Peter de Savary reached the LVC Challenger Final in 1983 with his self-financed Victory 83 campaign but lost then against Australia II. At the AC 1987 he did not take part but placed a challenge for the next Cup with an outstanding monohull. This was the hydrofoil-stabilized "Blue Arrow". It was about the size of Conner's catamaran Stars & Stripes, but had a single hull that was as narrow as a canoe.  It was launched officially on 20th July 1988, 90 days after the start of design. The boat was fitted with two hydrofoils at the end of a crossbeam. This beam could be hydraulically shifted along the hull by about 30 cm. The hydrofoils were not meant to lift the vessel out of the water; they were designed to supply just a heeling moment by having equal and opposite angles of attack for each foil thus generating no

Blue Arrow “Radical” / GB  Peter de Savary’s hydrofoil glider This radical yacht was supported on a crossbar by two stilts with hydrodynamic wings

AMERICA’S CUP HISTORY 1983 - 2013

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net vertical force on the vessel, but just a righting moment to counter the heeling moment induced by the sail. A crew member stood in a small cockpit in the main hull. He monitored  the hydrofoil settings via an instrument display in the cockpit, and controlled the hydrofoils with a hand crank to balance them in a very small range of angles to control the heeling of the yacht. This meant the vessel had to be under way to generate any appreciable righting moment. At the low speeds, large inflatable floats were placed under the crossbeam by the support crew (for docking, etc). The mast was a sophisticated aerodynamic design and looked like a wing, but carried soft sails made of Kevlar. Michael Fay,  who had nominated his big boat KZ-1 for the 1988 AC,was originally interested in an elimination regatta of all challengers and reached a verbal agreement with de Savary to race in a challenger series. But when he saw the Blue Arrow he withdrew his promise as he was only prepared to challenge  yachts about equal in size to the KZ-1. Then, when the New York Court decided Fay and Conner "should settle their conflict on the water" (The a Deed of Gift race with only two yachts limited to 3 rounds) Blue Arrow was effectively excluded from the Cup. The Blue Arrow team planned to transport the disassembled yacht by airplane to San Diego, at least for testing purposes. However, while sailing from her home base at Falmouth  October 27th 1988, an accident occurred that led to severe damage of the vessel.  Sailing at high speed (estimated at  30 kts) in waves the bow "dig in" and the vessel pitch-poled, fracturing the hull.  A replacement boat was not built. The Blue Arrow was a radical design and the first sign that the AC could be sailed with completely different boats (see AC 2010 and AC 2013) ______________________________________________________________________________ Another sailing project that has used Flow Solutions' hydrodynamic design methods is the World's fastest sailing vessel over 500m (65.45 kts) and a nautical mile (55.32 kts)! Don’t miss this link: http://www.sailrocket.com/node/136

Yacht / Country :  Blue Arrow “Radical” / GB Sail Number :       no number issued Syndicate :          Blue Arrow Yachting Syndicat CEO :                  Peter de Savary Yacht Club:          Royal Burnham YC Designers:           Derek Clark (Technical Director)                           Tony Castro                           Ed Dubois                           Rob Humphreys                           Jo Richards                           Geoff Willis (hydrodynamics)                           Peter Heppel (sails)                           Graeme Winn  (instrumentation) Technical Consultants:  Steve Fiddes Boat Builder:           Various                         Final assembly and launch at Falmouth Docks