Despite the Covid crises it's been a very busy five months for Owen Clarke. OC have been working on multiple racing and cruising design and engineering projects including a new 25m high latitude motor-sailer. However, this is the latest project we've just completed and delivered, a new keel and bulb for Ari Huusela's IMOCA 60, entered in the 2020 Vendee Globe.
Ari qualified on her for Route du Rhum in 2018, which saw him secure 11th place in the IMOCA fleet. The new keel will be delivered to the yacht, currently in the V1D2 yard in Caen, to be fitted at the end of the Summer. The old fin had already been around the globe and across the Atlantic multiple times and the time had come for a new fin to the latest IMOCA rule.
The imagery shown is of part of the detailed keel engineering report required by the IMOCA rule showing in detail the finite element analysis ( FEA ) results for the aft area of the fin connection with the keel boss and the hydraulic ram attachment point for his canting keel. This fin is made up of a forged and CNC machined stainless billet with carbon/foam composite fairing.
