The RC44 was originally conceived in 2005 by New Zealand America’s Cup legend Russell Coutts with naval architecture carried out by Slovenian Andrej Justin.
As expected given Coutts’ credentials, the RC44 is an uncompromised race boat that happens to be a one design.
As a race boat it lacks nothing. Built by Pauger Carbon Composites in Hungary, its construction is in state of the art carbon fibre. Weighing just 3.5 tonnes, it is light, with a relatively narrow hull, but also stiff, drawing 2.9m with a CNC-machined bulb ensuring the keel’s centre of gravity remains as low as possible.
It also has performance features like a trim tab on its keel, providing exceptional pointing ability and for the keel foil’s size to be reduced, while an articulating bowsprit permits deeper running - features found on no other one designs.
The RC44 is designed to sail in the widest range of wind strengths. Unlike other racing yachts it can sail well in 5 or 25 knots, minimising days lost due to adverse conditions. And it is fast - in 25 knots of breeze it has been known to reach 25 knots on surfs.
As it is a one design, no team can achieve a technological advantage. This prevents the ‘arms race’ and rapidly escalating costs, that so frequently destroy yacht racing classes. For example choice of sailmaker is not restricted, but replacing sails is. The RC44 also packs down into a 40ft flat rack container, vastly reducing shipping costs, aided further by the class managing logistics centrally.
Reflecting Coutts’ America’s Cup background, RC44 events used to combine match racing (two boats) with full fleet racing, but since 2017 it has focussed only on the latter.
Annually the 44Cup holds five events, each comprising one practice day and four race days. These are typically self-contained, laid on with the help of local yacht clubs. To maintain consistency, the 44Cup has its own PRO, measurer, chief umpire and regular group of umpires, plus class and event managers and media team.
Most impressive is the RC44’s longevity. Getting on for 20 years old it is as rewarding, challenging and exhilarating to sail as ever and seems future-proof. In the truest sense it has become a ‘modern classic’.
“We wanted to include a degree of complexity so an owner can experience what a top-end race boat is like to sail, and it delivers on that,” explains Coutts. “I wanted to create a boat that would be exciting to sail downwind and powerful in light winds.”
“I also wanted a boat that could be sailed short-handed with a deck layout incorporating many non-standard adjustments. The trim tab on the keel is an example of that, to reduce keel area yet still achieve good upwind performance and maneuverability. It adds to the boat’s complexity but the racing enthusiast will enjoy trialing the different tab angles and the resulting performance benefits.”
Russell Coutts
SAILS
The sail inventory for the RC44 is simple comprising one mainsail, three headsails (jibs and a genoa) and two gennakers. While the RC44 is a strict one design, there is some latitude in terms of the sail design. They have measurement restrictions but can be designed and made by anyone. At present three major race boat lofts are represented in the RC44 fleet: North Sails, Quantum and Doyle. This competition benefits the class providing continual development of the sail wardrobe. While there are almost no limitations to materials, sail buttons are limited to six per year with an extra one permitted for teams completing a whole season.
New teams joining the 44Cup are permitted to have eight sail buttons. Another performance feature is the drop line system for the gennaker: this comprises a rope attached to centre of the sail, then led down the forehatch, over a roller, back to the transom and out into the cockpit onto a primary winch. Originally technology developed by Team New Zealand for the America’s Cup, this enables the gennaker to be dropped in a fraction of the time it takes to perform a drop manually. The sail inventory/controls have evolved over the years. For example, the mainsail has had its square top enlarged and the fairlead system for the J2/3 was improved. Jib Cunningham and checkstay adjustment systems have also been added.
TRIM TAB
A performance feature from the America’s Cup, but found on no other one-design race boat, is the trim tab on the trailing edge of the keel foil. Operated from on deck, this effectively makes the keel foil asymmetric which enables a reduction in the RC44’s leeway (how much it drops sideways to leeward, especially when sailing upwind) by around 2°. Typically it is only used upwind and whether it is used or not, or by how much, gives tacticians several ‘modes’ for sailing upwind.
FOREDECK
The RC44 does not have stanchions or lifelines so the foredeck is covered in a rubberised material. Dating back to when the RC44 was regularly used for match racing, the foredeck hatch is offset to starboard (this faciliates bear-away sets after rounding the top mark to port). The hatch helps to prevent excess water ingress below.
GOLDEN WHEELS
The equivalent of the Tour de France leader’s yellow jersey is the RC44’s ‘golden wheels’, fitted to whichever yacht is currently leading the 44Cup.
RIG
The RC44’s carbon fibre mast comes in two pieces to facilitate transportation. Its standing rigging is in continous Future Fibres PBO.
ELECTRONICS
Another update to the RC44 has been its performance instrument package. It is currently fitted with a B&G Hercules 5000 system including mast unit, GPS, electronic compass, speed and depth transducers, plus trim tab and rudder angle transducers. Information is shown on 20/20 mast-mounted maxi displays, plus another, showing rudder and trim tab angles, fitted to the pedestal grinder.
BOWSPRIT
While many modern yachts have a fixed bowsprit, the arrangement on the RC44 is far more versatile. Not only can the bowsprit retract and extend when a gennaker is deployed, but the bowsprit can be canted up to weather by up to 10°. This pulls the luff of the gennaker to windward enabling the boat to be sailed at deeper angles downwind (depending upon wind strength).
LOGISTICALLY SPEAKING.....
Shipping of the RC44s, team and class containers between event venues, as well as all the logistics involved with this, are handled centrally and seamlessly by the class. This spares teams the worry and considerable hassle of undertaking this themselves as well as saving substantial costs.
In fact the transportation of the RC44s was also addressed in a more fundamental way from the very outset. When conceiving the class and its circuit, Russell Coutts envisaged RC44 racing regularly taking place on different continents. To date the circuit has ventured afar afield as the US West Coast, Caribbean and Middle East.
As a result, another advantage of the boat having a sacrificial bow and stern, plus a two-piece mast, is that, despite being 44ft long, it can fit into a standard 40ft flat rack container. This enables the RC44 to be shipped for around one third of the price it would typically cost to go assembled as deck cargo. It also permits more cost-effective long term winter storage.
Its ingenuity does not stop there. Its unique flat rack container is also cleverly designed so that the RC44 can be assembled and taken apart without the need for a crane or a forklift truck: Four vertical beams plug into the flat rack and, with these acting as leverage points, the hull can be elevated by 4m. The keel foil is then dropped on to the bulb, bolted in and the hull dropped on to the foil and attached. Key to this is the construction of the keel foil being entirely in carbon fibre (rather than a steel strut with a carbon or steel fairing). As a result it weighs just 120kg and can be muscled into position by three people.
Typically assembling a RC44 takes three to four days while its breakdown takes two.
THE MEN BEHIND THE CLASS
Name: Russell Coutts
Nationality: New Zealand
Born: 1 March 1962 in Wellington, New Zealand
Academic background: The University of Auckland, Bachelor of Engineering
Career highlights: Russell Coutts has won the America's Cup as a skipper four times and once as CEO of ORACLE Racing at the 34th America's Cup in 2013. His sailing record includes winning the ISAF Youth World Championships, Finn class gold at the 1984 Olympics, three World Match Racing Championships, numerous international match race wins and IOR, IMS and One Design World Championship victories. In New Zealand he has been honoured with a Commander of the British Empire and the Distinguished Companion of New Zealand Order of Merit and has twice been the ISAF World Sailor of the Year.
Name: Andrej Justin
Nationality: Slovenian
Born: 1959 in Koper on the Adriatic coast
Academic background: Studied electronics and civil engineering in Ljubljana, Slovenia and architecture in Graz, Austria before graduating in Yacht Design from the Westlawn Institute of Marine Technology in 1993.
Career Highlights: Andrej has lived with yachts and the sea all through his life. He designed his first boats for the biggest Slovenian boat builder ELAN in the late 1980s, and has designed several racing boats from 33-foot match race one design to 80-foot carbon, canting keel Maxi Jena. He has also designed cruisers from 37 foot to the Palmer Johnson 90' in aluminium.