News Around the World
Starting off gently… the Version 1 foils on Banque Populaire’s flying tri are not dissimilar to the AC72 foils used at the America’s Cup in San Francisco. There’s no need to push too hard at this stage – the more open, high-aspect foil profiles employed on the AC50s in Bermuda would be far too critical to trim while the team is still getting to grips with fully foiling offshore. Each of these V1 foils weighs in at around 400kg; and much of that 400kg is high-modulus carbon so it is no surprise that they come in at around €300,000-400,000 apiece. Build time is also 4-5 months so for now it’s all about being light enough to learn but robust enough to keep sailing (or flying)
FRANCE Discovering the new Banque Populaire IX Having left Lorient on 2 February, Armel Le Cléac’h and his crew (Franck Cammas, Billy Besson, Charlie Dalin, Pierre-Emmanuel Hérissé and Florent Vilboux), on the new Ultim trimaran Banque Populaire IX, reached Guadeloupe in a little over six days. ‘Everything was OK, we had good conditions,’ said a relaxed Armel in Pointe- à-Pitre. ‘We learned many things about the potential of the boat. In the trade winds we were very fast at times with nice sensations! ‘It was a good crew to have for this trip. Franck [Cammas] has
plenty of experience of the flying boats and of course offshore sailing…’ explained Armel. ‘[Nacra world champion] Billy Besson is rather good at fine-tuning small sport catamarans so it is inter- esting to hear his comments. Then Charlie Dalin, whose background is closer to my own coming from the Figaro and singlehanded competitions, he is an engineer and brings his own fresh ideas.’ While the big boat was crossing the Atlantic we had a talk with
Ronan Lucas, manager of the BP Team. Two years and more than 135,000 hours of reflection, work and energy have been necessary for the Banque Populaire Team and Armel Le Cléac’h to give birth to BP IX, a new 32m by 23m ocean racer that will be sailed singlehanded around the globe no later than next year. It was an ambitious and audacious challenge two years ago,
which became a 14-tonne jewel of innovation when she was finally launched at the team base in Lorient. Before leaving in February for the trip across the Atlantic to Guadeloupe and back Ronan was aboard for several weeks of trials. ‘We very regularly navigate at 38-42kt, reaching this kind of speed easily and without needing much wind. ‘With a wind of about 13-14kt BP IX goes at 26-27kt of speed.
A little more and she transitions to flying mode and the speed goes up quite quickly, although unlike, say, the Orma 60s, which took off rather violently, the acceleration of BP IX is quite smooth.
18 SEAHORSE ‘The foils deliver steadily increasing amounts of vertical lift before
the boat first takes off a little. BP IX is then in a “skimming” mode with the hull supported by the foils. The next step is more dramatic, when the speed goes up quickly as soon as the hull and floats lift out fully and the drag just falls away. Ronan describes the latest Ultim as one big development
opportunity. ‘Flying is fashionable, we were approaching that mode during the Vendée Globe with the Imoca Banque Populaire VIII but with the new trimaran there will be periods when the boat will fly entirely. We learned a lot from the America’s Cup [Franck Cammas skippered Groupama Team France], but now we must apply it on the scale of a trimaran planned for rounding the world. ‘It requires a great deal of research and development to arrive
at a flying system good enough to be integrated on an ocean maxi. When we are flying the platform is currently 60cm above the water; to fly higher will require bigger, heavier foils with more structure.’ The BP foils already have a longer shaft and tip than the foils
on François’ [Gabart] Ultim Macif, which currently does not fly com- pletely, when he sailed round the world. The Banque Pop foils are also adjustable in all three axes. ‘We set the cant by moving the head of the foil laterally,’ explains Ronan. ‘The tips can be more or less horizontal depending on if we are “cant-in” or “cant-out”. ‘Cant-in means the foil has more a V shape to get more stability
but also with more drag. We also adjust the rake (forward/backward) and the height of the foil. On the Imoca 60 we could only play with the height.’ Banque Pop IX has three rudders, fixed on the main hull and
movable on the floats. The rudders are equipped with elevators to control longitudinal trim. There is also a single centreboard with a small foil – really an endplate – at the tip to improve efficiency. Altogether there are more than 20 hydraulic rams onboard and
two hydraulic rotary pumps driven by coffee grinders. It is quite busy for one man to manage all that alone. Of course an automatic trim control and an engine to deliver the hydraulic power would help a
EASY RIDE
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