Aquatich 40 ORC racer-cruiser

— 08 May 2017

The Aquatich 40 has been designed as a dual-purpose racer-cruiser and represents the Humphreys offices’ first real foray into the ORC rating system. With the ORC rule having under-gone significant change over the past few years, with the aim of encouraging type-forming towards more contemporary and higher stability design types than had previously been the case, this project represented an exciting opportunity for our team.

The VPP, along with the generation of accurate hydrodynamic and aerodynamic force models to utilise within it, is a vital tool in the optimisation process. This is true for any performance orientated design project, however, when designing to a VPP based rule system such as ORC, this is perhaps even more the case, where effectively one VPP is being pitched against another.

A large CFD/VPP study was undertaken on this project to investigate the design space of interest to the client. Working closely with performance optimisation specialists KND Sailing Performance, the study comprised a select number of design candidates being run through KND’s DasBoot CFD code and North Sails VPP in conjunction with our own analysis using our in-house FS Flow CFD code and WinDesign6 (6 degrees of freedom) VPP. Structuring the optimisation process in this way has provided good results for us on numerous project, allowing a large number of design candidates and performance refinement to be carried out, yet for a relatively modest R&D budget appropriate for a relatively small design of this size.

The deck geometry is a development from our previous H39 design for IRC, which provides an excellent balance between racing functionality and cruising comfort both above and below deck. With transverse jib tracks mounted on top of the coachroof, excellent control is provided over headsail sheeting angle, with good end-plating of the jib, and enables the coachroof to be pushed a little wider, providing a spacious interior with plenty of standing headroom below deck.

Below deck the design provides a functional layout for offshore racing and cruising. There are two aft double quarter berths and an enclosed head compartment, large wet locker and double V-berth forward. There is also a fixed navigation station to port, an L-shaped galley to starboard, including oven, double sink and refrigerator unit, and twin saloon settees and saloon table. Pressurised hot and cold running water runs to both the galley and heads compartment, which includes a shower.

The design is being series built at the Oceantec shipyard in Slovenia. Construction is in E-glass / Foam sandwich, with carbon uni-directional capping utilised for internal framing where allowed under the ORC rule. Composite engineering has been provided by Applied Structural Analysis Limited. Hull number 1 is currently under construction and due for launch in June with a racing program expected to take in both the ORC Worlds in Trieste, Italy and Europeans in Gdansk, Poland. Hull number two will start moulding soon.

For more information please visit the Aquatich website here.