Fast 40+ 40ft IRC Racing Yacht

Designer’s Notes

The FAST 40+ class rule presents fertile ground for design development and optimisation. The class parameters were positioned to include existing high performance 40 foot boats. Now that the rule limits have been formalized and racing has begun, FYD has taken advantage of the opportunity to create an entirely new design without restricting ourselves to old hull shapes or unnecessary restrictions. The hull form we have developed for this design has been crafted from the ground up to reflect the specific requirements of the FAST 40+ rule and the conditions anticipated for a Solent-focused event schedule. The shape itself is the product of an extensive computational fluid dynamic based optimisation study using our state-of-the-art Integrated Design-space Exploration and Optimisation System (IDEOS) that automates a suite of in-house simulation and performance prediction resources. The IDEOS system allows us to complete an automated exploration of the design space through the evaluation of hundreds of design variants. Our studies of crew position have been central to the deck development. The open cockpit, centralized pit work station and deck geometry maximize efficient handling with minimized weight, windage and pitch gyradius. It takes an aggressive approach to maximize the benefit of moving crew weight both longitudinally and transversely.