A lot has happened in the four years since we created the successful Ker46, of which four were built and raced successfully including class wins in the Sydney to Hobart race and many other race wins. Our continually improving optimisation technologies have been honed through various projects and it was clear that the time had come to bring out a new design. Replacing the Ker46 as our semi-custom offering in the size range, the Ker46+ uses as its generational baseline the heavily researched Ker40+ that came out guns-blazing in 2015 winning class in the Around the Island race on its first race outing and comfortably winning the first ever 'Fast 40' regatta.
Shape and Concept:
The Ker 46+ is significantly lighter than the previous generation, but its powerful hull form ensures excellent upwind and reaching performance. The hull shape is the product of an extensive formal optimisation involving a large volumes of RANS CFD data, leveraged through use of Neural Networks and proprietary optimisation techniques. The optimisation process for the 46+ benefits from real data and feedback from our recent projects.
Strucure:
Taking the structural optimisation to levels rarely seen outside of Americas Cup, the final lamination is the product of structural weight v stiffness optimisation, and the deflection of the shape under sailing loads is taken into account in the definition of the moulded shape. Construction is from pre-preg Carbon and carefully selected foams throughout; a large weight saving from the build method used on the infused Ker46 design.