News Around the World
There can only be a lucky handful who make it through a racing career without along the way experiencing the moment of agony as you realise a duck is about to go badly wrong – whichever side of the coin you are on; to find yourself in that position on a fast and fragile TP52 that is accelerating madly as you put the bow down further is close to as bad as it gets. This is the moment in Miami that the bowsprit on Sled literally tore the wheel out the hands of Gladiator’s Tony Langley as the two boats violently came together
FRANCE (Flying) monster We are almost there. The latest Gitana, a 32m-long and 23m-wide Ultim, will go afloat in July. The big blue trimaran is the result of a long programme of research and development using the team’s much-modified MOD70 Edmond de Rothschild – the only ocean multihull (other than the rather specialist Hydroptère) that has ever been seen flying entirely on her foils. Designed by naval architect Guillaume Verdier and his team (this
time working separately from VPLP but with some of his colleagues from Team New Zealand) in collaboration with Gitana’s own design office, the maxi Gitana –which is nearing completion at Multiplast – is paving the way for a new generation of large offshore multihulls. Indeed, she will be part Archimedean boat (immersed hull), part
flying weapon. The shapes of the floats and the central hull shout ‘flight’, as on the latest America’s Cup models. With this in mind, she will be equipped with the very latest architectural and technical advances in terms of appendages, with T-foil rudders and L-shaped foils… although the Gitana team do not intend to unveil these prior to the boat’s launch. With everything geared towards flight, a great deal of care has
gone into the aerodynamics of the platform. The forms of the beams in particular testify to this, as does the smooth integration of the living space/cockpit between the beams. The outline of the programme for the new maxi tri has already
been set out for the next three seasons. Christened Gitana 17, she has been designed, developed and built with the focus on solo sailing, though she will be an important boat too for crewed races as well as major records. Skippered by Sébastien Josse, ‘Gitana man’ since 2011, ‘17’
will enter her first competition in November for the famous double- handed Transat Jacques Vabre between Le Havre and Salvador de
14 SEAHORSE
Bahia, Brazil. Sébastien Josse will sail the TJV with Thomas Rouxel, a Figariste who has plenty of experience further out to sea after racing in both the Volvo Ocean Race and the Jules Verne Trophy. The Route du Rhum 2018 and a solo Ultim round-the-world race
in the autumn of 2019 will round off the programme. Sébastien said that the boat is made for flying 1.5m above the water, thanks to the foils, and will return to a conventional Archimedean mode when the sea reaches a height of more than 2.5m. ‘She is made only for rounding the world rapidly,’ adds Sébastien,
‘and with a turbo that can be used from time to time when conditions are favourable.’ Since last winter discussions have been going on between Gitana
Team and the Collectif Ultim about having an automatic system to regulate the foils on these flying ships. Gitana is in favour of this but not everybody in the Collectif agrees with them. Wait and see.
Sodebo as well (twice) Waiting for his own new Ultim to be launched late next year, Thomas Coville is making modifications to his existing trimaran on which he went around the world alone in just 49 days. To stay reasonably competitive against the new-generation Ultim 100ft trimarans like Macif, and soon the new Banque Populaire and Gitana 17, the existing Sodebo certainly must be upgraded. The two main contributions to better performance are a canting
mast and a control system to adjust the rudder T-foils. The canting mast is an obvious move, as we’ve known since around the beginning of the century. It allows the sails to be presented better to the wind, keeps the centre of gravity of the boat further from the leeward float to increase righting moment and when angled a little to weather can generate some lift like a windsurf. The second improvement will make it possible to regulate the angle of attack of the foils under the rudder (the T-foils). The skipper will
MAX RANCHI
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