Opposite: Sam Davies hoons downwind on her Manuard design Initiatives-Coeur. Davies’ Imoca came out of the same tooling as the previous L’Occitane, raced in the last Vendée Globe by Armel Tripon. L’Occitane was Manuard’s first Imoca and the first Imoca scow. Back in 2020/2021 Tripon fell out of contention early on with rig issues but thereafter completed the course in a stonkingly fast time. Since that first generation, the big-wing scows have improved rapidly. But 1st and 2nd in the latest race being the two newest boats is only partly significant. All in the latest two generations of Imocas can go so fast that in foiling conditions, which is now most of the time, the speed differences between pushing hard and Charlie Dalin-hard turn into enormous daily advances. Day after day after day
fact that there were multiple failures of furlers and halyard locks in the VG shows there’s a real problem that needs to be solved. SH: If you only had one aspect to differentiate this VG from the previous one, what would it be? AM: The preparation. In 2020 we were on the first generation of Imocas with the big foils. The boats were still young, with the first (Charal) launched in 2018. All the others were launched in 2019 and the Transat Jacques Vabre was not very windy that time. Then in 2020 the preparation period was cut short by Covid. So, in reality, on the 2020 Vendée Globe the last-generation boats were ‘very, very young’ and had not necessarily been tested as one would have wanted for a solo round-the-world voyage. In 2024 it was very different. We had a lot more time to test and
develop the boats. We started to understand better how they worked; we found reliable solutions. The fleet leaving Les Sables d’Olonne last November was more mature, especially the top group. The skippers had a much clearer understanding of these flying
boats than in 2020. The same too for the older boats, by 2024 they were now much better known and with more miles sailed by their VG skippers. The combination of these factors allowed us to reach a very good overall level this time. With a new competitive qualification system this time, based on
the number of miles sailed, the teams sailed much more than in the past. It helped to make the boats more reliable. The system also set a reliability objective that was important, since the boats now had to be very often on the water, less often in the shed. Sailing-wise, of course, it also allowed the skippers to really learn
their boats. On top of this, most of the teams had matured more; once a month the technical directors met and talked over issues together. Sure, there were lots of arguments, but collectively the knowledge base increased; this especially helped the smaller teams who benefited from the expertise of the big teams.
Then this time we had The Ocean Race which was a turning point
in this technological and sporting preparation. In the past we sailed the Vendée Globe once every four years and that’s it. Racing with a crew around the world generated very interesting feedback. The boats were pushed super-hard by a full crew, but against that the manoeuvres were less violent than when sailing solo. At the Brazil stopover we had time to dismantle the boats and
look over everything. Many suppliers flew out to help and we all saw a lot of things… learned a lot of things! This exercise made the boats more reliable. I think there were 11 or 12 skippers from the VG who participated in the big leg around the Antarctic in The Ocean Race. Sailing on these kinds of boats through the thrilling Southern Oceans, the fact of doing it more often, this gave us a better understanding about what will go well… and what will not! SH: Several new Imocas have already been announced. Is it necessary to have a new boat to win the next VG? AM: It is premature to announce a precise figure, but we know at least five or six new builds that will soon be well underway. Knowing that the Imoca rule, last updated in April 2024 and then frozen for four more years, will not have any significant changes except in matters of reliability, Iet’s imagine that the next generation will be quite similar to current boats. The question may then arise: build a new boat or develop the existing one? Building a new boat is financially demanding (about 7million
euros just for the boat) and can be quite exhausting for the team. And it takes a lot of time. Even with enough funds a new boat is a challenge that is not within everyone’s reach, and is counted in years including development and optimisation. If you already have a good platform, and knowing that the keel
and rigging are now identical between boats, you can work on the evolution of the foils and save yourself the long and tedious devel- opment of a brand new boat.
SEAHORSE 21
JEAN-LOUIS CARLI/ALEA
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