With the grinders working in unison, the sail disappears in five seconds.Ĭontrol lines run through custom-made carbon ‘trumpets’, allowing them move effortlessly out of sight. Once around the roller, the chute is pulled through a Dacron tube that runs to the stern. The port foredeck hatch has a roller on the aft side, TP52-style, for the string take down spinnaker system. “The boat setup is complicated,” says Quatromoni, “but it’s very user-friendly.” “But Ben Quatromoni, the project manager, and his team jumped on it, working around the clock, and we made it to the starting line.” Today Enterprise’s decks today are remarkably spartan for a 12 Metre: it’s 1977 meets 2019 technology, with lots of carbon. “I remember when I first looked at it, and it was in a million pieces, and I said: ‘I’m not a professional, but my amateur opinion is that this boat has no chance of being ready.’Īsymmetric foredeck hatches – the port hatch has a roller on the aft side for spinnaker take downs Then, out of the blue this past winter, North Sails’ Mike Toppa came to me with, ‘What about Enterprise?’ It was the furthest thing from my mind, and I just figured we wouldn’t be there.”īut Deutsch was persuaded, and work shifted into a frenzied pitch at New England Boatworks. “When I was a kid, while other kids had baseball and football cards, I had an Intrepid scrapbook, and I have always fantasised about 12 Metres. In the 2019 World Championship in Newport she finished a solid 2nd overall in the Modern Division to the more seasoned Challenge XII.įor Deutsch, the 12 Metre seed was planted long ago. In her first competition in Newport this summer, Enterprise posted a pair of 1sts in the two final races. Nevertheless, her pedigree showed quickly. Her sails included the ‘garbage bag’, a light airs genoa that (in colour, at least) suggested its moniker.ĭouble wheels: outer one for steering inner one for trim tab control Enterprise was also the first yacht to pioneer laminate sails, using plastic films to stabilise the more conventional Dacron. Results from those tests suggested that over a typical 24-mile America’s Cup course in an average 10-knot wind, Enterprise would be a minute faster than her rivals. She was the first design to be tank-tested on a large scale, with a handful of models measuring roughly 7m each, in tanks designed for the aerospace and military industries. Today, she’s arguably the best set-up 12 Metre in the world.ĭesigned by Olin Stephens and David Pedrick at Sparkman & Stephens, and built of aluminium at the Minneford Yacht Yard, Enterprise boasted a number of firsts. Enterprise, built for the 1977 America’s Cup, had everything going for her, but never got the invitation to the Cup she seemed destined to receive. Among the 21 elegant Twelves lining the docks at Rhode Island’s Fort Adams for this summer’s 12 Metre World Championship, sat a yacht that for many was a huge disappointment.
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