Sweet… Mills 43 Tiamat

Senaste från herr Mills, nya Tiamat. 13.15 x 3.68 x 2.90 m x 8150 kg

The latest Tiamat for Tim Costello of Dublin has been launched by Vision Yachts in Cowes. The new Tiamat is a 43′ design intended for both Comnmodores Cup competition with the Ireland Green team but also to allow Tim to enjoy lower-key racing and sailing with his family as he did with his previous Tiamat. His 2005 Vision-built IRC 40 Tiamat to our design had an exceptional three years of competition including straight-bullet wins at both the UK and the French IRC National Championships.

The new Tiamat extends the design themes and research program developed with our IRC 41 Ambush and focuses on all-around performance, with a healthy offwind sailplan whose mix of symmetric and asymmetric spinnakers flown from a conventional pole reflects the tidal impact of Solent sailing as well as the average windspeeds expected in Northern European sailing.

Within a very tight timescale Vision have produced female hull and deck tooling to ensure the highest quality construction, and have done an exceptional job to launch a beutifully finished boat. The engineering by John Fox at FCS reflects the constructive relationship we have had with Vision over a number of years, allowing Vision to collaborate to produce build solutions which best use their experience and talents.

Här är också en bra förklaring från Mark angående det korta peket:

The fixed sprit comes in two flavours depending on size: for the large light type of design IRC favours over 50′ like Alegre the high boatspeeds mean apparent wind angles never come aft of 100 degrees, and there is no point carrying a pole (with an associated rating increase) since it would never come off the headstay.

IRC optimised boats below 50′ tend to be heavier, sail deeper angles in medium and heavy airs, and thus benefit from a conventional spinnaker pole (usually significantly longer than J). Asymmetrics flown off a pole offer an efficiency improvement as they are able to be designed to only ‘go’ in one direction, but require a more complicated gybing proceduure than with a symmetrical spinnaker. The fixed sprit here is ‘free’ if it doesnt extend beyond STL, and it allows the tack of the Asail to be sucked down while the bowman gets the pole off, swops sides and reconnects it. During this time the extension means the kites is well clear of the boat which may open up the range in which the Asail can be gybed inside its luff, allows the sail to be set and drawing well while the bowman is catching up, and significantly opens up what otherwise turns into a cluster%^$£ at the stem fitting. Additionally with a specialised close reaching spinnaker like an A0 it offers the perfect tack point.

Retracting sprits are popular with owners wanting to sail with less crew and skip all that gybing effort, or are favoured by boats tending to sail in lighter than average conditions or on reaching courses (many offshores for example) where the apparent angles will be close enough that the pole would be redundant, and a larger asail off a sprit can be carried for the same rating as the smaller kite from a conventional pole. A fixed sprit would achieve the same end, but practical considerations often sway people towards a retracting version.