ALINGHI CLAIMS EXTREME SAILING SERIES TITLE WITH NORTH SAILS 3Di
Our congratulations to team Alinghi for securing the 2016 Extreme Sailing Series (ESS) world title this weekend on Sydney Harbor. This is Alinghi’s third series win, following victories in 2008 and 2014, and the first time they’ve done so ‘flying’ on the new lightning fast one-design GC32 catamarans. As the official supplier to the GC32 Class, North Sails delivered eight one-design inventories to the fleet in early 2016.
Co-skipper of team Alinghi, Arnaud Psarofaghis, said, “The GC32s are perfect. At the beginning of the season we thought it would be hard to compete on small courses in foiling boats but now the Extreme Sailing Series is even better than before.”
Considering his work as a sail designer for North Sails in Switzerland, Arnaud maintains an envious balance of work and play. Originally from Corsier, he has risen as one of Switzerland’s top sailors and has a broad range of experience across the multihull world, having found success in the D35s, the Ventilo M2, the Extreme 40 and also the AC45.
“I have been a designer at North Sails Geneva for 10 years and enjoy it a lot. We face new challenges every day to build the fastest sails whilst also meeting demands set by our clients. It’s nice to be able to create something new every day.”
When designing sails for the GC32, North Sails designers had a unique set of requirements from the new one design class. In an interview prior to the ESS series opener, project leader Gautier Sergent said, “The difficulty (and the fun) is that the GC32 are foiling catamarans sailing in a wide variety of racing formats (GC32 circuit, ESS, Bol d’Or long distance sailing) and on many different stretches of water (from lake to ocean). You need to cater to all this with only four sails in total.” Learn more about designing sails for the GC32 here.
Image credits © Jesus Renedo / Lloyd Images
