Are you ready? GC32s come to Italy, we fly!
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For the first time, the spectacle and adrenaline of GC32s makes a stopover in Italy, in Civitavecchia, for the fourth leg of the Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour. The very fast catamarans equipped with foils will compete in the waters of Lazio. An Italian crew is missing, but the organization hopes, in the future, to be able to count on a blue team (bringing GC32s to our shores is precisely a maneuver to increase interest around this class): you can see them in action from August 27 to 30!
THE GC32 IN ACTION AT THE LAST STAGE IN KIEL
KIEL PHOTO GALLERY
The GC32 is a catamaran born from the pencil of Martin Fischer, a brilliant German designer who has been living in New Caledonia for years now. In the first version launched about two years ago, the boat had “S” foils and was not capable of full foiling, that is, with the hulls completely out of the water. In the wake of the America’s Cup AC72 catamarans, the boat has been revised and in particular has been fitted with “L” foils capable of giving truly enviable sustenance and flight stability.
HOW IT WORKS.
As a relatively small manned boat for its size (4 people for about 9 meters of boat), the need for as “automatic” a flight control as possible is obvious. This was brilliantly achieved with generously sized foils, but more importantly, equipped with tips that were very angled with respect to the horizontal plane. Practically the control of the foil rake angle, which is expected anyway, is minimized. In fact, controlling the foil rake on the GC 32 is still quite complicated to do while sailing although there are plans to improve the control system which should reduce friction in the mechanism. In practice this is now done before the race depending on the expected wind strength or while sailing by acting on the upwind foil before tack change. There is also currently no provision for in-navigation control of the angle of incidence of the elevators, the horizontal wings mounted at the bottom of the rudders, but again upgrades are expected in the near future.
THE TRICKS TO MAKE IT GO STRONG
The full GC 32 weight is only 800 kg with a maximum racing crew weight of 340 kg. With these proportions, it is obvious the importance of having the crew as far upwind as possible to maximize the righting moment, which in practice happens as early as a few knots of wind. Normally a crew member will also move longitudinally when the boat is in the air to try to optimize trim.
Bullitt GC32 Racing Tour – Overall standings after 3 legs
| Pos | Team | Total |
| 1 | Sultanate of Oman | 6 |
| 2 | Alinghi | 7 |
| 3 | Spindrift racing | 10 |
| 4 | ARMIN STROM Sailing Team | 11 |
| 5 | Team ENGIE | 12 |
| 6 | Team Argo 32 | 17 |
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