News Around the World
FRANCE Too much money David Raison is the inventor of the modern Scow-type boat in ocean racing. In 2011 the designer/builder won the Mini Transat on his prototype Magnum, a Mini with a round nose, inspired by the inshore Scows of the Great Lakes. Ten years later Pierre Le Roy won the Mini Transat on a David Raison design very close to the original Magnum. But when we ask David about the future of the equally groundbreaking foiling Minis he answers: ‘It’s out of the question, it completely opposes the purpose of the Mini class. It’s like obtain- ing a driver’s licence using a Ferrari. ‘Foils on a Mini 6.50 literally double the cost of the boat. And
you multiply by three or four the cost of the design studies compared to what you will do on a conventional one-off. Moreover, no foiling Mini has shown her supremacy on a Transat, only in offshore courses when the conditions are perfect [in other words the Pogo one-off designed by Guillaume Verdier, which has won some shorter races]. In addition, these are boats that are often built in the garage. Hence the analogy with the Ferrari…’ (laughing) David, who prides himself on having designed the first oceanic
foiler that achieved stable flight mode (a Mini that was modified a little ‘beyond’ the rule) adds that allowing foils on the Class40 would also be a nonsense. These sentiments perhaps help us to understand why the name Raison does not appear among the designers commissioned to create new foiling Imocas for the next Vendée Globe. This clever engineer from the Ecole Centrale of Nantes is convinced that there is no sense in building foilers without elevators on the rudders: ‘Without elevators all these Imoca foiling experiments are a waste of time… and a lot of money.’ Of course today’s ‘foiling compromise’ is within the rules for the
2024 VG and Raison forbids me from mentioning the names of those who approached the inventor of the modern Scow for a new Imoca. However, after months of rumour we can talk about Jean Le Cam’s new Imoca project with Raison, which will employ… leeboards! ‘Financially is it better to have a brand new latest-generation
“dinghy” for the same price as an existing generation 1 or 2 foiler?’ Davis Raison is certain of his answer… and so is his famous skipper. Remember that in the last VG Jean Le Cam did a nice job with
20 SEAHORSE
no foils at all on a 12-year-old Farr design, several times leading the race, brilliantly rescuing Kevin Escoffier and in the end finishing fourth, just 10 hours behind the winner.
Throwing down the glove Talking after the Transat Jacques Vabre to Eric Levet of the Marc Lombard design office, in La Rochelle, it is clear the office has a renewed energy for the Class40. After being a frontrunner with the Akilaria production Class40s, the Lombard office had to react when Sam Manuard’s Mach40 series first appeared 10 years ago, quickly establishing themselves as the new benchmark. In 2016 Lombard designed the Lift 40 #150 Carac of Louis Duc
whose rounded bow foreshadowed the Scow of today. Yoann Richomme was later not mistaken when he chose a modified Lift 40 design to win the last Route du Rhum. Lombard Design continued along the same development path
of fat, powerful bow sections with their latest Lift 40 V2 Crosscall built in Normandy jointly by GL Composites and V1/D2 Company and launched last summer (one makes the platform and the other makes everything else). A second identical boat (Queguiner) was launched in Caen at the very beginning of this year for a famous Figarist, Corentin Douguet. Two more Lift 40s V2 are on order. The first will go afloat next
month for Michael Mergui who was with Antoine Carpentier on Redman during their victory in the Sables-Horta, and a few months later the fourth Lift V2 will be launched for Marc Lepesqueux, a well- known Figaro and Class40 sailor from Normandy. Further south in France two other Class40s designed by Lombard
are coming from the Lalou Roucayrol yard. The first, launched on 7 January, is a rather novel boat that needed a different deck mould because it is a showcase for recyclable composite materials, as it is based on Elium resin with a PET core (two recyclable thermo- plastic products). It employs many lessons from the experimental Arkema Mini project, using similarly advanced green materials. ‘This greener approach led us to make a slightly heavier Class40
hull and with more internal structure,’ says Levet, ‘but generally the build went well, especially the infusions which were excellent. ‘The reasonably generous Class40 minimum weight makes it
CHRISTOPHE LAUNAY/DPPI/ALAMY
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