The second 40 Degrees, an Owen-Clarke /Clay Oliver third generation Class 40 designed for 2009
The first third generation design was Cinnamon Girl, built in the UK by FSCD and was completed in September 2009. The next to be launched and the second 40 Degrees to be designed by OCD for Peter Harding, was again built by Uwe Jaspersen at Jaz Marine. Both boats completed their Class 40 measurement within a week of each other and sailed together in the Solent in the middle of September. Pictures of that and the 90 degrees measurement of the two boats can be found here.
Owen Clarke Design are at the forefront of development for this new exciting class of yacht and had thirteen Class 40's on the water by the end of the Summer, 2009. Most are race boat versions, the first to be launched in June 2006 was Friends of the Earth, a custom design for Toronto based sailor Jonathan Crinion. Third in the 2005 Route de Rhum (Daily Sail Report), Owen Clarke's second Class 40, Bolands Mill for UK mini sailor Ian Munslow was based on our first generation stock design and had a solid cast SG Iron keel fin. This boat has now transferred ownership and is in the United States and will be sailed by her owner John Ryan and Merfyn Owen in the 2009 Bermuda 1-2.
Our first second generation design with a fabricated steel fin was the Jaz Marine built '40 Degrees' for Peter Harding. Her first outing, indeed regatta after her launch in 2007 was the Class 40 Worlds where she finished second in an extremely competitive fleet .Jaz Marine built a fourth yacht that year which was fitted out as a cruiser/racer. Meanwhile in the more rural confines of Devon UK, Alex bennett launched his own 'Fujifilm' built by 'Composite Creations' whose second boat Dragon also followed in the wake of Bolands Mills and headed to the East Coast USA. The Sail Ventures team built four Express 40 production racer cruisers before the company went out of business in difficult market conditions.
Owen Clarke can tailor your design requirements whether it be primarily for coastal, round the cans or for deep transoceanic passages our experienced team can provide you with unprecedented backup, with the combined sailing experience of over 150,000 ocean miles of hard sailing ensuring your project is fast, reliable and safe.
Fujifilm, Alex Bennetts Class 40 launched 2007
Class 40 is designed to bridge the gap between the small Mini Transat 6.5’s and their larger and more expensive cousins the Open 50’s/60’s. Ideal in concept for the non-sponsored sailor to be sailed short-handed in Trans-Oceanic events such as the Melbourne-Osaka,Route de Rhum, Round Britain and AZAB. The concept of the class and the boat is however also to race fully crewed in events like the Fastnet, Bermuda Race, also club racing and in regattas such as Spi Ouest and Cork Week. For more information on the recent history of the class and events featuring Class 40's go to Class 40 Racing.
40 Degrees, fully crewed and second in the 2007 Class 40 Worlds, as well as winner of the 2008 Class 40 Championship
Class 40 is a box rule that has been devised in France by a group of sailors, designers and other interested parties including builders and the journalist/Vendee Globe veteran Patrice Carpentier, with the purpose of creating a new 'short-handed' offshore racing class. The intention of the rule makers is that it should be international and encourages the participation of sailors from all over the world. By July 2007 this office has had more than five hundred enquiries from nine countries in Europe, as well as Australasia, the Far East, South America,the United States and Canada.
'Red' German Class 40
The rule itself is based primarily on a minimum displacement, maximum length, draft, beam and sail area. Other limitations include ones on materials, appendage type, stability and ballast. Its aim is to more closely define the scope for designers and builders in order to limit the cost of the boats and make them affordable to a much wider group of sailors. In this way the association believes that it will be possible for the class to grow in much the same way as Classe Mini. That is to say, with a mixture of sponsored and non-sponsored series produced and prototype boats. Class 40 is intended to be a ‘broad church’ with some sailors wanting to race predominantly offshore in classics such as the Route de Rhum and Transat races. Others meanwhile will determine to stick to mainly coastal and inshore events that already exist or future events to be run by the class association.
If you don't already own an Owen Clarke Design Class 40 then you better get used to this view
The first designs we have produced are purely racing boats with no allowance made in the specification for accommodation other than that implied by the rule. We have now produced a racer-cruiser version that can be seen on an adjoining web page and are currently developing a production cruiser-racer as well.
40 Degrees interior
Class 40 should not be confused with Open 40, which is an unrestricted race boat type that allows for instance the use of canting keels and carbon fibre in hull and deck structure. At least initially it might be that Class 40 and Open 40 will co-exist in some events but few Open 40’s will be able to qualify and race in the same class as a Class 40. In time it is felt that Class 40 will become in the same way as the Mini Transat, by far the dominant offshore short-handed racing class in its length.
Friends Of The Earth warming up off Cape Town
During the development of our generic Class 40 for 2005/6 we looked at a number of options for deck and interior layout. Designing down size from our successful Open 50 Artforms as well as up from our last mini, the Tom Crean. We also referenced some work we had undertaken in previous years on Open 40 design. We believe sailors will be interested in the alternative layouts we came up with and have put back in the ‘electronic drawer’. Some of our clients will inevitably want something a little different.
Owen-Clarke Design have built four boats at Jaz Marine in South Africa from female tooling. Three boats at Composite Creations also from female tooling and seven boats have been sold from the infusion tooling of Sail Ventures Express 40. At least wo of our third generation Class 40 designs will be launched in 2009.
We are continuously updating tender process with other yards, sail-makers and spar builders world-wide and have a considerable amount of information and costings that will allow our boats to be built anywhere in the world. For those sailors who have not commissioned their own boat before we have produced a useful guide describing the design and build process with some frequently asked questions. It shows you how one goes about commissioning a stock boat or having designed a custom boat – exactly the one you’ve been thinking of.
If you would like to receive this information and a copy of our Class 40 brochure and/or have ideas a little different to what we’ve shown here then we’d like to hear from you. Contact: Racing
For an explanation of the technology behind the design process go to:
NAVAL ARCHITECTURE
For an insight into our engineering and detailed design work go to:
ENGINEERING
