Are you ready? GC32s come to Italy, we fly!
THE PERFECT GIFT!
Give or treat yourself to a subscription to the print + digital Journal of Sailing and for only 69 euros a year you get the magazine at home plus read it on your PC, smartphone and tablet. With a sea of advantages.
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 |
Share:
Are you already a subscriber?
Ultimi annunci
Our social
Sign up for our Newsletter
We give you a gift
Sailing, its stories, all boats, accessories. Sign up now for our free newsletter and receive the best news selected by the Sailing Newspaper editorial staff each week. Plus we give you one month of GdV digitally on PC, Tablet, Smartphone. Enter your email below, agree to the Privacy Policy and click the “sign me up” button. You will receive a code to activate your month of GdV for free!
You may also be interested in.
Around the world with a splendid Sparkman & Stephens
“Guys, these are the owners of the Magic, my former boat. They are great people, you definitely need to contact them.” Speaking is Umberto Marzotto, the ‘globetrotting count’ whose story we told you HERE and HERE. Magic, on the other
VIDEO and PHOTO The buzzards “sailors” putting on a show in the open sea
Along the docks of Genoa’s Old Port last Sunday there was an unusual gathering of people. Intrigued, we approached and saw that aboard three sailboats a falconry display was being prepared in the open sea. Just before they dropped their
GALLERY There’s an Italian photographer who travels the world hunting for wrecks
Duty of Memory is the name of Stefano Benazzo ‘s exhibition devoted to ship and boat wrecks. Photography work around the world that lasted more than six years. Born in 1949, in addition to serving as Italy’s ambassador to Minsk
PHOTO Heart-pounding rescue off the coast of Bonifacio
Even great navigators with many ocean adventures behind them say it: when the Mediterranean gets angry, it is one of the most hostile seas. This was experienced by Pierre Ortolan and Bernard Couston who found themselves yesterday with their X-412