News Around the World
Fair to say that Jérémie Beyou, Franck Cammas and the whole Charal team are thoroughly enjoying their first few months trialling Beyou’s next Vendée Globe challenger, from the board of designer Sam Manuard. Last month we looked at Manuard’s crafty rudder treatment which – within Imoca rules – adds what is a much needed aft trim-elevator in all but name. Here we see his totally different foil arrangement compared with the 2020 Imocas, a self-levelling V-foil effect being achieved so that the boat naturally finds ride height equilibrium, lift from the foils increasing with immersion as the boat slows and reducing as it lifts out when speed increases
Paul Meilhat, 2021 Imoca champion, dreamed of this round-the-
world crewed competition and he has been working for three years to be at the start. His dream became a reality thanks to the support of Biotherm. ‘I’m passionate about everything related to The Ocean Race. Not only the sporting challenge, but also a voyage around the world, the opportunity to discover other countries and create links with new people… all within one of the biggest events in our sport.’ Construction of Paul’s Verdier design used the tooling of LinkedOut
(2020) and began in mid-December 2021. The eight-month build pro- gramme at Persico was very intense, especially the last two months when the whole team was on site in Italy. ‘We put a lot of energy into the project, and in the end it all went very well.’ Paul always liked the boats of Guillaume Verdier and for his first new
Imoca he wanted this architect – especially since he had sailed a lot on Verdier’s designs (SMA, Initiatives Coeur, Apivia and more). ‘Guil- laume’s 60s are versatile but “kind”, light displacement with a less powerful hull than some others, but also less drag for light-airs and downwind performance… We worked hard to eliminate some of the challenges and weaknesses we’d seen on the more powerful boats.’ Paul likes to remind us of the four main parameters of an Imoca:
the 90° and 180° tests, the Worst Case Angle and the area beneath the stability curve. ‘Generally speaking, if you make a light boat life is easier. In addition, we had a very short build time because of the impend- ing Route du Rhum. So we wanted a simple boat because we knew we wouldn’t have time for much post-launch service and development.’ The differences from LinkedOutare partly due to the evolution of the
class rules. Nomex honeycomb is now forbidden for the hull bottom, replaced by foam, while in the bow area the bottom remains monolithic. Extra reinforcement was also added to Biothermin the yard to avoid having to do it later, based on what has been seen in other recent boats. The Imoca rule now imposes limits on the foils, leading to greater
similarity between the foils with only small tolerances to allow limited optimisation. I would say this tightening-up was very much Verdier’s inspiration to protect the class and keep older boats racing. ‘We chose to use the same foils and cassettes as V&B Monbana
and Guyot Environnement,’ Paul adds. ‘This allowed us all to pool costs and share parts in case of problems. Our foils were manufactured at Persico. The major change compared to LinkedOut is the new round
18 SEAHORSE
bow to sail better in the waves while running, as well as our steering system: the rudders are on gantries again, as on several other new boats, instead of being mounted beneath the hull.’ It should be noted thatLinkedOut and therefore Biothermare descen-
dants of the ‘Super Sixty’ which was originally commissioned by the previous Volvo Race management from Guillaume Verdier. That hull benefited from a lot of research – and the rudders were originally designed to be equipped with elevators. ‘I will call my boat an intermediate generation. We took the best
existing hull (Apiviaand LinkedOut have won everything) and we improved it taking into account the evolution of the rule and the experience gained. Anyway, we didn’t have time to invest in a 100 per cent new project [Boris’s Maliziatook nearly two years in its entirety!]. It also corresponds to my temperament of sailing with confidence on a boat that I will have used a lot before the Vendée Globe. I’d rather be sailing than having my boat constantly in development…’ Paul won the last Route du Rhum on SMA, a conventional boat that
didn’t even have foils. This time the Rhum is not a goal in itself but more the best way to compare the potential of the new foiler with its opponents; above all Paul will be trying hard to avoid damage in the Rhum because The Ocean Race starts so soon afterwards. He also intends, like Kevin Escoffier (PRB), to head for Alicante directly
from Guadeloupe. ‘I’m not going to win the Rhum so I’m very happy to focus on sailing back quickly with a crew. It’s been four years since I last raced singlehanded – I was always sailing two (or more) handed when I was racing with Initiatives Coeur and Apivia.’ When it was decided that Imocas were eligible for The Ocean Race
voices were raised that a Vendée Globe boat could not sail around the world with a crew… because there is no space onboard! Today this is no longer relevant because the OR crew has been reduced to four people (plus the media-man), probably operating in pairs. But measures were still required to ensure that the boats are ‘liveable’, including the provision of additional berths and a genuine toilet area. Paul reminded us that on a Volvo 65, 1m longer but whose interior
is not fundamentally different from that of an Imoca, there are 11 people onboard… This solo/duo/quattro format also allows some ‘laggards’ to register for the OR today, as there is still time to practise with four on an existing boat.
ELOI STICHELBAUT
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