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As far as the hardware goes, the new boat, Chris ‘Reido’ Reid (NZL) is the man charged with pulling all the disparate pieces of the Mean Machine jigsaw together and making sure it was not only on the start line in Alicante, but was in the best possible shape to win.
While the typically understated Kiwi remarks that their job has only really begun in Alicante when they won the first regatta of the 2008 Audi MedCup Circuit.
His first assessment is explaining the design targets with the new boat compared with the 2006 Mean Machine, and the 2007 boats. The most noticeable feature on the rig is that there are no external halyard exits, all the halyards run below deck.
“ We have a few different things, trying to get the windage down, trying to get the weight down low, and the whole package has come together pretty well.” Explains Reid, “ The main thing has been reducing the windage around the foredeck, getting the winches out of the breeze and trying to add stiffness to the boat.”
“ The hull was built with a male mould, the deck with a female mould. We did not have an extra four weeks to build a female mould and we had confidence we could produce the product which would come out pretty fair and would not have to take to much of a penalty with using fairing compound.”
“ In the end the boat is probably the same as the last boat (in terms of hull weight) but the guys from Salthouse have done a fantastic job, really nice attention to detail. I have been sailing together and racing together with some of the guys at Salthouse for quite a few years, and Auckland is my home town and so I was able to climb into my own bed each night.”
“ I pretty much have a free reign as to how the package is put together. There are a lot of people who are responsible for the different areas and they did fantastic work there. In the sail department Jon Gunderson combining with the (North Sails) designers Micky Ickert, Henrik Soederlund, and Jens Christensen. The rig is Southern Spars is from the same tooling as the other Southern Rigs, the same section we had developed for the ’06 boat, with a higher modulus carbon, just a stiffer rig- as stiff as you can possibly get.”
“ We can get the sheeting angle in to 4.5 degrees, on the last boat we were probably getting to 5.5 degrees. That is another mode, a function of the boat when you need a bit more height. I don’t think it will be possible to go closer than that.”
“ The deck layout we have refined the systems, what we learned from the last boat. Where to put purchases and how to run them, specifically. The halyards are below deck. The hydraulic package is by Caraboni, we just run two functions, headstay and Code Zero, we don’t want to confuse us with anything too much. We have the rope purchases pretty well sorted, so everything works. All of the deck hardware is Harken, except for a couple of small things we have gone custom because Harken don’t produce what we want.”
Their much admired pit winch is a new system which they are trialling, and their kite hoists at the weather turn were awesome:
“I think that movistar might have had this system, but it is chain driven rather than belt driven. We get better gearing there are less buttons and the overdrive is in the top of it, to change gear.”
The halyard line speed has gone up ‘quite a bit…a significant amount
“Our hoists are now about three seconds, hand tailing on the last boat the best you could possibly hope for was about five and a half, six seconds. If you can get that extra boat length away from the top mark, that just gives you breathing room. You can extend from there, just one length is all you need. We are very happy with it.”
The traveller system is just a standard 8:1 purchase, we did not have a lot of time to go down the road with the (Harken) pro trim system. I think it is at the top end of its system. If you have a German mainsheet system, the load is less on the traveller than with end of the boom sheeting, and my gut feeling is that they wouldn’t cope.
Artemis did a lot of development with that system with their last boat, but all of that stuff takes time, time on the water and you don’t need to be working with these things.”
The offset pedestals on Mean Machine and several other new boats are a feature which some observers supposed was to keep the grinders body mass slightly more to the starboard side of the boat for starts and weather mark roundings, but Reido explains:
“The aim was to reduce the amount of universal joints in the drive-shafts as they lead from the boxes out to the winches. If you have a solid connection the difference is huge, and it is a weight reduction as well. The head of the pedestal is on centreline so their bodies as still in the centre of the boat and the pedestal is on a 15 degree angle. We are pretty conscious of trying to keep the boat as symmetrical as possible. The only universal we have is to the pit winch. We could not get around that.”
Reid, who is from Hawke’s Bay, is a boatbuilder to trade, has been with Mean Machine for over five years, and was the shoreside boat-builder with illbruck. His take on the Mean Machine team is:
“ I think that we are a very tight knit family, we have been together for a very long time. Even on bad days we are still smiling, we have a happy boat. There is always a good attitude.”
And of their slightly muted demeanour as they crossed the finish line in Alicante to win overall:
“ No, no high fives, no man love.” He jests, “ We try to keep that toned down a bit. After all the job is only just started and it is a long season. We are cool about it and happy, but we have a job to do and you just don’t take your foot off the throttle. Yes, it’s probably a bit of a Kiwi thing, be we have a huge night but just keep it in house.”
“ I am very happy with the way the whole package has gone. I was quite nervous about how the whole little bits and pieces come together. You are trying something that has not been done before and in a series with no drops (discards) you run the risk of having issues, so I am very relieved and happy with the way it went.”
Having the run of the Team New Zealand base was a big asset to the Mean Machine programme. Reid considers that alone allowed them to do four weeks work in two weeks. They were able to sail the boat, then take it out at will and check the geometry and drop it in again each time they wanted. In terms of launchings he reports that Desafio was first in a week ahead of Quantum, then Mutua Madrilena, Mean Machine and Artemis all together.
Andi Robertson |
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