BYM Interview with Nigel Irens, Tri vs Cat

Complete and comprehensive info from a true specialist, read this interview and understand better the complex designs of these two beasts and the differences between Tri and Cat.-

BYM:Nigel Irens is one of the world’s most renowned multihull designers, having been responsible for the design of several record breaking trimarans such as, Ellen MacArthur’s B&Q-Castorama, Thomas Colville’s Sodeb’O and Francis Joyon’s solo Round the World record holder IDEC. More recently, Nigel was a consultant to the Alinghi design team. Nigel Irens: Essentially both boats take the loads on a central structure. On the Oracle boat that structure is a hull that floats in the water when the vessel is at rest; Alinghi has chosen not to put the envelope of a hull around that structure, so clearly it mustn’t be allowed to touch the water, because that wouldn’t do a lot for the speed, because of the drag from the tips of the struts that come down. So that’s why the longitudinal vessel structure has to be held quite high in the air and the mast step, which is on it, is quite a bit higher than on the Oracle boat.
Read the complete interview at: https://www.bymnews.com/americas-cup-33/nigel-irens.php