Replacing Tonnerre

We speak to former Fastnet Race winner Pieter Vroon about his new IRC racer Formidable3

A fairly low key yacht but one to be watched out in the Rolex Fastnet Race is the new Lutra 56 Formidable3, now competing in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Owner of this boat is Pieter Vroon, the RORC's staunchest supporter in the Netherlands, for whom Formidable 3 is the replacement for his heavily campaigned eight year old Tonnerre de Breskens, the 2001 Fastnet Race winner.

"The previous boat was an IMS boat and obviously not compatible anymore, so I thought I’d have another go at a state of the art one," Vroon told us, adding wryly: "She's optimised for IRC, but not optimised for us - we have got to learn how to sail it first..."

Like Tonnerre, the new boat has once again been conceived by the Lutra Design Group who are linked with designer Gerry Dijkstra's office in Holland, Dijkstra being the man behind the refits of all three of the J Class yachts and generally considered the influential founder of the 'modern classic' style of large sailing yacht.

Vroon originally wanted a 50 footer the same size as Tonnerre, but a modern boat designed to rate favourably under IRC. "The design they came up with was far too small and had no accommodation at all," he recalls. "So they designed a new one 6ft longer...and that bearly has enough accommodation." Vroon says he also wanted a boat with improved light weather performance, without compromising its heavy air ability.



The new Formidable3 was built by Goetz Custom Boatworks in Rhode Island in carbon fibre and delivered across the North Atlantic arriving in Cowes just prior to Skandia Cowes Week.

While ostensibly she is a regular race boat, Formidable3 does have a number of unique characteristics compared to other 'IRC' optimised boats such as Aera. We are puzzled for example how in Vroon's opinion his 56 footer can lack accommodation. All is revealed when we step below and see a sizeable case for the lifting keel taking up much of what might have been the saloon area.

Formidable3's homeport is Breskens in southern Holland where draft for a big race boat is a major issue. Hence Vroon's new larger yacht has a lifting keel that enables draft to be reduced from 3.6m to 2.5m. The rudder can also be raised and is mounted in the middle of a large cylinder that rotates in its entirety between the hull and deck.

Another accommodationsapping feature is the water ballast. Unusually this is not used for racing. "When you come from Holland to do a RORC race out of Cowes, you come 200 miles this way from Holland then you do this fantastic race of 135 miles and then you do 200 miles back by which time all the crew has gone home, so you need some weight to keep the boat up," explains Vroon.

With the keelboat and the water ballast tanks suddenly the accommodation of this 56ft yacht feels more like that of a 30 footer. "All of this makes for a certain complication and weight," says Vroon of these 'extras'. "I would hope to be compensated for that but that doesn’t quite work out. The rule doesn't encourage anything in that respect or not that I know of."

While Tonnerre was fitted with in-line spreaders and runners, Formidable3 has gone down the Farr 40 route having the more user-friendly set-up of swept-back spreaders and a single backstay. Tonnerre used to fly both symmetric and asymmetric spinnaker, but the new boat only used the latter type, flown from a pole.

At present it is early days in Formidable3's sailing career. The boat finished ninth in Class 0 IRC at Skandia Cowes Week and in the Rolex Fastnet Race - Vroon's 21st or 22nd Fastnet depending upon if you count the one he didn't finish - she rounded the Rock fourth in class IRC SZ and fifth overall under IRC.

Prior to the start of the Rolex Fastnet Race Vroon said he was hoping for light airs. "We tried out the Code Zero last week and she was doing 8 knots in 6.5 knots of breeze," said Vroon.

After the Fastnet Formidable3 is heading back to Holland briefly before making the first of many passages back through Dover Strait to the start of the RORC's Ouistreham race on 27 August. From there she is heading for the Mediterranean where she will take part in the Voiles de St Tropez and then the Rolex Middle Sea Race before making her way to the Canaries ready for the start of the ARC. "After that we'll see," says Vroon.

While Vroon is happy sailing around the cans, he says his preference is for offshore racing. "I just like sailing. I’ve done quite a lot of different ones. We went and did the Middle Sea race and Genoa Week and St Tropez and we’ve done three Onion Patches in America and done a couple of Antigua Sailing Weeks and St Maarten and all the other major races."

Tonnerre in the meantime has been sold to the sailing club attached to the University of Aachen.

More photos on the following pages...