As she led away from the start reaching in flat water with little wake visible Corum looked like a winning package; indeed before he was dismasted Nicolas Troussel did a nice job of staying within reach of the lead while taking care to avoid the worst of the weather and preserve his largely untested boat; so it is highly ironic that he seems to have lost his rig through an ‘unprovoked’ tube failure. Corum is deceptively bulky to look at but she is the lighter of the two Juan K designs. Truth is in spite of the experienced supervision of Michel Desjoyeaux this boat was probably too new to win, this time, but she is already back in the shed being modified for the TJV in November. Among the changes is a daunting programme of replacing a lot of the hull core with foam of a higher density. After the Vendée-Arctique race most of the Vendée Globe frontrunners went into the shed for some extra structure – especially in the bow area. Those that skipped that race – Corum (not ready) and Hugo Boss (protecting a perceived performance advantage) – paid a high price
would choose a boat similar to the latest foilers we see now. At the other extreme a fully crewed boat for the Ocean Race that would be reminiscent of the new AC75s we are seeing in Auckland. Finally, a third con- cept for the Vendée Globe that no one has done yet. All the new boats we saw in the Vendée Globe have really been designed for the Jacques Vabre and the Route du Rhum. But to get to that specific Vendée Globe
foiler it was first necessary to go through the last race to understand the challenges. She is a boat that has to navigate better in big waves, more dynamic, she must also navigate more comfortably downwind because it is the most difficult condition with strong sea and wind. You have to sail with the bow very raised, at least 2m above the water, and that is difficult to do. It is achieved with narrower hulls with
some different shapes, and foils with a lot of depth that push more upwards but do not keep increasing the righting moment. SH: Should we also be revisiting the structures in the aft third of the hull? JK: Yes, the new foilers suffer a lot of slamming in that area, something that did not happen before. The slamming problem used to be further forward. The Imoca class employs ISO structural rules that are simply not adapted to the conditions of the Vendée Globe. Most boats are reinforced to more than twice the ISO requirements and they still break. Now the rule is being changed. We have
58 SEAHORSE
a big technical review scheduled later this month and with what we learned this time we have to review everything. The point is that there are dynamic effects due to sequential movements that cause an oscil- lation in the structure of these boats that breaks them. The idea of changing the Nomex for PVC in the laminate is not enough, that is a static resistance solution and the problem is dynamic. SH: Do you think the class will also limit the size of the foils? JK: Yes, but the class works with proposals from the technical committee that are then voted on by the skippers. The next vote is in May, in which the technical committee will propose a maximum RM, which I hope will be voted on favourably. The idea of one-design foils (like the masts) would, I think, go against the spirit of innovation in the Imoca class. For me that would be the end of the Imocas. Regarding the foil-rake system, there was a proposal to make it one-design based on the Corum system, but people consider it very expensive and I don’t think it will win the vote. SH:Would it be good if the Vendée organ- isers required that the boats be launched well in advance so that they can be prop- erly tested? JK: It’s a good question, but this could limit certain projects to be completed on time. But thinking technically and in terms of reliability for the Vendée I think it could be interesting.
SH: Do you think there will now be a new generation of boats specially designed for The Ocean Race? JK: Yes, clearly. We have been working for more than a year on such a project, and it is very different from a Vendée Imoca or a Transat Imoca. The ergonomics are totally different to sail with five crew members. The interior and deck are obviously different, and the hulls would look more like an AC75 than they are today! The foils will also be very different if there are no restrictions put in place, they would be T-shaped foils that couldn’t be used sailing solo but could with a crew, and maybe sailing double-handed. SH: The rumours about the sale of boats, big updates and new projects for the next Vendée are already in full flow. How is your own order book? JK:We are already building new foils and changing the configuration of the ballast tanks in Corum. For Arkea we are still studying the modifications we want to make but they are not yet finalised. And we have started the design of a new
boat, an atypical, ‘second-tier’ project. The owner focuses only on the Vendée Globe, but he is a person who has no experience in this type of boat. He feels comfortable with a more classic boat, without foils. Of course we asked him if he was aware of the limitations this approach implies. He said yes and now we are going to start the pro- ject. His aspiration is not to win; actually it seems to me a very honest approach. q
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110
