Death knoll for the 60ft trimaran?

More readers give their views about the demise of the ORMA circuit

Following on from our article about the decline of the 60ft trimarans we have received the following correspondence: If you would like to add to the debate - email us here .

From the USA , Lars Svensson , owner of the trimaran once Mike Whipp's Paragon writes:

I think the ongoing discussion about the ORMA 60 s is very interesting, particularly in the light of previous articles on thedailysail and also the above comments by Wiz Deas and Donald Lawson. If I may make some comments since I have been down the course of looking into the ORMA French circuit, Scandinavian circuit, US options and also own Larus Roc, Ex-Paragon mentioned by Wiz, an ORMA 60. (see thedailysail 13 July 2005 here). .

Vincent Lauriot Prevost, whom I met at the end of the Transat and who has been very encouraging, kindly shared with me his contacts among the racers in the French ORMA circuit whom I then emailed asking for advice and if they had excess sails etc that they might be selling off to help me set up my boat. I also emailed Francis Joyon, who at one stage had owned my boat. It could be a language problem but I never received any response from any of the teams that were racing in 2004 and 2005. Perhaps they knew already then that the ORMA circuit was in trouble but there was clearly no incentive for further teams. Klabbe Nylof of the Nokia Oops circuit however was very supportive and encouraged me to bring Larus Roc over for a season of racing although she clearly was not of the current generation of boats.

Nevertheless, we were able to raise sponsorship from the St Maarten government and local firms to mount a campaign in the USA by entering established races. We were unable to raise significant sponsorship in the USA. The number of races that would accept a large multihull are very limited. Despite this, fortunately the Marion Bermuda race invited for the first time multihulls to enter and so we modified Larus Roc to make her eligible (head, galley, stove). We went on to win the race in record time. We also won on time the Marblehead to Halifax race and Around Long Island race and for the season achievements were awarded the Overall New England Multihull and Offshore season trophies. Thanks to thedaily sail for giving us some coverage to show our sponsors!!!

While this was a most enjoyable 2005 season of racing, other than Nokia Oops, there appears to be few races one can enter with ORMA 60s, particularly since there is little sponsorship available and hence the new pursuit of every possible record from A to B.

Some comments about the boats: Larus Roc is very solid, heavier, and well built and fortunately was built with a sponge core instead of Nomex and so she flexes more and thus is less likely to fracture into pieces the way the new boats do. Clearly the pursuit of lighter boats has been a factor in the two transatlantic race disasters. Some have commented that Larus Roc would have done better than those boats under those conditions and that is likely true since the boat is solidly built for offshore racing and not for inshore around the buoy racing. Indeed, in crossing from New England to Bermuda October last year she weathered hurricane force winds of 65 to 70 knots with a staysail as a drogue and using the motor to control her.

I suspect that the outcome will be that there will be boats optimized for Grand Prix type racing and then off shore boats. I don’t believe that both can be achieved successfully by the same boat. Thus, the current generation of 80 – 100ft plus multihulls will become the de facto offshore transatlantic racing boats while at the same time they try to pursue records. The 60ft ORMA boats will have less of a role. Whether the ORMA 60s can survive as buoy racing boats is not clear but I hope so because they are a wonderful test bed and when they turn turtle there is a lot of help around to save the drivers, as with F1 cars. Sadly, the decline in number of boats even in the Nokia Oops suggests this will be difficult to maintain.

While the future may not be rosy, they are incredibly fun boats to sail and having recently island hopped along the leeward and windward Caribbean island chain with one of my crew, I can attest to them also being pure fun for a fast cruise.


From Maine, USA Jesse Deupree writes:

Two thoughts-

1. The essential problem for these boats is rule driven. Controlling length, and not width has resulted in an over-square boat with a propensity for diagonal capsize. Controlling sail area through spar dimensions has led to distorted sail shapes with excessive power up high. What is needed is a rule that focuses on power- an engine driven rule that focuses on sail area with some spar limitations. The only hull restrictions should be about materials- strength and cost containment. Control the engine size and give the designers freedom to create the fastest vehicle possible.

2. You can have exciting day racing in boats designed for offshore use- witness the in port racing in the Volvo 70's, but you cannot successfully race inshore boats across oceans- witness the RDR and the TJV. The incremental speed improvements from inshore optimization are meaningless to the audience, they only confer a relative advantage to those that push inshore speed improvements, creating an arms race that does not improve the quality of the racing. The class needs to find a way to keep the boats optimized for offshore shorthanded use. When one of these beautiful machines lifts past you, it is not critical whether it is going 27 or 33 knots.


Rémi Laval-Jeanete, Ph.D, Aero-Hydrodynamicist, designer of the ORMA 60 Bayer's and B&Q's appendages, rudders for Banque Populaire 4 , VPP and many other projects, gives his technical viewpoint:

Concerning your article which mentioned the risk of an quick decline of multihulls class ORMA 60, I think that it is useful to clarify certain key points which can explain this phenomenon :

- the awful incidents of ORMA 60s which took place during Route du Rhum and the Transaat Jacques Vabre discouraged many sponsors who fear the negative repercussions for their company's image and the enormous unplanned costs induced.

This carnage is mainly due to structural failure and longitudinal or diagonal pitchpoling.

In fact, the ORMA 60 trimarans reached a critical state of imbalance between their capacity of dynamic resistance to violent pitchpoles, important lowering of their displacements, therefore of their mechanical inertia, and their increased sail power.

When one increases the speed of a such a boat until to about 33 knots, dynamic braking when diving deep into pyramidal waves or cross steepy swells increases by 50% compared to 27 knots speed, common on board from the late-1980s.

At the same time, the extreme parts of the structure (mast, floats) were drastically lightened and displacement went down from 7.5 to 6 tonnes. This combination led to cut by approximately 25% of the moment of inertia of the ORMA 60s.

Angular accelerations that one can feel during brutal brakings by deep penetration of steep slope waves, are equal to the ratio of the braking forces by the moments of inertia, therefore in the ratio (1.5 / 0.75) = two times more than the old generation as established during the beginning of the 1990s.

If it is considered that simultaneously, sail areas were increased on average by 30% with centers of effort 3-5% higher, one understands fairly well how the combination of the stronger 100% higher wave decelerations with the upsettings rig moments 35% higher cannot be counterbalanced any more by their bows, even if these are more bulky by 20-30%...

Moreover, the inverted incidence catch of the curved foils when diving deep into waves accentuates the catastrophic evolution of the spiral of events that results in pitchpoling.

A priori, apart from means of dynamic stabilization with a large-sized T-foil, only a virtuous come back to a more reasonable balance between sail power and height, speed compared to the length ( Froude Number ) and mechanical inertia could allow to rely again on this kind of multihulls for sponsor's advertising shows.

RLJ

Our point exactly - maximum sail areas need to be limited and the class should look at a restricted mast height and sail area for offshore events.


Stalwart 60ft trimaran fan Wiz Deas. of Matrix Composite Materials Co. Ltd. in Bristol writes:

Some thoughts after your article...

The 60' trimarans seem to have reached a plateau. Let's hope it is only temporary for there is still an awful lot to learn and modifications to exploit in this class.

In my earliest boatbuilding days I was involved with such boats as Paragon (Adrian Thompson) and Apricot (Nigel Irens). Now these are looked on as dinosaurs...But I have followed the rise and fall in popularity of these machines because of a passion for speed, technology and, just as important, adventure, which is not present in any other class of boat worthy of going offshore at high speed. (Mini 6.5's nearly make it but are very expensive for their size.)

We have learnt an awful lot about the limits of both men, and composite structures. It has not been cheap but nor so expensive when gauged against other offshore boats. I did prefer it when the offshore races were more popular. Is it the class trying to justify itself as a spectacle, or the sponsors dictat for instant gratification by racing round the cans so much nowadays? Either way, it is a great sight to watch them inshore at speed...but a fleet of four boats is hardly a fleet.

Any racing yacht rule is going to reach a natural conclusion of design and technology at some point. Then the question is to either 'modify' the rule at the risk of outclassing the existing fleet, or 'imposing' limits such as rig size or weight or overall beam etc: (18' skiffs have multiple rigs on a fairly 1 design hull, Moths are max 11ft long, these are some of the limitations that make them unique and yet not obsolete). So maybe an inshore and offshore rig is the best option for the trimarans? No I say, let them be 60' long and anything goes, as far as they can stay upright, there will be natural selection or demise of the fleet, at least they will still exist.

Multihull development now is in either one end or the other of the sizes from G class to Seacart, but these are not as refined as the 60 footers, nor an America's Cup boat, where obsessive attention to minute details is the norm.

What are the costs of these magnificent machines, when compared to a TP52, AC, or a VOR 70? ...Cost is surely not the issue here. It could be that the class is just too, dare I say it, French?

The class is being French in as much as it seems unwilling to restrict itself. The long and short of it seems to be that they get their house in order or die.


Mark Hield writes:

I agree with you that the ORMA / Multi 60 are the most exciting racing class, I have been a fan since the very early 1980s. But with this statement lies one of the problems: already we have the emergence of two classes, one aimed at fully crewed inshore/offshore racing the other at single/short handed offshore racing. Therefore one of the first things to address, is to ensure whatever rule the ORMA or Multi 60 comply they can both be competitive in either arenas, not easy as most likely what would be competitive inshore fully crewed will not be competitive against a design specifically for single handed offshore and vice versa.

I would suggest the rules should favour offshore single or short handed racing. This would ensure that the designs are robust. One way to do this would be to de-power the rigs by reducing mast height and therefore the sail area and also from a aesthetic point of view get rid of the small bowsprits this might help to reduce sail area, hopefully moving to a design slightly more in the B&Q mold.

Another point that struck me when reading about the proposal for the Multi 60 was the reluctance to talk and try and integrate with the organisers of the OOPs Cup, to at least get one event (European Cup what ever) organised, it was implied that the French circuit was more advanced, which is true but by linking with other organisers this should help internationalise the class and expose the class to a wider audience.

With the importance of gaining an international and wider audience another way is to make classic races such as the Fastnet, Around the island races etc part of the racing calendar and ensure the use of new technology like the tracking system being developed by OC Technologies is supported and adopted along with a web site that present real time data that can make the race come alive.

Whether at the end of the day the bang for buck ratio can be improved enough to justify the expense to a sponsor or for that matter a private owner remains to be seen as any class as sophisticated as this will always be very expensive. One saving grace in the short run is the fact that there are a number of second hand boats available especially after the Route du Rhum.


Agreed - there was the argument that the Oops Cup boats were pigs (in relative terms obviously...) in comparison to the new generation ORMA 60s with all the bells and whistles - curved foils, canting rigs, daggerboards with trim tabs etc. However the Oops Cup has considerably upped its game this year and two of the boats are none other than the former Groupama 1 and the former Fujicolor which will be off the pace, but not THAT off the pace against the latest generation boats. The Rolex Fastnet Race would be perfect for such a show down, if for no other reason than geography. However the Oops Cup is as insular as the MultiCup circuit in terms of sponsors having little reason to depart their prime market places: France and Scandinavia.



Donald Lawson writes from the US:

Hello, I am from the USA. I am an up and coming multihull sailor. I have started the process of gaining sponsorship here for an ORMA a few weeks ago. But I find it very difficult to convince people that this is a viable program because when they hear Open 60 they think of Vendee Globe.

The problems with ORMA started back when Steve Fossett brought the Lakota here and started demolishing records. He has the right to do what he wants, but he could have put an American presence in that fleet. Sponsors would have followed him. There needs to be some outsiders in that fleet. This will help increase the media exposure.

Also, I believe these boats are the ultimate crewed, double, and singlehanded boats in the world (check out what the older 60s did last week to the VO70 in Sweden). The way you save this class is allowing open crewed racing but governed double and singlehanded sailing. I know people (The Professor) will not like this, but its not up to them. The leaders need to do what they feel is right for the boats.

So, ideas for saving the fleet:
1. Reduce sail area and foils for double and singlehanded sailing. Note: the foil and structures caused most of the problems in the TJV2005.
2. Allow more freeboard on the forward hulls. This will help the boats floats not to stick into the water when the boat falls off it foils.
3. Reduce the budget of the class. It is true that it only cost around $4million to build but it cost $4million to run as well. Reduce the running cost.
4. Use stronger materials even if it means adding some weight to the boats. They need to look at how F-1, NASCAR (I can't believe I used this one), and IndyCar reduce power, weight, ground level and more to keep the cars "safe" and cost effective.

I hope to bring a new one of these boats to the US sometime soon, if you want to help or are just interested, feel free to contact me: dlawson688@yahoo.com .

Good luck with your plans, but I should see how the circuit pans out. As we pointed out there are a number available at present. Certainly having a 60ft trimaran regularly competing in the US would create a stir, if you can find events where they will let you race. I should set the record straight about Steve Fossett: With Lokata when he started out in multihull racing he did compete in the Round Britain and Ireland Race and even put in a thoroughly respectible performance in Route du Rhum. However records is what he is really interested and now that his round the world and transatlantic records have fallen...who knows, maybe this is not the last we have seen of him.

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