Open 60 union

Mike Golding and Dee Caffari talk about this new technical partnership

In something of a first for the Open 60 class, British Vendee Globe potentials, Dee Caffari and Mike Golding, have announced a technical partnership between their respective Aviva Ocean Racing and Ecover teams.

Caffari's sailing career is following very much in Golding's footsteps. The relationship between the two sailors goes back some eight years when Golding gave Caffari her first job in professional sailing. Caffari skippered a boat in the Global Challenge, as Golding did, twice. Golding was the first person to break Chay Blyth's record for sailing non-stop westabout round the world singlehanded and last year Caffari became the first woman to achieve this feat. Golding was also the first man to sail around the world non-stop singlehanded in both directions, something that Caffari intends to do in the 2008-9 Vendee Globe. Even now the Open 60 Caffari is training on is none other than Golding's original Finot-Conq designed Team Group 4/ Ecover Open 60 on which she cut her teeth eight years ago.

The new technical alliance is based on the new Aviva Ocean Racing Open 60 being a sistership to Golding new Ecover. The boats are designed by Owen Clarke and will be built at Hakes Marine in Wellington. They will have identical appendage and rig configurations.

Construction of Ecover is now well underway with a launch scheduled for mid-June this year before she is shipped to Europe in August ready for November's Transat Jacques Vabre. Meanwhile Hakes will start work on the new Aviva on 6 May with a launch date in December to January.




Building the two boats this way will enable Caffari's team to get up to speed faster, but will also allow some economies of scale with purchasing carried out simultaneously for both boats. "By announcing so early, pre-Dee’s build and when we’ve only just started our build, we are able to make some economies," confirms Golding. "We can make choices together we wouldn’t be able to make individually, with regard to spares and back up support." This might extend to sharing spare masts and appendages, but will definitely include smaller items.

This year as her boat is in build, Dee will sail her existing Open 60 in the Calais Round Britain Race and the Fastnet Race, but the main objective is racing in November's two handed Transat Jacques Vabre and possibly the Defi Atlantique, the singlehanded transatlantic return race from the end of the TJV. She will also get a chance to go to New Zealand and sail on the new Ecover. "That will be like sailing my boat six months ahead of it popping in the water," says Dee.

This will enable her to make some further decisions about tailoring the new Aviva to her needs. While the two boats will be identicial in every aspect relating to their performance there are likely to be more subtle differencies when it comes for example to cockpit and interior layouts. "So I can look and see what suits," says Dee.

Once the new Aviva is launched Dee plans to ship her to the east coast of the US so she can get in some downwind training time as she sails back to Europe, possibly to Portugal.

Back in Europe the next phase of the technical union begins with some two boat testing. Two periods of 10 days testing are scheduled either side of the Transat. "You can’t really do with that with dis-similar boats," says Golding. "If I formed an alliance with a Juan K boat it really wouldn’t work, because whatever day you go out, one boat will have the edge. This way we have got the ability to empirically measure differences in performance with different configurations and different sail plans and so forth, so there is a reality about it and that is what really appeals. I think those two 10 day periods alone could justify the union."

Golding says they will be focussing on sail crossovers, different appendage and ballast configurations, but they need to nail down further what it is they want answers to. "We are not used to doing two boat testing, it is not something we do a lot of," he admits. "I think one of the things we will be doing is bringing in external support and hopefully by then there will be some more America’s Cup guys kicking about! We will bring in some people to help us define the targets of what we are aiming to achieve." This is vital as 20 days is a laughably short time (compared to what Volvo and AC teams spend) to gain much data.

Golding adds that Open 60s now are more complex than ever before. His original boat, Caffari's present Aviva, has just four water ballast tanks (in addition to her canting keel), while the latest generation Owen Clarke boats have ten. "There are a lot more choices to be made and it is difficult to get empirical data on that because it tends to be gut feel. By two boat testing we’ll be able to take away some of the randomness and gut feel and make it real."

According to Caffari North are keen to get involved looking at the sails and they plan to get some analysts perhaps from B&G to help evaluate the data.

For Golding the process of imparting his team's technical know-how to Aviva will also force them to review everything once again. "We are able to take a clearer look at it rather than just do the same again."

The main advantage for Caffari and her team will be getting her boat up to speed as quickly as possible. The time saved in building from Ecover's moulds alone, for example, is around two months. As she says: "It is very exciting and I was very aware that was an unusual step for Mike to take; to share his intellectual property. The experience he’s got is huge and for me to be able to join in with the best British offshore sailor we have got at the moment is fabulous for me."