Mighty Merloe

[karst]

Derail ahead. Pardon the distraction.

Back when I ran Soma, my old Formula 40, we did some free charters for local charities and other groups. One of my friends was running an “intro to the marine industry“ class at the high school on St. Thomas. It was meant to open a pathway for local West Indian kids to get exposed to the yachting industry. He’d take them to the local machine shop, or show them the TraveLift at the boatyard, or tour the fancy marina downtown, or check out boatbuilding. My buddy asked if id take his class out. I was happy too. I was stoked to show off my boat and “give back to the community“. When the kids showed up they were all excited to go fishing and catch sharks. They assumed the big nets between the hulls were for catching BIG fish. I explained that the nets were to make it light, so it was fast! They seemed very disappointed and unimpressed. We went out and sailed fast, flew a hull, topped 20 knots, got wet, the usual joyride. Towards the end of the ride one of the West Indian kids turned to us and said, “Man…this is what you white people do for fun?” as he shook his head.

I fucking loved his take. Every once in a while, sitting on a rail, cold and wet, his voice comes back to me. “This is what you white people do for fun?”.

In no way is that meant to diminish Don’s goals. He could really make a difference in a lot of kids lives if he got that boat back to Baltimore and took the focus off of himself.

 

[Rasputin22]

Derail ahead. Pardon the distraction.

Back when I ran Soma, my old Formula 40, we did some free charters for local charities and other groups. One of my friends was running an “intro to the marine industry“ class at the high school on St. Thomas. It was meant to open a pathway for local West Indian kids to get exposed to the yachting industry. He’d take them to the local machine shop, or show them the TraveLift at the boatyard, or tour the fancy marina downtown, or check out boatbuilding. My buddy asked if id take his class out. I was happy too. I was stoked to show off my boat and “give back to the community“. When the kids showed up they were all excited to go fishing and catch sharks. They assumed the big nets between the hulls were for catching BIG fish. I explained that the nets were to make it light, so it was fast! They seemed very disappointed and unimpressed. We went out and sailed fast, flew a hull, topped 20 knots, got wet, the usual joyride. Towards the end of the ride one of the West Indian kids turned to us and said, “Man…this is what you white people do for fun?” as he shook his head.

I fucking loved his take. Every once in a while, sitting on a rail, cold and wet, his voice comes back to me. “This is what you white people do for fun?”.

In no way is that meant to diminish Don’s goals. He could really make a difference in a lot of kids lives if he got that boat back to Baltimore and took the focus off of himself.

Great story karst! I can relate to when we would go to a great effort to convince the Cruzan's at Salt River that built the GCY cats. They would be over it in a couple of hours. I took a bunch with me to pick up battens for a new cat in RoadTown. They were bored with the fine tradewind reach but then jumped ship before we cleared Customs to go sniff around town. The Custom's guys came to the boat the next morning and wanted to know why the owner and I had let them leave the boat knowing that we had not cleared in. I just said that there was know way we could have stopped them and they understood. Our boys had actually behaved pretty well and had been watched every step of their foray into town. I was surprised that some of those fellows had never set foot off of St Croix!

 

[can-UK]

Cannot imagine doing this solo.. it would be fun for the first day or so.. definite type 2 fun after that.

 

[can-UK]

Heard stories from a friend about taking an Orma through some locks in the Great Lakes. Not much wind at ground level but the 100ft wing mast was powered up and the boat was trying to launch itself into the lock walls and gates.

 

[LionIsland]

Cannot imagine doing this solo.. it would be fun for the first day or so.. definite type 2 fun after that.

FFS!!! Don’t post ORMA Youtubes!!!
Everytime!!! Down the rabbit hole.

 

[LionIsland]

Yep, spot on...as everyone knows, one of the best boats ever built.
My favourite vid below, it is in flat water but shows the way this boat can sail.


Having sailed an Orma in a proper sea at full pace for 3 days it is my favourite ever sailing experiance, but I cannot even see how single handed is an option, I know the french have done it for shorter events, but around the world is not even an option for any individual at record pace I believe.
The boat is too powerful to manage for such a long period of time in my view, for any sailor.....

I’m reminded again how astounded I am at, not just the men and women of the ORMA era but, everyone racing a multi, especially solo, for days and weeks on end on the ragged edge. Skills (so many skills! the list of required skills would be practically endless), years of experience, physical strength and stamina, fortitude, confidence and ability to push push push with FA sleep, half of it at night time, with approaching storms, and difficult routing, while getting thrown around, at levels of pain, cold, wet and discomfort, away from loved ones, that only a very special few people can handle or indeed thrive on let alone and not mentioning having to organise the program, bringing people in, PR, and financing the program - all that and so much more.


To understate it by a factor of a million- the ambitions of the MM program, well, it’s a bloody big call.

 

[timotheysski]

Yep, spot on...as everyone knows, one of the best boats ever built.
My favourite vid below, it is in flat water but shows the way this boat can sail.


Having sailed an Orma in a proper sea at full pace for 3 days it is my favourite ever sailing experiance, but I cannot even see how single handed is an option, I know the french have done it for shorter events, but around the world is not even an option for any individual at record pace I believe.
The boat is too powerful to manage for such a long period of time in my view, for any sailor.....

I can't imagine what that must be like, congrats for getting on an ORMA and sending it!!! Though I'd like to sail Class40/IMOCA one day, I think today's Ocean 50 are perhaps the most fun boat of all and I would definitely jump at the opportunity to be on an ORMA. Did you sail it back in their heyday or more recently?

Upcoming comment from this point on is rather long but hopefully well put together. I'm glad you all found my previous comment good since it was my first SA post
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To comment on your risk estimation of the trimaran, you are absolutely correct. I remember reading in a French magazine that, in fact, the class rules progressively allowed the rigs to become more and more powerful (square top, tilting masts, higher possible loads everywhere with better materials, etc.) but the boats were built quite light being 60 ft, and, crucially, the limits imposed on the hull platform made it impossible to generate more RM from the hulls. Essentially, the boats got lighter and the rigs more powerful but the RM remained the same. You can see where this is going.

From the information I could gather, 28 ORMA trimarans were built (plus 3 catamarans not counted and maybe prototypes that never raced that posthumously qualified for ORMA). I found at least one documented capsize for 21 (all but 7) of them. That is insane.
Of those that never capsized:
- 2 suffered terminal structural failure and nearly sank (both 1 yo boats)
- 1 suffered damage to one of its bows and lived peacefully until burning in 2015
- 2 were raced but never capsized (now Tritium and Rex both still racing)
- 1 suffered structural damage during a record attempt in 2008 (8 yo boat abandoned)
- 1 stopped sailing due to structural damage after dismasting in 2008 (6 yo boat abandoned)

So, 80% of boats raced more than a year capsized at least once. A very large amount of them have capsized more than once in their lifetime, sometimes in crewed configurations, and others, at the hands of the most legendary solo sailors to have raced our oceans. Some of these capsizes have resulted in the deaths of pioneers like Paul Vatine.

The textbook example of the ORMA's weaknesses is the 2002 Route du Rhum. Of 18 ORMAs signed up, 3 finished in Guadeloupe. 83% DNF rate. 3 of the DNFs were voluntary (cautious seamanship); the rest were boat damage and 5 were capsizes. This event alone spurred the downfall of the ORMA class.
In 2005, Armel le Cléac'h, famous for winning the Vendée Globe and now an Ultim skipper, capsized on his ORMA Foncia and vowed never to return to ORMA. He said, "Everything happens so quick that you can only ever think about surviving."
Over time, more and more skippers stopped racing ORMA, calling them too dangerous and unpredictable. Eventually, the class effectively died in 2007.

With these French sailors, if there is a will, there is a way. If there ever were a will to use the ORMA as a singlehanded record machine, it is now long gone. The unanimous acceptance of ORMA trimarans as "bateaux de fou furieux" (boats for the crazy mad) today by those who sailed them and have moved on to Ultim or IMOCA, in conjunction with the facts I mentioned above make it clear: the ORMA is not anymore a viable platform for singlehanded racing, much less so to race in the southern ocean or compete RTW.

That Don has not realized this is in and of itself a sufficient red flag--heck, a red, flashing, blaring siren--that he does not know what he is getting himself into.
I wholeheartedly believe that if he attempts to take this boat to the SO, he will get killed or have to be rescued (obviously I hope for neither) as would even the most seasoned French multihull sailors. Only, they have the wits to realize it.

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Over time, more and more skippers stopped racing ORMA, calling them too dangerous and unpredictable. Eventually, the class effectively died in 2007.

With these French sailors, if there is a will, there is a way. If there ever were a will to use the ORMA as a singlehanded record machine, it is now long gone. The unanimous acceptance of ORMA trimarans as "bateaux de fou furieux" (boats for the crazy mad) today by those who sailed them have moved on to Ultim or IMOCA, in conjunction with the facts I mentioned above make it clear: the ORMA is not anymore a viable platform for singlehanded racing, much less so to race in the southern ocean or compete RTW.

That Don has not realized this is in and of itself a sufficient red flag--heck, a red, flashing, blaring siren--that he does not know what he is getting himself into.
I wholeheartedly believe that if he attempts to take this boat to the SO, he will get killed or have to be rescued (obviously I hope for neither) as would even the most seasoned French multihull sailors. Only, they have the wits to realize it.

Small correction: It was the loss of the sponsors that killed the ORMA class, and it took quite some time to convince many to return, after having the double whammy of losing entire boats AND getting bad PR for supporting an 'unsafe/irresponsible' kind of racing.

There are always racers willing to take big risks if someone will pay for it.

 

[longy]

Wasn't there a Route de Rhum that had a significant number of these boats failing to finish?

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Wasn't there a Route de Rhum that had a significant number of these boats failing to finish?

The textbook example of the ORMA's weaknesses is the 2002 Route du Rhum. Of 18 ORMAs signed up, 3 finished in Guadeloupe. 83% DNF rate. 3 of the DNFs were voluntary (cautious seamanship); the rest were boat damage and 5 were capsizes. This event alone spurred the downfall of the ORMA class.
In 2005, Armel le Cléac'h, famous for winning the Vendée Globe and now an Ultim skipper, capsized on his ORMA Foncia and vowed never to return to ORMA. He said, "Everything happens so quick that you can only ever think about surviving."
Over time, more and more skippers stopped racing ORMA, calling them too dangerous and unpredictable. Eventually, the class effectively died in 2007.

 

[Wess]

I can't imagine what that must be like, congrats for getting on an ORMA and sending it!!! Though I'd like to sail Class40/IMOCA one day, I think today's Ocean 50 are perhaps the most fun boat of all and I would definitely jump at the opportunity to be on an ORMA. Did you sail it back in their heyday or more recently?

Upcoming comment from this point on is rather long but hopefully well put together. I'm glad you all found my previous comment good since it was my first SA post
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To comment on your risk estimation of the trimaran, you are absolutely correct. I remember reading in a French magazine that, in fact, the class rules progressively allowed the rigs to become more and more powerful (square top, tilting masts, higher possible loads everywhere with better materials, etc.) but the boats were built quite light being 60 ft, and, crucially, the limits imposed on the hull platform made it impossible to generate more RM from the hulls. Essentially, the boats got lighter and the rigs more powerful but the RM remained the same. You can see where this is going.

From the information I could gather, 28 ORMA trimarans were built (plus 3 catamarans not counted and maybe prototypes that never raced that posthumously qualified for ORMA). I found at least one documented capsize for 21 (all but 7) of them. That is insane.
Of those that never capsized:
- 2 suffered terminal structural failure and nearly sank (both 1 yo boats)
- 1 suffered damage to one of its bows and lived peacefully until burning in 2015
- 2 were raced but never capsized (now Tritium and Rex both still racing)
- 1 suffered structural damage during a record attempt in 2008 (8 yo boat abandoned)
- 1 stopped sailing due to structural damage after dismasting in 2008 (6 yo boat abandoned)

So, 80% of boats raced more than a year capsized at least once. A very large amount of them have capsized more than once in their lifetime, sometimes in crewed configurations, and others, at the hands of the most legendary solo sailors to have raced our oceans. Some of these capsizes have resulted in the deaths of pioneers like Paul Vatine.

The textbook example of the ORMA's weaknesses is the 2002 Route du Rhum. Of 18 ORMAs signed up, 3 finished in Guadeloupe. 83% DNF rate. 3 of the DNFs were voluntary (cautious seamanship); the rest were boat damage and 5 were capsizes. This event alone spurred the downfall of the ORMA class.
In 2005, Armel le Cléac'h, famous for winning the Vendée Globe and now an Ultim skipper, capsized on his ORMA Foncia and vowed never to return to ORMA. He said, "Everything happens so quick that you can only ever think about surviving."
Over time, more and more skippers stopped racing ORMA, calling them too dangerous and unpredictable. Eventually, the class effectively died in 2007.

With these French sailors, if there is a will, there is a way. If there ever were a will to use the ORMA as a singlehanded record machine, it is now long gone. The unanimous acceptance of ORMA trimarans as "bateaux de fou furieux" (boats for the crazy mad) today by those who sailed them have moved on to Ultim or IMOCA, in conjunction with the facts I mentioned above make it clear: the ORMA is not anymore a viable platform for singlehanded racing, much less so to race in the southern ocean or compete RTW.

That Don has not realized this is in and of itself a sufficient red flag--heck, a red, flashing, blaring siren--that he does not know what he is getting himself into.
I wholeheartedly believe that if he attempts to take this boat to the SO, he will get killed or have to be rescued (obviously I hope for neither) as would even the most seasoned French multihull sailors. Only, they have the wits to realize it.

Nevermind the SO. What are odds he gets it across the Gulf of Mex or even to and through the canal which is far easier.

 

[Autonomous]

Odds?
He can't even leave it tied up at the dock without it occurring more damage due to his incompetence and boobery.

 

[timotheysski]

Small correction: It was the loss of the sponsors that killed the ORMA class, and it took quite some time to convince many to return, after having the double whammy of losing entire boats AND getting bad PR for supporting an 'unsafe/irresponsible' kind of racing.

There are always racers willing to take big risks if someone will pay for it.

Yes, you are right, it was getting expensive to get new masts/sails every other season after re-flipping all these boats

 

[timotheysski]

Nevermind the SO. What are odds he gets it across the Gulf of Mex or even to and through the canal which is far easier.

Oh I'm sure he's very safe because there's no way he'll make it as far as the SO.
But I believe that in any case a boat like that would be a death trap for any solo sailor however strong they may be; there's reason we haven't gotten a french race for solo RTW multihulls under anything close to 100ft

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Nevermind the SO. What are odds he gets it across the Gulf of Mex

Why would he cross the Gulf of Mexico?

 

[MR.CLEAN]

Yes, you are right, it was getting expensive to get new masts/sails every other season after re-flipping all these boats

If it was just masts and sails, we might still have ORMA. The 2002 race saw a number of entire boats written off, and it ain't like they were insured.

 

[timotheysski]

Why would he cross the Gulf of Mexico?

Wess robably thought he had to because of the Panama canal but that is farther south so he shouldn't.
After all though, you never know, this is Captn Don we are talking about

 

[Wess]

It’s a pedantic point but you are correct. Technically the Caribbean Sea but what I really mean is once though the canal the easier ride down the west coat is over and I can’t imagine he makes it as far north as FL still alive. Would be impressed if he did and the boat is still on one piece right side up. Hell if he makes it to MD with it and can actually do some good for inner city youth causes in Baltimore I would be pleased as hell. But I ain’t betting on it. Would hate to see him or any crew get killed trying.

 

[96elur]

New posts up on his Facebook feed from Alcholpulco. https://www.facebook.com/CaptainDonaldLawson

 

[Lowgroove]

timotheysski-​

My reference to sailing an ORMA was not on Merlo my dream boat it was my reasonably short time aboard the "Team Australia" boat, originally Banque Polulaire- we completed a record from Sydney to Auckland in 2 days 19hrs and a bit from memory. Our best 24hrs was 570NM also from memory- we had up to 40 knots, 4mtr seas and it was insane. Our top speed was 39 knots, the boat looked after us and itself, sailing mostly at 110 degrees TWA chasing and overtaking the swells, gliding up the swell, using it as a ramp, launching into the rather wide trough all being softened at a amazing amout by the foil.​

At 30-35 knots in these seas it is very uncomfortable, rapid small movements in all directions, after 36 knots it all comes good in a strange way, the movements are smaller, almost like a vibration and you are more looked in just comepletely destroying the water rather than being tossed around by it. That was wiht a crew oif six, yeah for sure at the helm you can almost be sailing solo once set up wiht the traveller near at hand. But I cannot imagine, slowing the boat right down in those seas that you would come across in a lap and try to reef, furl, fix foils that have hit objects or any of the other tasks one would be doing on a daily basis. Then you through in sleep, strangly I had no problems getting a 20 minute sleep in falling asleep quite quickly, the movement seemed to rock me off to sleep. But I was trusting the other men on board wiht the traveler line in hand, on the helm reactigin and steering around the swell. To be solo at that point trusting a auto release cleat on the traveller and the pilot, well I am not your man and as I said in my previous post, I don't think there is any man who would pull of a lap inone fo these boats.
The Ultim is the boat for that and I am still in absolute disbelief at the macif Solo record.
The sailors who could achieve that time are very few and a very high percentage are French.