Vive Les Voiles

She’s indeed a paradox, meaning she defies reason, for she’s a cruising boat built on a chassis, as it were, of an ORMA 60 racing trimaran, one of the fastest, wildest and most fragile racing classes ever. We’re speaking of the 60-ft trimaran Paradox that won the five-boat multihull class in last week’s Voiles de St. Barth.

We hoped to get the story from owner Peter Aschenbrenner, who is apparently based out of Redwood City as well as Rome and the Cayman Islands, but it was one of those weeks when the owner just never found the right time to sit down and talk with us. Fortunately, we crossed paths with Maine-based Paradox crewmember Cam Lewis, who talks as fast as he raced his 110-ft catamaran Team Adventure around the world back in the day.

"Peter, who likes talk about his boat and not himself, has been trying to build a cruising multihull for over a decade," Lewis explained. "Paradox was built from ORMA 60 parts, with the basis being the last Fuji 60, which was designed by Nigel Irens. But since Paradox is a cruising boat, her mast is just 85 feet instead of 100 feet, and she’s 48 feet wide rather than 60 feet wide. But she only displaces eight tons. Compare that with the 18 tons of the catamaran Phaedo, our Voiles competition, which is the lightest and fastest Gunboat 66 ever built."

What’s Paradox like inside, we asked, assuming she was completely stripped out. "She’s beautiful!," responded Lewis. "The captain’s quarters are under the cockpit, there are bunks in the floats, she has a dining room table, a stove and refrigeration, hot water, a nav station — the whole works. I first saw Paradox after the conclusion of the 2011 Caribbean 600 that I did on Phaedo, but I didn’t pay much attention to her. Then last October, while on my way to pick up my kids near Waukegan, Maine, I saw this gray trimaran sailing at warp speed — 20 knots — on port tack up the coast. It was Peter and his captain, Olivier Vigoureux, who were headed to Camden to visit the best restaurant in Maine. I gave chase, but was never able to catch them. Intrigued by the tri and her owner, I emailed Olivier, but never heard back from him. So I emailed Nigel Irens, and through him met Peter and ended up down here racing on a Caribbean sailing holiday."

Paradox did her second Caribbean 600 this spring, as well as the Heineken, BVI Spring Regatta and the Volies, so she’s been one of the more active racing boats in the Caribbean. "We’re now all headed to Crossroads for detox," laughed Lewis. "Actually, I’m headed back to Maine, where I hope to get my peas planted. "

We hope to have a report from Aschenbrenner on Paradox in the near future.

Also taking her class at the Voiles — but with four bullets — was Matt and Pam Brook’s classic San Francisco-based S&S 52 Dorade, which is in just the early stages of retracing her 80 something year old racing career in the Atlantic and Pacific. True, Dorade‘s only competition in the classic class was Carlo Falcone’s big and heavy Mariella, which wasn’t finding her conditions. Nonetheless, we spent a bit of time closely watching Matt and Pam’s narrow yawl work her way around the course in light to medium air in the fourth and final race of the Voiles, and were very impressed with how well she was sailed and how well she knifed through the water. It’s going to be fun to follow this San Francisco-based boat as she competes in this summer’s Newport to Bermuda Race, next year’s TransPac, and the TransAtlantic and Fastnet Races in ’15. After all, it’s one of the more quietly soulful campaigns we can remember.

The three-boat TP52 fleet was won by Ashley Wolfe of Calgary, Canada, who we can sort of claim as one of our own by the fact that she keeps her Mayhem in San Francisco when the boat isn’t traveling. And yes, Ashley is most definitely a she, one of the few women driving a boat at international TP52 levels. Making it all the more interesting is that Ashley’s father and brother both crew for her. More on Ashley in the near future, but very well done! Mayhem just edged Jim Swartz’s Newport based Vesper. Taking third in class was Peter Cunningham’s TP52 Powerplay. Even though Cunningham is from the Cayman Islands, we’re claiming him as a San Franciscan, too. After all, 15 years ago he was a frequently racer on the Bay with his J/29 Powerplay. Plus, his wife claims he still has every copy of Latitude and won’t let her throw any out.

In it’s third year, the Voiles was a blast and a half. Such a blast that we’re so wiped out we can’t even get up to properly describe it. True, the nearly 70-boat fleet was a bit of a mishmash, the winds were unusually light, and one competitor groused that there should have been more starts and races. But overall, it would be hard, if not impossible, to find another regatta in the world that is more owner and participant pleasing. Voiles participation has grown by leaps and bounds in the first three years, and we don’t expect that to stop until the 90-boat or so limit is reached.