The Yacht

The YuuZoo Yacht:
Under the bonnet of a world-class Maxi yacht

Rolex Sydney Hobart Campaign 2009

YuuZoo is one of the world’s most advanced ocean racing yachts.

The yacht is one the world’s Supermaxis. She boasts a carbon fibre sandwich construction; a huge sail to weight ratio; a canting (or swing) keel and numerous high-tech design features.

She was designed by Dutch company, Simonis/Voogd and built by Concept Yachts CC in Cape Town. She was launched in December 2004. In 2009, the yacht received her new rig.

This year, she returns to the Sydney Hobart with a new crew, a longer bow sprit to carry larger, more powerful spinnakers and a longer boom to carry a larger mainsail.

Today’s racing yachts are miracles of modern technology. But ultimately, they still use the power of the wind as the only source of propulsion.

Here are some of her special features:

Handicap

YuuZoo’s handicap can under IRC rules be optimised between 1,650 and 1,720 depending on the expected conditions and/or the specific event she is being optimised for. She will be optimised to a moderate handicap for the 2009 Rolex Sydney to Hobart race. The handicap system takes account of many factors that impact the performance of the yacht including length, beam, keel, displacement, mast height, boom length and sail area among others.

Carbon Construction

YuuZoo is built using a carbon fibre sandwich construction, where a carbon fibre skin has been laminated on each side of a 25 to 40 mm Nomex or foam core with epoxy resin. The structures have been packed in a plastic film to allow a vacuum to be applied to the sandwich while the entire boat has been ‘baked’ in an oven to allow complete curing. Carbon fibre provides the right combination of low weight and strength she needs for ocean racing. This is why she weighs only 20 tons – and 10 tons of that is in the keel. An advanced technology yacht of similar size to YuuZoo, but built 10 years ago would have weighed over 30 tons, as do most of our competitors.

The bow is a bit stronger than the aft section because it has to take greater loads in big waves. It also contains some Kevlar to provide greater impact resistance in case YuuZoo hits an object in the water. And the bow is also built as a sacrificial impact area.

Canting Keel

Ever since the Australian America’s Cup Challenger Team won the Cup in 1982 on Australia II, keel design has been widely known to be crucial to a yacht’s speed and efficiency.

In October 2004, YuuZoo was built with a canting (or swing) keel. Canting keels are not new technology, however, the rules for offshore racing yachts have only recently started to allow canting keels.

A canting keel can be deliberately ‘swung’ to windward to give a yacht more stability in stronger winds. Stability is crucial for efficient racing. Racing yachts are designed to be at their most efficient when slightly ‘heeled’ over. YuuZoo’s most efficient range of heel is 21 degrees but while she would be slowed down by a higher ‘wet surface’ (=resistance) when standing entirely upright, the hull will loose symmetry, projected sailarea and ‘grip’ of the keel when heeling over 22 degrees. Two powerful hydraulic rods inside the yacht control the angle of the keel to counter the heeling force by the wind in the sails. Each is capable of applying 120 tons of push or pull to swing the keel into its optimal angle. To put it another way, they are capable of lifting 240 tons, a weight 12 times that of the yacht.

As the wind becomes stronger, YuuZoo’s canting keel will be adjusted within the limits set by the rules to keep her within that efficient range before having to reduce sail area.

The keel is 5 metres long, but only 50 cm wide and 70 mm thick at its thinnest point. The bulb of lead at the bottom weighs 9 tons – almost half the total weight of the yacht. The bulb design is a torpedo style design for minimal resistance for the mass of lead it contains.

The Canard

As the keel, which is very small for this size of boat, is not providing enough ‘lift’ the YuuZoo can lower a canard, or a centreboard which is located forward of the mast and the keel. The canard also has a trimtab to allow it to generate further lift as the trimtab makes the canard an asymmetric foil. The canard is only used to the extent required for upwind sailing. While sailing with the wind, the YuuZoo crew will lift it up to decrease resistance in the water and increase speed.

Sails

YuuZoo’s sail ‘wardrobe’ will depend on the expected race conditions and is constrained by her IRC handicap. A typical wardrobe for the Sydney to Hobart could be one racing mainsail; up to seven jibs or foresails; two staysails, which go between the mainsail and the foresail or spinnaker and seven spinnakers, the large colourful sails used when the wind is blowing from the aft, or rear, of the yacht.

In certain conditions, YuuZoo could have enough sail area hoisted to cover more than four tennis courts put together – Well over 1000 square metres of sail at one time.

YuuZoo’s mainsail and foresails are D3 sails, which refers to the way they are constructed. Rather than weaving the sail material, individual strands of Kevlar or Carbonfibre, both extremely strong and flexible materials, are laid according to computer calculations to counter precisely the forces which the sail will encounter. The strands are glued between sheets of mylar film.

The sails are from North Sails and Doyle Sailmakers. Fully rigged, she has one of the largest sail-to-weight ratio of any racing monohull yacht on the water today, making her astonishingly fast downwind.

Bow Sprit

The Bow Sprit is a short pole projecting from the front of the bow.

On the YuuZoo we can attach spinnakers to the end of the bowsprit in order to get larger separation (gap) between the mainsail and the spinnaker. The bowsprit also helps to keep the spinnaker pole down through a tackle attached between the end of the Bowsprit and the end of the spinnakerpole.

The rather mean looking bowsprit adds well deserved respct from competitors as in the case of a collision the ‘swordlike’ bowsprit would be the first part of impact.

With a strong wind filling the largest, 800 square metre spinnaker, a force of over many tons are transmitted through the halyard to the top of the mast, and through the spinnaker sheet and spinnaker pole to the hull, giving it massive forward thrust allowing the YuuZoo to surf in speeds over 30 knots.

Technology on board

YuuZoo has a number of Dell computer systems on board for tracking wind speed and direction, for navigation, weather and communication and for performance modeling.

The central Ockam computer of the Ockam instrumentation system takes data from various sensors on the boat and then calculates this information into various bits of data, like true wind strength or direction.

One laptop computer takes data inputs from the Ockam system and compare the ‘present performance’ against a database of the best speed possible given previous best performances in similar set ups. Potentially the computer can make recommendations for improvements using a growing database of performance history.

YuuZoo also has two more laptops on board. One is used for navigation. It is connected to the GPS system and runs an Expedition navigation software with the electronic charts. The other is used for weather tracking from weather stations, satellites or the Internet and it is also used for communication with our race HDQ and general communication over the Internet

Communication

The communication systems on board include connection to 3G, the Iridium Satellite System for voice and data transmissions when far off shore; a SSB (Single Side Band) used for back-up communication, race reporting and potentially receiving weather broadcast faxes; VHF radio; GSM mobiles when in range and Standard C Satellite, which is used for telex and fax.

Branding

One of the most obvious features of many modern racing yachts is the sponsor logos. Increasingly, an international yacht racing team’s budget is being paid for by sponsors who use yacht racing as part of their marketing program. Technology is enabling us to follow yacht races on TV and through the internet like never before. This brings the adventure of sailing into people homes and lives, making the sport increasingly appealing to sponsors.

Technical specifications

Length: 27.5 metres or 90 feet (30 m or 100 feet including Bow Sprit)
Width: 4.4 metres
Depth: 4.7 metres
Displacement: 21 tons
Mast height: 39 metres
Mainsail: 283 sq .m
Jib: 220 sq. m
Spinnaker: Maximum 600 sq. m
Built: 2004, Sydney, Australia
Skipper: Ludde Ingvall
Co-Skipper: David Witt
Crew: 15-28 depending on race conditions

YuuZoo Big Boat Racing Team

This will be the seventh time YuuZoo has participated in the Sydney Hobart.

Highlights:

2000 – 1st over the line with the second fastest time in the history of the race.
2001 – 2nd over the line. Survived being hit by a Twister at the end of the first day.
2004 – 1st over the line.
2009 – Watch this space

The current YuuZoo yacht was built in 2004. She is 90 foot, all-carbon fibre and is the formula one of yachting. With a full rig, her sail area covers nearly five tennis courts. On a good downwind run, she easily breaks 30 knots.

Owner and skipper Ludde Ingvall is a former Maxi World Champion (1997 and 1999) and Whitbread Round the World Yachtsman. He has won the Fastnet race twice (1985 and 1995) and broken the record for a monohull Trans-Atlantic crossing (1997).

YuuZoo Big Boat Racing Team has formed a partnership with YuuZoo Corporation. For further information about YuuZoo visit their site on www.YuuZoo.com