The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup, which is currently being sailed off Porto Cervo/Sardinia and ends this weekend, is a meeting of the world's large and largest racing yachts, summarised under the term Maxis, divided into Supermaxis, Maxis and Minimaxis. These yachts simply inspire because of their size and elegance and always deliver spectacular images.
But this time, one boat stole the show. In this video, the 60-foot-long foiler "Flying Nikka" speeds through the field as if the other boats were standing still.
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The boat was modelled on the 75-foot America's Cup boats with two swivel arms on which foils are mounted. The boat, designed by Mark Mill on behalf of the Italian Roberto Lacorte, is intended for ocean racing. It must therefore be built much more robustly than the prototypes.
Flying Nikka" was completed in the spring and the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup was the first regatta test. However, it will probably be some time before such foilers can compete on an equal footing with conventional displacement boats. The foiler sailed unrivalled in its own classification. If you compare the times sailed and calculated with other boats, it quickly becomes clear what problems the race organisers are facing.
"Flying Nikka" was rated with a time calculation factor (TCC) of 3.8660. The higher this value, the faster the yacht. For comparison: Claus Peter Offen's Wally 100 "Y3K" has a TCC of 1.5870. With a sailed time of 3 hours, 16 minutes in the second race, her calculated time was 5 hours, 11 minutes. "Flying Nikka", on the other hand, calculated a time of 9 hours, 4 minutes with a sailed time of 2 hours, 20 minutes in the second race. She is probably not as fast as the calculation factor suggests.
"Flying Nikka" was built in just eight months at King Marine in Valencia. The boat is 18.70 metres long, the hull is 5.17 metres wide and the keel is 4.30 metres deep when the boat is not flying. The sandwich construction made of carbon prepreg, Nomex and foam weighs just 7.225 tonnes in total. With a sail area of 220 square metres, this means a sail carrying capacity of 7.7! Normally, a value of 5 or more is considered to be a ratio between sail area and weight, which is a good indicator of a racer.
