Technology and Gear Noticed at the Quiberon Worlds

Updated 4 August, 1999

To the best of my knowledge there never has been a revolutionary development that won the developer the world championship and made everyone else's boats obsolete, in the history of the 505 class. This year was no exception; the guys who won sailed better, and had spent more time in the boat than their competition. However development and experimentation continues in the 505 class, and there was some interesting new gear in use.

Foils

The first, second and third placed teams, Howard Hamlin/Mike Martin, Andy Beeckman/Ben Benjamin, and Jorgen Schoenherr/Anders Kaempe, all used high aspect ratio foils. The first two teams used custom Waterat high aspect ratio centreboards and rudders, while Schoenherr/Kaempe used the current Waterat high aspect ratio design centerboard, a little different from what the first two had. The Schoenherr/Kaempe Rondar centreboard trunk was made two inches longer at the front to accommodate the longer centreboard. Schoenherr/Kaempe did not use a Waterat rudder.
All of these centreboards were gybing.

The third US team, Dan Thompson/Andy Zinn, also used the current Waterat high aspect ratio foils (a similar CB as Schoenherr's, but the Waterat high aspect ratio rudder.)

I believe Howard and Mike's success is due to time in the boat with a tuning partner, and they would have had the same result with the standard foils.

"I think we were slower than we used to be in the world's condition than a standard Waterat", said Howard. "We were rounding 7th and 8th and doing most all our passing down wind. Andy Beeckman/Ben Benjamin used the same centreboard we used last year, and they used the standard rudder. We [Howard/Mike] used the same rudder for the last two years. Our centerboard was different this year and a little slower in the medium air."

My suspicion is that these high aspect ratio foils may not work as well as the standard Waterat foils in a wide range of conditions, upwind and down, but they worked well enough in the light air of this worlds. As you've read, Howard Hamlin has a somewhat different perspective.

I'm not planning to buy new foils.

More Thoughts on Foils
A number of top 505 teams Worldwide are not even using gybing centerboards, while to my knowledge every serious 505 team in North America does use gybing boards. My belief is that the gybing board (or the gybing board in conjunction with either of the two North American 505 rigs) produces better pointing with the same speed in light and medium air. At the Quiberon Worlds, two of the fastest UK teams - Pinnell/Powell and Upton-Brown/Mitchell - each won a race. These two races were in a little more breeze than the others, though not yet to 15 knots. Pinnell/Powell do not use a gybing board, Upton-Brown/Mitchell may. In the slightly lighter air of the other worlds races, these teams struggled to get into the top ten.

While drifting around in too-little-wind-to-start-a-race one day, Pip and I spoke with Ian Pinnell and Nick Powell about centerboards. My understanding was that they have already started to raise their CB a little, before they get to planing upwind conditions (which is what I do when I remember to do so), and felt they were faster upwind in any breeze with the non gybing board. Perhaps due to more lighter air racing, the North American view is that you have to have a gybing board to be on the pace in the lighter air, and simply bringing the board up slightly reduces the gybe angle, such that in overpowered conditions the gybe angle is negligible.

The UK teams certainly have impressive speed and pointing once they are powered up, indeed I suspect they make the transition to planing upwind in a puff more easily than the North American teams, but have trouble getting out of the gate in the lighter stuff since they cannot point with the North American teams.

Digital Compasses

At the Denmark Worlds in 1997, several teams were using the original Tacktick digital compass. Everyone agreed that with the unit mounted at the mast gate, the crew could not read the display from the trapeze, but could read the head/lift indicator. At the '99 Worlds several teams had the twin display sport boat version of the Tacktick called the Racemaster, that angles the displays somewhat to each side. These CAN be read by the crew from the wire. I have always found that simply sailing the boat takes all the time and energy that I have, and I go slower if I am watching the compass too, so having a compass the crew can watch is very important for me. The original Tacktick was not acceptable to me in this regard, but the twin display sport boat version looks ideal.

I have ordered a Tacktick Racemaster.

- Ali

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