Can it be true or is it just wishful thinking? Or some silliness concocted over too much red wine and an abundance of money? The idea is to set an outright around-the-world record set by a monohull and not a multihull? There is, in my mind, very little chance that a monohull will ever be faster than a multihull but there are some that might disagree and this project might prove me wrong.
(This, from the company that thought building a $650,000 electric car that looks like this. I wouldn’t bet on this thing being successful – ed)
Enter Ferrari. The project is called Hypersail and is still in development while under construction at some secret location in Italy. Ferrari brings the innovation and input of one of the most technologically advanced car companies in the world. That plus the yacht design side is being led by Guillaume Verdier, who I consider the top sailboat designer of high tech flying sailboats.
The third, and equally important arm of the project is management and Hypersail is being managed by a number of highly qualified sailors who specialize in different areas of design and initial construction, final detailing and then perhaps most important of all, sea trials and optimization.
The initial project manager was my old friend Giovanni Soldini. To digress slightly, I met and made the sails for Geo’s entry in the ‘94/95 BOC Challenge. He showed up in a radical 50-foot boat that had been built by prisoners in Italy. The boat had no headroom below. You had to either lay down or sit to fit.
I think that the headroom was something like 4 feet and his galley was a single propane burner strung by a string from the overhead. Giovanni has since moved on to bigger and better projects was most definitely the right man for the job, although I expect that many of his colleagues were not unhappy to see him go. Let’s just say that Gio has an abrasive personality and a fiery Italian temper.
Following Soldini’s departure, naval engineer and competitive sailor Enrico Voltolini took over as the new Project Leader to guide Hypersail through its validation, system integration, and sea trials.
Before we get into some of the innovations of this extraordinary sailboat let me chuck my two cents worth into the pot. It’s generally a well established fact that multihulls are faster than monohulls. This is because the exaggerated beam of a trimaran allows it to carry more sail, and more sail means more power which results in more speed. Righting moment and sail power are two key ingredients to going fast. One drawback used to be drag because with a trimaran you were dragging three hulls through the water but those days are gone; foiling multihulls have very little drag.
Now for the technical innovation part, and lest you think otherwise, I am very excited about this project. The boat will be 100-feet in length (a nice round number). The design team estimates that Ferrari Hypersail will be fully foiling almost all the time thus reducing hydrodynamic drag. In order to achieve this on a practical level the boat is designed to fly stably on three points; a foil integrated into its canting keel, lateral foils amidships either side and a rudder that serves three purposes. It’s used to steer the boat, provide lift and play an important part in the boats overall trim and stability when it is sailing out of the water.
The engineers and innovators at Ferrari say that they are going to rely on specially developed smart trim algorithms to fly the boat. Let’s dig into this because here is where breakthroughs can happen especially given that Ferrari’s top designers are working on it. They will be using a sophisticated system of sensors and computer logic which comes directly from Ferrari’s Formula One traction and aero control systems.
The Hypersail contains appendages, those being the canting keel, the foils and the rudder and these provide the lift and stability at relatively slow speeds, and use the word ‘relatively’ however you like. Is 40 knots a good base point? Once the boat gets into high speeds mode little flaps that are built onto all appendages can be tweaked just like the flaps on an airplane. The thing about this is that the tweaking will be done by the computers that are constantly gathering data. In fact the computer geeks are working on a program that can predict waves forms well ahead of the boat and adjust in advance accordingly.
Another bold move is to make the boat rely entirely on renewable energy to power the computers, autopilots and a myriad other juice sucking electronics. The team plans to make full use of solar, wind and kinetic energy, the latter being the energy the boat possesses due to its motion through the water. (Yes I had to Google it). In other words, once the boat is moving it has already built up kinetic energy (or momentum) which can help it plow through waves or keep the speed up when tacking. It can also be gathered and stored in the battery bank. The deck is littered with solar panels that are built into the hull structure. To be clear, there is no engine or generator on the boat.
This whole project is being carried out in absolute secrecy. They say that they will launch sometime this year and do sail trials on the Italian coast, but the location is a secret because they don’t want spies. The other thing that I find interesting is that they are saying that this Ferrari Hypersail is just a springboard to try out new ideas. The hint is that there may be another one after this and perhaps another after that. Those behind Ferrari Hypersail still believe that they will be able to best the multihull record of 40 days and 23 hours. The fastest monohull record stands at 74 days, 3 hours which was done singlehanded and is 4 days faster than the fully crewed record. I will say that the gap is wide but Ferrari Hypersail is 40 feet longer and not constrained by any class rules. So, as they say in Italy, “La fortuna aiuta gli audaci,” which means “Success comes to those who take risks and are courageous.”
To which I add, “E uno sponsor dalle tasche molto profonde.”
Translated it means what every ambitious sailing project desires, “And a sponsor with very deep pockets.” – Brian Hancock.
