The revolutionary


Fred Augendre sits down with David Raison – probably the most influential new design face to appear on the scene since the turn of the century


The French designer was without doubt the ‘naval architect of the month’ in November, his designs dominating both the categories in which they were entered in the two premier offshore events of the year. In the Transat Jacques Vabre the first Raison Class40 won easily on its race debut while on the same day Raison’s Mini 6.50 Proto design crossed the line to win the solo Mini Transat. Nine years after the birth of the Magnum Mini 6.50 David Raison’s ocean-racing design philosophy rests unchallenged. And this is no longer just the story of a


design concept, it is a real festival for offshore sailing. Innovative prototypes designed by David Raison are now domi- nating shorthanded ocean races wherever they compete, leaving only crumbs on the table for their competitors. The Class40 Crédit Mutuel won the double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre between Le Havre


40 SEAHORSE


and Salvador da Bahia in Brazil, also setting a new Class40 24-hour benchmark of 415.86nm. At the same time Mini n°865* won the Mini Transat between La Rochelle and Martinique, marking the boat’s second consecutive victory in the event. To complete the picture, during the same race one of Raison’s production Maxi 650s established a new 24-hour ref- erence for the Series Mini division. Time for a rewind. It was this same


French designer who first challenged design orthodoxy almost 10 years ago with a strange-looking Mini with a big round nose that was soon to win every- thing. Raison’s audacity is to have trans- posed to ocean racing the concept of the ‘scow’, tried and tested for decades on America’s sheltered inland waters but a rare species where there is a hint of salt. Since waterline beam is a driving factor


in the power of a sailboat the scow further increases the power of its wide and flat hull by extending this width forward, by inflating the bow rather than by finishing it traditionally in a corner. Another advantage compared to a


‘traditional’ wide sailboat: when heeled the submerged volumes remain aligned


with the axis of travel. In the absence of hull asymmetry the drag is considerably reduced… and the stability is remarkable. Launched at the beginning of 2010, the


Mini n°747 named Magnum for its resem- blance to a certain ice lolly, made head- lines first for its extraordinary aesthetics, then for its long and demanding develop- ment phase and finally for its results, David Raison sailing his own boat to victory the following year in both the Transgascogne and Mini Transat. We liked or hated his front end with the


air of a barge, but we no longer questioned the relevance of the design, nor the boat’s ability to deal with rough seas – even if a small to medium chop is not the scow’s happiest hunting ground… (even that weakness is now virtually eliminated). It is worth wondering why the scows did


not immediately flood the startlines once the original Magnum had demonstrated its superiority. Perhaps because sailing is a very conservative activity and aesthetic ret- icence prevailed over rational performance analysis? It would take another three years to see the birth of an optimised version of the Magnum – n°865 named Maximum – and even longer for the first round-nosed


CHRISTOPHE BRESCHI


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