Opposite: Apivia, designed by Guillaume Verdier for Figaro star Charlie Dalin, is one of the favourites to win the 2020 Vendée Globe and it was no surprise when sailing with Yann Eliès Dalin won a tricky TJV last winter when several of the early frontrunners lost out badly in the Doldrums. Apivia flies fast and steady once she gets the main span of those giant wings levelled with a little heel. With giant foils to fly on Verdier has worked hard to give Dalin a slippery canoe hull for minimum wetted surface to ensure she is not draggy in lighter airs heading south but also when sailing back up the Atlantic to the race finish. Apivia recently added an interesting new forefoot (pg14) to increase lift and ‘bounce’ on contact with the ocean. Meanwhile, Sam Manuard’s Imoca scow L’Occitane may prove to be the fastest Imoca yet. She typically flies lower and more level than her rivals which will encourage high average speeds. But she is very new plus skipper Armel Tripon is better known for his skills racing offshore multihulls. However, Tripon and his more forgiving ‘big nose’ will put in big mileages if everything stays together. Clockwise from top left: the Bouvet-Petit design used by Titouan Lamazou to win the first Vendée in 1989/90; the beginning of a Finot-Conq hegemony with Alain Gautier’s 1992 win on the Finot ketch Bagages Superior (later it became a sloop); Christophe Auguin won the rough 1996 race on Finot’s Geodis with Imoca’s first canting-keel; PRB V1, winner in 2000 with Michel Desjoyeaux introducing the first full width radiused mainsheet track mounted at the stern
The winner of the next two Vendée
Globes is another PRB, again designed by Finot-Conq, skipped by Michel Desjoy - eaux in 2000 and Vincent Riou in 2004. The maximum beam has been slightly trimmed down to ‘only’ 5.46m but now the topsides have less flare. The waterline shape is quite elaborate
compared to the rather crude (in hind- sight) previous-generation boats. Particu- larly noticeable is that the new PRB is more slender in the bow – whereas previ- ously the big saucers were rather vague to steer and demanded a lot of the pilot, the new Finot-Conq design had nice directional stability and tracked more easily, even in confused seas. Overall, however, the new hulls are
much fuller, increasing righting moment in all conditions of ballasting. Michel Desjoy - eaux also builds his deck in the moulds used for the very sleek deck of the Marc Lombard design Whirlpool, adds a wing mast and big central daggerboard, and finishes with a typical flourish by introduc- ing the first lifting rudders seen in the class. Desjoyeaux will sit out the 2004 Vendée
Globe but returns for 2008, departing from the mainstream with a new boat from Farr Yacht Design. She looks like a clean and actually quite simple design – but Foncia is a revolution: the topsides are almost vertical and the sections beneath the waterline almost flat. When heeled the waterlines are as far from the centreline as possible. The centre of buoyancy is far aft,
as is the rig, while Foncia has two long, near-vertical daggerboards mounted as far out from the centreline as possible, as are the twin lifting rudders. The shrouds attach to a pair of out -
riggers that are connected to the foot of the mast. A wide coachroof with a big aft ‘canopy’ extension protects the helmsman in his cockpit and, crucially, contributes to the instability of the boat when inverted. Foncia spells the end for the wide saucers. The Imoca 60 Cheminées Poujoulat,
designed by Juan Kouyoumdjian for the 2012 Vendée Globe for Swiss skipper Bernard Stamm, is a nice illustration of the next trend in design, with an aggressive chine near the waterline that runs all the way forward to the bow. One could look
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