This is how I understood it too. A lot of the inshore grand-prix boats have sunken troughs for the headsail tacks to maximise luff length and help endplate the foot against the deck - some boats use a soft/material fairing covering across the top of the trough to try and maximise the endplate but typically you need access to these spaces whilst the fairings are installed so they are fucking finickity to make and use.
If 11th Hour have integrated a sliding or removable composite fairing then it'd be really cool - something like the forward hatch covers on the TPs and Maxis with a small cut-out for the tack strop/cable could be fairly straightforward.
On the other hand the TPs are using fully internal furlers for the spinnaker staysails with a penetration through the deck for the tack fitting - apart from the potential of it being an absolute washing machine ride trying to do any service work to these from the inside the bow areas it could be a really neat solution. I guess it'd be harder to connect a headsail to a recessed tack fitting compared to a regular deck furler when you're getting fire-hosed on the bow at full noise. I'm also not sure if these systems have any tack adjustment - it'll work for a GS on a 52 because you can get enough cable tension from the boys on the handles but I'd expect you need to keep tack adjustment on the IMOCAs and that would make any deck penetrations hard to keep waterproof.
All new boats currently being built for the next cycle.
