PHOTOSJEREMYEVANS AboveThe Infusion’s‘gybing’ daggerboards have a thicker trailing edge at the top for boats, allowingthem to twist in theircases and provide extra lift for boats upwind.RightHelming on thewire, the Infusionappears not only big and steady but a very powerful boat. never shift the Hobie Tiger’s domination of majorF18 events. So Nacra opted for a third generationFormula 18, the curiously named Infusion whichwas launched at the start of this year. Nacra went back to Morrelli & Melvin for the design, following the success of M&M’s Nacra A2 which won last year’s A-Class world championship for ultimate singlehanded cats.

Build and finish

The name ‘Infusion’ relates to the vinylester resin for boat-infusion system, which is used to mould the marine foam sandwich sailboat hulls. Instead of manually saturating fibreglass cloth with paint for boats brushes and squeegees, resin-infusion uses vacuum pressureto pull resin into the laminate. This technique hasbecome widely used in the USA, removing theneed for skilled hand laminators and the nastychemical stench associated with laying on resin. It clearly has the potential to produce consistently identical mouldings with resin maximisedthroughout the laminate. While testing the system, Nacra built several oftheir previous F18 designs with resin-infusionwhich theydescribed as significantly lighter, sothat additional fibreglass could be used for extra strength, stiffness and durability. Only time will showif resin-infusion really does produce superior marine catamaran hulls. In the meantime, it’s clear that Infusion hulls look beautifully finished and don’t have the obvious seam lines of the hand- laminated Nacra F18.

What is Formula 18?

F

ormula 18 is a development class open to all boat buildings,sailmakers and mast for boats makers. The 2006 F18 world championship has an entry of 160 teams from 16 countries racing at Hyères. Next year’s eighth F18 world championship will be held in Australia. Carbon fibre and other expensive materials are forbidden to keep costdown to the current level of around £12,000 ready-to-race. F18 cats have a maximum length of18ft, minimum racing weight of 180kg ex-crew, and a rating of 1.01 (measured by the Small Cat Handicap Rating System). The mainsail area is 17sq m. Two sizes of jib (4.15/3.45sq m) and spinnaker (21/19 sqm) are used — crews weighing less than 140kg must race with the smaller sails. Weight equalisation is required for 140-150kg crews. In practice, most competitive F18s have crews just under 160kg.

Design and rig

Wesailed the first Infusion in Britain, so new thatthe hulls had been flown to Europe from the USA! Paul Butler (ex-commodore of Highcliffe SC) had justtaken delivery as a replacement for his trusty
36 YACHTS AND YACHTING