An Oracle Rises

Some footage out today of the Oracle defender on San Francisco Bay after repairing their broken centreboard.  There's a lot of spectacular white water coming off the foils and lots of 'air time', but the big cat does not yet seem to look nearly as assured on her foils as ETNZ.  The first part of the video shows the earlier mishap with one of the centreboards shearing off (1:00), later on look for a great shot of her sailing through the Ben Ainslie Racing AC45 (3:06), some lumpy foiling (3:24) and check out the flexing between the two hulls from 3:30.

Magic Bus (Whiting Quarter Tonner)

Today's featured yacht is Magic Bus, a Quarter Tonner by the late Paul Whiting. Having seen the success of the light displacement approach by Bruce Farr with his breakthrough Quarter Ton design the 727, an optimised version of which won the Quarter Ton Cup in 1975 (45 South), Murray Ross approached Paul Whiting for a boat that took a more aggressive approach to the IOR, taking advantage of the light displacement concept but pushing her light air performance through a more optimised hull form to provide greater sail area. 

Paul Whiting delivered a very fast Quarter Tonner, that was slightly longer than the 727, with a much more pronounced maximum beam, hollow waterline for'ard and a long flat transom. Murray Ross applied his dinghy sailing prowess to the design of the rig and sails, incorporating many small boat tricks into the overall set up. These included headsails flown from their own wire luffs and spinnaker launching tubes which allowed sail changes to be largely managed from the cockpit.  

Magic Bus was launched in early 1976 in time to contest the Balokovic Cup, and easily won her division and would have won the overall fleet title had one been declared. She went on to contest the 1976 South Pacific Quarter Ton Cup, hosted by Panmure Yachting and Boating Club. The new boat put in a commanding performance, winning all but one race and against a large number of 727s and other top boats of the day. Her single loss was in a race that exposed her small Archilles heel - tight reaching. This was a result of excessive bow down trim which was rectified before she went on a one way trip to compete in the 1976 Quarter Ton Cup in Corpus Christi, Texas.  

Magic Bus during the 1976 South Pacific Quarter Ton Cup

Magic Bus and Potent Star

Magic Bus on her way to winning the 1976 Quarter Ton Cup

Magic Bus held out the Holland design Business Machine in the final ocean race by just over a minute to secure the narrowest of victories (with Business Machine finishing second overall), and thus defended the Quarter Ton Cup title won by 45 South the previous year. Magic Bus, and her fellow NZ competitor, the Davidson designed centreboarder Fun, were easily the best of the non-North American entries, and their respective placings prevented a clean sweep by US and Canadian yachts. Magic Bus was the outstanding boat of the series, and there was little doubt that her crew was one of the best as well. She was the only light displacement boat able to stay with the masthead yachts in winds under 5 knots. At the same time she was able to foot it upwind with the best moderate to heavy displacement boats, but was able to stretch away easily on the offwind legs.

Magic Bus in a close tussle with Business Machine

Magic Bus and the Farr One Tonner Sweet Okole seen here in San Francisco circa 1979 (photo CRM)

Magic Bus was sold in the US and never returned to New Zealand. She is now reportedly in Alameda, San Francisco, and will hopefully be restored one day. She was a very innovative design and an important boat for her designer. 

Magic Bus, now located in Alameda, California (photo Patrick Kohlman/Half Ton History website)

Update June 2015 - Magic Bus has returned to New Zealand - follow her restoration here.

Featured Blog - Chevalier Taglang

This is an great blog by François Chevalier and Jacques Taglang for those interested in yacht design.  While the blog is set up in French, my understanding is that Francois and Jacques create design drawings of various yachts from their observations of photos or other media, and also come up with their own concept drawings. 

Current featured designs include the ETNZ catamaran, and comparisons with Artemis' contender.

Other interesting designs include the Volvo 70s from the recent edition of the Volvo Ocean Race, the famous Australia II, and an interesting maxiscow (100ft) concept based on the recent Mini-Transat winning scow design by David Raison.  The advantages of this design approach may be compelling, but the aesthetic result may take some time to get used to!

Visit the Chevalier Taglang blog at:

http://chevaliertaglang.blogspot.co.nz/

Foiling Fantastic

Here's some more footage of ETNZ's first catamaran up and foiling from 6 September. Hopefully if NZ wins the Cup back these boats might get unleashed on a bigger course than will be possible in San Francisco, like to Little Barrier and back!

RAYC Gold Cup

The first race of the 2012-13 RAYC Gold Cup series was held on Saturday 22 September. The race was a 30 miler, starting off Orakei Wharf and taking the 25 boat fleet around Rangitoto and Motutapu, to Motuihe and eastwards to Passage Rock, and then back to the finish at Orakei.  Conditions were great, with a 15knot easterly, occasionally tending nor'east, and sunny skies. 


Power Play (Farr 40) on the tight reach to Rangitoto Light

The new Elliott 13.55 Crusader made her maiden race appearance, sporting black sails with square-top mainsail and a long prod. She made quite a sight under a big gennaker on the broad reach home from Passage Rock.

Mercenary (SR26)

The fleet made their way out the Rangitoto Channel with sheets started, before a beat up to Billy Goat Point at the northern tip of Motutapu.  May boats hoisted gennakers for the short run down to Motuihe, finding themselves have to extend the range of these sails as the wind came further aft as they headed further west to round Motuihe Red buoy.  The beat up the Waiheke Channel was shifty, but boats that set themselves up near the Waiheke shoreline made the most gains from the lifts coming off that shore. 

Overload and Mercenary

River Rebel, Starlight Express (Davidson 55) and Power Play

Mr Roosevelt on the beat to Passage Rock

Overload lights up on the reach down to Motuihe Channel

Overload

Urban Cowboy - when good gybes go bad

The spinnaker ride home was fairly easy for most boats, and made for a great end to the day.  An increase in wind strength at the finish led to a few issues for crews, with a couple of gybes being necessary to lay the finish from Bean Rock lighthouse, and Urban Cowboy lost some valuable minutes and placings with a gybe that didn't quite come off....

The Carkeek 50 Equilibrium led the fleet home by a large margin, and River Rebel took PHRF honours, followed by the White 40 Whitebait.  Crusader finished about 25 minutes after Equilibrium, but with an initial PHRF of 0.975 finished well down the results sheet with a 19th.

Full results are here: http://rayc.org.nz/gold-cup/#results, and more photos here: http://www.facebook.com/RichmondYachtClub

RNZYS Club Marine Winter Series - Windy Final Day



Mojo, Elliott 40, 4th overall A Division (PHRF)

The final day in the ten race series for the RNZYS Club Marine Winter Series was held in fresh conditions on 15 September, with the wind reported to be blowing up to 40 knots. Small jibs and reefs were the order of the day, and plenty of thrills and spills were had for those who carried extras. Here are a few shots taken by intrepid roving cameraman Stephen Craig.




Pacific Sundance, Farr 40 One Tonner, 3rd overall B Division (PHRF)

Revolution, Farr 1104, 3rd overall C Division (Gen H'cap)

Playbuoy, 1st overall line, 2nd overall Gen H'cap (Stewart 34 Division) 

Featured Blog - shockwave40



Juno (GBR), Admiral's Cup 1991

This blog provides an interesting collection of photographs of IOR racing yachts from the late 1980s and early 1990s, compiled by a keen English yachtsman who has been busy converting his original print archives to electronic files. There is a particular focus on a range of international yachts that competed in the 1989 and 1991 Admiral's Cup, the prestigious offshore team's racing trophy sailed from Cowes and which was once acknowledged as the unofficial world championship of offshore racing (won by New Zealand just once, in 1987).  The collection includes a couple of the New Zealand champion One Tonner, Propaganda, which had been a member of the 1987 NZ team that finally took the trophy in 1987.



Propaganda, Admiral's Cup 1989

Visit at www.shockwave40.blogspot.com

Larouge, Farr Two Tonner (ITA), Admiral's Cup 1991