2017. Better “old style” or contemporary? Roberto Biscontini answers.

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Better “old style” or contemporary?

Taken from the 2017 Journal of Sailing, Year 43, No. 10, November, pp. 76-79.

Is an older generation boat safer , sturdier, more seaworthy, or a more modern one of today? We turned the question over to a design guru, Roberto Biscontini, who explains why contemporary boats are better by design.

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Is an older generation boat safer, sturdier, more seaworthy, or a more modern one of today? We asked a design guru. Who explains why contemporary boats are better.

One premise, there is no discussion here about whether an older generation boat is more beautiful than a contemporary one. We do not disquisition whether an old Grand Soleil or Swan from the 1970s is more aesthetically pleasing than current models from the same manufacturers. That is a matter of taste, of aesthetics. We are here instead, in Roberto Biscontini‘s studio, to understand, once and for all, whether those who claim that “old style” boats are safer, sturdier, sail better-in a word, if they are more marine-are right, or conversely, “contemporary” boats are better . A passionate discussion that has involved hundreds of readers on the web (see page 56). We want to clarify this issue with objective data, supported by the opinion of one of the most authoritative experts in sailboat design and construction. Who better to give us an authoritative opinion than Roberto Biscontini. Who better than he, who designed his first boat in the 1970s, went on to work in the 1990s with the Moro and then with Luna Rossa. To continue his brilliant career today by building prestigious boats such as theAdvanced 44 and collaborating with famous shipyards around the world. He is the one who helps us put the final word in, from a design and technical point of view. With absolute objectivity, without sentimentality. Because sentimental he is too when he recalls the family’s first boat, a Wauquiez Centurion of ten meters (32 feet) that was the starting point, in the late 1960s, for turning his passion for sailing into a profession. That “old style” boat that he so loves and knows is the yardstick of our inquiry in comparing it with a contemporary boat. Biscontini, in order to make us better understand the big difference between the design of an old-fashioned boat and today’s starts from a universal concept: “today in all fields-cars, motorcycles, airplanes, in every field of construction-technological evolution has made it possible to make better products than in the past. The main reason is that today it is possible to predict how the product will behave before it is born, applying all the knowledge that is stored in software of common heritage, while once it was instead knowledge, moreover incomplete, jealously guarded by a few.” Having digested this essential concept, let us analyze with him, point by point the key elements of a boat, with the help of his author’s sketches.

1) The construction

Let’s dispel the myth that the thicker the fiberglass the stronger the boat. The production boats at first were built of ‘solid’ fiberglass, using vinylester resin and glass cloth. To make them rigid and strong, in the absence of specific knowledge, one was forced to use high thicknesses. The breakthrough in construction came about 30 years ago with the advent of ‘sandwich’ construction, which is the use of a core of lighter material that is covered with skins of glass fabric (or more advanced materials such as carbon) and higher-performance resins such as polyester. With this type of construction the boats are stronger and stiffer, with the advantage of significant weight savings. The problem with the sandwich is that the bonding between the core and the ‘fiberglass’ covering must be executed perfectly, otherwise there is a risk of delamination, that is, the detachment of the fiberglass skins covering the core. “My Wauquiez 32 Centurion from the late 1960s,” Biscontini says, ” was built of solid fiberglass, strong but very heavy. The second revolution that changed boat building for the better came soon after and is still evolving today. “The study of structures,” the designer points out , “has made it possible to know where a hull actually needs more stiffening and shimming to support loads where they are needed. The result is that today a boat is stiffer (and heavier) only where it needs to be by modulating thicknesses and materials. A boat now is just as safe as an ‘old style’ boat but enormously lighter and therefore efficient when sailing.”. A separate chapter deserves the keel. The ‘old style’ boats incorporated blade and bulb into the hull construction. In theory a much safer solution than today where the drift blade and bulb are instead hung from the bottom of the hull, secured by bolts. But a dense network of longitudinal and transverse stiffeners, which unload stresses over a large surface area of the hull, make the joint between hull and keel equally secure. In addition, today there is a strict standard to comply with (ISO) that forces manufacturers to meet safety parameters in boat construction, a standard that was once very mild and delegated to the responsibility of the manufacturer.

2) Naval architecture

The Achilles’ heel of a contemporary boat compared to an ‘old style’ one is bow wave sailing. The bow entrances of an older generation boat are narrower and more submerged, and thus, when the boat is flat, the waves are traversed better, with almost no beating on the wave. The so-called gentle passage. Instead, modern boats have less submerged and flatter bow entrances, so the boat tends to slap the wave and ‘hit’ more. But we repeat, this advantage occurs in a flat boat and by motor sailing. As soon as the boat heels a few degrees the situation is reversed. The modern boat leans on its fuller forms, easily passing the wave. On the other hand, the sailboat by definition sails heeled, so when motoring, simply having the mainsail hoisted up and letting it catch just enough wind to make it heel a few degrees will, in forward sea conditions, cancel out the gap in sailing comfort compared to older generation hulls. Otherwise, a modern boat has everything in its favor over an ‘old style’ hull. “With the same waterline length,” Roberto Biscontini tells us. Is another planet. As soon as a modern boat skids compared to an ‘old style’ one, it offers less wetted surface area and becomes much more stable, thanks in part to the considerable width that extends to the stern. This means holding much more sail area, with the same wind strength, than an older, narrower boat with less volume. Not only more stability but also more power, with a huge difference in performance. But it is not only performance and the ability to carry more canvas that is the selling point of contemporary boats. If we compare, with equal wind strength, my beloved 10-meter Wauquiez Centurion with a current cruising boat of the same size, the latter will go around it effortlessly.”. Not to mention the space. The volumes determined by the greater width across the hull lead to up to 50 percent more space on deck and in the interior compared to an ‘old style’ boat. But what about security? From the point of view of form stability, the older generation boats have much less stability. Safety also means having a boat that is more stable, that goes down less when the gusts come. At fifteen knots today, a cruising boat can use all the canvas, while an ‘old style’ one is already at the limit of sail reduction. “And if we talk about another point of discontinuity between an old generation boat and a modern one, which is the freeboard that is much higher in today’s hulls, there is an interesting answer here as well,” Biscontini explains. “The higher freeboard is a big advantage from a safety point of view. Precisely because the boat as it heels rests on a larger surface area. Higher freeboard also means more protection from waves.” Another point in favor of modern boats is their better maneuverability. Mooring in a harbor with a current boat is infinitely easier because the forward submerged surface area is significantly less than that of an “old” boat. It moves less water because the boat offers less resistance. The response to the rudder is immediate, allowing the boat to move more smoothly.

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3) Performance and safety

Heavy boat equals safer boat. Nothing could be more false. Older, heavier boats in strong wind and sea conditions reach a speed beyond which they cannot go. Modern, lighter ones keep accelerating, putting themselves in a semi-plane condition, exceeding the so-called ‘critical speed’. This all translates into safety because the stresses on the sail equipment increase exponentially when the heavier (old style) boat brakes because the increased thrust on the sails does not translate into speed. That speed, on the other hand, contemporary, lighter boats are able to express by reducing loads on equipment. With an obvious reduction in the risk of breakage on shrouds, stays, halyards, etc. On the subject of handling, a boat that can express more speed will be lighter, more maneuverable, and easier to handle in challenging wind and sea conditions.

4) The sail plan

It seems unbelievable but for decades the most inefficient sail plan was adopted. The one, to be clear, that involved a small mainsail and a large jib/genoa hoisted at the masthead that overlapped the mainsail. All cruising boats from the 1960s to the 1980s were rigged this way. It is a pity that, proven by wind tunnel and simulation software, the most efficient sail plan – with the same sail area – is instead the one fitted on contemporary boats, which involves a large mainsail and a jib hoisted lower than the mast height (called a seven/eighths or nine/tenths) that does not overlap, except minimally, with the mainsail. ‘Old style’ boats generally are rigged with that less efficient sail plan, which with the furling also leads to problems with the reduction of the headsail, which loses its best shape when reduced. But that’s not all, there are also problems with maneuvering in turns caused by the large size of the sail to be moved from one edge to the other. Not to mention that to caulk a jib of that size requires more crew. “The sail plan is like a wing of an airplane ” -Biscontini explains- “and for the same square footage, the greatest efficiency is with the current conformation, with the jib smaller than the mainsail, which do not overlap each other.” And if we are talking about sails for load-bearing gaits, replacing the spinnaker with its bulky and dangerous tangon with sails such as the gennaker has brought great advantages in safety and ease of use. We are at the end of the analysis, do you still think that an ‘old style’ boat is more marine and safer than a contemporary one?

by Luca Oriani

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