Developed Specifically Around the Semi Rigid Wing Sail, the K8 Sport Claims to Be a 'Game Changing' Design. ANDI ROBERTSON S
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K8 SPORT BOAT TEST GAME CHANGER Developed specifically around the Semi UNDER SAIL 9/10 Rigid Wing sail, the K8 Sport claims to be a «««««««««« ‘game changing’ design. ANDI ROBERTSON sifts through the rhetoric and finds 1 2 real substance behind the claim ANDI ROBERTSON ALL IMAGES: his three-to-four person is effectively nearly eliminated and the Narrow static waterlines are achieved by 1. The spinnaker HULL AND DECK 8/10 the big, open cockpit, the cutouts for the is on a single SPECIFICATIONS lifting keelboat turns design wing section creates a proportionately slab sides and a gently curved bottom line and so is «««««««««« radiused main track and the pod for the LOA: 7.99m Displacement: 900kg convention on its head. faster, more attached and smoother section. Form stability is a primary easy to hoist The hull has a very powerful form main controls. Sailing with four there is Beam: 2.55m Mainsail: 29sq m Boasting the world’s flow over the foil. Camber control goal, that means the boat is sailed legs 2. The small, with chunky forward sections and the plenty of space to work, albeit slightly self-tacking jib Draught: 2.1m Jib: 12sq m first production is easily and smoothly achieved. in by the four crew, maximising appeal is the result of beam carried quite far forward. The more static work than say the SB20 or Raised keel: 1.65m Asymmetric: 78sq m Tsemo-rigid wing sail, the hull has The benefits in performance and to experienced owners who no longer much testing chine runs full length, right into the Melges or J80, where it is all about crew been designed to optimise the power handling are significant. The sail is want a big crew, high maintenance bills 3. Despite bow, maximising the effective waterline weight on the rail and dynamic, fast experimenting the rig delivers and blend that with powered up earlier and remains almost or to be racing an out-dated design. with different beam, but so too the chine is relatively sail controls in manoeuvres. There is an an ease of handling intended to make completely stable as the centre of effort Boat number one is going to the US; shapes for the high above the waterline indicating that integrated space for a cooler box for the leading edge, the a new generation of performance hardly moves at all. Hence rudder there has also been significant interest mast is actually it is designed to sail with some heel. beers, fitting in the void above the keel sailing accessible to the masses. corrections are minimised. Heeling from Etchells and Dragon owners. A fairly conventional That reverse bow keeps ample volume stub – an obvious Aussie influence! moment is reduced. The net effects are big attraction is that two boats can 4. The two sail forward to induce early planing and membranes are CONCEPT 9/10 a boat that is faster in any given wind be top and tailed into a container. set on parallel minimise slamming. Otherwise the RIG AND APPENDAGES 9/10 strength and easier to control. Sheet The K8’s hull is designed by tracks in the lines are relatively straight with a gentle, «««««««««« aft, outer edge «««««««««« The concept behind the Semi Rigid loads on the mainsail are minimal; you Argentina-based Nicolas Goldenberg of the counter- smooth and quite straight rocker. Appendages are straightforward. Wingsail (SRW) is far from new, having are controlling the angle of attack and for G Yacht Design, whose biggest and rotating mast The hull is moulded in e-glass The lift T shape keel has a 230kg bulb 5. The central first been developed by Australian the flow over the sail. And subsequent most recent success is the series Classe control box throughout with carbon reinforcements on it and is raised on a simple crane, brothers Greg and Patrick Johnston learning on jib design and sheeting Mini RG650, which took hold in South from where the only in key areas, primarily on top reducing the draft from 2.1m to 1.65m. sail shape can during the 1980s, and trialled with angle has led to a small self tacking America as an entry level series boat, be adjusted of the ring frames and the hog. Twin rudders are set with fixed angles great success in 18ft Skiffs. Predictably jib with a wide sheeting angle. and Valencia, where a fleet of 15 is based. 6. Camber is The deck itself is pretty standard; a and give the optimum mix of grip though it was banned, and the prototype The hull shape is powerful and There, the unique combination of the K8 controlled through small wedge shaped coach roof allows a at heeled angles and shallower draft mast rotation consigned to Greg Johnston’s garage. uncompromising. The reverse sheer and its SRW are attracting the attention and is crucial to little more living area. Production boats at the cost of slightly more drag. But with the 33rd America’s Cup in bow allows more volume in the forward of pros and there’s a definite buzz depowering and will have a pipecot either side, and a But the rig is the key and while it powering up Valencia and BMW Oracle’s wing sections, promoting maximum lift. about the class beginning to emerge. little galley. Otherwise the key feature is might look complex, in fact it is both technology leading to where we are now, development has taken off. The Semi Rigid Wing cleverly uses a counter rotating mast to induce a foil shape by causing the battens on the leeward side to compress and curve, simultaneously setting the battens on the windward side in tension and therefore holding them straighter. The thickness or depth of the foil is controlled by the angle of rotation of the mast. The two membranes are set on parallel tracks on the aft, outer edge of the mast, which produce a near perfect, flush interface 3 4 5 6 between the mast and foil. The mast drag 72 Yachts & Yachting February 2016 yachtsandyachting.co.uk February 2016 Yachts & Yachting 73 the mast rotation angle, flattening off as windspeed increases. This is a vital control. And at the front of the pod is the upper section camber control. The self-tacking jib is set at an angle of about 12 degrees, much more open than many grand prix racers. That’s because the jib is doing a completely different job here; in essence, you are not squeezing and accelerating the air through the slot to attach the flow to the leeward side of the main, trying to create a single element foil, instead the SRW foil is doing all that. So the jib’s main purpose is simply to help the bow through manouevres. The mainsail’s square top profile requires twin running backstays. The tail runs under the cockpit and comes back to a Spinlock clutch on the cockpit side for coarse setting; there suprisingly simple and very clever. Above single line is more like a vang, dumped is also a 4:1 fine tune on the pod. No conventional The semi rigid foil is formed by the mainsheet in extreme gusts or bear aways. Mostly The 78sq m kite is hoisted on twin membrane ‘sails’ tapered back to a means the helm when you are overpowered you poke a single line. The tack goes out sails without single leech. The carbon mast counter touching a rope the nose up and sail higher with the automatically to the end of the fixed rotates to control the camber of the jib pretty much inside out, multihull sprit. All deckgear is Harken. wing. Total rig weight is about 55kg all style, but by all accounts this produces up with just 18kg in the mast itself. This a nice 50-60m gain to windward. UNDER SAIL 8/10 is not a rotating wing mast, so does not The controls box is a central pod, «««««««««« provide lift in the same way. Despite incorporating the 8:1 traveller control, Despite there being no more than a few experimenting with different shapes which is essentially the accelerator, knots of breeze for our test, the K8 Sport for the leading edge, there is no real controlling the angle of the sail. It was breathtaking. We sailed from the departure from convention, as the width is the aft-most control on this little moment we got out of Valencia’s Real of the mast only really governs camber. bank in the middle of the cockpit, Marina Juan Carlos and never stopped. essentially for the wing trimmer who It’s uncanny, all the time sailing at LAYOUT AND CONTROLS 8/10 is beside the helm (the helm touches windspeed. With a little human induced «««««««««« no strings). Next forward control is heel the boat moved brilliantly, burbling The efficiency of the SRW is governed Below the fine tune backstay control, then along with a beautiful smooth wake. Despite only the by the angle of attack, the angle of faintest zephyrs the lines, which control lower section The helm is positive with a heavier the boom to the wind rather than the for our test the camber control (what would be the feel but you are not making constant boat felt nicely leech of the sail and so there is no powered up outhaul on a conventional main). Next course adjustments. This is much conventional mainsheet. Instead the forward is the camber control governing more about setting your course angle. In light airs you are sailing at about 40 degrees upwind. And all the time we were making 2.8 to 3.5 knots in only the faintest of zephyrs, but the boat felt nicely powered up.