Thomas Ruyant and Morgan Lagravière fly LinkedOut during training for the last TJV – which they won. In long races a shorthanded skipper will usually try to avoid full flight – typically managing little more than 80-85 per cent of their Imoca’s maximum potential in stronger conditions. Everyone in the last Vendée Globe was aware of the risks of repeated crash landings off the foils – both to their carbon boats and to themselves. However, five of the same Imocas are now going around the world with a full crew, without question more than capable of pushing their boats to destruction… as we saw with the debut of the brutal Volvo 70s in 2006 when boats were finishing legs on ships after catastrophic failures. This time around patience and then more patience is going to be the race winner
good step in between and has helped us with the correlation between the theoretical and what is possible on the water. To prove the point we have been pleas-
antly surprised to achieve the full-flying modes when sailing which (in the absence of an elevator) we once thought were only possible in the simulator. And the work with the simulator isn’t over; despite having had our boat on the water for well over a year it remains a useful tool to explore different concepts and trim modes. On top of race-winning potential –
obviously – our boat also had to be built with sustainable innovation at the fore- front of our minds. As a team we committed at the start to be drawing down 20 per cent more greenhouse gases than we produce. So overall this was a complex but responsible brief. The result is a platform that we hope will have on-the-water success and, as we share our findings openly within the performance sailing world, we believe we have also managed to move the needle towards more sustainable practices in the marine industry – work that every- one in the team should be proud of. It has been a long journey to the start of
this race since the 11th Hour Team was launched in 2019. With the build process
36 SEAHORSE
well underway in 2021 and the race start delayed until January 2023, we undertook an ambitious sailing schedule with Alaka’i (the former Hugo Boss 6) which included the fully crewed Ocean Race Europe and as many double-handed Imoca events as possible, culminating in our two-boat effort in the Transat Jacques Vabre. Not only did this provide an excellent
opportunity for me to cut my teeth as a shorthanded sailor, teaming up with Justine Mettraux, but it allowed our team to accumulate racing miles which follow- ing a pandemic had been in short supply. Since our raceboat Malama rolled out
of the shed in autumn 2021 we have put over 25,000nm on the clock while the opportunity to go up against other boats has always been incredibly valuable. We were also grateful to have been
invited to join the training sessions out of Port La Fôret with Pôle Finisterre in 2022: an opportunity to compare notes and learn alongside the best. Hopefully the time spent alongside the shorthanded fleet in France, as well as the multiple transat- lantic crossings we have completed, has set us in good stead for what is ahead. Given our preparation it is probably no surprise that our boat much more closely
resembles a boat designed for solo sailing than either the VO65 or VO70 that came before. The constraints of the Imoca class rules, and the elements required to create a competitive boat, mean that it is harder than you might think to stray from what makes a solo-optimised boat competitive. Class rules encourage you to build as
light as possible, with a low centre of gravity optimised to carry sufficient amounts of water ballast while respecting multiple stability rules. We tried to fit around these objectives but at the same time arriving at a layout that is more conducive to crewed sailing. In addition, considerable thought went into the extra stress on a fully crewed boat, with the ability to push much harder for longer compared with sailing solo. In the end we have arrived at a platform
with both a generously sized cockpit (by Imoca standards) and extra structure compared with a solo-specific example. But it still remains a very long way from the VO65s we were used to previously… For the upcoming circumnavigation we
are a crew of only four sailors plus our media crew member (OBR), as compared to the eight to 10 we raced with on the 65s. Other than for manoeuvres, which invariably involve all hands on deck, the
JEAN-MARIE LIOT/LINKEDOUT
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