BOR90 v3.0 sailing again

After a second round of modifications taking nearly 5 weeks, BMW Oracle Racing have taken their 90-foot trimaran sailing again off the California coast. The boat returned to the water on Sunday (October 25th) and spent 4 days undergoing dock-side tests of its new systems. The BOR90 went out for its first sailing trials yesterday (Thursday October 29th).

The single largest change made was to remove the four "coffee grinders" powering the winches and replace them with an engine and hydraulics. The boat now sails with a smaller crew, the engine providing the horsepower previously supplied by manual "grinders". The deck layout for the winches has been extensively modified now that there is more room to fit everything.

There were several other changes visible from yesterday's sailing photos. The rudder and dagger-board have been removed from the main hull and longer J-shaped foils (the previous foils were C-shaped) have been fitted to the floats (amas). The bow-sprit appears to have been lengthened and its braces have new struts below and above. Finally, the trampolines no longer extend all the way to the floats, only reaching about one-third of the distance out from the main hull.

Sailing again - sans grinders and main hull foils. Photo © Gilles Martin-Rage, used with permission.

The longer bow-sprit and deeper foils are clear in this shot. Photo © Gilles Martin-Rage, used with permission.

There is now more room on-deck with the removal of the grinders. Photo © Gilles Martin-Rage, used with permission.