The leading Class 40

We speak to designer Guillaume Verdier and co-skipper Pietro d'Ali about Giovanni Soldini's new Telecom Italia

Guillaume Verdier is one of the names in yacht design we have been waiting to come to the fore. He has co-designed with Marc van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot Prevost the new Open 60s Safran and Groupe Bel for Marc Guillemot and Kito de Pavant respectively, both racing in the Transat Jacques Vabre, the former currently leading the IMOCA class. However the Telecom Italia Class 40 for former Around Alone winner Giovanni Soldini is a design that is purely his. That too is leading the TJV's 30 strong Class 40 fleet. If results stay this way by the time the boats reach the finish line in Brazil then it looks certain to launch the career of the young French designer.

We spoke to Giovanni Soldini earlier in the year about his return to offshore racing after the terrible loss of his trimaran in the Transat Jacques Vabre two years ago. Now his new Class 40 is launched and is leading the charge to Brazil. However both he and crewman Pietro d'Ali, an America's Cup sailor who has turned his skills to the Figaro class in recent years, very very nearly didn't make the Transat Jacques Vabre for on their qualifier their brand new boat was run down by a 40m long fishing boat in poor visibility.

Thankfully the bow of the fishing boat was sufficiently high that it hit the rigging first and this combined with the wash from the bow wave turned the boat causing a glancing blow rather than a full on T-bone that could have resulted in a very very much worse outcome.

"It was heeling so the mast touched first," recounts d'Ali. "We finished side by side, we were reaching and we ended up upwind with the genniker. The mast collapsed."

Fortunately they managed to source a new mast, a tube that already built in Brest. This had aluminium rather than carbon fibre spreaders and different fittings but nonetheless it was an available rig. There was also some damage to the hull resulting in the hull to deck join being fractured. Impressively in just four days they managed to rebuild the boat and get it back in shape.



From the designer's perspective, Guillaume Verdier firstly praises the builder, Francois Robert, who's company FR Nautisme in Lorient has also built the heavily chined, plywood cored Marin-designed Class 40s Chocolats Monbana and Appart City. "It was really nicely built. The finish isn’t incredible, but it is all vacuumed. I was there during all phases and it was well done." Under Class 40 rule exotics such as carbon fibre are prohibited from the construction and in the case of Telecom Italia she was built in E-glass.

Not that Soldini is distrusting or anything, but to keep an eye on his designer, he moved in next door to Verdier's home just outside of La Trinite-sur-Mer, while he is also a shareholder in Francois Robert's company...

"He is a good client. He knows what he wants," says Verdier. Soldini came to the table not only with Open 60 experience with his Finot design Fila (which Verdier worked on during his time with the Paris-based design house) but also having raced an Open 50, Kodak, a Jean Berret design, very similar in concept to his latest vessel, in the BOC Challenge in 1993-4.



According to Verdier one of the main challenges as a Class 40 designer is to play the class' primary stability rule (similiar to the Mini) where the boat must show a tendency to right when it is heeled over to 90 degrees and a 320kg weight is hung from the masthead. Another key factor is structuring the boat and then getting the builder to construct it so that it comes out at the minimum weight allowed by the class rules of 4,650kg.

"It is quite easy to pass is you do a nice construction," says Verdier, who won't confirm exactly how much under minimum weight they were initially in the build, other than it was more than 50kg and this allowed them to add weight to keel foil.

One of the limitations of the class is that the maximum permissible water ballast is only 750kg. Bear in mind that modern Open 60s if they fill all the tankage on their weather side can take on somewhere between 6-7 tonnes and this is not even there to contribute to the righting moment!

"If you only have 750kg you have to take the decision to either put it somewhere where it is really good for the righting moment upwind which is a bit further forward or you do something a bit more aft which will help you reaching but is really bad upwind," explains Verdier. "So you have to make a choice that is a compromise. You could split the tanks but you end up with really small tanks, but I wanted to make a simple boat for everything." On Telecom Italia the single water ballast tanks are located alongside the keel. However Verdier points out that compared to an Open 60 the dead weight of stackable gear, the sails, food, emergency gear, etc represents a larger proportion of the all-up weight on a Class 40, therefore stacking is all the more essential.

As part of the design package Verdier was also provided with a limited budget to go to the towing tank to test some appendages.

The result is is a beamy boat with a pronounced chine and slab sides (like Verdier's Open 60s). The rig is a relatively conventional carbon fibre two spreader affair, like the majority of Class 40 rigs.

According to Pietro d'Ali the rig is slightly unusual compared to the other Class 40 set-ups in being slightly further back in the boat so the mainsail is short in the foot but this allows them to use bigger headsails. This is a good rig for reaching but d'Ali says it is not the largest and some of their competitors with larger sail plans and less sticky hull shapes will probably be faster in light winds.

Also unique among the Class 40 is Telecom Italia's bowsprit arrangement, which d'Ali says can be a pain round the cans but works well offshore, which is what Soldini has specced the boat for. While some boats have bowsprits and long spinnaker poles, on Telecom Italia there is simply a short bowsprit on deck that runs through an eye on the bow. This is lightweight, can be retracted for race starts in order to comply with the Class 40 rule, but also, cunningly, can be articulated up to weather allowing downwind headsails to be used at deeper angles.

The boat is unusual in having an enclosed cockpit with an aft deck which we suspect was a Soldini requirement, like his old Kodak. However there are giant cockpit drains to shed water and this does allow for a good structural mounting for the full width main sheet track. All the halyards and reefing lines run aft through the cabintop as they do on the Farr Open 60s, to a central pit area between the twin companionways. There are athwartships tracks and barber haulers for the headsail sheets.

The end result, along with her highly experienced crew seems to be doing the job on the race course. Telecom Italia has been leading the Class 40s ever since they rounded Ushant on Sunday night.

More photos on the following pages....

Next week we look at the design of Safran and Groupe Bel