Thomas Coville on the maxi trimaran Sodebo has made it to the equator in 5 days, 17 hours and 15 minutes (yet to be ratified) improving on the current solo multihull record held by Francis Joyon of 6 days, 16 hours 24 minutes. What makes it even more impressive is that the new record is only marginally slower than the record set by Banque Populaire V in its fully crewed format that took 5 days, 14 hours and 52 minutes to cover the same segment.
https://www.sodebo.com/fr/voile/actualites/article/ouessant-equateur-nouveau-temps-reference-solitaire-nouveau-record-pour-thomas-coville
Saturday, 12 November 2016
Monday, 7 November 2016
Discovery 21 trimaran, notes on first test sail and video of boat out sailing.
The recently launched Discovery 21 trimaran designed by Chris White has been out for a few sails now and seems to slip along nicely.
There is a nice little description of the test sails by Chris White and Ben Hall on the Performance Multihulls Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Performance-multihulls-177143022325354/?fref=ts
There is a nice little description of the test sails by Chris White and Ben Hall on the Performance Multihulls Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/Performance-multihulls-177143022325354/?fref=ts
Here is the initial impression from our esteemed designer Chris White.
Oct. 18, 2016
Discovery 21, First Sail
...
Oct. 18, 2016
Discovery 21, First Sail
...
“Awesome, right out of the box!”
Ben Hall
Yesterday I finally had a chance to get on board the new Discovery 21 for a trial sail along with her builder Bill Koffler and mast builder as well as champion sailor, Ben Hall. The boat was moored in Bristol, Rhode Island, the day was calm to start with a perfect Indian summer sea breeze building in the afternoon.
As we dropped the mooring “Ishtar” slid off on starboard tack in the first puffs of afternoon breeze easily sailing at wind speed. We tacked out through the moorings, quickly coming across in the tacks with main, jib and mast trim all self tending.
The helm was nicely balanced with just a slight bit of weather helm. Windward performance seemed excellent although we had no instruments on board and no fast boats to compare with but the way the shoreline moved past was impressive.
As we got out toward the Mt. Hope bridge the wind started building and the little trimaran's engines began to rev. With wind in the low teens boat speed was quickly over 10 knots. Going upwind at speed the cockpit was still remarkably dry.
Tacking over to the more open part of Narragansett Bay the wind continued to build. We reached off to the NW enjoying an occasional surf on the little waves. Having some distance to beat back and by now a solid sea breeze gusting toward 20 knots we turned around and sheeted in hard. It was like lighting the afterburners!
Ben and I were sitting on the windward float, Bill steering from the cockpit. It was gusty so we each had a sheet in hand just in case but Ishtar felt like she was on rails, charging upwind powering through the gusts without care like no 21 foot daysailer I have ever seen. At times we were pretty close to flying the main hull, probably 80% of the way there, with boat speed probably over 12 kts. From the high position sitting on the windward float it was a thrilling ride and the most fun sail I've had in a long time.
The leeward float has plenty of buoyancy which kept the crossbeams out of the wave tops and allows the rig to fully power up the boat. Sail handling is very simple with sheet leads set up to be controlled from any position in the cockpit or out on the windward float deck.
The main hull bow generates far less spray than the original D-20 design which is a great relief. However the combination of high boat speed and waves eventually causes wave tops to be clipped off and anyone in the cockpit is likely to get more than a little wet. So once there are white caps you'll want decent sailing clothes unless its very warm.
Ben Hall
Yesterday I finally had a chance to get on board the new Discovery 21 for a trial sail along with her builder Bill Koffler and mast builder as well as champion sailor, Ben Hall. The boat was moored in Bristol, Rhode Island, the day was calm to start with a perfect Indian summer sea breeze building in the afternoon.
As we dropped the mooring “Ishtar” slid off on starboard tack in the first puffs of afternoon breeze easily sailing at wind speed. We tacked out through the moorings, quickly coming across in the tacks with main, jib and mast trim all self tending.
The helm was nicely balanced with just a slight bit of weather helm. Windward performance seemed excellent although we had no instruments on board and no fast boats to compare with but the way the shoreline moved past was impressive.
As we got out toward the Mt. Hope bridge the wind started building and the little trimaran's engines began to rev. With wind in the low teens boat speed was quickly over 10 knots. Going upwind at speed the cockpit was still remarkably dry.
Tacking over to the more open part of Narragansett Bay the wind continued to build. We reached off to the NW enjoying an occasional surf on the little waves. Having some distance to beat back and by now a solid sea breeze gusting toward 20 knots we turned around and sheeted in hard. It was like lighting the afterburners!
Ben and I were sitting on the windward float, Bill steering from the cockpit. It was gusty so we each had a sheet in hand just in case but Ishtar felt like she was on rails, charging upwind powering through the gusts without care like no 21 foot daysailer I have ever seen. At times we were pretty close to flying the main hull, probably 80% of the way there, with boat speed probably over 12 kts. From the high position sitting on the windward float it was a thrilling ride and the most fun sail I've had in a long time.
The leeward float has plenty of buoyancy which kept the crossbeams out of the wave tops and allows the rig to fully power up the boat. Sail handling is very simple with sheet leads set up to be controlled from any position in the cockpit or out on the windward float deck.
The main hull bow generates far less spray than the original D-20 design which is a great relief. However the combination of high boat speed and waves eventually causes wave tops to be clipped off and anyone in the cockpit is likely to get more than a little wet. So once there are white caps you'll want decent sailing clothes unless its very warm.
Thomas Coville sets out to attempt to break the solo round the world non stop record
Thomas Coville has departed on his solo round the world non stop record attempt. Thomas Coville has upgraded from his previous Nigel Iren's designed trimaran with a new Ultime trimaran that carries over some parts (suitably modified for their new role) of the former maxi trimaran Geronimo. To improve the record that Francis Joyon, on the trimaran IDEC, set of 57 days 13 hours and 34 minutes, he will have to finish by Tuesday, January 3, 2017 at 04:22:57
There is an article on Sailing Scuttlebutt here:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2016/11/06/coville-starts-solo-record-attempt/
and the tracker for the attempt is here:
http://tour-du-monde.sodebo.com/
There is an article on Sailing Scuttlebutt here:
http://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2016/11/06/coville-starts-solo-record-attempt/
and the tracker for the attempt is here:
http://tour-du-monde.sodebo.com/
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