Custom designs Blowing the bloody doors off Fresh from success with the IRC50 Palanad 4 the Manuard/Groleau design/build combo is at it again
Benoît Marie’s Mini Nicomatic (right), designed by Sam Manuard, started the Mini Transat unbeaten in a race since the summer of 2024. Barring technical setbacks – and the foiler now has the benefit of three years’ development – no other current Mini can get close to her, a fact as freely admitted by Marie as by his competitors. Nicomatic was the product of a close collaboration between
Manuard and co-skippers Caroline Boule and Benoît Marie. A dedicated unit was created at Multiplast to build the boat, with obsessive emphasis on weight. Nicomatic is complex, has this year proved reliable but weighs just 850kg – with 400kg in the keel bulb. For the designer the goal was a Mini roughly equivalent to a
classic 6.50 in light airs, ‘but with 10 times’ the speed when conditions were right for flying. ‘We’ve managed to design a boat that’s amazing in terms of its performance and the sensations it gives you,’ says Manuard. ‘It’s very exciting to sail on it, and it’s capable of relatively stable flight in good conditions. To my knowledge, this is currently the only Mini to be able to do so.’ Manuard’s previous Mini design before Nicomatic trialled a combination of both vertical and C-foils. This delivered valuable
Custom builds BOAT
Nicomatic II 5.5 Metre AC40
Musa 40 Raison 40 Dibley 40 Lift40-V3
Mach40.5/6 MaX40 V2 Agité 40
LOA DESIGNER 6.5m Sam Manuard
10.1m Dave Hollom
12.12m Team New Zealand 12.18m Gianluca Guelfi 12.18m David Raison 12.18m Kevin Dibley
BUILDER JPS Productions
Composite Craft McConaghy, China
Sangiorgio Marine, Genoa Gepeto Composites
12.18m Marc Lombard Yacht Design Gepeto Composites 12.18m Sam Manuard 12.18m David Raison 12.18m CT Mer Forte
JPS Productions Mer Agitée
Lyman Morse 46 13.95m Kevin Dibley Vismara V48 Vintage 14.6m Vismara/Villani Dazcat 1495 SailGP F50
14.95m Dazcat Design
Wallyrocket 51 TP52
M&M 55 Mills 58
Imoca 60 Imoca 60 Imoca 60
Wallyrocket 71
SW100X Gitana 18
Ferrari V-100 Wally 110 Project 404
15.2m Sail GP/Paul Bieker 15.85m Botín Partners 15.85m Botín Partners 16.7m Morrelli & Melvin 17.6m Mills Design
18.28m Guillaume Verdier
18.28m Verdier, Koch, Finot, VPLP 18.28m Guillaume Verdier 21.4m Botín Partners
Extreme H20 PB72 21.8m Morrelli & Melvin IRC82
25m Judel-Vrolijk
30.53m Farr Yacht Design 30.53m Guillaume Verdier 30.6m Guillaume Verdier 34.2m Judel/Vrolijk/Wally 59.7m Malcolm McKeon
Lyman Morse
Vismara Marine Concepts Dazcat
Sail GP Technologies Wally Yachts King Marine
Schooner Creek Boat Works King Marine
Carrington Boats
Carbon Developments NZ JPS Productions
data but the concept was refined and much simplified for Nicomatic. In Benoît Marie, Manuard has the perfect partner. Marie is a
previous Mini Transat winner in the Series class, and he is also a successful designer/engineer and the founder of SKAW Sailing, which develops cutting-edge sailing projects. Nicomatic is one of its flagship ventures. He is also among France’s most experienced foiling sailors, with titles in the Moths, A-Class and the Easy to Fly (ETF) cats. He was runner-up in the 2015 C-Class Worlds. Marie the engineer highlights the greater challenge of achieving
reliability in a boat like this. ‘As soon as you are talking about flying you triple the loads – especially the mainsheet. Loads increase as the square of speed, so when you go from 15kt to 30kt…! Our top recorded speed before the Transat was already 31.9kt.’ But before this Mini Transat finished, Class40 expert Nicolas
Groleau’s JPS Productions was tooling up to build a development of Marie’s flyer, taking account of the numerous lessons learnt with Nicomatic. The new Manuard/JPS Mini, with a distinctive hull crease (top left), will race in the Proto class, although Groleau is creating the tooling for short-run series production. Start saving.
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LAUNCH COMMENTS 2026
2024 onwards 2023 onwards 2023 onwards 2025 2025
2024 onwards 2024 onwards 2023 onwards 2025
2022 onwards 2024 onwards 2023 onwards 2024 onwards! 2024 onwards 2026 2025 2026 2026
CDK (3), Multiplast (2), Persico 2025/26 CDK is favourite for the new Macif 2026/27 Wally Yachts Persico
King Marine, Valencia Southern Wind Shipyard Gitana/Multiplast/CDK Persico/Soldini/Ferrari Wally Ferretti Group Royal Huisman
2025 2025 2025
2025 onwards 2025 2026 2025 2025
Nicomatic is in a class of one. Sam Manuard says this will blow its doors clean off (Series build) Faster in a breeze. Hollom’s latest 5.5 just took a second world title
The ultimate one-design. Luna Rossa just took delivery of their second off the line Three of the four latest Class40s are Musa’s so still the all-rounder of choice ‘Faster downwind’… New 40 for Jonas Gerckensi
New Zealand joins the Class40 with a sensible but pretty futuristic offering Solid performer (especially under Yoann Richomme!). Rarely out of the top five Earlier planing plus improved reaching pace compared with the V5. Seven sold The latest series-built option from JPS and David Raison One to watch during the forthcoming two-handed Transat
A sailor’s yacht. Cold-moulded Douglas fir/Western red cedar. Yacht design is back to art Very classically modern… retro styled with the rig (almost) hanging off the back Ultim-style A British yard with a lot to shout about. Fast exciting boats to push hard, roomy when not No fewer than 14 F50s to get to the startline for the start of the next SailGP series Fast at the AC. Yet to be tested in rough stuff but weight to spare if more glue is needed Brand new Super Series project for Swedish tech entrepreneur Joakim Sundberg Fast powercat for 49 passengers for whale watching in Maui. Sounds punishing TP52-frightener. Very light at nine tonnes dry, IRC/ORC racer with water ballast With third place in the 2024 VG, on one foil, Sébastien Simon has earned it Too many to list them all but new Imocas on order for VG 2028 break the magic 10 Sam Goodchild has worked hard for this. He and Charlie Dalin make one heel of a team Wally and Botín on a roll. The 51 is flying and the 71 won the Maxi Worlds in Porto Cervo!!! Luxury high-performance full-foiling cat… with American Magic handling development Dangerously seductive-looking new maxi-sized racer-cruiser for European regattas Getting bigger and looking (even) better. And they make for the best pix too The new Gitana foiler – a gazillion complex systems still to calibrate. And so a tad late Guillaume Verdier finally gets to build the 100-footer he always wanted The second example of this luscious fast cruiser will launch late 2025
Aluminium hull, carbon up top… and a sloop (because one is always cheaper than two)
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