5 expert tips for catamaran racing

Performance catamaran racing is growing hugely in popularity. Helena Darvelid shares some key learnings with Andy Rice

Modern cruiser/racer multihulls have a high level of safety provided you know what you’re doing. Helena Darvelid has taken all of her experience from world record-breaking passages in all-out speed machines and applied that to the slightly less frenetic world of multihull competition in big races like the RORC Caribbean 600 and the Rolex Fastnet Race, where Allegra has won the division in the past two editions into Cherbourg.

Poor choices often come down to over-optimistic sail selection which can put the boat in jeopardy, but with planning and a good understanding of how the boat performs across the range of wind and wave states, almost any situation is manageable.

“Since the start of the year we’ve done about 11,000 miles on Allegra, from Mallorca to the Canaries, the Transat, the Caribbean 600, Newport Bermuda Race and back to Mallorca,” says Darvelid.

“The windy races are the ones that stand out, including the past two Rolex Fastnet Races and last year’s Gotland Race, because that’s where I’m from [Helena is Swedish].

“We had 40 knots of wind and peak speeds of over 35 knots which felt amazing.

“Once you have a team that knows what it’s doing, you don’t have to feel intimidated by big conditions, you can really enjoy it.”

Here are Helena’s five tips for keeping it safe and fun while pushing to the limit on big, powerful multihulls.

Rehearse safety plans

We always go through the safety procedures on the boat, knowing where to locate all the safety equipment. In the case of a capsize, what would you do, and in what order? Where are you going to keep your lifejacket? If the boat is upside down and you have to get through an escape hatch, you don’t want to end up on the upturned boat without your lifejacket, so make sure it’s readily accessible.

We always throw in a ‘surprise’ man overboard drill for every race, just in case we have someone new on board. Make a habit of going through the whole routine each time for every major passage you do.

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Stay two steps ahead

Always aim to stay two or even three steps ahead. Anticipate everything that’s likely to happen next. Basically, in any manoeuvre, we’re always ready.

Allegra is a big boat with a large central structure, so we can’t see each other. We have six comms headsets for the key positions: the pit, bowman, trimmers, race skipper, and navigator.

Communication between the crew is vital during the preparation and execution of manoeuvres, but sometimes you can have too much chat which can create confusion. That’s why you need to talk through all the manoeuvres beforehand so you’re only saying what needs to be said. We also have a ‘No comms’ backup mode in case of comms failure or the need to execute a manoeuvre before everyone is geared up.

Stay in position

Everyone knows their position and what’s required. We’ve practised beforehand, so you go to the same position every time, even if you’re off watch. If it’s an overnight race or a long one like the RORC Caribbean 600, then there’ll be an off-watch and if you have a key person asleep, you wake them up, and everyone goes to their positions instantly. It then only takes a few minutes to take a reef or do a headsail change.

We never leave someone asleep to give them extra rest if they’re needed in position. Everyone has to be involved in the same way each time. But the watch system needs to be flexible to cater for the course requirements.

On busy courses we’ll run a buddy system where two people of similar skill sets cover each other in their own watch system and make sure that their double is well slept, fed and watered so that there’s always someone with that skill on deck and in good shape.

Set up for speed

Going faster is quite often safer and more comfortable in multihulls so set your rig up for that. You need to ‘lean’ on the boat to make it ride predominantly on one hull – as opposed to having multiple hulls wracking between different waves.

It’s difficult to set hard and fast rules on what to change when, because so much relies on the particular boat, your angle to the wind and how gusty and shifty the breeze is.

One of the biggest considerations about sail plan is your angle to the waves and what kind of wave sets you’re dealing with. If in doubt, going smaller is the safe option although do first try all the de-powering options such as twisting, easing, traveller down, daggerboards up etc.

Where the opposite is sometimes the case is when you’re going downwind in light airs and you’ve got a choppy wave state to punch through. Here you’re looking to head up the boat onto a hotter angle and put more power into the sails to give you momentum through the chop.

With catamarans the sea state can make the boat’s rolling action quite sharp as the hulls ride on different troughs and peaks. This in turn shakes the wind out of the sails making them only really effective for smaller windows. Sailing higher creates more apparent over the sails and helps them fly longer. Your polars won’t tell you this.

Know your exit strategy

When you’re beam reaching in strong winds be aware of the ‘death zone’ where the high levels of apparent wind that you’re generating can exceed the righting moment of the boat.

This is potential capsize territory, so always know what your exit strategy is at any given moment when a gust hits. Are you going to bear away or luff up? The skipper should communicate what the plan is so everyone understands what’s going on and can anticipate what the rest of the team is expected to do.

If you need to exit by heading up, make sure the sails are trimmed to enable this. You still want drive in the main as this will be the sail that helps spin the boat into the wind. If you have the headsail pinned in and the main doing nothing, then the rudder will be less effective turning the bow up.

Ideally, in overpowering conditions where you’re achieving stability limits, you should have both sails on the edge or already beginning to luff. This leads to a neutral helm and means that as soon as you start coming up, the luffing increases on both sails and the boat depowers quickly from the head down.

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