5 EXPERT TIPS HELENA DARVELID ON MULTIHULL CONTROL

Performance multihull racing is growing hugely in popularity. Helena Darvelid shares some key learnings with Andy Rice

- Andy Rice

Modern cruiser/racer multihulls have Ma high level of safety provided you know what you're doing. Helena Darvelid has taken all of her experience from world record-breaking passages in all-out speed machines and applied that to the slightly less frenetic world of multihull competition in big races like the RORC Caribbean 600 and the Rolex Fastnet Race, where Allegra has won the division in the past two editions into Cherbourg.

Poor choices often come down to overoptimistic sail selection which can put the boat in jeopardy, but with planning and a good understanding of how the boat performs across the range of wind and wave states, almost any situation is manageable.

"Since the start of the year we've done about 11,000 miles on Allegra, from Mallorca to the Canaries, the Transat, the Caribbean 600, Newport Bermuda Race and back to Mallorca," says Darvelid.

"The windy races are the ones that stand out, including the past two Rolex Fastnet Races and last year's Gotland Race, because that's where I'm from [Helena is Swedish].

"We had 40 knots of wind and peak speeds of over 35 knots which felt amazing.

"Once you have a team that knows what it's doing, you don't have to feel intimidated by big conditions, you can really enjoy it." Here are Helena's five tips for keeping it safe and fun while pushing to the limit on big, powerful multihulls.

1 REHEARSE SAFETY PLANS