http://www.thegreatcup.com/newsitem.aspx?newsId=2a9a1b83-c549-4f1d-889f-dbc4c8860395&month=11&year=2013
After a successful first season competing at regattas across Europe, The Great Cup’s GC32 catamarans are to receive a foil upgrade this winter, a change set to transform the twin-hulled speedsters into full foilers in above 8 knots of wind. The new L-foils will enable the one design GC32s to race elevated from the water, in a similar gravity-defying fashion to the AC72 catamarans that caused such a phenomenon at the 34th America’s Cup in San Francisco this summer.
“Our focus has always been to deliver a sustainable product for our owners,” explains Laurent Lenne, founder of The Great Cup and skipper of the SPAX Solutions GC32. “When we started the project the AC boys were only talking about foiling, but now their boats are flying, it is our duty to close this gap by changing our boats so that they can fly too.”
This year Martin Fischer, designer of the GC32, has been working as part of Franck Cammas’ design team that modified one of his Phantom F18 catamarans to become a full foiler. This project was a test bed for Groupama C, the foiling 25ft long C-Class catamaran aboard which Cammas decisively won the International C-Class Catamaran Championship in Falmouth, England in September.
This experience greatly benefitted the GC32 team in creating their new foils. “I believe we did our homework very well to make this step,” continues Lenne. “Many hours were spent developing the right shape, with the right engineering and build costs.”
L-foils of this type represent the most cutting edge technology in sail boat design at present and it is no mean feat to get right. AC72 foils cannot be directly scaled down to work on a substantially smaller and lighter weight boat. Also the aim of the GC32 is different from an AC72: While the latter is a highly complex machine designed to be raced solely by experienced professionals, the GC32 is targeted at sailors of average proficiency or above and should be much easier to sail.
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