KND Marine

Flying Nikka 2024 Season is ramping up!

After a great year 2023 that saw FlyingNikka win Italian Boat of the Year award and the Maxi Class Line Honours Trophy at the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup in Porto Cervo, the team has not slowed done! While these awards confirms again the brave decision to launch the program made by Roberto Lacorte, we have learnt so much that an ambitious winter development program has been launched, under the leadership of Roberto Lacorte and Alessio Razeto.

The work pretty much started once the boat ended the season and has involved the whole team, which we are proud to be a part of. From the appendages to the aero package, some changes will be noticeable while other will remain more discreet. The main goal of the development is to extend the flying conditions domain toward lighter airs and higher (upwind) and deeper (downwind) TWAs.

We have now delivered all our VPPs and drawings and we are looking forward to see the outcome on the water very soon. As last year Maddalena Minasi will be the team performance engineer on behalf of KND Marine.

Go Flying Nikka!

Defi Azimut Victory!
Jérémie Beyou and Franck Cammas have taken IMOCA Charal 2 to victory in the Défi Azimut race. With a final elapsed time of 1:17:46:43, Charal beat second place by over an hour and a half, a significant margin in a sprint race like the Défi Azimut.
Charal2, a 2022 launched Sam Manuard design, beat all of the latest boats she will compete against in Transat Jacques Vabre and next year’s Vendée Globe. For the team it is also a relief as the boat showed great potential since the launch, had a few podiums (3rd Route du Rhum last year) but also a few technical problems (like in Fastnet race when she was leading). Today for the first time everything lined up and th sailors; Jérémie Beyou and Franck Cammas could express fully their talent and the boat’s potential on the water.
KND Marine are proud to have been part from the day one of this amazing project. We carried out design coordination, VPP and CFD simulations and we keep supporting the team with data analysis to help reach the full potential of this unique IMOCA.
Back in 2020, L'Occitane, our first IMOCA with Sam Manuard opened a new path with its scow bow and S foils. The concept proved efficient and able to sustain high average speed in the southern ocean (yielding the fastest equator-equator time of the last Vendée Globe). When Jérémie Beyou chose Sam as the designer of his new IMOCA, we had the opportunity to work with ample time to develop our ideas and access Jeremie's in depth experience as well as Franck Cammas who joined the team and challenged us time and time again leading to the very innovative IMOCA that is Charal2. In addition we had the chance to work on two evolution sisterships of L'Occitane: Initiative Coeur 4 (finishing 5th of the Defi Azimut) and the soon to be launched new Phil Sharp IMOCA. We will then have 4 boats on the start line of the races in 2024.
As usual our core design team, backing Sam Manuard's creativity and innovative vision included Nat Shaver who worked on the foils development and optimization.

Porto Cervo comes to a close -
The 33rd edition of the Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup held annually in Porto Cervo, Sardinia has concluded after a week of racing. KND Marine are extremely proud to be a part of this historical and legendary regatta, represented across four fleets from 60 to 143 feet in length. We would like to congratulate all of the competitors who work with KND for their fantastic results including Svea, who won the J Class fleet with 6 wins from 6 races, Galateia, champions of the Maxi A fleet with only podium finishes, Bella Mente, who recorded three 2nds and two 1sts to come out on top of the Maxi B fleet, and Spirit of Lorina, who won the Maxi C class with three consecutive bullets on their scorecard. FlyingNikka also picked up the Maxi Yacht Line Honours trophy, for their incredible over the water performances.
We are already looking forward to a return to Sardinian waters next year!

30-08-2023
TP52 World Championship 2023!
The TP52 World Championship hosted in the city of Barcelona has concluded after a tricky series of races, with a lack of wind making for a tactical whirlwind between the 10 competitors. With 5 different race winners across 8 races, there is never long between first and last place in this fleet. KND Marine are fully committed to getting every last second out of these boats, and are super proud to work with 9 of the 10 teams who raced in Barcelona!
A special congratulations to Provezza and Gladiator for their 2nd and 3rd place results at the championship.
52 Super Series
Provezza Sailing Team
Quantum Racing

The IMOCA fleet is some of the most high-intensity racing on the planet.
Check out the article below to learn about our work with IMOCA MACSF!

performance ; IMOCA, MACSF ; Isabelle Joschke ; Transat Jacques Vabre ; Vendée Globe ; assurances L’expert performance : un rôle clé pour optimiser le potentiel de l’IMOCA MACSF

28-08-2023
Results from Hamilton Island!
A very special few days for KND Marine clients in Australia, as Hamilton Island Race Week comes to a close. A fantastic home regatta for Super Maxi 'Wild Oats XI' competing in Div 1, who work with KND to analyse and perfect their performance on the racecourse, managing to finish in 3rd place under IRC and ORC in a fleet of multiple Maxi boats including fellow 100-footer 'Comanche'. In Div 3, MAT 1220 'Bushranger' dominates under ORC, taking 1st place with only podium finishes across all 7 races, including 4 bullets. KND Marine are responsible for the VPP and CFD simulations for the MAT1220, working with designer Mark Mills to produce a boat to compete well over the line and under handicap.
Hamilton Island Race Week

16-08-2023
North American Success!
After a great run of successful results in Europe, attention now turns to North America, where some of the world's most intensely competitive racing is in full flow. In the Chicago Yacht Club Race to Mackinac, the Mackinac Cup contested by just short of one hundred entries was won by the Mills 41 "Final Final". With a corrected winning margin of less than a minute, it's safe to say there was no room for error for the "Final Final" crew! We are super proud to work with the team to make sure they reach and push their performance targets!
The Little Traverse Yacht Club's Ugotta Regatta provided more winning opportunities for "Final Final", who took home the top spot in the ORC-B class with only first and second place results in their class of eight boats. In the also eight-boat strong GL52 fleet, KND clients TP52 "Fox" came in first place with only podium finishes across five highly-competitive races.
In the legendary Transpac Race, Santa Cruz 70 "Pied Piper" took home third position in Div 3, no mean feat when you consider that no less than 5 Santa Cruz 70's competed in the division along with a selection of other high performance boats. Providing data analysis with the aim of offshore success is a different task entirely than inshore results, and we are delighted to be a part of the "Pied Piper" team.
Last and certainly not least, team Challenge XII are the new 12 Metre world champions! KND Marine performed the electronic calibrations for Challenge XII, making sure their instruments are performing to maximum capacity.
Mark Mills Chicago Yacht Club Race To Mackinac

02-08-2023

Extreme Conditions for fiftieth Fastnet
This years Rolex Fastnet Race proved to be a testing experience, with a large proportion of the fleet retiring early on due to the high wind speed and swell. KND Marine are proud to associate with many of this years competitors across many fleets. With 15+ boats choosing KND to compete at the highest level of offshore racing, KND produce performance from the design stage through to data analysis for some of the worlds most high profile projects. A special congratulations to KND clients Albator for their 3rd place finish in an incredibly high standard of competition! Other results include:
Iniatives Coeur 4, Teamwork, Maitre Coq V, and Burea Vallée with their 5th, 7th, 8th and 9th place finishes in the IMOCA fleet, an elite level of Ocean Racing contested between the worlds best sailors.
Vogue Avec un Crohn and Sam Manuard designed IBSA, the latter of which KND produced the CFD and VPP simulations for, and their accompanying 7th and 8th place results in a 21-boat strong Class40 fleet.
Ino Noir with a strong 5th place finish in IRC0, and Teasing Machine with an 8th in the same class.
Lann Ael 3 with a 6th place in the massive IRC1 fleet which includes a previous overall race winner.

Overall an incredibly impressive catalogue of results in a race where many failed to even cross the start line! We look forward to watching all the KND clients begin the journey again in 2025.

Rolex Fastnet Race - Cherbourg
Royal Ocean Racing Club

18-07-23
Leopard 3 takes all the honours!
"Leopard 3" has taken center stage at this years Aegean 600 race. With a total of nearly 50 yachts racing, the event was certainly highly contested. "Leopard 3" walked away with the Aegean 600 trophy, an IRC Overall win, as well as line honours and a new course record of 45:05:25. KND Marine are responsible for the performance analysis of the project, and we look forward to taking the boat and team to a whole new level!
AEGEAN 600

12-07-2023
Team Malizia win the longest leg in Ocean Race history!
Everyone at KND sends Team Malizia their congratulations on their incredible achievements during the 2023 Ocean Race. Not only did they win the longest leg in Ocean race history, a gruelling 12,750 nautical miles from Cape Town, SA to Itajaí, Brazil, but they also set a new monohull sailing record of 641.13 nautical miles in 24 hours! KND Marine worked with Team Malizia from the beginning to achieve their performance targets, and also developing the foil design for the boat, a key element to the success of the modern IMOCA! Working with foil expert Nat Shaver was critical to this project, as was the design team at VPLP.
The Ocean Race Team Malizia VPLP Design Nat Shaver

10-07-2023
Wow!
Yesterday marked the end of an incredible Royal Cup. KND Marine would like to congratulate entries and KND clients Alegre, Alpha+, Gladiator, Paprec Arkea, Provezza, Quantum Racing, Sled and Vayu in their third Super Series event of the year. In a class where each boat is fighting for every second until the end, KND are incredibly proud to be chosen by eight out of nine boats on the start line, ensuring they reach their performance targets. A special congratulations to team Provezza for finishing in second and Gladiator for their third place finish. We hope you enjoy some of the training footage we grabbed at the windward mark in Menorca!

52 Super Series Quantum Racing Provezza Sailing Team

08-07-2023
Congratulations FlyingNikka!
Flying Nikka has won boat of the Year at the Trofeo Confindustria Nautica. KND are delighted to have been design partners through the development stage of this amazing project and now to run the performance side of the program. The project has been fantastic from every perspective since the beginning and we have no doubt that FlyingNikka will continue to go from strength to strength! A massive amount of gratitude is owed to design partner Mills Design for making this project possible!
FlyingNikka King Marine Mark Mills Roberto Lacorte Cetilar Sport North Sails

04-07-2023
Fantastic news from the Class40 fleet! As the first leg of Les Sables - Horta - Les Sables comes to a close, it has been confirmed that Class40 "IBSA" has broken the Class40 24 hour distance record, covering over 430 miles within a 24 hour timeframe. KND Marine worked as design partners with "IBSA" to perform the VPP and CFD in the relevant phases of the project, which is key to ensuring top level performance! KND also provides performance analysis for Class40 teams "Centrakor" (3rd) and "Vogue avec un Crohn" (8th) in this 1270 mile offshore leg. The Class40 fleet has long cemented itself at the top of offshore sailing and achieving good performance with a well-designed boat is critical to the success of the sailors. KND Marine is delighted to be operating at the heart of this fleet and to continue its development! The design credit for this success goes to Sam Manuard, and at KND we are proud to have helped Sam in producing such a quick boat.
Photo: Class40 "Centrakor"

Sam Manuard Yacht Design IBSA Group Class40 Les Sables-Horta-Les Sables Mikael Mergui Vogue avec un Crohn - Pierre-Louis Attwell

Fast...

Charal2 had a very good day yesterday on her delivery trip back from Route du Rhum. The sailed 558NM in 24 hours, smashing the existing record by 20NM. While this record wont become official (the boat didn't carry the official recorder) it is another confirmation that Charal2 is one of the most icompetitive IMOCA of the new generation. Since her launch she ended up 3rd on the Defi Azimut and Route du Rhum behind the fully sorted out last generation best boats: Apivia and Linkedout.

The performance development of these complex machines takes time and there is little doubt that Charal2 will allow Jeremy Beyou to fight for the victory in the Vendee Globe 2024 and all the races she will enter before that.

At KND Marine we are really proud to have been part of Charal2 core design alongside Sam Manuard Yacht Design and Nat Shaver.

Barcelona - Alinghi - Andrea Emone
Before we switch to offshore matters with the Route du Rhum start tomorrow, lets go back to Barcelona. It was a good opportunity to have dinner with Andrea who is part of Alinghi performance team. Andrea joined KND while she was studying aerospace in Valencia Poly. After two years as part time intern, she graduated and joined the company as a full time engineer. While working in KND Andrea was in charge of the TP52 Platoon performance analysis, yielding 2 world champion titles. She was also part of the ReXY developpement group and managed module initial development. Gold is dedicated to Olympic dinghies. This assignment came naturally as Andrea is a talented windsurf and IQFoil sailor. She worked hard, in close contact with Santiago Lange Nicolas Huguet and Jean-Baptiste Bernaz to develop a soft that would rely on a smartwatch output. Today ReXY Gold is used by several Olympic campaigns toward Marseille 2024 and we even use it for fleet analysis. After 4 years with KND Andrea joined the Spanish SailGP Team as woman sailor before joining Alinghi where she is applying her incredible enthusiasm and smart mind toward the coming America’s Cup.

What a month!
Middle Sea Race:
KND Marine is proud to have contributed to the success of Teasing Machine (1st IRC overall and 1st in class IRC2), Spirit of Lorina (1st in class IRC1 and 2nd overall), Albator (1st in class IRC4) Ran (3rd in class IRC1), Chenapan 4 (3rd in class IRC3).

52 SuperSeries Barcelona
1st Quantum Racing , P2nd Platoon, 3rd Provezza

52 Super Series 2022 final ranking
1st Quantum Racing , 3rd Platoon

A huge thank you to all the teams for trusting KND Marine!