Matador2

Matador2 was the second IOR Maxi for US yachtsman and industrialist Bill Koch. Koch got into yacht racing in 1984, after buying a boat with Ted Hood briefly and then a cruising boat. His first maxi was a 1982-vintage German Frers’ designed maxi called Huaso which he refurbished and renamed as Matador (named after Koch’s father’s favourite ranch in Texas). While racing against Raul Gardini and others on the maxi yacht circuit, he launched a yacht design competition at home to fashion a new, world-beating yacht for this class which would become Matador2.

Matador2 powers upwind during the Newport leg of the 1990 Maxi World Championships (photo Guy Gurney)

That competition and subsequent research programme, took some six years in total and close to $8m was spent in the development and construction of Matador2. Along the way, Koch’s team developed the most extensive private research and development programme ever undertaken in sailing, although those costs were then able to be amortised somewhat wiht his subsequent America3 America's Cup programme. Before building his new maxi, Koch accepted 40 designs in 1985 for models from naval architects around the world. The models were built quarter-scale and tested for up to six weeks a year in the towing tanks at Hydronautics and the wind tunnels of the University of Maryland. Koch then chose the 12 most promising designs and had these 22-foot ‘models’ rigged for actual sailing. The Matador crew were then pitted against each other in the boats, and laser guns were used to measure minute speed differences. Keels were interchanged and the most promising ones were built at full-scale and tested on Matador. With these constant refinements, Koch managed to turn the aged Matador into a serious contender on the maxi circuit, which went on to finish second in the Maxi World Championships three times in a row, including in 1989.

One of the many models for the eventual Matador2 design that were tested at quarter-scale (photo Yachting magazine)

The ultimate goal, however, was Matador2. To further evaluate the speed potential of the new boat, the winning design was built as a 30-foot sailing dynamometer fitted with an interior frame loaded with stress gauges to measure sail and rig loadings. A mock-up of the deck was also built, which was then mounted on a block and tackle system to simulate heeling conditions and set the crew to work to discover empirically exactly where deck hardware should be mounted.

An early photograph of Matador2, thought to be on her original delivery sail (Seahorse)

What the designs taught Koch and his team was that under the IOR, a larger, heavier yacht would perform better, due to rating benefits conferred by the Mk IIIA version of the rule. This was a fact also discovered in the design of the Whitbread maxi Steinlager 2. The two designs that came out on top were from Bill Cook and Ted Hood, both known for favouring heavy displacement. Cook had been studying the concept of a larger maxi in 1984 and this had informed his design submission in 1985. He was given the nod and his design, finalised in 1989 (with input from Penn Edmonds and Buddy Duncan), was for a 85-footer and so she became the largest IOR maxi ever built. Her statistics relative to other maxis of the time demonstrate the extreme corner of the rule in which she was pitched. Along with being the longest yacht in overall terms, she was also as long in measured rating terms as Steinlager 2 at 72ft, 2ft longer than the 1989 maxi champion Longobarda for example. Her 100,000 pound displacement was 13,000 pounds heavier than Longobarda and over 18,000 pounds heavier than Raul Gardini's Passage (ex-Windward Passage 2). Alongside this was a powerful 14,700ft/lbs righting moment, significantly greater again than her competitors.

Matador2 with a dacron delivery main works up in early trials alongside her stablemate Matador

Her size appeared to be further amplified by reasonably high freeboard and a generous beam. She featured a strongly angled stem with a long and graceful transom, which narrowed in a typical manner in response to the after girth station measurement demands of the IOR. 

Matador2 was built by Eric Goetz in Bristol, Rhode Island. The hull, deck and internal structure were constructed entirely from carbon fibre over core materials of varying density (from aramid honeycomb in the basic hull and deck panels to high-density foam in more heavily loaded areas). Solid carbon was used in the area of highest loads (such as the keel, primary winches etc).

Matador2 after rounding a leeward mark (photo Histoiredeshalfs website)

Despite all the testing that had been undertaken in the build-up to her launch, the ultimate keel design was a last-minute decision. The design team came up with the idea of using a large bulb keel (reportedly utilising a thin stainless steel core or fin) with a fine trim tab on the trailing edge (which likely attracted a small rating penalty under the Moveable Appendage Factor measurement component). The Frers-designed Kialoa V (winner in 1987) had also used a trim tab but, Koch’s team felt that this was too large. The keel was kept shrouded from prying eyes like that first employed for the radical 12m, Australia II.

Matador2, 1990 (photo Seahorse)

While Matador had a masthead rig, Matador2 sported a large fractional rig, as was by then common even at maxi scale, owing in part to 1987 rule changes that favoured larger mainsail girths. Likely due in part to her high displacement and resulting rating credit, Matador2 also carried a larger sail plan than her rivals, by 200-300 square feet.

A view of the cockpit arrangement of Matador2 (photo Seahorse)

The cockpit layout was built around two principal requirements: dual steering wheels and all pedestals on the centreline. In this way, virtually any combination of pedestals could drive any combination of primary, secondary, mainsheet and runner drums, and the aft two pedestals are also able to power the hydraulic system. The mainsheet winch plinths also doubled-up as hydraulic panels positioned behind the wheels. There were two light control lines exiting either side of the plinth, which was for the trim tab control played by the tactician who sat behind the helmsman. The deck layout was otherwise flat with little apparent camber, but incorporated a shallow inset in the bow area to aid the crew's sail handling.

Matador2 in fine upwind trim

After her launch in early 1990, the new Matador2 beat Boomerang handily in the New York Yacht Club Regatta in June that year, although some of the guest skippers who visited Newport to sail the old Matador against the new one during the summer rumoured that the old boat was quicker.

Matador2 in power reaching conditions

The true test would be the 1990 Maxi World Championship, which was sailed over three separate regattas, each consisting of seven races. The series started in Newport in September 1990, moved to Miami in late October before concluding in St. Thomas.

As the march around the course began during the first race in the Newport regatta, the lead boat was Passage, helmed by Paul Cayard. Gardini had acquired Passage as a replacement for his 1988 World Champion Il Moro di Venezia III, now sailing as Vanitas. During earlier European Maxi regattas Longobarda, winner of the 1989 World Championship, still appeared to be the faster boat, but changes had been made to Passage’s keel and rudder and this appeared to be yielding dividends.

Matador2 during the 1990 Maxi World Championships (photo Yachting magazine)

Passage continued to lead the fleet around the windward-leeward course as the boats started up the last leg. However, a better sail selection by Matador2 in a building breeze saw her overtake Passage and secure first place. Longobarda meanwhile suffered a series of breakdowns, including and most significantly the loss of the clew of her mainsail. In the second race, with the apparent wind increasing to 25-30 knots or more, Matador2 dominated and Passage also blew out the clew in her mainsail.

Matador2 seen here during the 1990 Maxi World Championships to leeward of Passage and Longobarda, but ahead of Vanitas

Matador2’s two firsts on the first day was an emphatic start to the series, but on the second day it was her turn to make mistakes, with two fifths, while Passage took two wins, which essentially set up the rest of the series as a two-boat race between these two boats. While she started conservatively in the remaining three races, Matador2 displayed better tactics and speed through the use of her efficient trim tab that enabled the boat to point or lift three to four degrees higher in clear air than her competitors. She won the next two races but Passage was still leading by half a point going into the last race. But Matador2 won the final match, and with it the seven-race series to win the regatta by 1.75 points.

Matador2 - Maxi World Champion 1990 (photo/poster Facebook)

The navigator aboard Vanitas was reported to observe at this time that Matador2 “is major league fast". Matador2 tactician Gary Jobson noted that the racing became more difficult after Newport once the other six maxis realised that to have a chance at winning, they would have to gang up on the new boat. "We didn't have too many friends out there. Before every start, two boats would circle us while a third waited nearby to come in for the kill."

Matador2 alongside Longobarda during the Miami leg of the 1990 Maxi World Championships (photo Sharon Green | Ultimate Sailing) 

Photos of the second regatta in Miami can be seen here. No results are available but Matador2 finished either first or second.

Matador2 during the 1990 Maxi World Championships (photo Yachting magazine)

Later, in the third regatta in St Thomas, and with only two races left in the 21-race 1990 Maxi World Championship series, Matador2 and Passage were deadlocked in the point standings. As Passage gracefully rounded the inflatable orange marker in the penultimate race and headed upwind, her experimental carbon-fiber headboard car shattered and her main dropped to the deck. One of the crew scrambled up the mast to repair the damage but was passed by Matador2 and Longobarda. By the time the mainsail was fixed, Matador2 had won. The next day, Matador2 squeezed past Passage again to win the 75-mile distance race to clinch the world championship. Passage's mishap was worth a possible swing of five points: she ended up losing the world title to Matador2 by a mere 4.25 points.

This image is possibly from the World Championships in St Tropez in 1991, and demonstrates the dominance of Matador2 by this time

The 1991 Maxi World Championships were held in St Tropez. No results or race reports are available but it is known that Matador2 put on a dominant display, no doubt benefiting from a further year of tuning, and she won a second world championship title.

Matador2 racing in St Tropez in the 1991 Maxi World Championships (photo Phil Uhl)

The dominance of Matador2 unfortunately spelt the end of the Maxi class, at least as it was defined by the IOR. By the time of the 1990 World Championship there was no sign of Jim Kilroy (Kialoa) or George Coumantaros (Boomerang) planning to build new maxis, and while Alan Bond’s Pedrick-designed Drumbeat (1989) had been bought by a new owner, she was being converted for IMS. Much of the intensity of the class was being diverted towards the 1992 America’s Cup, and those programmes not involved in the America’s Cup were planning projects for the 1993-94 Whitbread race. These factors did not encourage existing or prospective owners to commit the increasingly enormous funds required for yachts that would remain competitive for just a couple of years, and become entirely obsolete not long after as the IOR entered into its final death throes (the next Maxi World Championship was not held until 1995, under IMS, and Coumantaros re-entered the fray with a new Boomerang to win in 1996).

Matador2 sailing in Australia (year unknown, but the Kevlar sails are no longer in use)

Matador2 was subsequently sold to an Australian yachtsman, Anton Starling, in 1993 and renamed Fudge, after her new sponsor. She is recorded as having competed in the 1998 Sydney-Hobart yacht race, finishing fifth in her division on corrected time. She has since become part of the fleet of old maxi yachts that are used for charter and sailing expeditions in the Whitsunday Islands. The website for 'Matador Whitsundays' records that she had competed in a total of 52 races and eight regattas and two World Championships, "boasting a total of 31 wins 5 seconds and 6 thirds".

Matador2 in her marina in Queensland and in current sailing trim (photos Facebook)

More photographs and articles (in French) can be seen on the Histoiredeshalfs website here.