News Around the World
In the months leading up to the start of the current Volvo Race Chris Nicholson had a bit of an on-off relationship with the team he eventually joined, AkzoNobel, meeting up a few times in Spain but remaining ambivalent until much nearer the race start last autumn. And as is well-documented the team itself was also going through ructions when the afterguard walked off before the first leg. After the dramas of a destructive unplanned gybe on leg 3 Akzo came back into the frame in the second half of the race, also setting a new 24-hour race record of 601.63nm leading the fleet on leg 8 – a number that becomes more impressive when you remember that the VO65s are definitely slower than the previous Volvo 70s yet the longest 24-hour VO70 run remains the 596.6nm of Ericsson 4 in 2009
ITALY Takeover Giuliano Luzzatto talked to Gianguido Girotti (aka G3), one of two Italians now in place at the top of the French Bénéteau Group and the mastermind behind the Figaro 3 project Seahorse: What is your role now within Bénéteau? Gianguido Girotti: Luca Brancaleon and I are now the two general managers, with our work divided between commercial and sales development (Brancaleon) and marketing and design that comes from me – where we develop the new sail and motor yachts. My professional path started like so many others in this business
with studies in yacht design at Southampton University. During my time there I began a collaboration with my fellow Italian Giovanni Ceccarelli who is now of course a famous designer in his own right. With him I designed an ILC 25 and two ILC 30s; we then raced on the boats and between us we won three world titles! After that I joined the Frers studio, where I had the opportunity
of working on the ACC design for Sweden’s Victory America’s Cup challenge and also the Volvo 60 Amer Sports One. After that I returned to my home in Romagna on the Adriatic coast and joined Cantiere del Pardo as product manager, reporting to Giuseppe Giu- liani, at the time president of the group which also included Dufour. I worked on both brands, with Grand Soleil for the race range with designers Botín and Carkeek (as it was then) and Dufour on their production boats. In 2013 Dufour split off and the management – including myself – all became shareholders, relaunching the Dufour brand with seven new models in just two and a half years! Then in 2015 I got the call from Bénéteau to become development
director for their Prestige range of motoryachts, but after our first meeting I was offered the sailboat division instead… though some- how I also took over motorboats just 18 months later! SH: Two general managers at the helm is one thing, but two Italians at the top of the jewel of the French yacht industry… GG: There are not many cases of two general managers working together successfully – the best known is probably the Accor Hotel
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group. Our idea is to make the company more agile and more reactive. Actually, there are two other Italians in senior positions here, but it is not a matter of nationality, it is about the world’s biggest boatbuilder being focused only on international success with no ‘national’ preconceptions. SH: What role did you play in developing the Figaro 3? GG: Starting in October 2015 we laid the foundations of what became the Figaro 3, which went out to tender in April 2016. We knew this project could not be achieved using our normal production processes so we reopened the yard originally used by Jeanneau Techniques Avancées to build one-off raceboats, including several of the famous Fleury Michonmultihulls. This is now Group Bénéteau Racing Division. It’s a blend of artisan atelier and new start-up that has allowed us to test new production processes with a smaller team. Of course the Figaro 3 is also a one-design –which demands the highest build standards to ensure perfect uniformity. SH: How was the selection of VPLP arrived at for the design? GG: Initially the Figaro association asked us whether it was practical to optimise the existing Marc Lombard Figaro 2 but we did not think this was a good solution. The new design brief was created by Michel Desjoyeaux’s company Mer Fort, who have stayed involved as technical consultants for the development of the final production boat. Three yacht design firms were shortlisted: Finot Conq in association with Sam Manuard, Van Peteghem Lauriot Prévost and Mer Forte themselves. The final choice was then made by the Figaro class but taking close account of our input. Personally I think VPLP presented the most interesting project,
something that I expect to remain as a reference point for the next 10 years; but the other proposals were also clever and it was cer- tainly not an easy choice. The VPLP project is the ideal compromise between weight, cost and performance. It is a nice all-round design that performs equally well on all the points of sailing, not just a reaching machine like an Imoca or Mini. SH: Do you think the very different foils developed for the Figaro 3 can be applied to Bénéteau’s future performance cruisers?
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THIERRY MARTINEZ
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