Opposite: in theory the same, or perhaps a clear evolution, but in fact Dalin’s latest Imoca is a completely different beast from his previous Apivia, also from the board of designer Guillaume Verdier. Different also from other new Verdier designs, with a less extreme round-bow tapering down to a sharper v’eed entry more similar to the already race-winning new Koch-Finot design of Dalin’s bête noire, Mr Ruyant. Verdier believes that these boats are so fast that powerboat design is increasingly relevant, so spray rails can now replace some of the previous chines. Dalin took line honours (left) in the last Vendée, only to have the win taken away by Yannick Bestaven. He was then beaten in both the TJV and Rhum by Ruyant. Payback time?
On Apivia the tumblehome went all the
is also a fully qualified naval architect… Seahorse: How did you end up aboard 11th Hour? Charlie Dalin: I knew the US team because they were also based out of MerConcept. But my spot with 11th Hour was decided rather late because I preferred to do the shorter stages, but somehow I ended up racing the transat leg (Newport RI to Den- mark). I know Charlie Enright and his crew well. They had sailed with me on Apivia and I spent time with them on 11th Hour. All our boats are designed by Verdier so a lot of useful information was exchanged. The crossing of the Atlantic was interest-
ing because 11th Hour is a direct evolution of my previous Apivia. The differences are small, therefore easier to understand in navigation, especially sailing with a crew because we can be more demanding of the boat. As skipper we are also more rested. Alone, you are in permanent crisis manage- ment (trajectory, manoeuvres, repairs, adjustments, media, etcetera). As a crew it’s easier to find the right
settings. Solo you apply what you learned while training – you do not think as you do when you are fully crewed. Manoeuvres especially are done much faster. On the other hand, due to the fact that we can drive harder, the rig in particular has to take bigger loads. We have our eyes perma- nently on the load alarms that force us to be cautious. Clearly boats are faster sailed by a crew. They’re heavier and they’re faster… looking at the damage during the event perhaps The Ocean Race was prema- ture bringing in the Imocas. SH:You also collided with a large mammal during that leg… CD:My rule on Apivia was that from 25kt I put on my rugby helmet. I forgot it when I flew to the USA and in Newport I couldn’t find one. In addition, the weather was looking pretty cool across the Atlantic. And then we finally got wind and we banged a mammal at 29kt of boat speed. Abrupt stop! I was sitting on the cockpit back bench. My forehead hit the bulkhead, the media man broke a shoulder bone. He
spent the rest of the leg in a bunk. I went off watch for 12 hours to recover but then I got back to my normal rhythm. We did undergo some medical tests in
Denmark but nothing was detected except that I cannot remember anything from the first 90 seconds after the shock. I don’t remember the impact at all. But the boat was not damaged in any way, which was quite extraordinary. We went from 29 to 2kt… all on the keel. SH: Sensations of speed… CD: Through the Atlantic we got used to going 30kt in the flat seas ahead of a front. When the speed dropped below 27kt it felt very slow, whereas on Apivia that was my maximum speed. The keel ram did fail as we rounded the top of Scotland, so until Aarhus we then had to cant it by hand… SH: Today we are in Port-La-Forêt to talk about the new Macif. What makes it differ- ent from Apivia? CD: The primary goal was to keep Apivia’s strengths (upwind, reaching, running in moderate conditions) and to erase the weak points (downwind in heavy seas). After the similar Apivia/Advens designs we launched for the 2020 Vendée Globe, Guillaume Verdier next designed two ‘intermediate’ boats, Holcim/PRB and 11th Hour. I would say that Macif, designed in
2021, is a further extrapolation of Apivia. The hull shape has changed. The volumes have been pushed forward. The boat is wider in the front and slightly narrower aft. For better behaviour when the boat
rushes down into the waves we went for more of the tulip shape. The ‘tulip’ is an inversion of the normal curvature of the hull shape running up to the bilge, inspired by 11th Hour and pushed even further on the new Finot-Koch designs. ‘Tulipage’ allows us to decrease the
wetted surface and to push more water out from the sides when the boat falls. Looking at the hull from the bottom to
the top, we see the tulipage, then the bilge that goes up straight and then a step. This is not to delay burying the front of the boat but to better disperse the water.
way to the front and there was plenty of water on the deck. Now the bilge line descends to the first leg of the ‘M’ (where the word Macif is written) shortly before rising again because the width of the bow is rule-limited at about 1m aft of the stem. This new philosophy makes it possible to ‘virtually’ widen the front of the boat. SH:Did Guillaume use his new design tools? CD: Indeed, for Apiviawe only ran CFD in flat seas. Since then Guillaume’s team have managed to develop a new tool to test the hull in open seas and with a 10-fold improvement in calculation speed! We are not the only ones using this tool but this is the first time we have achieved conclusive results in waves. It allows us to quantify the drag peak during contact with the wave and to quantify this deceleration in order to decrease it by visualising the amount of water that goes on the deck. The objective is to go faster and more
easily, especially in the Southern Ocean; nevertheless Macif remains an all-round boat, not as extreme as Maliziawhich com- pared to us is a banana with enormous rocker! The Finots (LinkedOut and Arkéa) have an even more exaggerated tulip shape which extends higher up than on our boat. SH: And foils? CD: The shape of the foils converges between all the new boats. I would say that everyone is now in the Apivia-Advens Verdier family. The curvature of the shaft is inclined downwards – at the hull exit you have an inversion of curvature. After that the camber varies steadily. The tips are also longer than before by different amounts. The new class rules are increasingly demanding in this area. We are limited in the protrusion of the foil when retracted, in projected surface, in maximum extension length… On Apivia we used two pairs of foils and it is also planned to have a second pair of special Vendée Globe foils on Macif. SH:What about the construction? CD: The method remains the same but the rule has changed the materials. We no longer have any honeycomb core. The hulls are now monolithic or foam sandwich in the bottom of the boat. Apivia had the bottom of the hull made
in honeycomb and before the start of the VG the question of switching to a more robust floor was seriously debated. I think
SEAHORSE 45
CHRISTOPHE FAVREAU/DPPI/ALAMY
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