The next big thing?

Russell Coutts brings us up to date with his RC 44 circuit, BMW Oracle's TP52 plans and the World Sailing League

At a well attended press conference in Milan yesterday, the second season for the RC 44 fleet was presented. Russell Coutts’ circuit has grown substantially since 2007 with 11-12 boats expected to be competing regularly this year (with another soon to be announced) and some of the top names in the sport involved from America’s Cup helms Dean Barker, Sebastien Col and James Spithill (as well as Coutts himself), Olympic stars such as Polish Finn turned Star sailor Mateusz Kusznierewicz and other notables such as Kelvin Harrap, Cameron Appleton and Ray Davies.

New owners have joined the circuit this year. Top Hong Kong-based owner, Frank Pong has acquired two boats, one to be raced in China and Hong Kong, the other kept in Europe, both Pong hopes will provide a training platform for up and coming sailors from his region. Coutts himself has another Team Omega boat, this time belonging to top Portugese owner and race enthusiast Patrick de Barros. Kusznierewicz is campaigning a Polish entry run by the Organika Sailing Team, while Col is sailing with new Italian owner Armando Giulietti who has come from the Melges 32 circuit.

With its regattas combining match racing and fleet racing on board the Coutts and Andrej Justin-designed hitech, fully carbon, state of art 44ft long race boat, the RC 44 circuit has many unique features. What is interesting is that while perennial one-design owner Vincenzo Onorato is involved, along with Frank Pong, a majority of the owners who have bought into the circuit are new to top level one design racing. They haven’t come to the class from the TP52s or the Farr 40s.

Coutts shares his theories about why this might be: “These owners realise that by getting a good group of sailors, with four pros, and a good team that can organise their program and it is possible to do this sport at a level they can enjoy it. They can be competitive and have some fun. If you look at James Spithill’s operation - that is a brand new owner [Igor Lah, said to be Slovenia’s third richest man and the largest stakeholder in investment company Megafin]. I don’t think he’s sailed that much before this, but he just loves it. He is a competitive guy and he said to me before that he didn’t even realise it would even be possible to do this. So the more we can let people know it is possible to do this at a good level, is a good thing for the sport of sailing.”

So what specifically is the attraction of the RC 44 class? The match racing/fleet racing combination and getting to sail with some big names (like the Farr 40s, the RC 44 can have up to four pro-crew)? “It is a bit of that,” says Coutts. “One or two of the owners don’t like match racing. That is one extreme. The other ones all love it. They all think it is an essential part of the circuit. This year some of them are going to helm their own boats in the match racing - they want to race against ‘the names’ and just see how they shape up and learn that aspect of the sport. I think that is a good thing as it’ll teach them a lot about the rules and how to manoeuvre their boats better. Certainly in terms of the crew work, when you go and do match racing, it improves the standard of the fleet racing, because the crews are pushed harder in the match racing with all the manoeuvres, the sets and the drops, etc.

“And then you get some of the owners, like the Japanese guy [Isao Mita], he loves doing the match racing because he is just one of the crew. He goes on the grinders and he loves that aspect of it and then he jumps in and helms the boat in the fleet racing. So it works better than what I thought it would.”



Getting to sail with some of the top names must also be an attraction. Coutts admits that they do carry out some matchmaking when new owners approach them. “We try and help them get competitive, because it is in everyone’s interests. There is no use having someone sailing around at the back of the fleet all of the time. So the RC 44 organisation tries to find a match with the owner initially to get them going. Most of the time it works, sometimes it doesn’t!”

Another attraction Coutts reckons is that a considerable amount of the hassle of running each boat is removed as it is handled by the class. “A lot of people say ‘I’d love to do that, but I don’t know if I have the time to organise it’. So you can provide them with a solution.”

Then there is the cost. Coutts explains: “Running costs are a lot less than a Farr 40 because your logistics are a lot simpler and because the containerisation of the boats simplifies things a lot. You can assemble the boats a lot easier. And the sail rule is tighter than the Farr 40. It cost us 250,000 Euros to do the eight events last year but we got free accommodation at each event. So for six events this year you are looking at 250,000 or 350,000 Euros, if you want to stay in plush hotels. It is a pretty affordable program. The boat cost is 395,000 Euros with the container, all up but without the sails. Sails are about 45,000 Euros. The big thing is not the initial cost of the boat, the big thing is the running costs and they are way down.”

In addition to the presentation of the 2008 RC 44 circuit yesterday, it was also announced that international courier company DHL was coming on board a sponsor. This will also help reduce owners’ costs. “Having DHL is a huge thing, especially with us wanting to move to different events and ultimately after 2008 looking to perhaps go to different continent. We needed to get that right and it will add a lot of value,” says Coutts.

DHL are not covering all the transportation costs between events, but Coutts says they will reduce them enormously as well as providing storage for the fleet between regattas.

Another areas where costs are reduced compared to existing fleets is in the pre- and post-regatta set-up time. This is mainly due to the ingenious way the RC44s are containerised with the container cunningly doubling as a cradle where the boat can sit while the boat’s keel is attached.



Coutts explains: “Assembly is pretty straightforward - that is one of the keys, because what we needed to be able to do with this class is to arrive at a venue literally days before. We didn’t want to have spend a lot of money storing boats and assembling boats with crew in hotels for a long period of time. It is key that you can assemble the boats in a maximum of two days. If you got your act together with the container and the cradle system you can assemble it in a day - two people without a crane. Those things keep your costs down a lot.

“So the whole fleet only needs to arrive four days before the event – whereas normally you’d have a travel lift tied up for a week lifting boats on to their keels – the whole thing. All the boats can be assembled at the same time and the teams can share the labour and they can pair up and help each other. So economy of scale and sharing logistics. And the same with dissembling the boats. The less time staying in hotel rooms, the less cost it is.”

Typically boats have one or two shore crew for regattas, but part of the deal the class have with their suppliers is that they turn up at each regatta and this limits maintenance costs. Owners pay for hardware that is replaced, but not labour. Coutts gives an example: “Pauger supply at least one person for the boats. The boats have a false stern and a false bow, and for example two boats have a collision, as happened last year, and the false bow gets destroyed (it is made to be destroyed- it is like an eggshell), the guys from Pauger take one of their spare bows and overnight refit it to the boat and the next morning your boat looks brand new again. That is the service. If we can adopt an economy of scale and have all the teams supporting that then it brings the cost down for everyone.”

While the RC 44 is a one design, it is in Coutts’ nature to want to continually develop the boats. For example Coutts is sailing his RC 44 in a regatta not on the circuit shortly where he will be trying a new inboard sheeting position for the no2 genoa. “At the moment we are carrying the No1s up to 13 knots. So we want to bring the range of the 2 down so that we’re not flogging the 1s in such a high wind range.”

If that works, it will be voted on by the class and if it gets the thumbs up the modification will be made to all the boats. “So we want to keep developing, but obviously we have to protect the one design nature of the class. We are also looking for easier solutions for maintenance too to make it a bit easier for everyone.”

At one point the RC 44s had two builders, Pauger in Hungary and VI Advanced Composite Technologies in Dubai. However now only Pauger are building them with the carbon fibre moulds and tooling from Dubai heading their way. To date 17 RC 44s have been produced from the Pauger moulds, but moulds, even carbon fibre ones, are only good to produce so many boats, so these will be replaced by the Dubai ones once they arrive.

Initially when Coutts announced his involvement with the RC 44 he was considering the introduction of a bigger boat soon after. He says this is on hold at present, although it is still a possibility. “To be honest I thought this would be simpler to set up. It has taken a lot of work to get it to this point. And we are not satisfied with it yet. We want to develop it a lot beyond where we are now. So we are going to continue working on this concept first. In the future if we get this all together in a satisfactory way then we might look at a 60 footer.”

AOB

Obviously Coutts’ principle job at present is running Larry Ellison’s BMW Oracle Racing America’s Cup team, the future for which will of course be decided in the New York Supreme Court imminently, it is hoped. Coutts won’t elaborate about the court case or the state of affairs within the team at this stage, other than to say: “I’m just keen to get on with it, on with something, get on with it and get things back on track. That’s the main thing.”

However he confirms the rumour that BMW Oracle Racing will be participating in this year’s MedCup with their team principle, Larry Ellison steering the boat. Crew from BMW Oracle Racing will also be sailing on board Torben Tornqvist’s new Artemis, with whom Coutts sailed to victory in the MedCup in 2007. Both the new BMW Oracle boat and the new Artemis are Reichel-Pugh designs, the latter being built by Cooksons in New Zealand while Ellison’s boat is under construction in Spain.

“We are just waiting to see what happens with the court order for the Cup,” says Coutts when asked how much they are likely to compete in the MedCup. “Hopefully we’ll get a decision [on the Cup] to get things moving there. Depending on the timing of that we’ll make a decision over how many regattas we can do. We could be busy very quickly I should imagine!”

As to the World Sailing League Coutts admits that at present it is on hold. “I am heading over there [Lisbon] for a meeting later this month just to check on the status of it. Until I have that meeting I have nothing I can add. It has all stopped and is waiting at the moment.” Ah.