The fastest boat in the world

The Daily Sail has a rummage around on board Kingfisher2

Capable of sailing at speeds that would make most powerboat owners blush, Kingfisher2 is probably the fastest sailing boat in the world following her recent modifications.

A 110 by 57ft racing multihull is a phenomenal piece of equipment and for the creation of this boat we have Bruno Peyron to thank - for it was he who commissioned both Club Med (currently Tracy Edwards' Maiden II) and Innovation Explorer (now Kingfisher2) for The Race in 2001.

As Innovation Explorer, Kingfisher2 was the second of the series of Gilles Ollier & Associates designed maxi-catamarans built at Ollier's yard, Chantier Multiplast, in Vannes. During The Race she was co-skippered by Peyron's younger brother Loick and Skip Novak. Rechristened Orange Bruno Peyron subsequently sailed her non-stop around the world last year setting the present Jules Verne Trophy record time.

The big cat is now off on her third loop, refitted by a team of ex-Volvo types such News Corps' Ollie Allard, djuice's Johnny Mordaunt, Assa Abloy's Rudi Steiness and Amer Sports Too's Emma Westmacott, under the watchful eye of Neal Graham . Many of her early teething problems such as beam fairing delamination are now sorted and Graham's strict weight saving regime has resulted in the boat hitting the start line at around 23.5 tonnes - a ton and a half lighter than she has started her previous circumnavigations.



Above: Neal Graham and Johnny Mordaunt (right)

On deck she has a new 136ft tall carbon fibre rotating wingmast (itself with an area of 45sqm). Her new sails are by North France and the working sails are in carbon 3DL, significantly lighter than the previous Spectra suit - the mainsail is believed to be around 150kg less than the old Spectra one. In addition to the mainsail they carry a staysail, Solent, medium and large gennikers and a spinner. North France's Bruno Dubois is part of the crew on board and in charge of their well being.



Below: the rather large ball the mast sits on. On Bruno Peyron's circumnavigation this began to disintegrate.



Spanish crewman Guillermo Altadill, who is taking time off from his Olympic Tornado campaign (unusually he's decided to take this on after coaching Tornado crews for the last three Olympiads) and who sailed on Club Med, thinks that the mast is probably stiffer than the old one, but the sails are a significant improvement and interestingly have been cut to meet the requirement of a record attempt rather than a race.

During a record attempt you don't have the constraints of having to cover your opponent and therefore are more likely to be in a favourable wind conditions. "The shape of the sails is a little bit flatter in general, for when there is more wind," explains Altadill. "The target is not to go fast in light winds, obviously you are trying to avoid light winds…" In the present light fickle winds Kingfisher2 are experiencing, the crew may be kicking themselves for having made this choice.

Succeeding in the Jules Verne Trophy is about getting around the course as much as sailing quickly and Altadill says that one of the most dangerous parts of the round the world course is sailing back up the South Atlantic against the prevailing winds. "That is one thing we learned on Club Med: when you are trying to keep the boat in one piece - avoid sailing upwind in big waves," says Altadill. "Obviously it is good not to sail upwind, even if you sail a few more miles." So no upwind, and ideally, no light winds - maketh for a fast Jules Verne attempt.

Continuing our tour... There is a long narrow cockpit in each hull (see page 2) with sail controls duplicated in each and the crew obviously working the boat from the weather cockpit. Unlike Maiden2 there is a business-like fairing the length of the outboard side of each cockpit. Sheets are handled by giant Lewmar winches and driven by twin coffee grinders in each cockpit. Halyards, outhaul and reefing pennants are all handled at the foot of the mast via another bank of substantial winches.

The foresails are tacked to a giant bowsprit extending forward from the foot of the mast and which sits on top of the foreward beam, between the arms of the seagull striker. Weight has been removed from the martingale attaching the top of the seagull striker to the bows (see below) by simply removing one of the giant bottlescrews at one end and changing the martingale to PBO.



Taught netting spans the divide between the hulls and as a safety measure there are now two triangles of netting in front of the forward beam extending to the tip of the bowsprit.

The team are particularly proud of the termination of their PBO shrouds - this involves the use the latest incarnation of Clipper ship technology. The previous huge bottlescrew at the bottom of the shroud has now been replaced with a hi-tech lashing arrangement. This comprises a thick section of Dyneema which goes through the eye in the bottom of the shroud and down round a fitting on deck. The two ends are then lashed.

"There's a large lashing eye at the top and a large lashing eye at the bottom and basically when we are out sailing to tune the rig we start off on the leeward side and tighten tack for tack for tack," explains Johnny Mordaunt. "With the lashing we can adjust it as we go without too much fuss."

The tackle is designed to work up to 90 tonnes and has been made by Future Fibres with the thick section made of Dyneema since PBO wouldn't stand turning the corners. They have added what Morduant describes as a 'cotton reel' at the deck to enlarge the diameter of the turn.

About 15ft off the deck the shroud is divided by a link plate where the shroud bends - Mordaunt says there is a lot of slack in the shroud when the load is off and to prevent it flogging they can take up the slack.

On The Race many of the padeyes broke. Now most padeyes have been replaced with continuous loops of Dyneema onto which turning blocks, etc can be attached (see below).



Another performance enhancing modification has been the removal of both engines, propellers and props shafts. The engines have been replaced with substantially smaller generators (one in each hull beneath the cabin sole just aft of the galley) each with a 160amp alternator and the result is not only a considerable weight saving, but also a major reduction in hydrodynamic drag now there are no propellors and brackets protruding from the underside of the each hull. Changing down engine size has saved around 200kg per side.

Getting the engines out was fun and involved the use of many halyards before the engines were finally lifted out on to palettes on the pontoon. They were then tied to rope attached to the back of Herve Jan's car and towed up the gangway to the container. "It was a proper bit of boat niggering!" laughs Morduant.

The accommodation is in the length of each hull aft of the mast beam (there is no central pod like they had on ENZA or Team Phillips). The layout is fairly similar in each hull. Forward there is a galley area with an escape hatch in the in board topsides, the primary galley being in the starboard hull.

Aft of this is a small head compartment which by all accounts will also be used as the Big Brother-style room for the crew to record their video diaries, hopefully once they've pulled their strides back up. A unique feature of the boat and one which survived Neal Graham's weight culling, is the boot warmer opposite the head (see below).



Aft from here is the sleeping quarters. Instead of having Volvo-style pipecots, there are bunks with at least a few inches between the crewman's nose and the bunk above. In fact having a cramped area in which to sleep has its advantages. In a seaway when the boat is pitching heavily or worse still when it goes down the mine, the cramped confines of the bunks helps prevent the sleeping crew from being thrown around the cabin and injuring themselves. There are two sets of three bunks on the inboard side of the hull with stowage opposite.



In the aft end of the starboard hull is Ellen's navigation lair. On board she is sharing navigational duties with Kevin McMeel, the Canadian replacement crewman for Nick Moloney.

With sponsorship from Sony, they are carrying the latest computer technology. There are five Sony Vios - each, of course, with wireless screens and keyboards (the computers themselves are hidden away) - see page 3.

One computer is used for running MaxSea routing software, the other for Graham Wynn's Deckman performance software. Another computer is dedicated for running Filemaker Pro - for storing logs and keeping what Mark Turner describes as the 'knowledge' database.

There is also a media computer here, while a fifth runs the Insensys software for the load cell system built into the mast (more on this in due course) and Claudio Stampi's bio-monitors. Four crew are wearing these to monitor their stress and energy levels as well as when they are sleeping. These now work on wireless too and will download data to the computer every four hours where it is bundled together and emailled to the good doctor at his base in Harvard.

Sony have also provided each of the crew with a Sony Clie PDA. These connect to a wireless network so that each crewman can be in their bunk, the little screen on their PDA glimmering and can send and receive email individually whenever the boat is 'on-line' via one of the two Inmarsat Fleet 77 satcom transceivers. So, no more hogging the email computer.

In addition to this, like the Volvo Ocean Race boats, Kingfisher2 is fitted with Pilotfish, so that ambience data from around the boat, from wind strength to sea temperature can be emailled back hourly (this will be appearing on the Kingfisher Challenges site from today).

Aft in the starboard hull is Andrew Preece's media centre. Preecy is handling all the on board video requirements as well as the on board media commitments, which, this being an Offshore Challenges operation, are numerous. Like Ellen, Andrew is also out of the watch system.

Hidden in the hull are the three water ballast tanks that can be used for weighing the boat down is extreme conditions or trimming the boat aft when sailing downwind in the Southern Ocean.

While Kingfisher2 may be the fastest offshore race boat on the planet at present her tenure may be short lived. In November we can look forward to the launch of Bruno Peyron new maxi-catamaran, a second generation G-class cat currently in build at Chantier Multiplast and potentially faster still than the existing generation.