News - 2013

17:55 Friday 26 Jul 2013 Michelle WarnerState-of-the-art catamaran racing as the Great Cup makes UK debut at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week

Visitors to Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week this year will get a taste of state-of-the-art catamaran racing as the Great Cup makes its UK debut during the world’s most famous sailboat regatta.

The Great Cup, a new circuit due to launch properly in 2014, is raced in latest generation GC32 one design catamarans. These have been designed by foil expert and fluid mechanics PhD Martin Fischer, designer of several World Championship winning F18 dinghy catamarans such as the Phantom, as well as the foils on Franck Cammas’ Volvo Ocean Race victor, Groupama.

Three GC32s will be competing in the Multihull class at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week.

Spax Solutions is being campaigned by Frenchman Laurent Lenne, creator of the Great Cup and the GC32 catamaran. While he now runs his quality management company in Amsterdam, Lenne spent his formative years studying yacht design in Southampton. “I am really excited to bring this new class to Cowes Week” he says. “It has been years since I last sailed on the Solent, but I have great memories of it and I am looking forward to some exciting sailing there.”

Racing with Lenne will be his right hand man in the Great Cup, Australian former Tornado sailor Andrew Macpherson, plus Swedish Volvo Ocean Race sailor Mikael Lundh and young New Zealand match racer and former China Team AC45 crewman James Williamson.

An all-British GC32 crew will be racing on Time on the Water, named after the company run by former Team GBR Olympic Tornado sailor and Extreme 40 helmsman Hugh Styles. On board with Styles, who is today coach of British Laser Radial ace Ali Young, will be other ex-Team GBR squad members, 470 sailor Richard Mason and 49er crew Rick Peacock, plus catamaran expert Adam Piggott.  “It's great to bring such a cutting edge technology catamaran to the UK,” enthuses Styles. “I’m really looking forward to steaming down the Solent at 27 knots. Cowes will be a great venue to showcase the boat in conventional Solent course racing.”

Another strong contender will be Flavio Marazzi’s Marwin team. Marazzi is making his transition to catamarans having previously represented his native Switzerland in the Star class at both the Athens and Beijing Olympic Games. Also racing on board is Swiss 470 turned Nacra 17 Olympic catamaran sailor Matías Bühler, Diego Stefani from Uruguay and France’s Nicolas Heintz.

“I'm looking forward to my first Cowes Week and the first international appearance of the GC32 class in a traditional regatta on the open water,” says Marazzi. “We also feel ready to test the boat in windy and choppy conditions in the Solent. The regatta will show that catamaran sailing can be indeed a lot of fun for sailors, guests AND spectators.”

The first ever regatta for the Great Cup was held during Allianz Traunsee Race Week on Lake Traunsee in Austria in May, and the boats have since competed in the Bol d’Or Mirabaud, the foremost event on Lake Geneva, Switzerland. As Marazzi states, Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week will be the first ever occasion the GC32s have raced on ‘the sea’. The crews are looking forward to racing them in some more lively conditions than they have seen to date. At full throttle the boats are capable of sailing in excess of 30 knots.

The GC32s will be competing in the Multihull class at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week over the final four days - Wednesday until Saturday (7th-10th August).