Doyle Sails technology attends at Rolex Sydney-Hobart 2018
At the 2018 Rolex Sydney-Hobart race attended some of the best offshore sailors of the world. Two boats, Comanche and Infotrak have reached respectively the first and the fourth place. Both of them flying Doyle Stratis sails.
Both Comanche and InfoTrack raced with cable-less sails, plus Comanche raced south with a Doyle mainsail. The feedback from the crew on board confirmed that a significant weight gain on all the sails, especially the mainsail had been achieved.
The extensive design work on all the sails’ elongation numbers was absolutely spot on, confirmed by it all matching the rig setup so well. Comanche also had a cable-less furling J1, J-Zero and A3 – which, to be honest is quite a ground-breaking sail on a furler, making this massive sail highly manageable for the crew. All of this with literally no sag in the luff sideways and flying positively forward from a projection standpoint, for a huge increase in driving force. Then on InfoTrack we had a cable-less masthead Zero, J-Zero, storm jib, J5 and an A2 cable-less Stratis sail, which was bigger again than Comanche’s,’ he adds.
‘The Doyle big jibs and A3 are very powerful and yet significantly lighter than i thought. The sails’ ability to hold their shape at all angles with virtually no luff sag is astounding in such big sails.
If the purpose is make ligther these boats with Doyle Sails we can. Infact We have reduced rig load dramatically with these cableless sails, and our performance has improved in all conditions, particularly in light air.
Our new Doyle mainsail is really high quality and having less weight aloft guarantees higher performance in all conditions. Comanche has been able to realise more of her potential with the addition of Doyle’s cable-less sails and I recommend this exciting technology for any size of boat.’
Another exciting performance of the 2018 Hobart race was aboard InfoTrack, with improved light air and VMG running by using their A2 laminate Stratis sail for 95 per cent of the race, performing superbly in a range of true wind speed from eight to 32 knots, where it furled easily, proving a highly controllable sail in over 30 knots true. Racing aboard InfoTrack was Stu Bannatyne on his 12th Hobart race, who commented.
“Sailing upwind with the Doyle masthead Zero you could see the luff the whole way, it simply doesn’t shake or flutter at all, but as soon as these sails unfurl, everyone gets to see the benefits of the luff projecting and it’s easy to understand why that’s faster. It’s a game changer really, just remarkable.’
Chris Nicholson knows every needs from sailors and equipment about this foiling technology. He thinks, having this kind of sails is the best thing these boats can do to take weight off . This is true for all boats, but a particularly big deal for the foiling Ocean 60s. The benefits apply across the board, be it a superyacht or a 16ft skiff;
‘Moving into 2019 and beyond, with all projects including the Ocean Race campaigns, people aren’t just looking to next season, but two or three years in front –or further if it is a multi-race campaign. In these situations, it’s clear that people will be drawn towards these sails, particularly after talking with individuals and teams who have used Doyle’s sails and having received honest feedback.
‘That is the true test of any product out there in the marketplace: have the conversation with people who have used these sails, then get their response on shape, weight saving and durability, which have been extensively proven in campaigns such as Alex Thompson’s Hugo Boss. Then come and talk to our team about how we can improve your overall performance, by offering you more weight saving, more resilience in shape, more performance and more durability –for less.’
