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Another thing we must continue to do is


attract the best sailors in the world. At the heart of all this are top-level sports compe- titions. The Imoca 60 is not the biggest boat in the world but it’s a really good size. It’s big enough for exciting sailing and technology-wise there is still a lot left to learn… and this attracts the best sailors who want to be involved in the technical development side. SH: So Antoine, in practical terms, how does the Imoca rule work today and what has to happen to make it compatible with VOR racing? AM: The Imoca rule is an Open Rule with sensible, experience-driven limits and with some one-design components. It is not a rule that typeforms a singlehanded boat. It’s a rule that defines a boat that is capable of racing safely around the world. The main points of the rule define the overall dimensions and limits – the box – length, max beam, max draft, max rig height, max number of sails… Then there are four stability criteria that make the boat fair and safe to race around the world. The final part defines the minimum equipment that has to be onboard for safety reasons. The rule is updated every four years


after each Vendée Globe with the experi- ence gained from the previous four years and, significantly, from the most recently built boats. We are now adapting these rules for fully crewed sailing and will publish them in December 2018. But they won’t apply for our boats until after the 2020 Vendée Globe has finished. We have only one major point that is


currently of concern and that is the rig/foil relationship. This isn’t necessarily linked to the class’s future in the VOR world, it also applies to solo sailing. Today the Imoca rule doesn’t limit the


size of the foils and it looks as if the new boats being built over the coming months for the next Vendée Globe have foils that are simply enormous, twice the span of before, and we are a little worried about this trend. For the 2020 Vendée Globe the rules


cannot be changed – foil size is open. But for the VOR in 2021 we may have to limit foil size to control dynamic righting moment. If we don’t check this develop- ment the current one-design mast will become the fuse in the system. If we don’t do this then boats developed for the Volvo with large foils will eat into the safety margins of the mast, probably not the most intelligent way to ensure a reliable fleet. This is where we will impose limits going forwards. The teams will choose how Imocas will


be adapted to sailing fully crewed. In the Imoca rule there is nothing that defines cockpit design – that is the team’s choice and part of the ‘open ethos’ of the class. With regard to self-steering systems, this is also part of the discussion. The VOR is a sailors’ race which means that part of the crew will always be on


38 SEAHORSE


Top: the Monaco Yacht Club is campaigning Gitana’s 2015 Imoca 60, renamed Malizia 2. Squeezing five below (we don’t yet know what autopilot use will be allowed in the VOR) already looks interesting, but the latest boats feature significantly reduced freeboard and also lower coachroofs. Hot seats… Johan Salén (left) and Imoca president Antoine Mermod. The last Vendée Globe winner Armel Le C’léac’h (right) was very privately playing with foils long before the designers of Banque Populaire VIII put pen to paper


watch and working the boat as hard as possible and so hand-steering will be part of that. If there is an autopilot onboard it can’t be as good as a sailor. In the VG the development of autopilots and their asso- ciated algorithms is a key element, but for the VOR if there is an autopilot it will be just a piece of safety equipment and will not be a performance generator. SH: A lot to do and to integrate into the NOR and so on. Talk us through the timing, Johan. JS: As Antoine points out each team will have to decide what is best for them and what path to follow, but our responsibility as event organisers is to remove as much of the uncertainty around the event as quickly as possible. Our intention is to have the Preliminary Notice of Race published by the end of September 2018, and the full course will be published some time before the end of the second quarter of 2019. The process has already started, and


more than 60 cities are currently express- ing interest; but this is a process that involves national and regional political decisions and it always takes time before the final route can be determined. Having said that, the outline of the continents that we want to visit and in what order will be described in reasonable detail in the preliminary NOR.


In practical terms there are quite a few


things that have to be managed, culturally and technically, a fully crewed culture and a singlehanded culture, Anglo-Saxon and French cultures and a class rule developed for solo sailing. AM: I don’t agree with the notion of cultural differences between Anglo-Saxon and French sailors. We’ve talked about this for many years but it is a non- argument now. We are talking about sailing around the world, designing boats, building boats, creating teams… The event, either the Vendée Globe or the VOR, is the same basic challenge – the most difficult part of the project is the same for all: it’s to find the funds, to create partnerships that enable strong teams to develop and build a good economic return. Other than the way the boat is sailed on the racecourse, 90 per cent of a project and its culture is the same. Charles Caudrelier, a Frenchman, has a


1,3,1 record in the last three VORs. He isn’t Anglo-Saxon but he knows how to run a programme. On the other side, Alex Thomson is not French and he has been very competitive in the Imoca world for a number of years. Ellen MacArthur probably ran the best ever programme in the history of singlehanded sailing with her Vendée Globe campaign. Maybe it is time to kill this


MARCUS HUTCHINSON


YANN RIOU


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