We were interested in see the 'new" Pindar for Emma Richards, so we asked Merfyn Owen of Owen Clarke Design to share some insight about the boat and project, which he was very kind to do. Enjoy

Emma Richard's Owen Clarke designed Open 60, was launched in the colours of her sponsor Pindar in Scarborough, UK, on Friday. The charming ex fishing port and tourist town is far from being a yachting Mecca but it is the home town of company Chairman, Andrew Pindar and the headquarters for his global internet publishing and printing business. Five hundred people turned out on a cold day and faced the brusque North wind to see Caroline Pindar drench the yacht in champagne.

Pindar was purchased from Graham Dalton earlier in the year and has just spent three months in the JMV shipyard in Cherbourg having a complete refit under the supervision of Emma and her co-skipper for the Transat Jacques Vabres, Volvo veteran, Mike (Moose) Sanderson.

Besides the smart light blue paint and the new Southern Spars conventional three spreader rig the most obvious changes are the addition of two winches and a coffee grinder in the cockpit. This brings the boat more in line with Kingfisher and Mike Golding's new Ecover, although she has been fitted with a larger set of primaries than is seen on the single-handed boats. This is partly because Pindar intends to use new boat as a platform for a Volvo Ocean Race campaign and the yacht is being re-configured for this purpose. With that in mind one of the more controversial choices to some eyes will be the fitting of a conventional gooseneck arrangement on the mast and a box boom and cascade rope vang system.

Current wisdom for open 60's operating in single-handed mode under pilot is to sail in moderate to strong conditions off the wind with considerably more twist than normal. With no one on deck to handle the vang or ease the sheet it has been found that the balance of the boat is better suited for the pilot to sail with a degree of twist in the main. The evidence being that there is less tendency to round up because the yacht is better balanced and the pilot steers a straighter, therefore faster course. However, when sailing fully crewed and double-handed mainsail control will be better off the wind and the yacht therefore faster with the cascade vang arrangement. Easing the sheet with the deck-stepped boom also encourages fullness in the mainsail at a time when you may not particularly want that. However, the trade off with the box boom is that it is nearly twice as heavy as the round boom and therefore has a negative affect up until the point when the mainsail traveller car hits the end of the track - which is a considerable way down on these wide transom designs. There are some suggestions that sandwich structure of the box boom may also be more prone to damage than it's round counterpart. Overall however, like the wheels and trench cockpit, it's a clear and obvious choice for a yacht that will sail mainly crewed or at least two up.

The Transat Jacques Vabres route should suit perfectly this very light boat with its 27.5m rig and masthead kites if there is the usual amount of downwind/reaching between Le Havre, France and Salvador, Brazil. Whatever the pros and cons of the changes, or the weather, Pindar will be quick and a potent force in the coming TJV where she will be racing two other British boats from the same stable, Team Cowes (ex Kingfisher) and Mike Golding's new Ecover. For more info go to www.owenclarkedesign.com