When Avoca-based international yacht designer Mark Mills' debut-making creation Aztec made her maiden appearance in 1996 for launching with the Travelhoist at Malahide, she set a design style in subsequent Mills boats with an increasingly wedge-shaped hull, for want of better descriptive terminology.
Built for Peter Beamish of Dun Laoghaire, much of what made Aztec fast has remained the Mills theme for 28 successful years, with hulls ranging up to a hundred feet achieving success in all Continents under both IRC and ORC. Yet although other designers have explored different hull and rudder configurations with success, here at Afloat.ie we've been moved to comment increasingly on the fact that until now, the top Mills boats have remained determined single-ruddered. And it's with the rudder well forward, so that the presumably easily handled boat keeps her steering blade well immersed, as seen in Aztec (long known as Raptor) at last year's Volvo Dun Laoghaire Regatta.
The Mills-designed Raptor (ex Aztec, Denis Hewitt & partnrs) with senior sailor Fintan Cairns (second right) calling the shots, is seen here racing at VDLR 2023 and demonstrating that with Mark Mills' 1996-designed single rudder, control could still be maintained at a marked angle of heel. Photo: Afloat.ie/David O'Brien
The Mills determination to retain single steering has endured through the creation of two of today's headline One Design classes, the New York Yacht Club's Melges ILC 37s used for the NYYCs increasing international inter-club team events, and the Cape 31 - now truly global, with the rapidly-expanding Australian branch one of the most enthusiastic.
Yet both of those One Design boats, aimed at a demanding clientele that would require high performance with a maximized ease of handling for a powerful and determined ownership group, have continued the single-rudder theme. And it has continued to take success up the size scale, with Space Monkey, a Mills 68 Mini-Maxi winning the Vineyard Race 2024 in America in the bare-bum style, as did the Wally 100 V with the Super Maxi European Championship, finalised by racing at Barcelona before the America's Cup in October.
The "bare-bum" Mills-designed 68ft Mini-Maxi Space Monkey on her way to the class win in the Vineyard Race
The whole business of where you fit into the Maxi spectrum is quite the issue, though we don't mean the cruisers of the Maxi brand still very much built in Sweden, which is a story in itself with ancient history but modern outlook.
CLASS ONE HANGS IN
However, what's on the line here is something that reminds us of the establishment of Class Zero in Ireland, which is not quite Class 0 as it's thought of elsewhere. Our Class 0 had to be set up when the Celtic Tiger was starting to growl, and newly-rich sailors were appearing with much larger boats. This meant that, in any rational setup, cradle sailors with the family's 40-footer would now find themselves in Class 2. But they were having none of that, their family had always sailed in Class 1, so Class 0 had to be created to smooth ruffled feathers.
The Mark Mills-designed globally-successful Cape 31 OD may have a notably broad stern and a singe rudder placed quite far forward, but she seems to be able to maintain control in variably breezy conditions while racing in tight-packed fleets Photo: Margs Yacht Photo
It's a differential perception which squeezes into every aspect of Irish life. Back in the final days of the previous Millennium, we were having yet another extenson/reconfiguration done to the house, as we didn't wish to change location by one inch, but felt something had to be done with space usage improvement.
THE ERA OF ADRIAN AND VLADIMIR
In those days, all Ireland's small builders seemed to be called Adrian, and their only employees seemed to be called Vladimir. Our Vladimir was one of many who had invaded Afghanistan with the Russian army. But instead of stopping for the inevitably messy re-rebuff from the wild mountain men south of the Salang Pass, like the great Ivan Beshoff escaping from the aftermath of the mutiny in the battleship Potemkin in 1905, these Vladimirs simply kept on walking solo until they began to hear English spoken.
They then kept on travelling until somehow they reached the place where the best English of all is spoken, and that's Ireland. Yet in the circumstances, you would think that a stocky Russian veteran would see things in the big scale as experienced when crossing the boundless spaces of Hindu Kush and wherever.
LOCATION, LOCATION
Not a bit of it. One morning, when they arrived even later than usual and we complained a bit as we'd made a very specific project progress appointment, Adrian threw a complete wobbler and demanded to know how on earth we expected him to get to us on time when he had to travel with hi van all the way from Dalkey, and had to divert to pick up Vladimir in Tallaght?
Our Russian veteran of the Steppes bristled with indignation, and drew himself up to his full 5ft 6ins:
"Not Tallaght!" bellowed Vladimir. "Not Tallaght. FIRHOUSE! Okay?"
When everyone knew where they stood. The classic Maxis Condor and Kialoa thrashing it out
MAINTAINING STATUS
When a war veteran barely recovered from a mountain ordeal can so quickly appreciate the subtleties of post codes in a place where the affronted residents of the up-market parts of Dublin 24 had organised a successful plebiscite to make themselves Dublin 6W, then you understand why sailors long-experienced in racing under the comfortable and re-assuring Maxi tag wish to stay there, no matter what verbal gymnastics are involved.
The true Maxis are boats around 72ft long, and great boats they were and are too. But after a while some owners with funds to burn started building 83-footers, and seemed to decide that this was now the Maxi Class, and owners of the 72-footers could just suck it up.
Damn the bit. The established owners eventually conceded slightly by calling themselves the Maxi 72s, the True Keepers of the Flame. Thus the 83-footers became the Maxi-Plus (quite the awesome animal, as we discovered racing round Ireland in the Farr 83 Atlantic Privateer), the hundred footers became the Super-Maxis, and the most accessible of all, the 68-footers, became the Mini Maxis.
The Mark Mills-designed single-rudder 100ft SuperMaxi V (ex-Tango) on her way to clinching the European Championship 2024 at the America's Cup Pre-Regattas at Barcelona in September
Until now, we could have gone through all the sizes in the glamour lineup of Maxis and claim that Mark Mills had designed winning versions of every one in his single-rudder style. But something has been going on under the radar at a secret venue. We mightn't have known it but for the revelation of IRC 1 Middle Sea Race winner Balthazar being revealed in all her new glory, with a really dashing twin rudder setup.
DOUBLE TROUBLE?
You can see why designers and builders might prefer the single-rudder setup. Double Rudders can be Double Trouble. Certainly there are times when, with a lobster pot line wrapped around it, just the one is more than enough. Yet the current generation of Figaro 3 Solitaire's would be useless without twins, as they provide maximum heel tolerance primarily to windward but also on all angles, while allowing continuing helm control.
Double control. Ireland's Tom Dolan on his way to overall victory in the 2024 Figaro Solitaire Paprec, with his Beneteau Figaro 3 tracking well with twin rudders, though as intended by the designers for these conditions, the weather one barely touches the water
They also add a new element of steering control on a hard reach. The Half Tonner we built in Carnadoe on the Shannon a very long time was a decidedly willful headstrong creature with her full hull (oh all right then, fat ass). Yet she would have been transformed by twin rudders had we the resources to fit them, rather than needing to sell to the first buyer sufficiently impressed by the successes achieved.
The successful 1973 Carnadoe-built Half Tonner Garland of Howth would have been able to get even greater benefit from her powerful hull had she been fitted with twin rudders
But lack of resources is not the case with Rogier van Overfeld, owner of the originally single-ruddered Mills designed Maxi 72 Balthasar. For since she last appeared, much transformational work has been done under the supervision of skipper Louis Balcaen, and this attractive boat has re-appeared with optimally-sized twin rudders, absolutely no bigger than they need to be, in other words, and placed further aft than the standard Mills position.
Now they can be revealed……Balthasar's new twin rudder configuration became apparent as she leads from the start in the 2024 Rolex Middle Sea Race. This would be her optimal performance angle of heel in all winds to windward, with the weather rudder just clear of the water
For the recent Rolex Middle Sea Race, Balthasar's new configuration was not only useful only in the extreme weather sometimes experienced. On the contrary, in the light going they could keep her heeled to minimize wetted area. With the weather rudder just kissing the water, and the lee rudder immersed in the best possible working position, she could be kept fast on track with minimal water-disturbing steering movements. This was something that heavy hitters like Bouwe Bekking and Stu Bannatyne in her otherwise largely amateur crew reckoned to be an important winning factor.
Your get an idea of what it was like on board from this Youtube piece:
MARK MILLS REMANS ENIGMATIC ON TWIN RUDDERS
Balthasar is lined up for the RORC Caribbean 600 in February, and we can't see her being refused admission if she wishes to do the very crowded Centenary Fastnet in July 2025. Meanwhile, we had of course to pop an overnight email down to Mark Mills in Avoca to get some background to this success, when a very significant contemporary Mark Mills boat strays, under the radar, away from the sacred path of single rudders.
The reply this morning (Tuesday) says everything, or maybe very little. Make of it what you will:
"Good to hear from you, hope you're well. We did some Minis in the late 90's that were twin rudder, a fast cruiser in 2015 or so with them, and more coming, so no, not completely new!"
"Whatever you say, say nowt". Mark Mills, Afloat.ie "Sailor of the Year" for 2009, and currently Yacht Designer of the Year 2024 in Asia, has given a somewhat enigmatic reply about the origins of Balthasar's beautiful new twin rudders
