News Around the World
After racing the 2022 Route du Rhum (above) under special dispensation from the Ultim class, current solo round-the-world record holder François Gabart was forced to modify his VPLP flush-deck SVR Lazartique to improve all-round visibility for greater safety. Primarily this involved enlarging the cockpit bubbles and raising the boom which was previously skirted to the deck. Below deck the winch platform was also raised to allow some visibility when grinding. Now it’s over to Gabart protégé Tom Laperche… no pressure
well as possible. You already have your boat and for better or worse it is the one you are going to compete with, and without the possibility of modifications except for small details. With identical boats in the AC40 preliminary races there were differences of a thousand metres!! It’s about being able to navigate a thousand metres better with whatever boat you get. You have to sail more, much more. And not forget the years of trial-and-error learning that got you to this place. SH: Do you expect any big surprises in the Cup this time? XF: I should ask you to define for me what is a surprise: that American Magic wins with Slingsby? That we will win? Well, that would be a surprise to some. I believe the second generation of AC75 design will make the
fleet tighter. You review team by team and, for example, you know that the Italians will again be at a high level. The Americans, if they don’t make too many mistakes with the design, will be in the fight. The Swiss have Marcelino (Botín) as design manager, so no concerns there, but we must see how the lack of Cup experience in their young sailing team affects them. The French have a Kiwi design and maybe they have a Ferrari under their ass and they do sail very well… There is no need to highlight the Defender’s values. I hope the big ‘surprise’ is that we sail the Final Match against the Kiwis. Technically, coming after a poor showing in Bermuda six years
ago, it is not enough to say ‘that the hill we must climb is too much’. We are beyond that. Nothing is impossible except in your head. In San Francisco we saw it with foiling, it was said that it was impos-
sible to gybe or tack while flying, and we saw how that debate ended. Never say never. These boats sail very fast, more than twice the speed of the wind. Optimising the systems to obtain maximum power for as long as possible is crucial. Underwater the foils are the most important thing, but the systems and sails will decide the ‘racing effectiveness’ between boats. I think we are on the right track. SH: Inevitably we have to talk about the waves of Barcelona. XF: Since it became known that Barcelona would be the venue the waves have been one of the biggest concerns for everyone. Design- ing boats and foils to sail with waves is complex, it is not easy to model waves in a computer. How big are the waves, how fast, how steep? It’s like a new sport. It is true that with the 75-footers the effect will be less than in the AC40, but you still have the danger
24 SEAHORSE
of the foil or rudder coming out of the water between peaks, especially at high speed. A boat designed for totally flat seas would sail much faster and
modifying it for waves makes it slower. The dilemma is finding the balance, trying to keep a theoretically faster design sailing with waves. Then the designers say to you, ‘You’ll work it out.’ But I remember when we started sailing the 49er and how young people do it today when they start… after 20 years’ evolution. Look at SailGP, learning for so many years allows them to sail very fast. Our problem is that we will only have four months to learn before the Challenger Series. This means that the design cannot be so extreme. It is not easy to establish where to place your design. SH: And there will certainly be different conditions between the Challenger Series and the Match. XF: It is obvious that the first major objective is to reach the Final Match, it is the most important thing, the only thing. Then you always think about what you would do to the boat to compete against the Defender. Today everything we do is based on all the statistics from August-September, focusing on the Challenger Series. Then in October we will see… Carlos Pich
FRANCE Arkéa Ultim Challenge – the pinnacle On 7 January ocean racing will experience a historic moment with the start in Brest of a solo round-the-world race sailed singlehanded onboard these giant and often flying trimarans that are the Ultim. Thirty-five years after the first Vendée Globe six solo sailors (all French) will race around the world on the fastest boats on the planet. Five of them competed in the last two-handed Transat Jacques
Vabre, beginning with the winner. Armel Le Cléac’h has been asso- ciated with Banque Populaire for the past 11 years. He is one of the leading skippers in ocean racing. Imoca world champion (2018), two-time French solo ocean racing champion (2003, 2020), he is one of the few sailors to have won the Solitaire du Figaro three times (2003, 2010, 2020). He is the only skipper with three Vendée Globe podium finishes: second in 2008-2009 and again in 2012- 2013, before winning in 2016-2017. Armel still holds the monohull
JEAN-MARIE LIOT/ALEA
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