The record breaking swing keel super-maxi Mari Cha 4 will be racing across the Atlantic in this month’s Rolex Transatlantic Race after being ‘turbo-charged’ this winter by the addition of two six metre (twenty foot long) retractable daggerboards similar to those found in Open 60’s and the new Volvo 70 fleet.

The boards were designed and engineered by naval architects Owen Clarke Design and SP Technologies, in co-operation with the Mari Cha 4 Design Team. After racing the Voiles St Tropez on the boat in October, Merfyn Owen working with one of the yacht’s original designers Clay Oliver completed the vpp and complex balance prediction work required for this schooner-rigged yacht.

JMV Industries in Normandy made the 200kg pre-preg carbon daggerboards along with their cases before all the components were shipped down to La Ciotat on the Mediterranean coast where they were laminated into the boat. The boards run in self aligning bearings mounted in rectangular carbon-nomex cases. Owen Clarke’s Tim Sadler drew all the boards, bearings, case and assembly in 3D so that female moulds could be built for all items including the stock that fits inside the daggerboard itself. The use of such 3D design allows precise and accurate assembly both in new, but also existing hulls and structures. In the last twelve months Owen Clarke Design have designed and ‘retrofitted’ a number of complex structures and hardware to existing boats including twin asymmetrical daggerboard systems to a Finot designed Open 50, our own Open 60 Pindar, as well as Mari Cha 4. In the case of Pindar, the boards, bearings and cases were built in New Zealand and taped into the yacht in the UK!

Share or bookmark this story: