Owen Clarke Design Class 40 Update |
| Saturday, 23 April 2005 |
Owen Clarke Design announces a range of race boats to suit the new Class 40 Rule
· Pricing updates and new yards on line
· First Owen Clarke Class 40 race boat announced
· Hull development program completed
· First look at the new Class 40 Racer/Cruiser
· Production Class 40 news
· Kit and home build prices
· OCD Racing news
First OCD Class 40 race boat will commence build in May
Our first Class 40 design commences construction shortly. She is a custom design that shares much of its base naval architecture; hull development, engineering and sail plan with our stock design work. The owner however had a number of requirements and many ideas that led down the path of developing this custom design to completely satisfy his specifications. We’re working closely with him on the design of particular features of his boat that will feature for instance a short coach-roof with a particularly futuristic look that we’re engineering but has been designed by the owner himself.
The hull and deck is being built from vacuum bagged unidirectional glass/foam/epoxy resin on a male and female mould respectively. This allows the lightest hull shell weight and hence the heaviest bulb achievable while remaining at the minimum weight (4650kg) allowed by the class rules.
Details of the owner, his program and of the build schedule will be announced in collaboration with the client, but it can be said that the target event is the Route de Rhum next year.
Two hulls, two rigs for two completely different races
Right on time, ready for the first boat to start build we have now completed the hull design phase of our systematic study of the Class 40 Box Rule. During February, March and on into April we evaluated the performance of fourteen different boats in different beam, lcb and ballast configurations to arrive at three final candidate designs. As a result of that work it is now our intention to offer two hull options for our stock design depending on the target events for the sailors who opt to go ahead and work with us at Owen-Clarke. When sailors sign up for our concept design package we’re ready to talk you through all the options and guide your choice based on a simple review of the different hull performance results. A sample set of polars from one of the final candidates is included as a PDF file.
OCD Racing in the USA, France and from the UK
With offices in New Zealand and the UK we’re always ready to meet with potential clients on home ground or at mutually convenient locations and times. One potential opportunity for face-to-face dialogue this year in the US will be when Merfyn Owen travels to the USA in June to race the Bermuda 1-2 on the Owen Clarke designed Open 50, Artforms. Also, in October Owen Clarke Design will be represented at the Annapolis Boatshow where they will be launching and sailing their latest US design, a series production 6.5m Mini-Transat yacht – www.minisinamerica.com
Meanwhile in Europe, Merfyn Owen will also be at the finish of the Calais Round Britain Race at the end of May, as well as competing on one of our ‘proto’ minis in July’s Trans-Gascoigne Race. Allen Clarke meanwhile has plans to sail in this year’s two handed AZAB, Azores and Back Race.
OCD Class 40 High Performance Racer/Cruiser
We have now completed the preliminary design work required for our Racer/Cruiser version – the drawings and specification will be going out to a refined list of builders next week. The design has our race boat hull/rig package and in addition includes a modest lightweight interior, which gives the boat a dual role. We’re suggesting four different interior options, all of which fit within the existing structure of the race boat design and so we’re expecting competitive prices from the builders since one set of tooling will produce both versions. Unlike many production boats we are also staying with a lightweight glass and foam sandwich hull to keep the weight of the structure down to the minimum. Clients will have the option of choosing lightweight composite/foam sandwich furniture, or using veneered/painted plywood finishes.
The difference between the two specifications of course is cost and performance. The composite interior will be lighter than the wood interior. As with the hull, the foam sandwich hull is lighter than a production orientated solid glass, monolithic hull which necessarily also has a heavy csm /gelcoat layer. The driver here is speed, because the rule allows every kilogram saved in the hull and interior structure to be placed in the bulb. It is also for this reason that a race boat and light weight racer/cruiser can share the same hull because their weights will be the same rule minimum of 4650kgs. However, it is inevitable that the boat with the lightest structure will have a larger bulb and will therefore be faster in certain, but not all conditions. There is a balance for you as the client to consider between all out performance, comfort, dual use and cost. We can sit down and help you to make a sound judgement based on your goals and by putting numbers to a cost/performance analysis.
OCD Class 40 Cruiser-Racer
On the back of the work completed for the racer-cruiser, we’ve also approached two yards to produce a lower specification, cruiser-racer with solid glass, monolithic hull, foam deck and simple interior. The purpose of our doing this is that we’re well aware that there are a number of production boats available on the market whose price it is impossible to match with a semi-custom foam sandwich hull design. It is our aim in the future to provide a realistic Owen Clarke production 40 that will be competitive in this area of the market. It is not anticipated that we will have the design for this variant completed until the summer of 2005 unless we receive considerable interest. However, if once we receive the yard prices and distribute them we find sufficient interest we would react to this and prioritise this work. In the meantime, we aim to concentrate mainly on the development of our race boat and racer/cruiser designs.
Class 40 Price Update
We believe that if one were to look internationally at the cost of comparable boats such as the Farr 40, some of the prices quoted by our builders represent significant value for money given the level of specification we have provided.
· New yard: French yard comes on line with price for custom built OCD 40. We have just received a budget price of 340,000 Euros from the French yard; V1D2 based on our race boat specification, which excludes, sails, electronics and safety equipment. Marco Lefevre and his yard are well known in Open Class circles having built already an Open 40 and prepared boats for among others, Christophe Auguin, Bernard Stamm, Marc Thiercelin and Mike Golding.
· OCD Class 40 Racer: Glass/foam composite hull and deck, carbon rig with rod and pbo rigging. Custom made high tolerance SG iron and lead keel. Stripped out for racing, with an interior design similar in features to her larger Open 50/60 cousins. Excludes sails, electronics and safety equipment. Built to sail away high specification on any of four continents at a yard of your choice with prices as low as Euros 237,000.
· OCD Class 40 Racer/Cruiser: Glass/foam composite hull and deck, carbon rig with rod and pbo rigging. Custom made high tolerance SG iron and lead keel. Several options of a lightweight interior suitable for fast cruising with the family available. Design out to tender to five yards worldwide, expect to be able to update with prices by the end of May 2005.
· OCD Class 40 Cruiser/Racer: Solid glass hull, glass/foam deck with gelcoat finish. Optional carbon/aluminium rig with SG iron and lead keel. Optional interior layouts to fit with specification weighted towards high performance family cruiser with the ability to race offshore in the forty-foot class. Under development. More news – Summer 2005
· OCD Class 40 Kit/Home completion boats: All our designs are available as kit boats. A typical option would be for an owner to have the structure of the yacht completed professionally at any one of the fourteen yards we have identified. The hull and deck complete can then be fitted at by the client himself or locally. Hull, deck and rudder packages completed come in as low as Euros 126,000 excluding freight.
For continuously updated information on our Class 40 Racer, Cruiser/Racer and other variants please refer go to:
CLASS 40
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
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