Opposite: Guillaume Verdier’s original take on Imoca 60 elevators is taken from his stillborn Super60 proposal for the Volvo Ocean Race; however, an updated configuration is likely to look broadly similar. By using cassette-mounted foils the kick-up safety feature is also retained. Above: while the bow on Jérémie Beyou’s Charal has ‘put on weight’ over winter the rounded canoe stern remains unchanged. Everything about Charal’s hull screams minimum drag so the boat can get up to flying speed as soon as possible. By contrast Nicolas Troussel’s new Juan K design, Corum (left), features a wide flat run aft, placing a little more emphasis on performance immediately prior to lift-off


skipper should become a little less violent.’ Sam Manuard is the designer of a break-


Verdier has run simulations using the Team New Zealand design tools and their famous simulator (he works full-time with Team NZ). In his opinion if the elevator is implemented we will see narrower hulls for new designs in the future, but for existing boats perhaps the only changes will be the potential elimination of the aft water ballast plus some extra hull reinforcement along the floor because of the potential for


increased impact velocities. And he believes the existing boats can be made very com- petitive very easily, and that even a new, narrower design will only have a small advantage because the hulls will spend even less time than now in Archimedean mode. ‘This is one of the cheapest retrofits you


can have to increase performance on an Imoca,’ he says. ‘The performance increase will be substantial… plus the ride for the


through scow-design Imoca, L’Occitane, for Armel Tripon. He is also a fan of full flight with rudder elevators: ‘The advan- tage of such a design is the ability to decouple trim from heel – which gives you a broader and “flatter” stability curve, meaning your boat can move around more in terms of heel with less strain for the autopilot and nav system.’ This would be especially true in rough


downwind conditions, where at present sailing up and down waves makes for violent changes in foil lift (Imoca foils can adjust rake and outward extension, from maximum out and full rake in upwind conditions to the opposite for downwind). In Manuard’s opinion once the elevators are implemented for the next generation we 


SEAHORSE 45


NICOLAS PEHE/DPPI


VINCENT CURUTCHET/ALEA


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