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| CHRISTENED! |
| Saturday, 24 July 2004 |
The double knuckle bow on the Swedish Match 40 is similar to those seen on America`s Cup Class sloops. (Guido Cantini/Sea & See)
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The new Swedish Match 40 is ready for competition at the Portugal Match Cup. (Guido Cantini/Sea & See)
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Coinciding with the debut of the Portugal Match Cup is the debut of the Swedish Match 40, the specially designed match-racer from legendary Swedish designer Pelle Petterson.
When the Portugal Match Cup joined the Swedish Match Tour it agreed to purchase six of the 40-footers from builder Maxi Yachts for use in their regatta. The first boats were delivered to Cascais, Portugal, the week of July 12.
Petterson created the design with input from the likes of Paul Cayard, Petterson’s son-in-law who has been a part of America’s Cup syndicates dating back to 1980, and Magnus Holmberg, the veteran match-racer from Sweden who helped create and launch the hugely successful Swedish Match Cup in Marstrand, Sweden.
The goal was to create a boat that could be transported in a 40-foot container, while also having similar lines to an America’s Cup Class sloop.
“The Swedish Match 40 is a unique design based on the most recent America’s Cup class yachts,” said Petterson, who designed and skippered Sweden’s 12-Meter Severige in the 1977 challenger trials for the America’s Cup. “The Swedish Match 40 will provide sailors and teams a perfect tool to develop their match-racing skills on the road to the next America’s Cup in 2007.”
Two prototypes were launched at the Swedish Match Cup last year. Last winter they were sold to the BMW Oracle Racing Team, a challenging syndicate for America’s Cup 2007, which has used them for crew training. Helmsman Gavin Brady, who placed third overall on the 2003-’04 Tour, found them to be “quite enjoyable.”
“They’re not a difficult boat to sail in terms of where the winches and deck gear is,” said the 30-year-old New Zealander living in Annapolis, Md. “You don’t have to break your back to do anything.
“They don’t feel like a 40-footer,” he continued. “It feels much smaller because of the narrow beam. They look like little AC boats. If you painted them in the BMW Oracle colors, they’d look like scale models of our boats.”
The Swedish Match 40 has a double-knuckle bow, like the ones displayed on New Zealand, NZL-60, and Alinghi, SUI-64, in their triumphant runs to the America’s Cup. The double-knuckle bow helps move hull volume forward to extend lateral stability and sailing length.
They also are quite narrow with a beam of 7 feet, 6 inches and displace 8,377 pounds. The working sail area is 645 square feet, which increases by almost 130 square feet when the genoa is hoisted. The spinnaker is a massive 1,076 square feet.
The boats that will be sailed in Portugal are slightly different than the prototypes. The hulls are the same, but the keel bulb has been moved slightly forward, one meter has been added to the rig height, and the rig has been moved aft one-half foot.
“I believe match-racing is a game of positioning so we went for more of a meter-style boat, more of a true match-racer’s boat,” said Tour Director Scott MacLeod, who helped push the project along. “If you make a mistake, it’s heightened by the lack of maneuverability. It’s a different way to look at the sport.”
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RELATED COVERAGE
Portugal Match Cup summary
Swedish Match 40
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