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Exotic Hulls and Radical RigsA report on Steve Neal's new Merlin Magnus Smith - January 2003 |
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Today I spoke to a slightly hoarse Steve Neal, just back from the Boat Show, having talked about his creation to hundreds of entranced sailors and reporters. Photos are available at Steve's Fibre Fusion website, here and here. Steve was first interviewed back in 2001, when he talked about hull design and his patented design for carbon fibre reinforcement. Now Scantily Clad is ready to sail, and it seems the rig is causing as much speculation and excitement as the hull. The mast rotates and leans from side to side, similar to how some catamarans are set up. The proper term to use here is an "over-rotating, canting mast". Here's the technical bit (are you paying attention?)... Rotating Experts suggest that a rotating mast will increase the efficiency of a mainsail by around 15%, as it reduces mast induced turbulence on the first 1-2 inch strip of sail area all way up the luff. Canting Upwind the mast is upright as usual, but once on a close fetch or reach, it can be angled up to 25 degrees to windward! This angling directs some of the sails lift to raise the boat up as well as drive it forward. Steve declares it will pick the boat up out of the water slightly, for less drag. Obviously this works better the more wind there is. In light winds the rig may not give any better performance than a standard mast, but once things start picking up, the performance gains should increase dramatically! Spinnakers? Pah! All this speed means little point messing around with a spinnaker, which justifies Steve's decision to save weight by using side bags instead of a chute (something many Merlin sailors may raise an eyebrow at). The spinnaker is only likely to be used on a run. However, in practice, downwind legs may be faster when gybing from reach to reach on a zig-zag course, again similar to catamaran convention. Yet more carbon With the mast at an angle, Steve was concerned about the relative loss of height, so the mast is the maximum length permitted by class rules. This means a slightly larger mast section, which is thus stiffer. Carbon fibre spreaders were made at Fibre Fusion, and Steve refused to weigh his super-light spar down with any wire rigging, choosing to spend a fortune on shrouds and a jib halyard made of PBO, an aramid similar to Kelvar but with zero creep and breaking strain of 2 tons. A bit fishy Finally, Steve drew inspiration from nature to design a new shape centreboard. With the same overall area as a normal Merlin centreboard, the new shape mimics a whales tail fin. The swept-back leading edge also helps avoid catching weed! Selling up Ironically, for Steve to spend so much time and money on his dream building project, he claims he is too heavy to sail the boat competitively (unless as a singlehander!). Perhaps he should investigate using a child crew (something much in evidence at the light-wind Hampton Open in 2002)? Scantily Clad has not yet felt the water beneath her forefoot, so Steve is looking for a helm to christen his boat, prove his design theories, and win some races! She is up for sale at a very reasonable �10k, considering the hours of work that have gone into her, let alone the amounts of carbon fibre! |