Sydney 40,A different perspective

By now everyone who doesn’t live in a snow cave is aware that the Admiral’s Cup has been cancelled. At the forefront

 of this controversial and historic decision lies the oft-criticized Sydney 40. Clearly a boat that should never have been

 chosen in the first place (The Farr 40 was the obvious choice), the Sydney 40 is now destined to be remembered as the boat that cancelled the Admiral’s Cup!

 However, in Southern California there remains at least one fan. His name is Seth Radow, and he is boldly going where few dare: he’s purchased a new Sydney 40!  Seth has a slightly different agenda than most, and he has been kind enough to share his thoughts and objectives with the new boat:

 BULL will be a slightly modified Sydney 40. This is my second yacht from Sydney Yachts, the first being a Sydney 41, essentially an IMS Cruiser Racer... heavy on the cruiser. Back when I ordered this boat my wife wanted to sail. After three times on the water she decided she liked our friend’s powerboat better and that was the end of her sailing days... She will take an occasional week on her father's Swan 56 if I twist her arm!

The decision to build a Sydney 40 and not follow some friends into the Farr 40 fleet was based on my love of racing offshore. Sure there is great inshore competition in the Farr 40 fleet, and although I love racing inshore, my love of offshore would never put me into a boat like that. I also have an affinity for the 40 foot class. The competition in So Cal in that range has been outstanding for quite some time and there seems to always be a terrific 40 foot fleet.

After extensive research on the fleet of Grand Prix 40 footers on the market, I ended up back with Sydney Yachts.

Having spoken with numerous people who owned and others who raced on the Sydney 40 over the last few years, it was clear that this was a great boat. The problem, as I saw it, was that there wasn't room at the top for two Grand Prix 40 footers and the Farr 40 was here first and was much easier to sail. It was also accessible being built here in the US by Carroll Marine. Having interviewed a handful of people who raced on the Sydney 40 all had similar thoughts... that if I were going to build one of these for myself and sail it here in the States, that I would never race in OD format. That being the case, I would be free to "improve" the boat by ridding the boat of it "technical" nature.

Having discussed this with the yacht's designer, Andy Dovell, he had already heard from the sailing community and had numerous "cures". A decision was made from the very beginning that even if I was going to race Admiral's Cup with the boat, that we would have a second keel and rudder for So Cal. The sum total of the changes to the boat, for the most part, are mostly below the waterline. One of the AU Sydney 40's was testing a rudder that was about 12% larger and claimed that the boat was a "whole new animal". The owner claimed that this alone could be change enough and that the entire boat's behavior has be quieted.

The one thing that concerned me, having already raced IMS based boats, is their necessity for internal ballast. This extra lead does add something to the boat's stiffness, but it the location of the bilge, it is not very efficient. Some of the Sydney 40's racing IMS have tried sailing without the internal lead under IMS to speed up their downwind sailing. This has proven very effective but caused sacrifices upwind that, depending upon course configuration were unacceptable. Living in So Cal, we have the issued of kelp. Having been stopped dead in my track on numerous occasions throughout So Cal, I decided long ago that my next boat would have a kelp cutter.

Adding up these issues... righting moment, displacement and the need for a kelp cutter, my only choice was to develop a new fin and bulb from scratch. Andy Dovell mentioned that he was working on an IRC/IRM based solution for some of the existing fleet which would effectively remove the internal lead and offer a new lower section for the stock two piece keel. Given my need for a kelp cutter, we would be forced to change the upper section of the fin altogether to accommodate the cutter. Given that I wouldn't really be optimizing the boat for any particular rule other than the Transpac 40 box rule, Andy Dovell came up with a rather innovative solution. Andy decided to draw upon his America's Cup research and decided to use an NAB (nickel aluminum bronze) alloy fin. Not that this material was used on his America's Cup boats, but he had done some work with the material. Effectively, using NAB for the fin would reduced the displacement of the fin while overall strength was maintained. The final keel reduced wetted surface by 15%, increased draft by 3", increased displacement of the entire keel by 100 kilos and increased righting moment of the boat by 10%... and I was able to add a kelp cutter to the leading edge. Consider that the boat will now sail without the internal lead (approx. 800 kilos) and the boat should weight in about 1000 lbs. more than a Farr 40.

How fast should she be. We don't quite know yet, but we expect her to be faster than the One Design sisterships. Much of the answer to this question will largely rely on how well we execute with respect to the sail plan. Halsey Lidgard is designing and building the sails. We will making extensive use of Cuben Fiber throughout the inventory both upwind and downwind. H/L probably has more experience with this fabric than any other sailmaker in the world at this point in time. Having made the sails for many of the boats competing in The Race (Team Adventure, Phillips (although she didn't make it), and Playstation), for boats competing in the last Whitbread, and for America True in the last America's Cup, H/L is clearly on the leading edge. It is my hope that benefits from some of the R&D from these programs will trickle down to BULL. One thing for sure... we will only use asymmetric kites on the new boat. This will be a big change from the IMS based symmetric kites used on many of the sister ships.

Understand that BULL will be sailed in OD trim above the waterline. That means masthead kites on spinnaker poles that are J plus about 4 feet. This rig is a few feet shorter than that of a Farr 40 and a bit small relative to most ILC 40's (slightly shorter than Jeantex). To weather she will benefit from overlapping headsails. The hull shape offers a true balance of upwind and downwind performance. At this point in time I really don't know how she will sail relative to her competition, projecting that she could be a bit faster than the Farr 40's in many conditions once we get the hang of how to sail her. We know that she is a bit narrow relative to the ILC 40 fleet and the Farr 40's and doesn't have the form stability of the Farr 40's but on the other hand, the big spinnakers may make the difference. She doesn't have the all carbon structure of the ILC 40's but then again, the big spinnakers may make the difference.

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF SYDNEY YACHTS