Onlookers as well as race-crews alike were attracted by the amazing participation of five J-Class yachts, competing in close contention during last week’s Superyacht Cup Palma. It was a great success for sailing yacht Hanuman, fitted with a Rondal rig.

J Class superyacht Hanuman with a Rondal rig

Performance-optimised and sailed to perfection by some of the world’s finest professional sailors, the five J’s drew attention not only for their size and beauty, but for their close proximity during starts, mark roundings and finishes. This was racing at its quintessential best.

Once it became clear, in 2012, that Hanuman, luxury yacht Lionheart, Rainbow yacht, charter yacht Ranger and superyacht Velsheda would all be lining up for St Barths Bucket this year, their crews and support teams began intensive optimisation and training programmes.

For the superyacht Hanuman team this included highly focused attention to rig performance, with input from both Rondal and North Sails, resulting in a decision to replace discontinuous rigging with continuous standing rigging. The aim of the rig upgrade and refit was not only to enhance stiffness and control, but also to reduce weight and drag. To this end, Rondal designed and manufactured new low profile spreaders and a set of jumpers to accommodate continuous rigging. In addition, many electronics such as lights and antennae on the Rondal carbon mast were removed or lowered for weight saving purposes.

As race skipper Ken Read remarked, Hanuman yacht is now very fast, both upwind and down. And as the rest of the world has remarked, Ken and his crew have sailed impeccably to achieve 4/4 firsts in St Barths and 3/4 in Palma against such strong competition. Only an OCS in race 3 dented a perfect result for Hanuman but, hey, who is ever perfect? Good crews and good spar makers certainly strive for perfection but if they ever achieved it, it wouldn’t be half so much fun to go racing!