Inaugural Southern Cross Cup

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J.D.
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Inaugural Southern Cross Cup

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Most of you will find this pretty boring but for a sailor, this is like getting an Australian Grand Prix and knowing some of the people who drive in it.

TP52s are flat out the Grand Prix race boat of the moment. Nothing else comes close. This American idea, which kicked off about 10 years ago, has blossomed into the most hotly contested box rule class on the planet. They are a semi-development boat which has replaced pretty much any previous mid-sized Grand Prix class and for competitiveness are matched only by the Farr 40 one-design. At the moment they attract some of the cream of yacht designers like Judel/Vrolijk, Bruce Farr, Shaun Carkeek and Jason Ker and have evolved into nothing short of 52' skiffs.

They have totally flat bottoms with incredibly small keels and rudders of very high aspect ratio. The only other underwater appendage is a sail drive leg with a folding propeller. A 52 foot boat which weighs a bit over 7 tonnes...think about it. The 44 footer I sail on is 12 tonnes with half the sail area.

They will plane readily and can easily hit speeds in excess of 20kts.

Originally intended for the 2225nm Transpac Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Hawaii, they also excel in inshore class racing and this week, the inaugural Southern Cross Cup was held at Sandringham Yacht Club in Victoria (my club).

http://www.transpac52.org/news/year-2013/SCC5.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I got to see some of these monsters up close and out of the water.

Beau Geste:
Image

Beau Geste keel:
Image

Hooligan:
Image

Hooligan:
Image

The latest boat in Australia is the (relatively) new Calm 2 at Sandringham. It was originally built as "Container" for 1960s racing driver Udo Schutz, who has had a long line of boats of this name. His boats have always been very competitive and this one finished 2nd in the World Championships that year. It cost something like $2.5m to put in the water in 2011. Why so expensive? Well, it's a one-off design, as most of them are, and had to be designed from scratch by noted German naval architect, Rolf Vrolijk. The entire boat is built from carbon fibre, vacuum bagged and put in an autoclave. The entire rig is also carbon. Unlike racing cars, boat designers use a multitude of different weaves for different areas of stress.

After 9 months of racing, Container was sold for $800,000 and arrived here late last year. With the likes of Hooligan, Shogun V, Cougar 2 and the original Calm, there is now enough competition to attract the cream of Australian sailors to a regatta like this one.

Not since the days on the Admirals Cup, more than 20 years ago, have we had racing like this in Australia and the class is set to grow as skippers start to forsake bigger boats for faster, more competitive TP52s. I reckon within 5 years the fleet will number around 20 boats.

http://www.thedailysail.com/inshore/13/ ... nal-report" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
сначала мы убиваем американского лося и белку.

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J.D.
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Re: Inaugural Southern Cross Cup

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Round 2 was run and won over the weekend. Out of 8 races, the Hong Kong-based TP52 Beau Geste won 5 and finished second in 3, a convincing win.

The next part of the series is to be held in Sydney in October.

Here are a few shots and I'll be posting more in the photography forum.

Calm 2; that's John Bertrand in the white:

Image

Beau Geste shows the way around the bottom mark:

Image

Calm with some spinnaker issues:

Image

Beau Geste and Calm 2 going toe-to-toe:

Image

Shogun V and Hooligan duel it out at the start:

Image
сначала мы убиваем американского лося и белку.

"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell.

Proudly never a mod or admin at RSC from 2001 - 2009.
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J.D.
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Re: Inaugural Southern Cross Cup

Post by J.D. »

Some video from Cougar II.



They are planing at 18-20 kts off the wind.
Last edited by J.D. on Tue Dec 29, 2015 2:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
сначала мы убиваем американского лося и белку.

"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell.

Proudly never a mod or admin at RSC from 2001 - 2009.
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J.D.
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Posts: 6666
Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 2:10 pm
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Re: Inaugural Southern Cross Cup

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Actually, I'm not sure this wasn't done by the poor bloke we picked up from a RIB and who spent the next 45 minutes being violently ill until we put him ashore.
сначала мы убиваем американского лося и белку.

"Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations." - George Orwell.

Proudly never a mod or admin at RSC from 2001 - 2009.
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