mod70 trimaran price

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Within the space of just a few weeks two of the most aggressively campaigned big trimarans had between them broken and re-broken two great ocean racing records no less than four times

The MOD 70 trimaran class has history and form, plenty of both. In total, seven boats have been built, all are still sailing and some are still setting records. Peter Cunningham’s distinctive blue PowerPlay (formerly Concise), and now actively for sale as a turnkey package, is among those that continue to lead the charge, having recently set new records over the Fastnet racecourse and the classic Cowes to St Malo route.

But in a clear indication of just how competitive this unique fleet of oceangoing trimarans continues to be, it took little time for a sistership to up the ante. In the case of the Cowes-St Malo route, it was just minutes before Maserati had broken PowerPlay’s new record after the pair had set out on the same morning from the Solent in a cross-Channel duel.

Cunningham and his crew, led by longtime MOD70 skipper Ned Collier- Wakefield, set an extraordinary pace around the traditional Fastnet racecourse. A month later Maserati did the double and raised the bar even further, beating PowerPlay’s time by over an hour, completing the 605nm-course in a staggering 23 hours, 51 minutes and 16 seconds at an average speed of 24.94kts.

To have held an impressive record across an internationally famous offshore route for such a short period of time was doubtless frustrating for the PowerPlay crew, yet the ongoing rivalry is another reminder as to why the MOD70 continues to be an appealing and reliable inshore and offshore machine. Unlike other designs, the MOD70 hasn’t just kept pace with current developments, but in many cases has led the way.

The world of performance sailing has advanced rapidly over the last decade with speeds accelerating both inshore and offshore. The development of foil technology, driven initially by the big changes in the build-up to the 2013 America’s Cup in San Francisco, saw the 72ft foiling leviathans raise the racing above the water’s surface taking the top speeds with them. Then, the following season, the wing-masted AC45s were up on foils as the Cup looked ahead to another high-speed foiling event.

The technology triggered responses throughout the racing world with foiling finding its way into offshore racing aboard the Ultime class of 32m multihulls as well as the Imoca 60 monohulls. Everyone it seemed wanted to fly.

Meanwhile, the MOD70s appeared to be still operating in displacement mode yet in reality their C-section daggerboards had already been quietly providing foiling assistance, generating vertical lift that was not only increasing the power through additional righting moment but also helping to prevent the bows from burying at speed. While they may not have been seen primarily as foiling boats, the lessons learned aboard the MOD70s, especially in offshore conditions, were being fed back into the system helping to fuel the highspeed revolution.

The original concept of the MOD70 started back in 2009 as a one-design oceanic racer. The aim was to build a boat which would be the standard for the next 10 years. The development of the MOD70 was a collaboration between the VPLP design firm (Vincent Lauriot-Prévost and Marc Van Peteghem) and the Lausanne-based founding company Multi One Design S.A.

The original 10-year goal has clearly been achieved, albeit in a slightly different way as the one-design element has changed and various boats have been modified and tweaked. Yet despite the range of modifications that have taken place aboard some of these boats, the racing remains impressively close when MOD70s line up against each other.

So, what is it that has made these trimarans so enduring while also remaining so quick?

‘I think VPLP, got it right with the original design as they put more emphasis into building a stronger boat compared with the Orma days,’ says skipper Ned Collier-Wakefield. ‘These boats are bulletproof. We can push them hard and they just lap it up. You can set out on a record attempt and smash it across the Atlantic and you tie the boat up at the dock at the end of the day, wash it down and it’s pretty much done.

‘Plus, I think they’re pretty safe. You can push them really, really hard and yet they’re still quick, amazingly quick. And while we’re all doing little upgrades, they’re generally pretty small ones aside from Maserati’s fully foiling package and even then, there are positives and negatives depending on what kind of racing you’re doing.’

Another interesting feature of the class is that unlike many other grand prix machines, especially ones that are capable of similar speeds, the MOD70s don’t require a large shoreside team to maintain them.

‘Martin Watts has run the boat since we took her on in 2015,’ continues Collier-Wakefield. ‘Essentially it’s been him by himself, plus a couple of young guys helping him occasionally. But there’s not much to it. They’re simple boats and don’t require much in the way of staffing. We deliver with five crew, race offshore with six or seven and inshore we might take a few more big guys to help on the handles,’

Watts is quick to confirm this while describing the maintenance of the big blue beast in even simpler terms. ‘I think of the MOD70 as a TP52 with some bits strapped to the sides,’ he says. ‘When you look at it, the winches are not huge and there’s not masses to service. The winches are the main focus as we do push them pretty hard, especially with the modern high-performance ropes which mean that the loads are up to their maximum. We also service the hydraulics every six months. These rams allow us to cant the rig and so we do change them from time to time but apart from that the maintenance programme is the same as any other boat and simply about managing wear and tear.’

But behind the scenes, PowerPlay has something that sets her apart from her sisterships, and that is her owner. Peter Cunningham is a lifelong racer, having raced a wide variety of craft in a number of different locations around the world. But after he sold his business in California he decided that he wanted to take part in some offshore racing and started looking at the MOD70. There is nothing particularly unusual in that, other than he was already in his mid-seventies when he decided to buy PowerPlay. Now, having raced across the Atlantic, competed in the Middle Sea Race and many other events, he was on board for both of the most recent record-breaking runs around the Fastnet and to St Malo. A few weeks later he would celebrate his 80th birthday.

‘It’s a physical boat and you’ve got to be careful when you’re down below, especially at speed,’ he says. ‘Plus, there are some unusual motions especially in breezy conditions when you might lift the leeward daggerboard. This means that rather than heeling over when a gusts hits, you skip sideways which can catch you off guard. So, my rule is always having three points of contact!’

Having come from monohulls, albeit with some quick ones such as a TP52 and a J70, how had he found the experience?

‘It’s exciting, probably more exciting than I thought and at times it makes you afraid, but you do get used to it after a while and when you’re steering from 20ft above the water’s surface at speed it’s just magical.

‘Experiencing flat-out sailing for five or six days non-stop is pretty special too,’ he continues. ‘It’s pretty stressful on all of the crew and while this boat is actually very forgiving, it still highlights the need to really know what you’re doing at a level that is very different to monohull racing. That in itself is very rewarding as you learn a lot about yourself and the importance of how a team needs to work together at this level. Sometimes there are decisions to be made intuitively in a split second that involve everyone, teamwork is crucial, without it you can be in trouble.

‘Seeing this, understanding it and being a part of it has definitely benefitted my sailing in other areas, it helps you put things into perspective, understand how people deal with issues and has improved my manner on other boats. I have learned a great deal.

‘I treat my sailing as a project and after you’ve experienced something like this it’s difficult to think of what kind of project you could move onto, but I do still have at least one goal. ‘My top speed at the helm is 38.9kts, I want to hit 40 and I can’t sell her until I do.’

• MOD 70 trimaran

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Following in the wake of the ORMA series , this class of one-design trimarans, initiated in 2006, is the distillation of VPLP’s experience in the design and optimization of multihull racing sailing boats spanning more than fifteen years .

With the same righting moment, longer floats and a shorter mast than the ORMA trimarans, the Multi One Design 70s are designed predominantly for ocean racing with a crew of six.

Studies undertaken by HDS managed to improve the reliability of the construction materials by 25%. In total seven MOD 70s have been built , all from the same mould and at the same yards. They have identical mass to a tolerance of 50 kg, weighing in at 6.3 tonnes.

Launched in 2010, the MOD 70s rapidly proved their considerable reliability , exemplary sea-keeping qualities and potential for speed by crossing the Atlantic, from New York to Brest, in under five days during the 2012 Krys Ocean Race.

Some have been raced solo and double-handed, for instance in the 2013 Transat Jacques Vabre and the 2014 Route du Rhum.

Subsequent to the demise of the MOD 70 circuit, several of them were bought by European and American teams who continue to sail them in various multihull events and ocean-crossing record attempts. Some have been optimized, such as Maserati , skippered by Giovanni Soldini.

• MOD 1: RACE FOR WATER (2011), then ACXISS (2022)
• MOD 2: VEOLIA (2011), then ORION (2013)
• MOD 3: FONCIA (2011), then PHAEDO3 (2015), then BEAU GESTE (2017), then SNOWFLAKES (2022)
• MOD 4: GITANA XV (2011), then MASERATI (2016)
• MOD 5: SPINDRIFT (2012), then MANA (2020), then LIMOSA THE FAMOUS PROJECT (2023)
• MOD 6: OMAN SAIL (2012), then ARGO (2019)
• MOD 7: VIRBAC PAPREC 70 (2013), then CONCISE10 (2015), then POWER PLAY (2019), then ZOULOU (2022)

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  Yachting World has been asking top sailors and marine industry gurus to choose the coolest and most innovative yachts of our times, and British offshore competitor Sam Goodchild nominated the MOD70 class trimaran. Here’s the report :

  “In terms of complexity for speed, there isn’t anything else which has such a good ratio as a MOD70. We’ve been over 40 knots [boatspeed] on them, and with Phaedo we used to sail for up to 200 days a year, all around the world, with just two shore crew. We were sailing offshore with just five people, so you’ve got super high performance for relatively easy upkeep.

  “We’d be doing the Caribbean regattas against boats like Comanche, they’d have 20-something people on the rail and we had five, doing circles around them! Then we did all the transatlantic races – for me it’s an amazing boat.

  “The MOD70s are robustly built, but also fast. [designers VPLP] took learnings from the Orma 60 class, all the best bits, tamed them down a little so they’re a bit less dangerous, and came out with a boat which was simple and fast. We raced against the old Groupama Orma 60, and when you see how much more complicated the Ormas are, the MOD 70s definitely struck the right balance.”

  

  MOD 70 stats rating Top speed: 40 knots LOA: 21.3m/70ft Launched: 2011 Berths: 2 Price: €1million Adrenalin factor: 95%

  For Yachting World’s list of cool boats, click here .

  

  Tags: coolest yachts , MOD70 class , Sam Goodchild , Yachting World

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  LIVE Scientific datas

  • About Spindrift
  • Sails of change
  • Spindrift for Schools

  Release date : 2011

  Architect : VPLP Design

  

  Weight: 6,3 tonnes

  Number of crew aboard: 6

  Maximum speed: 60 KM/HR

  Victory in the Multi One Championship 2012

  Length: 21,20 meters

  Width: 16,8 meters

  Air Draft: 29 meters

  Water Draft: 4,5 meters

  Up-wind sail area: 310 m2

  Down wind sail area: 409 m2

  CENTRAL DAGGERBOARD: 1

  

  Her history

  

  The racing stable’s first boat

  The MOD 70 (Multihull One Design) is a 70-foot (21.20 metres) one-design trimaran designed by the VPLP architectural firm in 2006 and launched in 2010. Seven craft were built in all, one of which was for the Spindrift racing stable. On 27 January 2012, boat No.5 of this innovative series was launched in Lorient, south-west Brittany, flying the flag for Spindrift racing. This was the very first boat to be fitted out by the racing stable created by Dona Bertarelli and Yann Guichard a year earlier. Just a month after her launch, the MOD70 Spindrift scored her first bullet in the Krys Ocean Race, a crewed transatlantic race between New York and Brest. That same year, the team led by Yann Guichard took victory in the Multi One Championship.

  
  
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  FOR SALE  EURO 1,650,000

  Vat not paid eu (+vat).

  Introducing this 2010 MOD70 Trimaran, an epitome of cutting-edge technology and unparalleled sailing performance. This incredible multihull racing yacht is meticulously designed to push the boundaries of speed and agility, offering an exhilarating sailing experience for both professional sailors and enthusiasts alike. The MOD70 stands as a testament to innovation, incorporating state-of-the-art materials and design principles to deliver a vessel that redefined the standards of modern racing.

  Engineered for speed, the MOD70 Trimaran boasts a sleek and aerodynamic hull that effortlessly slices through the water, ensuring swift and efficient navigation in all conditions. The trimaran configuration, featuring three hulls, not only enhances stability but also maximises the sail area, propelling the MOD70 to incredible speeds . The yacht’s modular design allows for easy transportation and assembly, facilitating global participation in prestigious racing events.

  Whether you are seeking the thrill of competitive racing or the joy of cruising at high speeds, the MOD70 Trimaran delivers an unmatched combination of performance and comfort. With its sleek lines, cutting-edge technology, and a legacy of victories in prestigious races, the MOD70 stands as a beacon for those who demand the best in sailing excellence. Elevate your sailing experience to new heights with the MOD70 Trimaran – where speed meets sophistication, and every journey becomes an unforgettable adventure.

  One of the fastest offshore racing boats in the world The MOD 70 was originally intended as a one design class to replace the successful ORMA 60s. With curved ‘C’ style daggerboards and canting rigs these boats are both faster and safer than their predecessors. With maximum speeds of up to 40 knots and full ocean racing capabilities, the MOD 70 is a force to be reckoned with. It is a great combination of speed, safety and reliability and only 7 were built.

  

  Boat Details

  Builder VPLP

  Designer CDK/Decision/Multiplast

  Launched 2010

  Length 21.20 m

  Width 16.80 m

  Weight 6.30 t

  Mast height 27 m

  Draft 4.50 m

  Materials Carbon/Normex

  Upwind sail area 310 m²

  Downwind sail area 409 m²

  Location Caribbean, Mediterranean

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  Jason and the Argonauts

  • By Michael Hanson
  • Updated: August 17, 2020
  

  Moments after the start, the boatspeed jumps to 35 knots, and I am terrified. If I was driving, I’d be white-knuckled. The wind-whipped Caribbean Sea thrashes Argo ’s hulls, but Jason Carroll is cool at the tiller of his 70-foot trimaran. He leans back in his driving chair and squints through the visor of his crimson helmet at the turning mark ahead.

  A few days earlier, one of Argo ’s new T-foil rudders snapped during the delivery from Antigua to St. Martin for the Caribbean Multihull Challenge regatta —a delivery of less than four hours despite the breakage. Carroll’s team spent the night swapping to Argo ’s older rudders, but combined with the boat’s newer and longer J-shaped foils, the boat isn’t set up correctly. “Things could get a bit sporty out there,” Carroll had warned me before we shoved off. “As long as the conditions aren’t too crazy, we should be fine.”

  

  So much for that. With 30-knots blowing across the bows, we hurtle out of Simpson’s Bay, and I take a knee at the back of the cockpit and brace for dear life. I’ve seen the video of Argo ’s capsize before the 2019 Caribbean 600, so I’m stoked with my decision to extend my insurance coverage to include extreme watersports. Still, I’m having one of those what-have-I- gotten-myself-into moments—one hand gripping a GoPro, the other clenching the lifeline.

  

  Carroll and company outmaneuver the other MOD70, Maserati, leaving them behind in trio of wakes. Ahead, Serge Durrant’s Irens 63, Shockwave, cruises along with a storm jib and three mainsail reefs. The Argonauts tucked only two reefs, and in a blink, the boat is careening past Shockwave . A gust fills the sails and the speedo jumps again—this time to 39 knots. The boat shudders as waves smack its underbelly; up ­forward, the bows begin to rise.

  I’m having one of those what-have-I-gotten-myself-into moments—one hand gripping a GoPro, the other clenching the lifeline.

  T-foil rudders would have ­prevented the bows from riding too high, but the big J-foils ­generate so much lift that water flowing over them begins to boil, causing cavitation. Argo ’s bows slam into a trough, and the front beam takes a direct hit. In a situation such as this, one of two things can happen, and the outcome depends on Carroll’s ability to make the correct split-second decision. Option A is to ride it out and hope the trimmers ease the sheets quick enough to depower the sails. If they fail to do so, the entire crew will soon be dogpiling through the companionway as the boat pitchpoles. Option B is for Carroll to make a sharp turn to try to spill power quickly.

  

  The 42-year-old helmsman chooses wisely, pulling down the bows with authority. The foils regrip, and after this little pucker moment, Carroll guides the trimaran through a wide, arcing turn upwind around the mark. The Argonauts are safe for now, but challenges await.

  “The boat is actually easy to steer when everything is set up right,” Carroll says. His relaxed and intellectual demeanor is a calming presence, contrary to the sheer madness of the trimaran. As a co-founder of Hudson River Trading, Carroll put his Harvard computer science degree to use developing high-frequency trading algorithms, and when he’s not flying across the ocean, he’s soaring across the sky as an enthusiast pilot. Yet the MOD70 is like nothing else he has experienced. “We’re hitting speeds we never imagined,” he says. “But nothing happens out here without having complete trust in the guys next to you, so it all comes down to the team.”

  

  The Argo crew is a lean but talented squad. Such a boat demands experience. At its core is 48-year-old Chad Corning, who manages the operation. He’s been Carroll’s go-to guy since before they captured back-to-back Melges 32 World Championship titles in 2013 and 2014. When he first started sailing with Carroll, Argo was an all-­amateur team of college buddies. “The scope of the program was small,” Corning says. “Eventually, we started sailing internationally and doing distance racing on Jason’s Gunboat 62, Elvis. At one point, we even had three Melges 32s. It just became too much for Jason to organize on his own, so I stepped in.”

  The two have been thick as thieves for years, and the team eventually transitioned into the GC32 foiling catamaran scene, a circuit that pitted Carroll, an amateur helmsman, against a few of the finest pro drivers in high-performance sailing. In 2018, they traded in the Gunboat for the MOD70 and started racking up victories with a combination of longtime Argo teammates and specialized offshore multihull sailors, including Brian Thompson, the first Englishman to break the round-the-world record twice. Thompson has also sailed nonstop around the world four times, won the Volvo Ocean Race, and broken 27 world sailing records.

  “He’s the guy who knows when to push and when to back off,” Corning says. His primary role on Argo is to act as point man for the boat’s complex maneuvers.

  “This is very much a close-knit team,” Thompson says. “Jason is one of the best drivers out there. The guys know the boat really well, and they work hard maintaining everything to minimize breakdowns. Chad has done a remarkable job developing the boat and the team, and it’s good fun off the water as well.”

  

  On the long beat toward the rounding point off Tintamarre Island on the northeast side of St. Martin, Thompson marshals the troops as the breeze spikes to 32 knots. With confused 6-foot swells, Argo smashes its way uphill at 21 knots. “I’d love a wider groove to get through these waves,” shouts mainsail trimmer, Anthony Kotoun. A five-time world champion in multiple classes, Kotoun is a longtime member of the Argo crew. He and Thompson chat for a moment and agree that a lower mode would be ideal.

  “Let me check the course with Artie to make sure we have enough water to make that happen,” Kotoun shouts back to Thompson. While most pro race teams are known for their lack of shouting, with more than 50 knots of apparent wind funneling across the deck, communicating on this machine is like rolling down your window on the highway and trying to have a conversation with someone in the passing lane. “Communication is especially important because things don’t happen on demand,” Kotoun explains later. “The boat is so ­complicated with the foils, the canting mast, the rake and the centerboard that something as simple as a mode change can take minutes to achieve. You can’t just sheet out. It’s completely different than most things out there.”

  

  Kotoun staggers to the ­middle of the boat and pokes his head beneath the splash hood, where navigator Artie Means plots a course. Means has the most protected position on Argo , and he’s still soaked head to toe. His eyes are glued to his tablet.

  “We can spare a few degrees, but not much,” Means says. “Luckily, we overstood a bit.”

  Means and Kotoun take a moment to review the course, and eventually Kotoun makes his way back to the weather hull to relay the information to Thompson, who recalibrates the boat’s upwind mode by raising the centerboard up a bit, adding more foil rake, and moving the transverse jib-lead outboard. These changes allow the boat to sail lower without becoming overpowered. With a mainsheet load of 7 tons, the lines throb as they ease through their systems.

  From beneath the spray hood, Means shoots me an ecstatic look as he nerds out over the instrument panels, which in true Argo fashion, have a dancing hula girl mounted above. “We’re going faster upwind than a TP52 would be going downwind today,” he says. “Hey Fouche, check this out!”

  Headsail trimmer Thierry Fouchier pops his head beneath the spray hood. Fouchier is another international multihull legend. Originally from Marseille, France, Fouchier won the 34th America’s Cup aboard Larry Ellison’s big trimaran USA 17 before joining Artemis Racing in 2013 and Groupama Team France in 2017. Looking at the data, he gives Means a twisted smile. “ C’est fou ,”—That’s crazy—he says, returning to his jib-sheet winch.

  Communication is especially important because things don’t happen on demand.

  Thompson soon relieves Carroll at the helm as Argo pitches in the waves. “Be ready for a gennaker around Tintamarre,” Thompson shouts.

  My God , I think to myself as water jets through the trampoline and the boat bucks me skyward off the netting, we still have to go downwind.

  Even though the ­maneuver is 15 minutes away and the rounding point is over the horizon, the crew preps for the downwind leg. The biggest battle is hoisting the gennaker with the equivalent of tropical-storm-force winds blowing across the bow. Argo ’s slender 31-year-old ­bowman, Westy Barlow, sprints forward and secures the tack while the grinders hoist the furled gennaker to the top of the mast. With Carroll back on the helm, Thompson reminds the trimmers to make sure the main is well-eased and the jib sheet stays on in order to keep the boat under control through the bear away. Once Argo reaches the right downwind angle, the crew explodes into action: deploying the gennaker, raising the centerboard, trimming the main- sheet, changing to the J2 headsail, reducing the mast cant, increasing the mast rotation and adjusting the traveler. When everything is set, Argo romps downwind at 30 knots.

  

  As we enter the Anguilla Channel, Shockwave is nowhere in sight and Maserati is still within striking distance. “Try not to go over 30 knots,” Thompson advises Carroll. “Anything more than that, and we might trip over ourselves.”

  As Argo zips down the ­channel, trimmer and grinder Scott Norris taps me on the shoulder and asks, “Hey, can you go below and grab the big water jug and fill up the bottles?”

  Norris is a big man with a big personality—one of the longest-tenured Argonauts on the crew.

  “Where is it?” I ask.

  “Thataway,” he says, pointing downward and aft.

  Going below on a search ­mission is hardly what I want to be doing right now, but I scale the ladder into Argo ’s center hull. Forward, the nav station is empty. Beyond that, a pair of berths hang in the dark. As Argo cleaves through the waves, sounds of unimaginable horror pound from wall to carbon wall like drums between warring villages. I crawl toward the stern, glancing out the porthole at our starboard hull, which hangs 15 feet above the waves. I snag the water jug and make it back topside, where Norris smiles down at me.

  “Pretty gnarly down there, huh?” he asks as I reemerge. “Don’t worry, the first time we took this thing out, we were terrified. And today…terrified.”

  “It’s going to be about a 100-degree reach after the turning mark,” Means shouts out to the crew. With Maserati shrinking on the horizon, Thompson decides to play this leg conservatively. “All right, it’s going to be the J3 and three reefs on the main,” he howls through the wind. This is the least amount of sail area Argo can carry, and when conditions are right, the reduced drag and lower center of gravity produce the highest speeds a MOD70 is capable of, but as they reconfigure the sail setup and round the mark to a reach, Argo is starved for power.

  “The first time we took this thing out, we were terrified. And today…terrified.”

  “Really searching for it,” Carroll says, emitting one of those are-we-seriously-going-this-slow looks. After a few minutes of letting the conditions settle, they shake out the third reef, and one of the stainless-steel T-bone shackles on the mainsail luff lashes Barlow just below the eye. He drops to the net, his legs ­wriggling in pain.

  “Hold, hold, hold. Man down!”

  Before the race, Barlow joked that “nobody cares about the bowman,” but watching his teammates jump to his aid, that sentiment is obviously false. He took a hard hit, but there’s no bleeding or signs of a concussion. He even tries to hop back on the ­grinding pedestal, prompting a stern word from Thompson to sit in the companionway and ice his eye, which begins to swell shut.

  

  By the time the excitement wanes, Maserati has halved its deficit. Even though it was a blip on the radar mere minutes ago, in MOD70 racing, you can’t take your foot off the gas for a moment. Slow is slow. The crew shakes a reef, and after one final upwind leg, they cross the finish line first. There’s no time for handshakes or back slapping, though. The shoreline is fast approaching, so they tack and sail back out to sea. The race might be over, but the hard work is not.

  “Hey, Helmet, hop on that pedestal and help me with the traveler,” Kotoun says.

  Helmet is the ­nickname for English sailor Alister Richardson. A veteran of Carroll’s GC32 squad, Richardson is a former wing trimmer for America’s Cup challenger Luna Rossa, but he says he gets much more ­fulfillment from his Argo gig.

  “I spent six years of my life doing the America’s Cup,” he tells me after racing. “Doing that is like joining the Army. It’s fine if you choose that lifestyle, but I enjoy sailing with Argo because I have good fun with these guys. We’re always pushing for performance, but at the end of the day, we’re having the time of our lives. Everyone can get a joke out of each other, which is important.”

  That evening, the crew enjoys a private dinner at their rented condo in Port de Plaisance on the Dutch side of St. Martin. They debrief the day and pour a bit of rum, eventually gathering around a table for a late-night card game of President.

  “We’re limited in what we can play because Jason will count the cards,” Corning says.

  “Anything it takes to win,” Carroll replies mischievously.

  Anything it takes—that’s the Argo way. Race hard, never give up, and have fun, no ­matter what.

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  Come aboard one of the fastest trimarans in the world, designed to break records or win offshore races. It belongs to the MOD70 series, of which only 7 units have been built. Privatize a day of sailing aboard a high-tech carbon fiber trimaran. With their curved "C" shaped foils and inclined rigs, these boats are both fast and safe. The MOD70 can reach speeds of up to 38 knots. This class is a reference in international races, they are led by the best teams in the world.

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  New Fastnet record: MOD70 PowerPlay sets new fastest time

  
  • April 7, 2021

  The crew of MOD70 PowerPlay has set a new Fastnet record by completing the course in a touch over 25 hours.

  

  The MOD70 Trimaran PowerPlay , led by Peter Cunningham and skippered by Ned Collier Wakefield, has set a new Fastnet record.

  The team completed the original Fastnet course of 595 nautical miles in a new world Fastnet record of 25hrs 04mins 18secs (subject to ratification by the World Sailing Speed Record Council), shaving almost 3 hours off the record set by Maxi Edmond de Rothschild in the 2019 Fastnet .

  The boat in its previous incarnation as Concise 10 with many of the same crew also took line honours in the 2017 Fastnet Race .

  

  “It was kind of ambitious, but the conditions were right, and the team was ready to go,” commented Peter Cunningham. “The PowerPlay crew was fantastic. Miles (Seddon) did a brilliant job navigating, we had two wonderful drivers in Ned Collier Wakefield, who set up the boat and runs the programme, and the fastest sailor on Earth, Paul Larsen , who drove in some incredibly bad conditions.”

  Shortly after midday on Monday 05 April, in a bitterly cold strong northerly wind, PowerPlay started their Fastnet record attempt on the Squadron Line at Cowes. PowerPlay made short work of racing to Lands’ End and powered across the Celtic Sea at speeds in excess of 30 knots.

  PowerPlay rounded the famous Fastnet Lighthouse and raced through the night. On Tuesday 06 April, at 13:42 and 19 seconds BST, PowerPlay reached the Plymouth Breakwater, where the team celebrated their amazing run of 25 hours, 4 minutes and 18 seconds.

  Article continues below…

  

  Trimaran Concise 10 blasts home to take Fastnet Race line honours after upwind slog to the Rock

  Line honours in one of the lightest wind Rolex Fastnet Races in recent years were claimed at dawn this morning…

  

  Sailrocket obliterates world record….again

  Matthew Sheahan talks to Paul Larsen shortly after he exceeds 65 knots, shattering his own world record

  “We didn’t leave much out there, we were pushing really hard and everything aligned,” commented PowerPlay Skipper Ned Collier Wakefield. “I am not going to lie, it was pretty full on, especially in April with an arctic northerly with snow around. With the apparent wind we saw 50 knots over the deck, and we hit a top speed of just under 40 knots.

  

  “The lads did a brilliant job, changing sails about every half an hour – It was rough, physical and very cold. As a crew we have done cumulatively over 50 Fastnet Races, we love the course and to do it faster than it has been done before is really cool.”

  The PowerPlay Crew for the 2021 Fastnet Course Record was Peter Cunningham, Ned Collier Wakefield, Tom Dawson, John Hamilton, Paul Larsen, Jack Trigger, Miles Seddon, Martin Watts.

  Following a controversial decision announced in November 2019, the Fastnet course has been changed . This year’s event is due to finish in Cherbourg , with the start taking place in Cowes on August 8. A rival race along the original Cowes-Plymouth route, called The Lonely Rock Race , is due to take place in early July.

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  Maserati has been around the world since she last visited the Bay in June 2017. Argo and Maserati  last faced off in the Caribbean 600. Just 48 hours ahead of the start, Argo was overcome by a gust and flipped. But the team managed to right her, repair her, and make the start ! These oceangoing 70-footers travel the world easily. Despite their thousands of high-speed miles, they are rugged yet delicate. Rugged enough to take severe punishment when clocking 30+ knots in ocean swells. Delicate when maximizing speed balanced with control while maneuvering on a bumpy ocean.

  

  On Saturday we sailed aboard the schooner Seaward as part of the Master Mariners Regatta while Maserati and Powerplay  strutted their stuff on a busy Memorial Day weekend. We had raced against the owner of Powerplay , Peter Cunningham, aboard J/29s in the ’80s. So we reached out to him to see if we might grab a coffee and learn a little more about the path of sailing a J/29 to a MOD70. Always enthusiastic, Cunningham said, “Come for a sail.” So we did.

  On Tuesday afternoon, the team swapped out the delivery sails, which had brought the boat to San Francisco from Grenada, for racing sails. This process included getting in close to the limited Tiburon wind shadow, then backing the boat down in full reverse to reduce apparent wind, allowing the crew to hoist the four headsails on furlers. Once the headsails were all in place, we zipped up through Raccoon Strait and headed for the Cityfront, where we rendezvoused with photographer Abner Kingman. He had the challenging task of taking photos in windy, choppy seas while trying to keep up with a catamaran going 20-35 knots.

  The video below features just a couple of minutes of an afternoon spent burning up the Bay between Alcatraz and Point Bonita. This segment shows a high-speed reach from the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge to near Pier 39. What is normally an hour of sailing for us aboard our Ranger 33 Summer Sailstice  probably took 10 minutes. We spent most of the reach sailing at more than 30 knots, with a top speed of about 37.

  We anticipated being a bit terrified by the power and speed. It didn’t take long to realize that boat captain Charlie Ogletree and a very seasoned crew of professionals had everything under control. (Ogletree has been running Tom Siebel’s MOD70 Orion and his other boats.) The choreography of tacking a 70-ft x 55-ft multihull is intricate. Lots of clutches, hydraulics, links, travelers, winches and other adjusters smoothly link the coffee grinders to the powerful headsails rattling overhead. Upwind you roar along at 18-22 knots over big seas out the Gate, slow to a crawl during the tack, then sheet in and roar off in the other direction.

  All three boats will line up to start tomorrow at about 1 p.m. off the Cityfront. If you have a way to get to the center span of the Golden Gate Bridge or up to the Marin Headlands, you’ll have fun watching them start their 500-mile battle. Given their speeds, they won’t be in view for long. But, the rarity of collecting this type of grand-prix offshore multihull on the West Coast could make it a worthwhile lunch break.

  The California Offshore Race Week website previewed the expected weather: “During the first 12 hours of the race, weather forecasts show 25 knots of NW wind, with gusts up to 30 knots, and rough sea. It will be difficult for Maserati Multi 70 to fly steadily. Closer to the finish line, in the last 100 miles, the wind will drop abruptly. But at the moment the forecasts vary. The European models indicate a wind between 3 and 4 knots, whereas the American models are more optimistic.”

  In addition to the three trimarans, the CA 500 has one outlier. Christian Doegl’s Swan 461 Free from Inverness YC will use the race as a training run for the Transpac.

  We’ll get back to how Cunningham went from racing J/29s on San Francisco Bay to challenging race courses and oceans across the planet another time. However, it’s apparent that the excitement and enthusiasm of sailboat racing continues to inspire an inspiring sailor. The new CA 500 race track appears to be a perfect homecoming for Cunningham’s expanded portfolio of racing.

  

  So cool to know that our old friend and J-29 owner, Peter Cunningham, is doing this stuff. He’s an absolutely great guy and wow…..he sure must have made some big-time “power plays” to get where he is today…..very impressive, Pete! Good luck in the race- I am rooting for Powerplay!

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