Torresen Sailing Site Report From Charleston SC for Tuesday September 21st:

    Last night a sparse crowd at the Maritime Center was treated to high winds and pounding rain. Outside, where covered tables are set up for spectators, those tables were toppled by the rain. However, there was no damage done to the boats.

     As promised, this morning we will look at the Finot 60's that populate class I. These yachts are the very latest in Around Alone design and philosophy. There are four Finot 60's that have been launched this year.

    Two are sailed by British mariners (Mike Golding and Team Group 4 and Josh Hall and Fila). The other two are sailed by Italian Giovanni Soldini and Frenchman Marc Thiercelin. From my dockside observations, it becomes apparent that the hull designs of the boats are similar. The sterns are  round, almost semi circle shape. The bottoms of the boats are very flat, with very low free board.

     Compared to other 60 foot boats, the Finot's seem as though they should be higher. Beam is carried to the max, with the 60's looking much wider than any other 60 footer you have seen. It is in the area of masts that the Finot 4 differ. Fila, Group 4 and Somewhere have 'deck spreaders'. These are outriggers that jut diagonally and help support the mast. These deck spreaders are approximately 15 feet in length. They do a great deal of the work of supporting the mast. This allows fewer sets of spreaders than one would expect. Fila has 2 very narrow sets, while Somewhere has only 1 set of 'mast spreaders', when have you seen that on a 60 foot boat before ? Group 4 also has this 1 spreader configuration. In addition these mast are wing mast such as you see on large racing multihulls. They can be rotated.

    The fourth of the boats, Gartmore, has much more of a classic look to her rig. Skipper Josh Hall chose a triple spreader classic type rig for Gartmore. Hall feels this will give him greater reliability in the treacherous Southern Ocean. There is no question that the 4 60's I have written about this morning are fast boats, skippered by good sailors and also well funded.

    Each one I am sure expects victory in their own mind. I still believe that Fila and Giovanni Soldini represent the combination to beat. Soldini who still carries the weight of this April's Atlantic tragedy (on the transom it reads: 'No More Trouble') has the most time sailing and developing his boat of the four. I think at this level of sailing, any time one of these sailors is given time to apply their considerable talents, they have an edge.

    While Soldini has been on the water for awhile, the other 3 have really had just this summer to develop their boats. This development time, along with the fact that Soldini has an outstanding racing record in Open class boats (2nd in Class 2 in the last Around Alone and a domination of the Atlantic Alone), leads me to favor Soldini.

Back to the Charleston Reports Index