Production hot rod

While Akilarias have been cleaning up at the Class 40 Worlds, the new racing version is waiting in the wings

While some of the key players, most notably Bernard Stamm and Giovanni Soldini, may not be taking part in the Class 40 World Championship this week, can it be coincidence that the top three boats are all Akilarias, the Marc Lombard-designed Class 40 built by MCTec in Tunisia.

The Akilaria has now taken over from the Pogo 40 as the most prolific Class 40 being raced even though only 20 to date have been built compared to the forty Pogo 40s in existence. But what is interesting is that the examples racing on the Solent this week are the old Akilarias, first launched in 2006. Since then the French manufacturer have launched a newer version which Portimao Global Ocean Race winner Boris Herrmann campaigned in the recent Rolex Fastnet Race as Beluga Racer. She was to have competed at the World Championship this week without Herrmann on board, but sadly her Belgium owner, Gerald Bibot, was forced to pull out at the last moment.

So what is new about the RC2? According to designer Marc Lombard the original boat was conceived at a time when the Class 40 was to be a supposed cruiser racer, but today it is evident that some boats are being used for racing and racing only. “There was a need to make sure that the Akilaria stays at the highest level in competition, so we decided to make a boat that is optimised in all ways for being at the maximum potential of the rule,” he says.

Aside from its creature comforts for cruising, the original Akilaria was aimed primarily at shorthanded racing with transoceanic capability. Today, says Lombard, the Class 40 circuit also includes several inshore, crewed races (even though for the Worlds, for example, crew is still relatively shorthanded, limited to six).

Obviously the new boat fits within the constraints of the Class 40 box rule, that is essentially: LOA of 12.19m, Beammax 4.50m and 3m maximum draft with a minimum displacement of 4,500kg and water ballast limited to 750kg a side. On the rig side, the mast can be a maximum of 19m above the water, upwind sail area of up to 115sqm, downwind sail area is unlimited (yeehaa!) save for what can be fitted between the top of the mast and the end of the bowsprit, which can extend 2m beyond the bow.

Compared to the old version, the new Akilaria has a new hull and deck and more racy lines, no doubt due to her being at minimum freeboard within the class rule. Aside from reducing weight and windage – at the expense of internal comfort, Lombard points out – minimum freeboard also means the hull has less righting moment in its 90deg inversion test but this has allowed her designer to increase stability. Thus the new Akilaria has a monster chine, extending most of the way to the bow.

“We added more stability in the middle of the boat,” says Lombard. “At the same time, it is narrower on its floatation beam, but it is wider when it is heeled, which means it has less wetted area when it is light, and it has a little more wetted area but more stability when it is heeled, which is a tendency we have developed lately. It is something that has also appeared on Open 60s.­ So the use of the chine is optimised.”

This is a trend we have seen in the class (as well as the Open 60s and even the Volvo 70s). Top Class 40 over the last two years has been Giovanni Soldini’s all-conquering Guillaume Verdier design Telecom Italia. She, like most of the latest designs have gone for maximum beam and a more pronounced chine leading to a more powerful hull shape (something thedailysail predicted would happen three years ago!) and an optimisation of the sail plan within the constraints of the rule, such as increasing the aspect ratio of the main and making it square-topped and moving the rig aft to enable the maximum size of kite to be set.

Lombard confirms this: “Now the boat is at the maximum everywhere -­ minimum weight and maximum righting moment, and the max righting moment is based on the best configuration to make it as stable as possible. So there is an increase in power. We have increased aspect ratio of the mainsail also, the mast is a little bit further aft and the boat is a little bit wider aft and it has the chine a little lower and more marked and it has less wetted area. The boat should be better in light air, which was not the best point of sailing on the old one and also dead downwind in light and medium conditions is improved. It is powerful on the reach, so it has a very good all-round performance. We don’t want to have holes in the performance. On every point of sailing there is a little plus.”

The cockpit has also been improved so that it is possible to race the boat without the crew falling all over one another, but again not so good for cruising, says Lombard. The Akilaria cockpit is very Open 60-like, wide and now open-ended at the transom (unlike Telecom Italia which has an enclosed cockpit). Twin companionways allow access to below, either side of an Open 60-style tunnel through the top of the cabin top down which all the lines run back aft from the mast, including the main sheet, to a mid-ships pit.

The helmsman perches on the side of the cockpit, where there is a stainless steel flip-out foot rest. A single tiller, operated via a long Spinlock tiller extension is hooked up to the twin rudders. Aft of this is a full-width main sheet track, elevated in the middle. Class rules state a minimum distance between the track and the transom which is why it is further forward than would be the case on an Open 60. There is a primary and a traveller/runner winch each side and two winches in the pit, all from Harken.

Going forward, the mast is a fixed carbon-fibre affair made by Lorimar, with twin swept back spreaders. Standing rigging is stainless steel, attaching to old fashioned stainless steel chainplates – all that is permitted under class rules.

A change from the old boat is that the headsail sheet tracks have been shed in favour of an ABN AMRO-style ring system with a twin barberhauler arrangement to move the clew inboard or outboard.

On deck perhaps the most radical feature is her carbon fibre canting bowsprit. While most Class 40s have a fixed bowsprit, the notable exception over the last couple of seasons has been Telecom Italia and being able ‘square the bowsprit’ slightly obviously offers the possibility of sailing deeper downwind. On the RC2, the bowsprit is operated via lines leading aft to the cockpit. The headsail is on a roller furler, however as has become the way in recent years with both Class 40s and Open 60s, the inner forestay is removable with a clutch on deck to lock the bottom end of the stay in place once it has been cranked up. This enables faster manoeuvring on shorter courses.

Lombard is right – down below it is cramped. The all-important nav station is hung off the back of the main bulkhead centrally while behind the navigator, slung off the forward side of the cockpit bulkhead, is the ‘galley’ area, basic in the extreme with a single-burner stove and sink. There are pipe cots in the tunnels either side of the cockpit well, but the big feature down each side are the water ballast tanks. Class 40s are limited to 750kg of water each side and on the Akilaria RC2 these are divided into two tanks, one of 500lt, the other 250lt, the bigger being aft outboard of the pipecots, the aft ones mounted just ahead of the mast bulkhead.

While there is not the water tight main bulkhead as found on an Open 60, on the Akilaria RC2 there are substantial ring frames and fore and aft structural stringers that can make a wander, or a crawl, around the interior somewhat perilous.

Below the water Lombard says that the keel shape is very similar to the old boat. “It is not exactly the same. We moved the keel a little aft. The bulb is not heavier, but overall it has a little less frontal area.”

Overall, as mentioned, design trends in the Class 40 are mimicking those of their larger brothers, the IMOCA Open 60s. Lombard says this is logical as both are box rules and the Class 40 rule was largely based on the Open 60’s when it was written. “­The good thing with the 40s is that the limits are already there, the inexpensive materials, etc still keeps the price relatively normal. To do the same thing in carbon the boat would cost one third more at least.”

However he acknowledges that prices have increased. This is mainly due to builders, be they production builders like MCTec or custom builders, continuing to struggle to get down to the 4,500kg minimum weight. The new Akilaria RC2 is built using infusion but according to Lombard they are also looking at doing an Akilaria RC2 ‘proto’ version which will be built in epoxy and vacuum-bagged skin by skin, making for an even lighter hull. This will also feature Gucci items such as kick-up rudders.

Yvon Berrehar, of La Trinite-sur-Mer based Akilaria Europe, says that the present Akilaria RC2 is around 50kg over the minimum weight.

Lombard adds: “The rule is still a bit light to keep the price down, because­ now we are very good at the infusion process and if we want to produce the boat at a very good price like the Akilaria 1, it means that the minimum weight is difficult to reach with this technology. Therefore as is the case now, you need to do vacuum skins instead of infusions to get the minimum weight, which is the case with the real prototypes like the Verdier design, but then you increase the price by so much.”

The price of the new Akilaria 2, Akilaria Europe states, as being just over 280,000 Euros, but then there are a bunch of options available from the manufacturer, most of which you would want, bumping the price up by another 20,000 Euros and this is before sails and electronics are added. Lombard reckons up-all ready to race an Akilaria RC2 will be the best part of 450,000 Euro, but says the custom-built Verdier design is probably another 100,000 Euros on top of that – almost double the price of the original Akilaria. This flies in the face of what Giovanni Soldini tells us – that by the time you have fully kitted out a new Akilaria or a Pogo 40S the price is only around 30,000 Euros different. Perhaps someone doing the maths in anger will let us know the truth.

So what is perhaps needed is for the Class 40 minimum weight to have about 200kg added, thus making it easier to build to minimum weight, thereby lower costs, without drastically reducing performance. Lombard cites the “fantastic Pogo 40” which sold forty units, partly because it was extremely good value, albeit several hundred kilos over the minimum weight. “Professionals are now going for Akilarias and more and more technical boats, but that comes at a price.”

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