Ravi Parent is sailing at his own pace these days, and the pace is always quick…and calculated. He is as measured as one would expect of a Boston University cum laude mechanical engineer who’s been sailing fast gear since before he had his driver’s permit. His dedication to perfection propelled him to the top of the Worlds for both the A class and Formula 18 catamaran last year. With two world championship titles in hand, he’s the first American sailor to win both in the same year, as well as the F18 Europeans. Cat sailors know that’s a big deal. The A and the 18 require serious talent, commitment and technical savvy. Parent has all three. Being shortlisted as a 2022 Rolex Yachtsman of the Year is a humbling honor, he says, when I catch him driving to the Sarasota Sailing Squadron on a late January afternoon (He would later collect his Rolex Yachtmaster.) It’s also a validation of the work he’s put in and the close-knit cat community that’s supported him along the way. On this particular windless afternoon, he’s headed to where his sailing obsession took hold, for another day of boatwork on his latest challenge—the Moth.

What’s on the work list?

Not much. I’m trying to design a travel bag for the wings so I can fly with them.

How new to the International Moth are you?

I got one at the beginning of last summer (2022). Right after the A Cat Worlds, I sold that boat and got this one because I wanted to take on a new adventure. I’m not done sailing the A Cat by any means, though.

How’s the swimming been?

It’s been a vertical learning curve for the first month, but it’s starting to get a little better and a little more fun every day. The sensations between the A Cat and the Moth are similar; the foiling concept is the same, with the pitch and ride height and all that stuff. The speed and the sail trim are similar, but it’s not trapezing, so your righting moment comes from heel, and the biggest thing I’ve been learning is the effect that heel has on the boat. Jibes have been a bit of a challenge, and the boat I have is the Bieker [model], which has the smaller wings, so…I’ve broken a few tillers while learning to tack, but now I’m a little better at it and saving money.

Where are you on the ­sailing-versus-boatwork spectrum these days?

Actually, not bad. I’ve been thinking about this recently. The trade-off I’m seeing is that the A is faster to rig—I can go from the parking lot to sailing in like 30 minutes. The daily maintenance is longer, though. With the A, there’s a lot more foil sanding and staying on top of the systems, especially after a windy day. With the Moth, there’s virtually no foil sanding because you barely touch them—they go in and out. Rigging it, however, does take a bit longer. I’m still about an hour from showing up to going sailing, but to be honest, I haven’t broken much. Yesterday, I did about 40 miles in 15 to 24 knots and have no boatwork today.

How do you afford the time and upkeep with all your high-tech, high-demand craft?

I work for Morelli & Melvin as a part-time design engineer, primarily working on power-cat foils. There is some sailboat stuff, but powerboats are easier than sailboats in some regards, so that’s where I’ve started. I’m still getting three to five days of sailing a week, mainly three-hour sessions. I have to be a lot more organized with my time to make sure I’m using every second effectively. Outside of that, I’ve been doing a lot of coaching for the development teams of the Nacra 17 and 49er sailors, and also helping with the US Sailing Team’s equipment tech and testing program.

Take us back to the early days of Ravi the Little Ripper.

I started young in the F16 and the F18s, so it wasn’t quite one-design sailing like traditional junior sailing kids would do, which I now realize is a strength because I was sailing among adults most of the time. Also, the boats were different designs, which got me interested in boat design. At the time, the F18 class had like four different builders, and they were all different. It was a fun learning experience at a young age.

I did Optis and Lasers too, and that was socially driven, as it is with most kids. I wanted to hang out with my friends, but I was also competitive and wanted some independence on the water. I was also small—probably 120 pounds—and I could sail the Radial in Sarasota in light wind, but I’d get my butt kicked in anything over 12 knots, so the doublehanded catamaran was perfect for me. I could sail with one of my bigger friends and be on a more-even playing ground. We had a couple of multihull members at the Squadron who were awesome enough to let a few of us take out their boats. We had a group of six sailors back in 2011, and we all basically set a goal that we wanted to do the multihull championship that summer.

As a lifelong Floridian, how’d you end up college sailing in the cold Northeast?

I did look at a few Florida schools, but I decided to try something different to see if I would like it. Stan Schreyer (Boston University head coach) was awesome to me. He took the time to introduce me to what it would be like going to school there. The allure of college sailing in the Northeast was strong, and it also didn’t hurt that both of my parents went there for their medical school.

What potential do you think Stan saw in you?

I think he saw what other ­college coaches didn’t realize, and that was my catamaran sailing skills. While other coaches were looking for the traditional youth sailing 420 type, Stan, being a multihull sailor himself, knew that cat sailing forces you to think faster and to have long-term strategic planning. In an FJ, you can do 20 tacks and not lose anything—you might even gain. In cats and skiffs, you’re limited in your boathandling, so you have to be thinking a half a leg ahead. You have to have your plan and fast reaction time. Having those skills coming into college sailing really helped me. I felt if I was being dumb on the racecourse, I could rely on speed, and a lot of that came from cat sailing.

After graduating, you didn’t waste any time jumping into Olympic sailing, did you?

I wanted to dive into it right away. It was near the end of the last quad, so I didn’t have enough time. It was about a year-and-a-half investment. I had done well in the Nacra 17 at the Miami World Cup in my senior year. I had some funding, and all the parts came together to just get into it. That was with Caroline Atwood, and we did a compressed campaign, and like learning the Moth, the curve was vertical. My cat-sailing background helped, but I was functional—not proficient or even good by any means. If I started then with the skills and maturity I have now, I’m sure it would have gone a different way. I’d have to do it again the same way to get to where I am today, but I’m happy with the way things are going now. Learning the boat was a huge part of it. It just requires a lot of hours in the boat because to learn anything mechanical, you just have to do it, but you have to do it efficiently.

I’ve been told that finding the perfect Nacra crew is like speed dating.

Absolutely. It’s a ­personality match and also a size thing. There might be someone like me who’s more technically savvy, and someone who’s holistic savvy or the right size. There can be a lot of different combinations, but it’s really about bringing out the strengths, and each sailor to make it work. Caroline and I were too small. That was the biggest thing. The Nacra 17, especially now that it’s gone to full foiling upwind, the size had gone up. We were always in the 300 to 310 range, and now it’s more like 315 to 320 combined.

Was it straight to the nine-to-five when that campaign ended?

After we missed selection at the Trials, I got the job with Morelli & Melvin, so it was nice to be able to pay the bills. And I wanted to do something independent of Olympic sailing as well, which is something I suggest to a lot of the Olympic Development sailors I coach. You obviously need to learn your boat, do your diligence and put in the hours, but it’s good to develop something on your own too, especially for drivers who don’t get tired nearly as much as the crews. It’s important to have some sort of singlehanded extracurricular that complements what they’re trying to do. For me, that was the A class. I bought a used one and went straight into it.

Not an easy boat to just
dive into.

It was a steep learning curve for sure. The things I was focusing on and learning in 2020 are so elementary to me now. It was an older boat, and I basically stripped it and started over to get it up to date.

Was it intimidating getting into a class notorious for being an arms-race kind of boat—at least at the top of the class?

A bit, but even now I’m very strict about how I do my budgets. I’m realistic about what I can afford, but I’m also strategic about the equipment I buy and how to do it. I knew, ­eventually, my strengths in sailing the boat would outweigh a lot of the equipment stuff. From sailing the Nacra 17, the downwind foiling was kind of easy. Fundamentally, I knew what was going to happen. I just need to adapt to having one sail and foils that are a lot more sensitive, and dealing with rudder differential.

To stay at the top of the class, people do end up cycling through boats, but that does not by any means diminish the boat you have. It’s about being realistic. It’s hard in our sport because everyone has different situations, so you can’t compare yourself to anyone else; you can take inspiration and ideas from others, but you really have to scale it to your own life. The biggest thing for me is being able to support myself, covering the basic expenses, and understanding how to have an income and go from there. Figuring out how to make every dollar do as much as it can do. It could be into equipment or coaching, time or convenience. For example, do I rent a slightly more expensive apartment that’s closer to the venue so I can save on time commuting and sail more often—things like that.

What were your expectations going into the A Cat Worlds in Houston?

Looking back, I think I might have been one of if not the most prepared person. I spent the most time at the venue—almost two months—which absolutely provided me an advantage. I didn’t have the latest and greatest equipment, but I had confidence in all the training I’d done in my boat. I knew my boat well and knew what I could do. The more confidence you have in your equipment, the more you can get away with not having the latest and greatest.

What was your approach to training in Houston?

I did a lot of training with Bruce Mahoney. It was about 75 percent with a training partner and 25 percent on my own. I have a list of what I’m working on in any condition, so I’m always prepared for whatever ­condition I have to make good use of it. With Bruce, we’d do tuning and finish up with some racecourse stuff. But if I was on my own, I’d work on my boathandling for hours, or acceleration, or sail around and study the wind on the bay. Being my first A Cat Worlds, I was being realistic and had no idea what was going to happen.

My focus of the regatta was to continue to have a level head—but my first race was terrible. I rounded the top mark in second and hooked a fish. That day was light-air marginal foiling, so it was really difficult to get the fish off. I rallied for the next race and ended up winning it.

That first race was unusually light air too, and I knew more breeze was coming later in the week. I had been developing a more refined starting technique, which ended up being a bit of a secret weapon. I’d practiced a lot on full-foiling starts, so I knew as soon as the breeze was coming, I’d be able to start 4 knots faster than anyone next to me. That sort of became my strength the rest of the regatta. That made my life easier on the windy days because a couple hundred yards immediate gain off the starting line is a big advantage.

What’s that move called? The Ravi Slingshot?

I learned in Nacra 17 and Olympic sailing that your biggest gains tend to happen when the fleet is all on an even ladder rung, which is certainly off the starting line and up the first upwind leg. That’s when you can pass everyone or be last immediately. So, I knew the starting line would be a critical time and knew the spacing between boats would be good. As the breeze increased, my biggest focus was the starting initiations that require the least investment. By that, I mean I’m trying to accelerate and get on the foil in a thin lane.

How do you practice for that?

Basically, I’d start my watch with a 15-second countdown, do an acceleration, and understand how much time and distance it took me to go from dead stop to full foiling and how much of a lane it used. I could go from zero to full foiling in about three boatlengths, and it was about a boat width of a lane. So, that’s about 12 seconds for acceleration, and 10 seconds on a good day.

It requires being a bit back and envisioning where that clean lane is going to be, where the [windward boat’s] wind shadow is going to be, and whether I can punch through it. The windier it is, the narrower the wind shadow, so you can kind of get through it easier.

Let’s switch over to the F18 Worlds, which you won with crew Severin Gramm, another technical class with some serious talent.

I have been sailing F18s on and off since I was 14. There’s a lot more power in the F18s than the A Cat, so that makes the racing more competitive. It was nice to divide the labor with Severin.

That journey to the F18 Worlds started in 2021. Pete Melvin (the Morelli & Melvin designer for Nacra), he let me take his new boat and rig it. Peter Vink (of Nacra) supplied a boat for the Europeans in Lake Garda, and that was a good result for us, and again that was another regatta that sailed to our strengths. We’re athletic and had the boathandling down, and that paid off because it was a flat-water event and breezy. We knew we could just put the hammer down and out-muscle a lot of people. Severin’s physical and strategic strengths filled in many of the gaps in my own game, and we figured out how to maximize our potential with the short amount of time we had sailing together. The Europeans was Severin’s first time sailing an F18.

You’re 27, a double world champ, and a Yachtsman of the Year nominee. That must make you a pro sailor in demand these days.

I’m technically a Cat 3 because I coach and do receive endorsements, but I’m not paid to go sailing. I’ve never been paid to go sailing. I’d love to be paid, but my philosophy is that I want to do the sailing that I really enjoy. I love the small boats, and I’m open to doing larger boats, but for me that’s not the J/70, which is perfect for what it is and a great class, but I’m a high-­performance junkie. I have to sail a boat that goes over 20. That’s my thing. I would love to ­someday get to SailGP.

Morelli & Melvin is ­incredibly supportive of the sailing I do, and I could not do it without the flexibility [the owners] give me. Pete has a long history with the A class as a two-time world champion, and I’m trying to beat his record. I still do have the passion for the Nacra 17. I still have the equipment, and feel like I have unfinished business in that class and would like to come back and do my best there. The journey of Olympic-class sailing is incredibly rewarding and just makes you a better sailor. The skills I’m using now, the organization, the planning and the focused training, all came from Olympic sailing.

I don’t come from a sailing family—my dad played soccer and did some local racing and cruising, and my mom was a violinist. But for the most part, I’m really the only sailor in my family, so I take a lot of pride in carving my path in the sport because it’s truly been my own path. I’ve had to figure out all this stuff and learn from people around me. That said, I’m really enjoying everything I’m doing, and I understand sailing is a lifelong career and sport. So, I know eventually my time will come, and I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing.

The post Ravi, Racing to The Top appeared first on Sailing World.

Sailing World Magazine’s annual Boat of the Year tests are conducted in Annapolis, Maryland, following the US Sailboat Show. With independent judges exhaustively inspecting the boats on land and putting them through their paces on the water, this year’s fleet of new performance-sailing boats spanned from small dinghies to high-tech bluewater catamarans. Here’s the best of the best from our 2023 Boat of the Year nominees »

The Power of Three

• Neel 43 2023 Best Multihull
• Stated purpose: Family cruising, casual pursuit racing
• Crew: Two to four
• Praise for: Easily handling, open interior layout, overall positive sailing experience
• Est. price as sailed: $600,000

In the sea of slab-sided catamarans that make up “multihull alley” in the US Sailboat Show, there’s a homogeneity that makes it almost impossible for one cat sailing condo to stand out among the others. (Gunboat and HH Catamarans being the high-ticket exceptions.)

Unique and mixed in among them, however, is the Neel 43 trimaran. From the dock perspective, it’s a big and imposing vessel. It’s also a proven bluewater performer that’s already won its share of hardware. While previous French-built Neel performance cruising tris have been overlooked by the racing set, that’s starting to change, as are opinions of multihulls. Ask the Texans in Galveston how many performance cruising multis are now doing their annual Harvest Moon Regatta—more than ever. And the Caribbean Multihull Challenge in St. Martin? It’s growing bigger by the year, and that’s because boats like the Neel 43 can be one heck of a ride and capable of being first to finish in a coastal overnighter.

“What surprised me is how much it sailed upwind like a monohull,” Allen says. “When you start flying the weather hull—when it’s just skimming the surface—the boat takes off. We didn’t have a ton of breeze for the test sail, but it was easy to see how you could really cover some ground with the right sail combination. I could see this boat being easily raced point-to-point by two people. With four crew on a coastal race, it would be a blast—go around the island and then park the thing and have a great night.”

Neel-Trimarans, explains Alex Sastre, the North American agent, was founded 20 years ago by Eric Brunel, founder of catamaran giant Fountaine Pajot. Neel now builds nearly 200 boats per year at its facilities in La Rochelle, France, and it’ll build plenty of these entry-level cruising tris.

The boat’s overall interior concept is to have one large and connected living space, visible from hull to hull. Step through the main salon sliding door and the living quarters are all right there before you with a near panoramic view. There’s an owners cabin in one hull, a guest cabin in the other, and a sunken V-berth forward. The layout is a striking change from similar-size catamarans, where cabins are down and low in the hulls. On the Neel 43, there’s a feeling of inclusion, like a loft apartment. It’s not necessarily better or worse in terms of owner privacy, the judges say. It’s just different. What the trimaran’s large center hull provides is a giant mechanical room below. Open a hatch and climb down a short ladder to an airy and brightly illuminated space with all the boat systems accessible.

The boat is primarily intended for family cruising, Sastre says, but it’s ultimately for a sailor who appreciates performance. “When you trim in the sails, the boat lurches forward,” he says, thrusting his hips forward, “like whoosh! It takes off!

“With four on a long-­distance race, it would be a blast [to] go around the island and then park the thing on a mooring and have a great night.”

—Chuck Allen

“A trimaran,” he adds, “is more stable than a catamaran and is faster than a catamaran, so sailing this boat is a lot of fun because helming it gives a feeling of great sensation. With the keel, mast and rudder on the center hull, trimming the amas is like a balancing act. It doesn’t heel too much, and it’s very stable. This is a platform for adventure.”

“It was the least multihull-like of all the multihulls we sailed,” Powlison says. “It handled like a monohull, and the third hull really makes a difference in being able turn the boat easily without stalling.”

The boat is an impressive build of vinylester and foam core, with nearly the entire hull built off with one mold. Neel touts use of eco-friendly and recyclable materials, and even cork is used as coring in some interior elements. Solar panels on the roof power the fridge and electronics.

With a displacement of nearly 9 tons, there’s a lot of boat that spans 24 feet at maximum beam. Looking bow on, it’s a formidable-looking craft that glides quietly across the water when there’s all of 1,100 square feet of upwind sail area on the carbon rig. With its roller-furling gennaker deployed, the boat really lights up, as it should, Allen says.

The single helm is up high to starboard with good visibility, the judges note, with all the reef and control lines spilling into the helm area and into sheet bags.

The Dyneema cable steering, Stewart says, was very responsive: “This is Hull No. 25, which is a good indication they’ve hit it right with the type of owner drawn to this type of boat. It definitely meets its purpose and does what it is supposed to. It’s stable and powerful, and accelerated well, even with the small jib. It felt far more nimble than other big multihulls we’ve sailed in the past. The way that it tacked easily is a really appealing trait for the type of racing an owner can do, like in the Caribbean, where the races are around islands and there can be a fair bit of tacking.”

First around the island means the first ­relaxing, and that’s what the Neel 43 is designed to do.

The post 2023 Boat of the Year Best Multihull: Neel 43 appeared first on Sailing World.

On a gray, squally morning off the lovely French beachfront community of Grand Case, the last boats standing in what has been an extremely eventful second edition of the Caribbean Multihull Challenge set forth on the third and final day of competition. With punchy, shifty breeze ranging from 10 to 20 knots, and intermittent showers, it was a day that rewarded diligent and efficient boat handling. And several notable boats put the exclamation points on three days of solid performances to wrap up class victories in convincing fashion.

For the grand finales of the series, principal race officer Marc van Dongen sent the fleet on a trio of different courses. CSA Multihull 1 went on a 27.5-nautical mile race that crisscrossed the Anguilla Channel twice; CSA Multihull 2 and 3, and the Pirate Class, sailed a slightly shorter 16.5-nm jaunt with a single dash across the channel; and the MOCRA Multihull class for the division’s two remaining MOD 70s (Shockwave did not compete after breaking its boom on Saturday), sailed a 47-mile contest that did a couple of turns off Anguilla before a long leg down the south coast of St. Maarten and around Isle Fourche. Everyone finished off Simpson Bay.

In CSA Multihull 1, Finn, Brett Trevillian’s Banuls 53 tri, continued her dominating ways. With its white hulls, black sails and futuristic dome, to many observers—including this one—Finn is by far the prettiest girl at this dance. Crewed by a team of crazed Aussie cowboys, the 53-footer once again hit the starting line on time and with pace, and immediately put the pedal to the medal. Those dudes can sail.

With the breeze on and whitecaps flecking the waters, CSA Multihull 2 and 3 took the day’s second, combined start with the merged classes well spread out. George Coutu’s extremely well-sailed Leopard 50, La Novia, took the pin and was higher and faster than everyone in the early going, but Ian Martin’s crew aboard the Leopard 45, Spellbound, was the first yacht to bear off and set a kite, and was quickly in business.

RELATED: A Caribbean Championship of Champions

Ironically, for the last start, the two Outremer’s in the Pirate Class—an old one, David Slater’s vintage 45-foot Delphine, and a new one, Rüdiger Schiller’s 4X Tortuga—put on some of the best racing in the event, in the division supposedly comprised of more mellow cruisers. The two boats were only a boat length or two apart at the outset, and presented a clear and striking example of French catamaran design over the decades.

Last but hardly least was the big MOD 70s, Giovanni Soldini’s Maserati and Jason Carroll’s Argo, with the latter crew looking like bumblebees in their matching yellow and black dry suits. Interestingly, Maserati went with a single reef in the main while Argo sported a deeply double-reefed mainsail. Like an America’s Cup match race, the two boats sparred before the start, with Argo the aggressor, working to windward of Maserati and getting a solid start, with Soldini’s mates a solid 10 seconds in arrears. But with more sail area, that all changed quickly. Moments into the race, Maserati changed to a bigger headsail and blasted into the lead with authority. It was a stirring sight watching the two giants slashing across the channel, a pair of rangy water bugs, their amas looking like long tentacles kissing the tops of the seas.

Soon enough, Finn, Maserati and Argo, in that order, re-emerged from the mist at a turning buoy off Marigot on this murky, very uncharacteristic Caribbean day. Finn had changed up to a full main by this point, and continued to look special. Maserati’s lead over Argo had opened up to a good 5 minutes. It had been an up and down regatta for the Italians, starting on Day 1 when they hit something early in the first race and were forced to retire. But it was definitely all coming together on Day 3.

By early afternoon, the entire fleet was approaching the finish line. Fittingly, the rain had stopped and everything else was also becoming crystal clear, especially the final standings. Finn put the capper on an outstanding regatta with its fourth straight victory to win CSA Multihull 1 going away. And while Maserati won the day against Argo, with its second on Day 3 the American boat earned the overall victory in the MOCRA Multihull division. All Argo had to do on the final day was finish, which perhaps explains its conservative tactics.

Tryst won CSA Multihull 2 by virtue of its two firsts on Day 1; beset with various issues, no CSA 2 yachts competed on Days 2 or 3. With three firsts in four races, including on Day 3, La Novia was the clear victor in CSA Multihull 3. The extremely well-sailed Delphine also took three out of four contests in the Pirate Class, including the final one, proving an old cat is certainly capable of tricking the newer ones.

For more information visit www.smyc.com/caribbean-multihull-challenge

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The Bermuda Race Organizing Committee (BROC) is pleased to announce that multihulls will be welcomed into the 2018 edition of the Newport Bermuda Race. Commodore Jim Binch of the Cruising Club of America, Commodore Leatrice Oatley of the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club and Race Chairman Jonathan Brewin issued a joint statement:

“We are very pleased after careful study and consideration of the unique and challenging characteristics of our race to welcome multihulls of 58 feet and longer.”

Some of the “unique and challenging” characteristics that the Commodores and Chairman refer to are that the race crosses the Gulf Stream; the race is sailed principally offshore beyond coastal rescue resources; the race is generally a tight reach (i.e. not a downwind race). Addressing further these issues Commodore Binch stated:

“We take safety very seriously. The Cruising Club of America committees have studied the issues exhaustively. Our Technical and Safety committees have been communicating with experienced owners and leading multihull designers. I am pleased with their recommendations for this historic first inclusion.”

It is anticipated that there will be 10-15 multihulls on the starting line in June of 2018 if not more. Owners have expressed interested in the past and some having heard of this announcement are already stating they will come. Greg Gigliotti owner of “Tribe”, a Gunboat 62, said enthusiastically “Absolutely, We’re in!”. Also committed is New York Yacht Club Commodore Phil Lotz with his Gunboat 60 “Arethusa”. Commodore Lotz reached at the St. Thomas Spring Regatta spoke of his enthusiasm for the Gunboats, and the HH’s and other ocean-going multihulls from Morelli & Melvin, Nigel Irens and other leading designers to compete for the first-ever Bermuda Race multihull line honors.

Appropriate classes will be made within the multihull division, separating high performance, performance-cruising and cruising multihulls, using a new VPP-based rating system from the ORA called ORR-MH. Therefore, it will not just be a battle for line honors. There are 445 days to the start of the 51st running of the race. A lot can happen between now and then. Stay tuned for more news and updates.

Interested multihull owners should contact info@bermudarace.com to discuss crew requirements. Crew requirements for multihulls will be separate from normal Bermuda Race requirements and will require all crew to have completed a significant race or passage and 100% of crew attending “hands-on safety-at-sea” seminars.

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“It’s designed to be technically accessible and not too complicated to sail,” says Duncan Ross, who represents the Diam 24 One Design’s French builder, ADH Inotec. “The systems are simple. It’s built for racers looking for something a little more exciting but [who] want strict one-design racing.”

If Ross’ pitch sounds appealing, you’ll be into it for $60,000. The boat is delivered with everything required for class racing, including all the cordage, the anchor, the Torqeedo 3HP, three sails and a launching trolley. Simplicity is everywhere in the boat: The 258-square-foot full-­batten main is on a Spectra knot-lock halyard, the roller furling genaker halyard is on a constrictor and is snaked in a bag on the trampoline when stowed. The single self-tacking jib sheet led to the forward end of the cockpit.

The Diam 24 One Design is new to the United States for 2017, but it’s been on the European multihull scene since 2014. Production of the 1,100-pound VPLP-designed and polyester-built hulls started in 2014 with 25 boats. The Tour de France à la Voile sailing circuit ditched its monohulls and anointed the Diam 24 One Design its official boat in 2015, which spawned another 30. Thirty more are on deck for the 2017 edition, and new and used boats now reside in six countries.

Ross brought one demo to the States in mid-2016 to pique American interest, and he had the judges’ attention as he briefed them on details of the boat. “Its sweet spot in 12 knots of wind is 13 knots uphill and 15 knots down,” says Ross. “It’s not designed to go 35. It’s not meant to be radical. Just fast, simple, safe and fun.”

The Diam 24 One Design is engineered to come together quickly — it’ll take less than an hour from fully dismantled to sailing, says Ross. Two people are required to mount the wave-piercing floats onto the main hull. After that, lock down four toggles, attach the trampoline at four places, sleeve the two-piece carbon rig, crank it skyward on a winch, strop the shrouds, bend on the sails, and go.

And go the Diam 24 One Design did when the judges hooked into a 10-knot wind streak during their light-air sail. With significant rocker in the main hull, the judges felt that the bows swept through tacks well in light air. There is sufficient buoyancy in the wave-piercing bows, allowing the boat to track with no flex in the platform when going through motorboat wakes. “The boat was dynamite to sail,” says judge Chuck Allen. “The long cockpit in the center hull lets you sit comfortably in the middle of the boat if you have to, and it feels a bit like a sportboat in that way. But in real breeze, you’re going to be sitting out there on the float and loving it.”

While unsure of the American sailing market’s embrace of this foreign one-design, the judges felt the package itself presented perfectly. Sailing is supposed to be fun, the judges said, and it will be with the Diam 24 One Design.

More Information

Boat of the Year + Best Multihull
Diam 24 One Design

Designed for:
One-design Racing
Multihull conversion

The judges liked:
Build quality
Refined sail-controls
Overall performance

Required crew
Three to Four

Price as tested
$60,000

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After just 3 days 8 hours and 9 seconds, Lending Club 2 arrived in Hawaii, unofficially taking a full 24 hours off of the previous record, set by a similar maxi-tri, Geronimo, in 2005. At an average speed of 24.61 knots, the crew made about 590 nm a day, a speed that they feel could have been improved upon had they had to spend less time searching for ocean debris to avoid. The Lending Club team knows these perils well, as their previous record setting attempt at the TransPac in 2012 was hindered by almost 10 hours due to damage caused by impacts with debris.

The crew is currently waiting for ratification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council, but there is no doubt that the official time will have broken the standing record by a significant margin.

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MOD70

The race organizers’ plan to attract much-need publicity could have worked. Even the most diehard and cynical New Yorkers would have trouble ignoring a fleet of 70-foot multihulls sailing into the New York harbor. But the likelihood of making their vision a reality diminished when the MOD70 organizers announced a few days ago that the May 2014 starting date for the MOD70 Krys Ocean Race transat from Brest, France, was postponed until 2016.

Citing a bad economy and difficulties in just getting enough of the boats in the MOD70 fleet to participate, the organizers said they had no other choice but to postpone the start. The New York-to-Brest Krys Ocean Race in 2012 was successful, but the money and interest level for the second transat was not there, they said.

For many, the bad news was the death knell for the MOD70 after the multihull circuit was unable to secure a title sponsor for 2013. Those with an even more pessimistic view said the MOD70 was never promising from the beginning. Safety concerns, how the design was not well geared for shorthanded sailing, and a lack of an international non-French continent are among the common criticisms.

Photo: Bruce Gain
Michel Desjoyeaux sailed in the New York to Brest Krys Ocean Race in 2012 on Foncia, but has been unable to get a MOD70 sponsor since.

The inherent safety risks of the MOD70 have also become more than apparent. Earlier this year, Virbac Paprec, skippered by Jean-Pierre Dick and Roland Jourdain, crashed near the start of the Jacques-Vabre transat in October, and Spindrift, piloted by Yann Guichard during the Route des Princes earlier this year, crashed spectacularly, resulting in injury of a crew member from each team. For a multihull class created as an alternative to the now defunct and theoretically more dangerous ORMA60, the publicity was not good.

The videos of the Virbac Paprec and Spindrift crashes attracted a lot of attention, but not the kind of publicity the organizers wanted.

Earlier this year, efforts to make the circuit more international seem to have paid off when Orion Racing, with Cam Lewis as the skipper, became the first U.S. team to enter the circuit earlier this year. However, Lewis has already left the team and Orion Racing has yet to enter a major European race with its MOD70.

The state of the MOD70 can best be characterized by Virbac Paprec‘s position after the crash. After some major media outlets in France claimed that Virbac Paprec was for sale in the aftermath of the crash, Laurent Simon, who serves as spokesman for the team, denied that the boat was leaving the circuit. However, Simon said the team was getting “impatient.”

“If the MOD70 organizers do not propose a legitimate plan by February, then we will have to explore other options,” he said, during a phone call interview. “We have an agreement with sponsors to respect.”

As it stands now, **the ****Krys**** ****Ocean**** ****Race**** scheduled for 2016 will not be a MOD70-only race as originally planned. Instead, it will be open to different multihull classes as well, alternating with the Route du Rhum every four years. **The MOD70 fleet now includes Virbac Paprec, Gitana, Oman, Spindrift, and Orion. Whether they make it to the Krys Ocean Race in 2016 remains to be seen.

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Tell us about this shot.
The shot of the Gunboat 60 was taken while we were testing boats for Sailing World’s Boat of the Year Competition.

How did you take this picture?
We have been playing with the GoPro Cameras for the last few years. The smaller size and weight allows us to place cameras in areas that we could not or did not want to put full sized cameras. We placed the GoPro Hero 3+ on the snuffer. Chuck Allen suggested the shot and helped to carefully raise the snuffer to the top of the mast so that the camera was pointed in the correct direction. I set the camera up to take images every 1/2 seconds and zip tied/wedged it into the position I thought would give me the best shot. Picking out the two or three images that we used took longer than usual as I had to go through over 2000 images just from the GoPro.

Tell us about your role as a Boat of the Year photographer.
I have been shooting the Boat of the Year for over 15 years and it has been a great learning experience. It has been fun to try to capture each boat from its best angle. I have enjoyed looking at each boat as a work of art and picking my own favorites on aesthetics alone.

Why a GoPro? Any unique challenges in working with this camera?
The GoPro cameras have been a tool that I toss in my bag for certain assignments. They are great onboard and for close up action off the boat. The problem has always been in not being able to see what you are getting in each shot. The latest cameras have solved this problem using WiFi connections to smartphones and tablets. This allows the photographer greater control over framing and taking the shot. The GoPro also gives you a different perspective and allows you to be more creative putting cameras in positions that you have not tried before.

Including the GoPro files, how many images did you end up with for the BOTY testing?
The GoPro adds significantly to each boats image count and throws the numbers off. The average image count without using the GoPro is around 600 images per boat. If I put the camera onboard, the GoPro can add 2,000 images to that average.

How did you get started in photography? What did you do for work before you became a photographer?
I started playing with photography in grade school. I continued learning about developing and printing in high school and joined the yearbook staff. In college, I was a photographer and then the editor of the school newspaper. I really decided to concentrate on photography after I had graduated from college, and I chose to go back to school for photography. After graduating from Lansing Community Colleges with a technical degree in photography, I moved to Miami and worked as an assistant to the fashion photographers that came to shoot in South Beach. I worked on shooting local events, and my big break came when my wife joined the Women’s Team during the 1995 America’s Cup. I met Daniel Forster and became his assistant. During my time with Daniel, I learned about the business side of photography and made a number of contacts that helped later on.

How about these days? What do you do when you’re not shooting?
I now live in Colorado and fly to assignments. I have been lucky to have the opportunities to travel and meet wonderful people while doing my job. When I am not traveling, I spend time with my wife Debbie, our dogs, and working on our 10 acres. We breed Rhodesian Ridgebacks, and they are joy to have as part of our family.

Any advice for aspiring photographers?
The trap that new photographers fall into is giving their work away and hoping that they will get noticed. This never works as the value you place on your work is how people will pay for it. If you do not value your creativity and the time that it has taken to get the image, no one else will either. The other trap that new photographers fall into is asking friends and family if they like their work. Your mom will always love you and will always love what you create. If you are looking for real feedback go to a professional in the field and ask them for their opinion. Finally, never stop growing. Look at other photographers work and ask yourself how did they get that shot then go out and try it yourself.

Check out this year’s Boat of the Year contenders.

Read about previous Photos of the Month.

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