Morrelli & Melvin’s new catamaran is a beautiful example of modern efficiency in sailing technology and design. The crew tells me that with just 17 knots of breeze on an easy-going day they were easily topping 24 knots of speed. During the Three Bridge Fiasco race in 8 knots of breeze the boat was sailing at 12 knots. They finished in second place and just 48 seconds behind last year’s winning time.

This will be a serious competitor to the eXtreme 40 design and may lead to the sort of transition of an entire fleet that we saw with the Melges 32 from the Farr 40.

One of the key differentiations between the two catamaran designs is that the X40 uses stiff hulls to offset the risk from huge loads on its lightweight frame. The SL33 design uses construction emphasizing strength in the skeleton; it adds weight in the beams, but has light hulls. Another major difference is that the SL33 was designed to easily come apart and fit in a 40 foot shipping container. It basically looks to be a more fun, less expensive and more convenient alternative to the popular X40s.

The design also is huge news in terms of the upcoming America’s Cup in San Francisco. While the premiere match races will be on Morrelli & Melvin designed catamarans (AC45 and AC72) the SL33 gives club racers and sponsors an option to invest in a similar design at a far more affordable and shippable format. That makes it not only a competitor to the X40 class but potentially a conversion machine to pull even die-hards of the mono hulls into the future of sailing, or at the very least force mono hull designs to adapt and improve.

See you on the Bay!

Updated to add Emirates Team NZ – TV News clips on the SL33 and the computers used to design them: