Test roll

Video of Simon Clarke's Class 40 carrying out a 90 degree stability test

On Thursday last week Simon Clarke and ‘Kiwi’ Dave Lindsay hooked the bulb of their Class 40 up to a big crane with the aim of ensuring that the boat would pass the Class 40 stability test next week in Le Harve ahead of the Transat Jacques Vabres race.

The 90 degree test, done with empty ballast tanks, is aimed at proving that the yacht can right itself from this severe angle – such as a big broach.

The demo run was done at Hamble Yacht Services and involved a reasonably straightforward procedure. Two straps were fitted by diver Jason Field onto the bulb and these were then attached to the lifting hook of the crane. By slowing tipping the boat over, by lifting the bulb up, the 19 metre high masthead was brought over to the pontoon. The masthead was then attached to a load cell and the crane eased off.

The load cell reading has to read off a minimum of 220kgf and a maximum of 320 kgf to conform to the rule. The team seemed happy that they were within this range and that no surprises would crop up in France next week.

Clarke’s yacht is a Rogers design built by Pom Green’s CMI facility in Thailand and is a sistership to Tanguy de Lamotte’s Novedia/ Set Enivronment. There are 32 Class 40 entries in the doublehanded Transat Jacques Vabres race which starts on Saturday 3 November.

See the video clip of it all happening here . (13MB)

More photos on the following page...