The new Formula 40?

RMW Marine introduce a new 40ft one design catamaran

Back in the late 1980s there was a short-lived circuit based in France for multihulls called Formula 40. With the larger 80ft multihulls of the day escalating in cost - in much the same way as the 60ft trimarans currently are - this class was originally conceived as a more cost effective alternative.

At the beginning the circuit looked promising. There was a reasonable fleet, with many top stars taking part. There was international competition from the likes of Tornado Olympian Randy Smyth from the States and entries from Belgium, Italy and Switzerland along with Alan Wynne-Thomas' trifoiler PromOcean, Mark Gatehouse's Rebel catamaran and later Stephen Fein's Full Pelt trimaran with Jo Richards at the helm from the UK.

However the class first stumbled over indecision about whether it should be fully crewed/short handed, inshore/offshore and with the dominance of Jean le Cam's series of Biscuits Cantreau trimarans, costs began to escalate and with the economy in France in full nose dive after three seasons the class fell apart.

Learning the lessons from this and perfectly, albeit accidently, timed with Ellen MacArthur's imminent catamaran-borne attempt on the Jules Verne Trophy, so a new class of 40ft racing catamaran has been conceived in the UK.

The RMW40 is a one-design high performance cost-capped catamaran class that can be sailed round the cans or offshore, fully crewed by up to six or short handed. It has been speced to be able to take part in RORC and Multihull Cruising & Racing Association (MOCRA) events as well as having its own series of class events. It will also be road towable, able to be slipway launched and will fit into a 40ft container for relatively inexpensive shipping. Critically the boat is high tech, fast and costs under £100,000.

The RMW40 has been conceived by Richard Woof of RMW Marine who builds the RS dinghy range as well as being the driving force behind the highly successful RMW Marine 18ft skiff team led by Rob Greenhalgh, who is also involved with this project.

Design work for the boat has been carried out by Phil Morrison, who apart from being a leading dinghy designer who was part of GBR Challenge's design team and was also responsible for the Formula 40 catamaran Rebel. Duncan Barr and Nick Barlow have been behind the boat's engineering and Hamble hero and recently announced Maiden 2 crewman Neal McDonald is endorsing the boat.

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