Yachting: Don't knock it till you tri it, baby

TeamVodafoneSailing plans on tackling nearly every race record in the country, starting with the Coastal Classic. Photo / Supplied

Multihulls haven't always been popular among the sailing fraternity, but TeamVodafoneSailing skipper Simon Hull believes people will soon come around to his way of thinking once they see what his sleek new Orma 60 can do.

Hull officially launched his new boat last week and with it unveiled plans of tackling virtually every race record in the country, beginning with the Coastal Classic in October.

Measuring in at 18m, the head-turning trimaran is as wide as it is long, and capable of sustaining speeds of 40 knots - more than 74km/h - per hour. It is a precision balanced machine that requires immense skill to sail and manoeuvre, and Hull is excited by its potential.

"It's the fastest thing in the Southern Hemisphere. These are a class of boat that the French have been sailing for a number of years around the European circuit and transatlantics," he said.

"New Zealand's been pretty conservative and tended to stick with big monohulls and so we're kind of lifting the ante a bit and got in to one of these."

Hull said he made the decision to bring out a multihull from France after continuing to get beaten "in big expensive monohulls by little multihulls".

"We'd done pretty much everything we could do in the TP52 I previously had, it was really a matter of building another boat which would have been another generation and a slight improvement on what we had in the monohull fleet, or make a quantum leap forward in performance, which these things are."

It is not only Hull that is excited about the arrival of "Big Red" on the local circuit. The team, who in addition to Hull include Patrick O'Reilly, Kevin Peet, Paul Murray and Nick White, have already smashed a couple of smaller records, including setting a new mark from Auckland to Kawau Island as well as in a race around Waiheke Island.

Now the team has their sights set on some of the bigger Coastal records.

Already there is talk that if conditions are favourable, we could see a five-hour Coastal Classic race this year.

Neville Crichton's Alfa Romeo broke the record in last year's race, with their time of 6hrs, 43m and 32s wiping more than 36 minutes off the 13-year-old record held by the pink multihull Split Enz.

At the time it was thought Alfa Romeo's record would stand for many more years, but since the arrival of TeamVodafone there is speculation they could shave up to an hour off that time, leading to huge anticipation over the iconic race this year.

But Hull and his team are trying to steer clear of making any bold predictions at this stage.

"We're not talking any numbers, there's no question these boats have the performance ability, the French have sailed these things at an average of 27 knots for 24 hours so there is certainly the potential for a five-hour Coastal Classic, but to do that you've got to get ideal conditions," he said.

"First of all our target it to challenge Alfa Romeo's record from last year."

As well as the Coastal Classic, TeamVodafone are out to challenge the race records for a number of other events around Australia and the Pacific and are hopeful plans for a Round the North Island event for multihulls will soon get off the ground.

Hull has also instigated discussions to enter the famous Sydney to Hobart race, but with multihull entries not officially recognised he said he is not "holding his breath" for a positive outcome.

However he believes in time, as the popularity of multihull racing increases, attitudes will change.

"I think having the last America's Cup in multihulls has certainly helped the whole multihull image, equally there's talk about the next America's Cup being in multihulls as well, so it's all going to be fascinating."

Hull said in the short time he has had his trimaran in the country he has already noticed the yachting community have started to take multihulls more seriously.

"Now people have begun seeing the speed differential between these and [the monohulls] sailed in New Zealand, people are starting to talk more fondly of them."

TEAMVODAFONESAILING
ORMA 60
* Measurements: 18m (60 foot) in length, 18m (60 foot) wide, mast height of 30m (100 feet).

* Sail area up wind: 285m, consisting of a 180m main sail and a 100m solent jib.

* Sail area down wind: 445m consisting of a 180m main sail and a 265m gennaker.

* The boat has sail and rig loads similar to an America's Cup class yacht but weighs just 6.2 tonnes.