Gunboat 80-01
Details:
- Boat Name: Highland Fling
- Boat Manufacturer / Designer / Length: Gunboat 80-01
Brief:
To bring together the owner’s team, Gunboat, VPLP, North Sails and Southern Spars to develop one of the most advanced performance cruising catamarans. We worked with the team from the conception of the project, deciding sail plan parameters and defining all the sailing systems on board.
Due to our back catalogue of knowledge, we were able to determine the load case runs for the sail and spar package. The accuracy and speed of the North Sails design package meant that we were able to fast track load results and hardware placement even before the line plans were finalised.
Challenges:
The development of structured luff sails has been an exciting advancement in the industry, boosting the performance of sails by giving them a larger range of depth and camber. Due to this new technology, Gunboat 80-01 was able to get 30% more bend in the rig and saw a 20-30% increase on loads through the deck and sail hardware. The challenge we had was to ensure that hardware remained lightweight, yet strong enough to withstand the increased loads.
Solutions:
In order to keep a constant eye on the increased loads we integrated loadcells into our Automatic Halyard Locks. Our locks are the first in the industry to have this technology built in as we felt simply having a forestay loadcell was no longer enough and that it was imperative to know where the loads are going.
Where the cunningham load had jumped from 2T to 6T, we needed to upscale our Headboard Car to cope. We redesigned it to work in the same envelope but to handle these extra loads. This meant that while the car itself got slightly heavier, we avoided having to move up a mast track size, significantly saving weight overall while retaining performance.
Final result
