version 5 Cup boat, narrow with a beam of just 2.75m (a Farr 40 for example is 4m) with a very slab sided hull and a similar wide cockpit extending almost the full width of the hull, save for a small (uncomfortable) coaming.

However that is where any similarity with a V5 Cup boat ends, for, as it says on the tin, the RC44 is high performance and on her 13.35m LOA she weighs just 3,560kg, compared to 4,945kg for a shorter Farr 40, with 2.2 tonnes of her weight packed in her bulb. So she is narrow, she is light, and she is thus initially tender but with almost two thirds of her displacement beneath the waterline, she is ultimately stable too.

A feature of the RC44s is that there is well known, world class sailor on practically every boat. Pros are limited to four per boat and the line-up at the last regatta in Portoroz for example included both Coutts and Paul Cayard, as Cameron Appleton, Markus Weiser, Sebastien Col, Karol Jablonski and Dean Barker were among the stars. Another was Emirates Team New Zealand tactician Ray Davies, the talent on board Dutch owner Pieter Heerema’s No Way Back, who shared his perspective on racing RC44s: “They are great boats. We have awesome match racing. Even in 5 knots of wind and it is just fine, the boat still powered up and everyone is still hiking. So that is quite different to TP52s, etc. They are a light, agile boat. They are similar to a Cup boat in terms of crew work. Everyone has to be on the same page and you really get rewarded for good boat handling. They are very busy for the crew which is great.”

One of the great Coutts philosophies, no doubt following many days of his life lost waiting for wind, is that boats such as this must be able to race in the widest variety of conditions, especially at the bottom of the range.

While there is trend in other fleets for making boat handling easier, as Davies infers, this is not the case with the RC44. It is an asymmetric boat with a bowsprit certainly, the RC44 sprit being a fine piece of engineering, as it not only retracts into the bow, but can also be canted up to weather as is the case on Minis and the latest Class 40s and there is also an AC-style trim tab on the keel to provide lift going to weather. Then there are the full compliment of sail controls and tweakers including twin backstays and barberhauler arrangements for the jib clew.

Dean Barker, who whispers in Tornbjorn Tornqvist’s ear on board the Artemis RC44 as he does on the Audi MedCup gives his take: “These things are pretty narrow which is the biggest difference and they have a lot of stability. They are pretty high performance, so you get a bit of breeze and you can have some really fun downwind sailing. Upwind in waves they are a bit of ‘mare. They are not really designed to sail upwind in big waves that well, but generally they are a lot of fun.”

Another piece of Coutts philosophy being applied to the class is that he can’t stand a boat that isn’t performing to the optimum and so while the RC44 is a one design, it is like a development one design class. The boats initially had teething problems with the pit winches being too light. These were replaced with bigger ones. They then started breaking the runner blocks and runner pins. With the teething problems now well behind them, they have since improved the boats by adding a jib Cunningham system in the bow and a lateral track for the no2 and 3 jib sheeting (the fore and aft track remains, but may be removed from all the boats next summer). The difference compared to other one designs is that in the case of the RC44 it is the class who have carried out the mods.

“I think as a one design class it is the only way to go to make sure the boats remain one design,” explains Favre. “So we keep strong control on that and any work and modifications is done by the yard. At each event we have Peter from the yard working with us and we have an agreement with the yard. The class covers the job and the teams pay for the part. So it is good way to make sure that even when we do a repair it is still class-compliant and we don’t need to re-measure, because the guys doing the job are the builders of the boat.”

So the RC44 is a unique boat – and great great fun to sail – but the circuit is out there in many other ways. Among the owners are some familiar names, such as Jose Calero, who also campaigns a GP42, or Coutts’ own boss at BMW Oracle Racing, Larry Ellison, Artemis owner Torbjorn Tornqvist and Mascalzone Latino’s Vincenzo Onorato. But while other circuits are mainly contested by regulars jumping between classes, in the RC44 the majority of the owners are new to competitive grand prix sailing, adding to the gene pool if you like. Which is a good thing. They include for example Team Aqua’s Dubai-based owner Chris Bake, who has since also dabbled in the Extreme 40 class. And the owners are also a very international bunch - from Dubai, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Poland, Sweden, USA, the Netherlands, China (Frank Pong), Spain, Germany and Croatia.

The venues also break new ground, mainly due to the RC44 being cleverly designed so that it fits into its own container for easy and relatively cheap shipping between venues, helped by class sponsor, DHL. This season for example started in Puerto Calero, Lanzarote, because of the Calero family connection and then went to Cagliari in the south of Sardinia, a venue used by the TP52s. However then it went to two lakes – Lake Traunsee in Austria and Malcesine on Lake Garda – before moving on to Portoroz, one Slovenia’s ultra-short coastlines, sandwiched between the Croatian and Italian coastlines, the circuit concluding one again in Dubai.

“We have this 40ft custom container so we can easily ship the fleet anywhere we want and the idea is to allow our owners to go to new venues, that’s why we try to change at least half of the venues every year,” says Bertrand Favre, the RC44 Class Manager, who runs the RC44 class with two other full time staff [he also runs the D35 circuit in Switzerland]. “We have a format with six events. We try not to have an event more than once every six weeks. I am in contact with some venues and I try to do a logical circuit.”

In 2010 the circuit is set to kick off in Dubai and then back to Lake Traunsee before heading north to Copenhagen, as Crown Prince Henrik is believed to be interested in competing in the class. After that the next regatta will probably be in Poland, followed by Puerto Calero before the season ends up in the Caribbean, either racing out of the BVI or Puerto Rico. The 2011 season will begin probably in Miami, before the boats are shipped back to Europe.

Another reason that the class has perhaps been slow to get off the ground is that it keeps itself to itself. To date, and probably due to their unique race format, the RC44s have raced almost entirely at their own regattas, although Favre says they are not adverse to joining someone else’s party. For example the 2011 regatta in Miami, could be part of Acura Miami Race Week, if the organisers were willing to let them keep their unique style of racing.

For in terms of the race format, the RC44 is also on its own, with its mix of match racing and fleet racing. Each regatta typically starts with two days of the former, followed by three of the latter. The fleet racing is owner driver while the stars of the Olympics and America’s Cup get the chance to drive in match racing. This also gives owners an excuse not to turn up for the match racing if they can only spare three days over a long weekend.

“Our owners are really busy businessmen, so some of them cannot be there,” says Favre over why this happens. “It is a good mixture because for the owners you have your guys practising match racing for two days so they are better trained for the fleet racing. And we have a huge level of match racing. Every event is like a grade one. So the match racers are happy to be there and right after you have the owners driving with those guys, so everyone is taking a good part of it.”

Perhaps the most fundamental difference is that while events like the Audi MedCup and iShares Cup are very commercial entities with a large media and hospitality circus surrounding them, RC44 regatta tend to be much lower key.

“Our objective is to make the owners happy and the sailors happy,” says Favre of their priorities. As an example there is the issue of the format of the match racing, where instead of having a knock-out system, it is run as a round robin with the aim of boats being able to pack in as much racing as possible.

When it comes to sponsorship, Favre says he would like some more but they are attempting to maintain the focus on the sports side of the event and its integrity as an owner-driver class. “We are not interested in having a huge hospitality program. We want to keep it small and friendly, so for sure we are looking for some sponsors but some high level brands which can fit to this type of profile. We don’t want to create a huge thing. We want to keep it at a size so that in the end the owners will be happy. We can invite friends and family.”

The last regatta in Portoroz for example was backed by Bank Sarasin, a Swiss bank, who invited around 15 guests, who could either go out and watch the racing or could get a chance to sail on board – something that the RC44 class has picked up from the iShares Cup.

Shoreside, compared to the Audi MedCup and iShares Cup events with their glamorous corporate entertainment suites and other sideshows to complete the experience, the RC44 feels much more like a regular regatta with a single tent where competitors and guests can mingle and get food and drink.

Partly because of the lack of sponsorship, but also because it is an owner driver class and in one designs, the ambience surrounding the regatta seems much more relaxed. As Ray Davies puts it: “I haven’t put my finger on why that is the case, because all the teams are very serious. It is possibly a little more of an owner’s class and therefore there are owners’ meetings and so there is a bit more communication between the teams in that regard. Certainly we go off go-karting in the evenings as all the teams together, there are functions organised for all of the teams, etc. There is not so much secrecy, there is no one trying to hide secrets or trying to make gains. It is just a strict one design class, a level playing field, so that probably helps as well.”

Dean Barker agrees: “I think the mission statement here is to create a class which has a good relaxed atmosphere. The TP52 is more cut-throat - it is not America’s Cup, but it is certainly a lot closer than that, whereas this is definitely more laid back. Here you see all the teams socialising and that side of it is good. The guys have a good time. And when you have a mix of professional sailors and amateur sailors on the boat you want to be able to come here and enjoy the event. The guys tend to relax.”



As an owner Artemis’ Tornbjorn Tornqvist has also noticed the different ambiance compared to the MedCup. “Obviously the MedCup there is a lot of media around it and more boats, more people involved. This is nice, we all know each other and there is a good spirit, with good sportsmanship between the teams. It is more like a club. Here you have a mix of amateurs and professionals, whereas the MedCup is purely professional and there is pressure from sponsors to do well. The sailors need to do well to keep the sponsors. From that point of view it is more on the edge, but it is doesn’t mean this is less competitive.”

However it is horses for courses. The development class aspect of the TP52s on the Audi MedCup makes it a much bigger game – not just about sailing the boat well, but ensuring that the boat package is fast too. It is genuinely the rung down the ladder from the America’s Cup, as Dean Barker says: “The TP is a very good project for an America’s Cup team, because you have the design, sails and rig and everything else, but with this you are given a boat and the only thing you can do is develop sails. But the racing in both is very, very close and they both provide a good test for developing sailing skills.

So what is the ultimate aim of the circuit? According to Bertrand Favre there is no real limit to the numbers of boats they can accommodate, only that they will need to go to bigger venues and will have to take another look at the match racing format, which at present could comfortably take them up to 16 teams. “Maybe in the future we may have some only match racing or fleet racing events. We’ll see what the owners want,” he says.

The six regattas each years Favre reckons is about the right number, although they are considering reducing this to five.

Cost-wise it represents extremely good value with boats costing 500,000 Euros ready to race and including the container, with roughly the same amount being spent annually on running costs. “It is really important that the boat keeps its value,” said Favre. “We have had hand boats sold and none sold for less than 330,000 Euros. That is because it is a one design. That is the price you sell a GP42 for after one year and it costs you 1 million…”

Like everyone else, they are examining ways to cap costs by limiting team training time and requiring that boats to carry all their sails during regattas rather than loading them on and off for each race from their own RIB. Favre says they also don’t want shore crew turning up at venues two weeks before an event starts. “On the other side we would like to go to more far away venues from time to time. The idea is to go to the Caribbean and the US. Why not the winter after going to Asia, Hong Kong, Phuket, etc? The idea is to use this container system to move this fleet easily.”

In terms of new people racing on the circuit in 2010, Favre says he has lots of enquiries but the most serious are coming from the US, with the circuit visiting at the beginning of next year and one from the UK and another from Italy.

We are intrigued why more seasoned campaigners don’t head for the RC44. We suspect that it is the match racing putting some owners off. The RC44 is certainly great fun to sail and with a fair heel angle, lots of string to pull and some bizarre Star-boat style hiking for the crew, it provides an athletic day out.

Torben Tornqvist provides us with a conclusion: “I think it is a fantastic boat to sail. It is lively. It is light. The racing is great. It is different, but I think it is a class that is growing, which you can’t say about all classes today. And for good reason –you get on board and you steer, plus the class is really looking after the costs of it, so that it is not that expensive and you know that your boat is competitive year after year. And the format of racing is interesting with match racing and fleet racing together. I would say that the successful attempt at keeping costs under control obviously in these times becomes an important factor. So you can race at a high level but still don’t spend a fortune on it.”