Automobili Lamborghini has played an important role in the all-Italian victory of Vento di Sardegna in the Two Handed Transatlantic Race (Twostar) regatta 2012. The crew, commanded by skipper Andrea Mura together with co-skipper Riccardo Apolloni – the first Italian crew to win this competition – also set a new record with their departure from Plymouth, United Kingdom, and arrival in Newport, Rhode Island, in 13 days, 12 hours and 47 minutes.
As the team’s technological partner, Automobili Lamborghini used its composite materials expertise to design and build a canard completely in carbon fiber: a moving, bow-mounted centerboard that improves the boat’s hydrodynamics and is essential when sailing close hauled (as close to the wind as possible) to maintain course and for better traveling upwind. The width of the canard is 50 cm and the length 3 m. It has been built as a unique piece with internal cores to improve torsional characteristics, so that the component can resist to a load of 3,500 kg despite a weight of only 29 kg.
Lamborghini’s team led by Luciano De Oto, head of the Advanced Composite Research Center at the Sant’Agata Bolognese-based Company, supervised the design and construction of the carbon fiber canard, demonstrating Lamborghini’s leadership in the development of carbon fiber technologies: not only for producing the most extreme super sports cars in the world, but also in innovative marine sector applications. Lamborghini is the only automaker that conceives and develops composite materials fully in house, and now offers this expertise to external companies interested in exploring the broad possibilities offered by these technologies.
The Two Handed Transatlantic Race (Twostar) is a 2,786 mile ocean regatta held by the Royal Western Yacht Club of England. The 2012 event started in Plymouth, United Kingdom, on June 3 and finished in Newport, Rhode Island, on June 16. Mura and Apolloni broke the old record set by Cherbourg Technologies in 1994 by 1 day, 11 hours and 44 minutes.