Successful debut at the Great Cup
From drawing board to its first regatta has taken just 16 months for the new Martin Fischer-designed GC32 catamaran. Last week the first three boats and six crews took part in the GC32 Austria Cup, part of Allianz Traunsee Week.
All of this has come to pass because Amsterdam-based French businessman Laurent Lenne was looking to trade up from his F18 catamaran. After finding nothing to his taste on the market, he ambitiously decided to create not only a new boat but also The Great Cup, the tailor-made circuit for the new catamarans. Having commissioned Fischer, the all-carbon fibre GC32s have been built at Premier Composites in Dubai, with Australian catamaran expert, Andrew Macpherson, COO of The Great Cup, project managing it.
Comparisons will obviously be made to the Extreme Sailing Series, but the Great Cup is aimed more at private owners and the intention is for it to be less globe-trotting, modelled more on conventional circuits with local fleets dotted around the world, meeting occasionally for international championships, as the Melges and Farr 40 classes do.
Designer Martin Fischer describes one of the many aspects of the new catamaran’s concept: “The GC32 was designed so it can go on a trailer and you can tow it to a race with a crew of four in one car - that brings the costs down a lot. I think it is a good boat for private owners who like sailing, but it could equally be interested for small companies to sponsor, because it is big enough to have some impact.”
Fischer is best known for his groundbreaking F18 designs such as the Capricorn, Wild Cat and Phantom as well being an integral to Franck Cammas’ Groupama design team, specialising in particular in foils [he holds a PhD in fluid dynamics]. As a result it comes as no surprise that the GC32 features the very latest in multihull foil design.
GC32s are fitted with L-shaped foils on their rudders and ‘double S’ foils for daggerboards. The ‘double S’ curvature allows the daggerboard, when fully deployed, to be principally vertical, countering leeway upwind. Raising the board slightly and not only does its area decrease, but thanks to the board’s S-shape, it angles inboard, increasing its vertical lift for sailing downwind.
Like the Extreme 40 (and unlike the AC45), the GC32 boards are symmetric and both are kept down while racing. However, uniquely the pitch of the boards can be altered by +/-3deg. Pull the foil back in marginal conditions and the hull will be encouraged to leap out of the water. But – and this is where the GC32s are particularly groundbreaking – it is also possible to crank forward the top of the board in the weather hull, causing the board to pull downwards (as if there were more crew on the rail). This feature is one that is something specifically prohibited on AC72s.
For the crews competing at the GC32 Austria Cup at Allianz Traunsee Week, these ground breaking features took some getting used to.
Taking part were the first three GC32s (a fourth was en route, but didn’t make it in time), sailed by six crews, with sailors present from 11 nations. Thus boats were being shared: Laurent Lenne’s own SPAX Solutions Sailing Team was being campaigned by Lenne and his crew as well as the Firefly crew, steered by Olympic Tornado sailor Pim Nieuwenhuis. Boat three has been bought by Swiss Olympic Star Flavio Marazzi who shared it with former Match Racing World Champion and Volvo Ocean Race sailor, Adam Minoprio. The second boat was being chartered to local Austria sponsor AEZ, with a team led by former Tornado World Champion Andreas Hagara (elder brother of Roman) and a second sailed by the Austrian Red Bull Youth America’s Cup Team, skippered by 22-year-old Max Trippolt.
Unfortunately just metres into the very first ever race of The Great Cup, SPAX Solution Sailing Team developed a fault that would keep them out of the competition for two days. Despite this the opening day of racing down in Ebensee, at the southern end of Lake Traunsee, showed the GC32s at their full potential, with enough wind to hull fly easily.
The one design catamarans were also closely matched, the tightest race being between AEZ GC32 Youth Sailing Team and Flavio Marazzi’s Marwin, when the two boats crossed the finish line overlapped. “It was really great, amazing,” said 22-year-old AEZ skipper, Max Trippolt. “It shows that it is only finished when it is finished and not before.”
With only two boats, Thursday saw the six teams effectively match racing and in this there was no surprise when former Match Racing World Champion Adam Minopro came out on top, despite this being the Kiwi helmsman’s first ever catamaran regatta.
Finally on Friday the vital replacement part for SPAX Solution Sailing Team arrived and the third GC32 was relaunched ready for racing. For the remainder of the event action on the water was to take place off the Allianz Traunsee Week regatta centre at the north of the lake in Gmunden.
Back up to a full complement of boats, the first race of the day saw Flavio Marazzi’s crew dominate leaving SPAX Solutions and AEZ GC32 Team Austria jockeying for second, Laurent Lenne’s Dutch team rolling the Austrians at the leeward gate only for Hagara’s crew to relieve SPAX Solution of second on the finish line. Unfortunately after two races, racing was postponed for the day.
Making up for this, Saturday turned into ‘big Saturday’ with a long day on the water off Gmunden with racing held in overcast, occasionally rainy conditions with the wind typically a margin hull flying 6-10 knots. A massive 14 races were run, six from the Round Robin started the previous day, followed by another full round robin of eight races, carrying a 2x co-efficient. Once again demonstrating how equal not only the boats were, but the teams too, over the 14 races, each of the six teams won at least once. This included Laurent Lenne and his SPAX Solution Sailing Team, impressive given that this was Lenne’s first ever regatta in a catamaran bigger than an F18.
“We didn’t have anything to think about with the organisation today,” Lenne admitted, pleased with his first ever bullet in the boat he created.
But while they dropped a race in the morning, after a big day on the water it was Adam Minoprio and his team that edged into the lead overall, unbeaten throughout the second round robin.
In marginally improved conditions for the final day, the race committee attempted to speed through another eight races in a third, this time triple points scoring, round robin, only to get half way through before the weather closed in. Continuing his winning streak was Adam Minoprio and it was the Kiwi and his team which ended up claiming the first ever event of The Great Cup. Minoprio and his team were presented with their trophy on the main stage by the water in Gmunden before being deservedly dowsed in champagne.
“I came here to try my best,” said Minoprio. “I am a little surprised I won this being my first time in catmarans. I am pretty happy with the speed at which I learned to sail these boats fast around the track. The guys I had sailing with me with put in a big effort.”
The Kiwi match racer is becoming a cat convert: “It is definitely a whole lot of fun. The GC32 is a great boat, very nice to sail. It gets up and flies a hull in 6 knots of wind and you can zoom around a track. All in all it is a great package.”
After three Olympic Star campaigns for Switzerland, Flavio Marazzi is also now hooked on the GC32. “It was a really great experience with six teams. The boats are very equal, it is hard to be always be on top,” he said.
The regatta not only proved the competitive nature of the GC32 as a one design, but demonstrated its speed despite its potentially draggy foils, even in tricky marginal conditions where it was difficult at times to fly a hull.
“I am pretty proud of what we have achieved in the last five days,” commented Lenne after the prizegiving. “Everyone worked very hard and every day we were doing things better.”
While Allianz Traunsee Week is organised by a Austrian sports marketing agency PROFS, Lenne arranged many things specifically for the GC32s including a wide area WiFi network across Lake Traunsee, enabling video to be transmitted directly to the web, incorporated into live coverage streamed on the internet.
“We’ve come a long way since the beginning of this year,” admitted Lenne. “But we demonstrated to the class what we are capable of and what our minimum quality of service can be.”
From here the GC32s move on to Lake Geneva where they will next compete in the Geneve-Rolle-Geneve and the biggest event on the lake, the Bol d’Or Mirabaud, before taking on a wide reaching tour of Europe over the course of the summer.
For further information visit www.thegreatcup.com
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