This year\u2019s Vend\u00e9e Globe is a race for futuristic flying machines. Helen Fretter and Andi Robertson take a closer lookThe Manuard-designed, scow bowed L\u2019Occitaine has shown huge potential: the increased bow volume and substantial forefoot means the nose does not dig deep but skims even in a seaway, but no one has really tested a scow in the deep south! Photo: Pierre BourasThe world of single-handed offshore racing is a uniquely rarefied one. It\u2019s an oft-quoted statistic that more people have been into space than sailed around the planet non-stop, but solo sailors who have successfully taken on the toughest race in the world belong to a particularly exclusive club.
\n\u201cI think there\u2019s only about 80 of us who have ever finished the Vend\u00e9e Globe,\u201d remarked Sam Davies, who will be entering her third Vend\u00e9e this November. \u201cThat\u2019s nothing compared to the number of people that have been on the International Space Station [240].\u201d
\nBut as the pace of development in the IMOCA class accelerates ferociously, this elite world is changing. The 2020 Vend\u00e9e entry list includes few of the \u2018old guard\u2019 who featured heavily over the past decade, such as Vincent Riou and Jean-Pierre Dick.
\nThe 2010 design Initiatives Coeur has been upgraded with latest generation foils and autopilot. Photo: ALEA
\nAmong the skippers with brand new latest generation designs are Charlie Dalin and S\u00e9bastien Simon, who will be starting from Les Sables d\u2019Olonne for the first time. For Dalin it will only be his second solo IMOCA race.
\nThey\u2019ll be racing two of the most experienced sailors on the circuit: Alex Thomson, entering his fifth Vend\u00e9e and hoping to finally take the top spot after 20 years of trying; and J\u00e9r\u00e9mie Beyou, on his fourth attempt. Both are in new boats.
\nThe fleet is more of a technology race than ever, while the Vend\u00e9e Globe will forever be a battle of attrition and seamanship. So what do you need to succeed in the IMOCA class today?
\nArticle continues below\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tHugo Boss: Sailing on board Alex Thomson\u2019s \u00a36million foiling machine<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cWhat\u2019s my speed? What\u2019s the speed? What\u2019s the boatspeed now?!\u201d Alex Thomson hollers into a microphone. Thomson, at the helm\u2026<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tCharal: On board the radical IMOCA 60 that takes foiling to the next level<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn St Malo for the start of the Route du Rhum in early November, every inch of the IMOCA 60\u2026<\/p>\n
Road to Les Sables
\nA well-worn path to the Vend\u00e9e Globe start line has been trodden by hundreds of hopeful French sailors. It begins with a Mini Transat campaign, where they learn to fix everything that can possibly break on tiny, overly complex boats, to manage a campaign on small change and hope, to read ocean weather systems, and to contend with the fear \u2013 or joy \u2013 that can only come when you are thousands of miles from land, in thousands of feet of water, alone, and often heart-wrenchingly young.
\nSubsisting on coffee, sleeping on generous friends\u2019 floors (or worse, Ellen MacArthur famously lived in a container in a French boatyard), Mini Transat sailors have their commitment thoroughly tested. For many the next stage may be a Figaro, racing in a fleet so close that shines a spotlight on every tactical option missed, every manoeuvre fumbled. Here they learn how to manage the kind of sleep deprivation that leads to hallucinations, and how to abandon all ego. The budgets go up, the need to satisfy a sponsor increases.
\nSam Davies will be entering her fourth Vend\u00e9e Globe this year
\nThe prize can be a ticket to the big league: an IMOCA 60 sponsorship deal, and a chance to try and emulate Alain Gautier, Michel Desjoyeaux or Armel Le Cl\u00e9ac\u2019h, who all won at least one Figaro before winning the Vend\u00e9e Globe.
\nHowever, to run a foiling IMOCA 60 campaign today requires a budget of \u20ac10-15million. Do these traditional pathways still produce the best skippers, or are marketing and boardroom negotiation skills more important?
\n\u201cI do think that France has got just the best set up ever with the Mini Transat, the Figaro circuit, the Class 40s and then the Vend\u00e9e Globe,\u201d says Davies.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s the ideal ground to go through, and I guess I did that because I went from Mini to Figaro, and truly the performances that I did in Figaro gave me my first opportunity with Roxy in the IMOCA.
\n\u201cBut then other people do it the opposite way and manage through being very clever and having good contacts. Getting a budget can get an IMOCA project going straight off without too much sailing experience. But then they\u2019ll struggle because the performance in the IMOCA circuit is now pretty high.
\n\u201cI would never have dared to have gone straight to an IMOCA having not been in a Mini or a Figaro! But I remember being really impressed with Jean-Pierre Dick who came through having found a budget, but never having sailed Mini or Figaro. He actually did some IMOCA sailing, realised he was being beaten by people who\u2019d done a lot of Figaro racing and he just swallowed his pride and set off on a Figaro campaign because he knew that was the quickest way to improve his solo sailing.\u201d
\nCharlie Dalin\u2019s Apivia. Photo: Maxime Horlaville\/Apivia
\nSolo sailors have always had to be their own engineers, but the complexity of a modern foiler now requires a huge team that not only includes sailmakers and electricians, but also specialists in aeronautics, hydraulics and composites. Charlie Dalin, skipper of the impressive Apivia campaign, is not only a graduate of the Mini and Figaro circuits but also a qualified naval architect renowned for his stringent attention to detail. S\u00e9bastien Simon is a composites engineer, Sam Davies a Cambridge engineering graduate.
\n\u201cOn Initiatives Coeur, I developed a new autopilot with Madintech last year, and I was the first one using that pilot. I\u2019ve got a Mechanical Engineering degree and I love all that, the development and feedback, working with these companies who are right on the leading edge. It is really technical. I use my degree pretty much every day,\u201d says Sam.
\n\u201cOur boats are full of technology now. So, naturally, it leans towards the people who are a bit geeky and have a technical brain. But you can still be a young up-and-coming sailor who wants to buy an entry level boat that\u2019s reliable, and you can go and have a great adventure.
\nAlex Thomson has made one of the most radical design choices for his latest Hugo Boss with a completely enclosed cockpit at the mast base. Photo: Graham Snook
\n\u201cThe company that sponsor you will just will get just as much out of it as the sponsor of the winning boat if they manage to live the adventure of the Vend\u00e9e Globe with you. The great thing about the class is that these boats do exist, they\u2019re much easier for a smaller team to work on, and they\u2019re maybe more likely to finish.\u201d
\nMany sailors and shore crews have begun their careers working as preparateurs, sometimes offering their skills for free. But as the boats have become more technical this area of work is increasingly formalised.
\n\u201cIt is more and more professional,\u201d says Davies, \u201cSo maybe it\u2019s a little bit harder for the young people to get a break. But if you are really motivated to do something, then you get there, if you\u2019re brave enough to knock on the door and ask to come sailing or get some advice.
\nTraining at places like the elite Port la For\u00eat school is key to performing at the highest level in the IMOCA class. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut
\n\u201cThat\u2019s the great thing about Lorient, it\u2019s a unique place where the whole world of offshore sailing is. There are the young keen Mini Sailors who are living on a shoestring, who\u2019ve all clubbed together to rent an AirBnB for not very much money so they can train in Lorient, and just hang around bigger projects and be in the right place at the right time to jump on opportunities. That does still exist.\u201d
\nThe area is also home to world-famous training centres where solo skippers can be coached in the very specialist skills of offshore racing. They fall into two camps: the P\u00f4le Finist\u00e8re school in Port la For\u00eat, some 40 miles north; and a group that sails out of Lorient.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s really important to train together, especially in the single-handed world, because there\u2019s only so much you can learn when you\u2019re on your own. It\u2019s good to group together in organised, structured training. Like everything else, it\u2019s professionalising. And if you don\u2019t do that, then other people who do will get ahead of you and it will be hard to keep up,\u201d explains Davies.
\nCharal is considered by many to be the benchmark latest generation 60, although it is not the absolutely newest launch. Photo: Gauthier Lebec \/ Charal
\n\u201cPort la For\u00eat was one of the first French elite squads. It\u2019s based around the Figaro class and the IMOCA, and is a selective squad so you can\u2019t just pay to go training there. You have to put in an application that has to get accepted by a committee who decide whether you\u2019re going to bring enough to the group. You have to have the right attitude, because it\u2019s all about exchange and sharing and learning together. And if the group is too big, then nobody will share anything because they\u2019re giving all of their secrets away to all of the opposition!\u201d
\nThe Port la For\u00eat 2020 skippers\u2019 roster is a frankly intimidating list of the best offshore sailors in the world. Davies is a member of the squad. \u201cIt\u2019s great, and I get a lot out of it. The sharing sail trim and boat performance aspect is managed really well by the coaches. Obviously they have to respect the privacy between us, because at the end of the day we\u2019re all competitors.
\n\u201cThen the Lorient set up is a bit more of a club kind of atmosphere, where anyone can come and pay their own subscription and then you sign up for the training sessions you want to do. So it\u2019s more open to everybody.\u201d
\nThomas Ruyant\u2019s Verdier-designed LinkedOut at full speed. Photo: Pierre Bouras \/ TR Racing
\nFor sailors like Davies, Port la For\u00eat training is only part of their armoury. She also works individually with physical coaches and meteorologists, as well as fellow solo skipper Paul Meilhat.
\n\u201cWhen you do a single-handed campaign, you\u2019re a little bit alone, and for some of the pre-race decisions weather-wise, or strategy or sail choice, it\u2019s nice to have another skipper to bounce ideas back and forward to help take the strain. A lot of the IMOCA skippers have another skipper who is their kind of their \u2018performance coach\u2019, they\u2019re not necessarily a coach but they are another sailor to share the load,\u201d she explains.
\nDespite the ever-increasing professionalism, the ever-bigger teams, and the single-minded competitiveness of the skippers, one thing that has not changed is the camaraderie among Vend\u00e9e entrants.
\nCharlie Dalin is skipper of the very promising Apivia. Photo: Vincent Curutchet
\n\u201cIt still has that feeling; I guess it\u2019s down to the seamanship involved, and the fact that what everybody is doing is just so hard. Even the people who are lucky enough to have a big team supporting them, at one point, they were a small team with not much money, or a Figaro sailor dreaming of one day doing the Vend\u00e9e. I remember when I was younger it was amazing to be able to have just one tip from one of the top sailors. And so I try to do that.
\n\u201cAt the end of the day, we\u2019re all trying to do something absolutely amazing. And there\u2019s a very mutual respect between everyone, because just to get to the start line is an incredible achievement in itself.\u201d
\nNext generation IMOCAs
\nThe 34-boat fleet that is expected to line up for this year\u2019s round the world, non-stop, single-handed epic is one of the most intriguing, and untested that we have seen.
\nIn the last Vend\u00e9e Globe in 2016, the majority of new IMOCAs built for the race were from the VPLP-Verdier collaboration. But the design field has been blown wide open for the 2020 race with four different design studios in play, all with very different ideas. The resulting combinations of hull shapes and foil concepts span a much wider spectrum than recent editions of the race.
\nFactor in a critical lack of racing and training time because of the COVID-19 pandemic and November\u2019s solo race promises to be the most intriguing since the landmark 2008\/09 edition.
\nDominant duo
\nBack in 2016 the VPLP\/Verdier near-monopoly accounted for six new boats, all launched in close succession in the summer of 2015 and the first in the class to all sport foils from the outset. By the finish they had taken three of the top four spots, including winner Armel Le Cl\u00e9ac\u2019h\u2019s Banque Populaire VIII, 2nd placed Alex Thomson\u2019s Hugo Boss and 4th placed Jean-Pierre Dick on St Michel Virbac.
\nHugo Boss has a narrowed waterline and interesting bow design compromise; the sharp reverse sheer and minimum deck area forward reduces weight but still allows bow volume and lift. Photo: Lloyd Images
\nVPLP and the group headed by ETNZ\u2019s America\u2019s Cup winning lead designer Guillaume Verdier have since gone their own ways and both have designed new boats for the 2020 Vend\u00e9e Globe cycle.
\nThe first of the 2020 generation boats to launch was Jeremie Beyou\u2019s Charal by VPLP, considered by most to be the current benchmark boat and winner of the recent Vend\u00e9e Arctic Race. VPLP followed that with Alex Thomson\u2019s radical Hugo Boss and Japanese skipper\u2019s Kojiro Shiraishi\u2019s DMG Mori Global One (built from the Charal moulds).
\nMeanwhile Verdier\u2019s designs are an extension of the initial research and modelling that went into the one-design Volvo Super 60s proposals, which sadly did not survive the transition of The Ocean Race to new ownership. They include Apivia \u2013 a collaboration between Verdier\u2019s design team with project management by Francois Gabart\u2019s MerConcept, and top Figarist Charlie Dalin as skipper.
\nApivia with its V1 foils in pre-lift off mode, showing the improved water flow onto the foils compared to previous foiling IMOCA iterations. Photo: Maxime Horlaville \/ polaRYSE \/ disobey. \/ Apivia
\nApivia won last year\u2019s Transat Jacques Vabre and finished 2nd in the Arctic Race. Thomas Ruyant\u2019s LinkedOut is another highly fancied Verdier package that finished just behind Dalin in 3rd in the Vend\u00e9e Arctic. The VPLP-Verdier heritage is apparent across all five boats, but there are benefits to working separately also.
\n\u201cIt is good for us to be working on our own, when you have six projects from one design office you cannot focus so much on your design.
\n\u201cI think now, with three new designs and two 2020 foil upgrades, you can be more focused on your concepts,\u201d explains VPLP\u2019s Quentin Lucet.
\nThe Verdier design LinkedOut uses a powerful hull shape accepting a little more wetted surface compared with the low drag VPLPs such as Hugo Boss. Photo: Martin Keruzorel
\n\u201cIt is exciting now for everyone because the range of philosophies is so wide. You can go from a fully boxy shape to much more rounded. Some don\u2019t compromise on weight at all, others are focussed more on the skimming mode, some flying.\u201d
\nThe fundamental key to Charal\u2019s design was that the hull would not generate any real righting moment: the foil does that. VPLP\u2019s lower drag model proved very fast at the start of the TJV, with both Charal and Hugo Boss in full flying mode making 1-2 knots faster as they left the Channel. Both also have \u2018skimming\u2019 mode; touching down periodically.
\n\u201cWe have worked hard to reduce drag. Consider that 15 years ago we all added chines to add extra righting moment,\u201d explains Lucet. The VPLP designers have now realised that instead it is more efficient to generate, for example, 1.5 tonnes per metre less in terms of righting moment to have significantly lower drag.
\nHugo Boss, launched eight months later in April 2019, benefits from the extra design development time. Thomson\u2019s boat is a more extreme option in terms of lowering drag, the beam waterline is narrower with a more rounded transom and slightly straighter, more parallel, waterlines and a fuller nose. Thomson\u2019s team also placed an obsessive focus on weight reduction.
\nJuan K returns
\nThe return of three times Volvo Ocean Race winner Juan Kouyoumdjian to the cutting edge of IMOCA design in this cycle was unsurprising. Juan K, as he is widely known, initially worked on optimising Vincent Riou\u2019s 2009 design PRB, including new foils that were precursors to those on S\u00e9bastien Simon\u2019s new Arkea-Paprec.
\nArkea-Paprec was launched last year but broke a foil very early on, which rendered the team short of testing and training miles. Simon entered last month\u2019s Vend\u00e9e Arctic race, only to again break a foil soon after the start. He is now in a race to qualify for the Vend\u00e9e Globe.
\nDesigner Juan Kouyoumdjian is back with two new IMOCAs
\nThe second Kouyoumdjian boat is the very last to be launched before the Vend\u00e9e Globe: Nico Troussel\u2019s Corum L\u2019Epargne went in the water only in May this year, so is also missing time on the water.
\nIn essence there are two hull families, while the VPLP designs are slimmer and lower drag, Kouyoumdjian and Verdier\u2019s IMOCAs are more powerful with more wetted surface, designed to be sailed heeled: Kouyoumdjian says the optimum is at 10-15\u00b0. Both Kouyoumdjian designs are relatively angular with the most pronounced chine aft, and noticeably flatter underwater.
\nLike Dalin\u2019s Apivia, Troussel\u2019s project has a dream team behind it including project management by double winner Michel Desjoyeaux. Corum L\u2019Epargne has a more pronounced reverse sheer in the aft sections, and both boats also have the dreadnought-style bows that are common to several of the generation 2020 designs, not least Hugo Boss.
\nCorum L\u2019Epargne is the last IMOCA 60 to be launched, sharply chined with the deckline and coachroof fully integrated for maximum protection while still retaining a high cockpit volume. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut \/ polaRISE \/ CORUM \/ l\u2019epargne
\nTroussel\u2019s boat has a raised, flush deck line making for very high freeboard aft but offering good protection with lots of cockpit volume. It offers a different solution to Alex Thomson\u2019s and Charlie Dalin\u2019s enclosed, or near-enclosed \u2018cockpits\u2019.
\nThe innovator
\nThe real newcomer to the IMOCA design field is Sam Manuard. With Armel Tripon\u2019s L\u2019Occitaine the successful Mini and Class 40 designer and sailor has pushed the hard scow bow concept as hard as the IMOCA rule will allow. The scow concept may have been successful in Class 40 transatlantics like the Transat Jaques Vabre, but on a foiling IMOCA in the big southern sea success for a chunky snub-bowed hull is far from a given.
\nL\u2019Occitaine launched in February this year, only to be immediately locked down for two months. Tripon then suffered bow and rudder damage on an early qualifying sail. \u201cWe are definitely lacking sailing time right now. Armel is not yet in the state of mind to really push it yet,\u201d Manuard commented as they prepared for the Vend\u00e9e Arctic start in early July. Tripon was forced out of the Arctic race due to structural damage, after the skipper reported a collision with an underwater object.
\nArkea Paprec with Juan K\u2019s trademark angular topsides. The curved starboard \u2018C\u2019 foil broke in the Vend\u00e9e Arctic race so skipper Simon is building a new set for the Vend\u00e9e Globe. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut \/ polaRISE \/ IMOCA
\n\u201cWith the scow influence we are a bit alone,\u201d observes Manuard. \u201cThe advantage we have with the scow is that when the boat is well lifted on the foils, [if] the bow pitches down the scow bow helps the hull bounce back and get back a normal trim without the bow plunging deeper into the wave.\u201d
\nManuard explains that the scow shape allows a more parallel sided hull form. This means that when the boat heels the effective waterline remains longer and so the flow to the foil is less disturbed, compared to a more classic bow shape, where the waterline shortens when the hull heels.
\n\u201cWhen you heel you don\u2019t alter the angle of incidence on to the foils so much. If you hit a gust, and the boat heels, you are transforming the change in energy more directly to boat speed. In flat water the scow has no advantage but as soon as you have wind with waves then you have the benefit. And, to me, there is no weak point in the light.\u201d
\nKouyoumdjian worked on new foils for the 2009 design PRB. PRB (together with Davies\u2019 Initiatives Coeur) kept well in touch with the new launches in the Vend\u00e9e Arctic Race to finish top five. Photo: Eloi Stichelbaut \/ polaRISE \/ PRB
\nL\u2019Occitaine has curved foils and a very high exit point, which also means they can be retracted completely, and should create significantly reduced drag in light airs.
\nFlight control
\nFoil evolution has been rapid and increasingly focused on reducing the amount of regulation required for both foil and sails to provide a much more stable, even ride for high, sustainable averages. Charal and Apivia, the fleet\u2019s best optimised new boats, have just fitted their 2020 generation foils.
\nBeyou\u2019s first generation foils were essentially too hard on the skipper. The boat would take off too bow up and would crash down back to ten knots, Beyou recalled. So their new 2020 \u2018C\u2019 style foil converges with Verdier\u2019s thinking as well as Hugo Boss\u2019s, being more forgiving while retaining high average speeds.
\nMarcus Hutchinson, project manager on Thomas Ruyant\u2019s LinkedOut, explains, \u201cThe V2 2020 foils are less extreme. The first version effectively had two elbows. It was more about lifting the hull than generating righting moment, which the newer generation do.\u201d
\nThe new V2s now have single elbows but work deeper in the water with a longer shaft so that the boat will have less of a tendency to ventilate but will also make the boat more powerful.
\nHutchinson adds, \u201cThe new profiles are more tolerant. Flying stability is going to be everything. But maybe the most significant changes are inside the boat where the ergonomics have been updated, the bunk, the seating arrangement, everything needs to be at arm\u2019s length at most. You are on all fours to get around: it has to be like a padded cell.
\nPhoto: Lloyd Images
\n\u201cIt is dangerous. The weak link is not the boat, it is how much punishment the skipper can take and how quickly they can recover.\u201d
\nKouyoumdjian also believes this race is more endurance than design race: \u201cEvery boat will have its moment. I don\u2019t think one will outperform the other, it goes way beyond design. These boats are capable of very high speeds but they are not withstandable for the skipper.\u201d
\nFinding those limits will involve stepping into the unknown for many of these untried designs, in a race where the attrition rate can be over 60%. Hutchinson warns: \u201cNone of us have done any sailing. It is pretty scary. I am really worried about this because right now, we should be finishing the New York Vend\u00e9e and that would have been two transatlantic races by the end of June. Some of these boats have hardly sailed.
\n\u201cTo go straight into a Vend\u00e9e Globe without the boats having done miles is pretty scary. It really is.\u201d
\nFirst published in the September 2020 issue of Yachting World.
\nThe post Vend\u00e9e Globe 2020 preview: Next generation foilers will sail on the limit appeared first on Yachting World.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This year\u2019s Vend\u00e9e Globe is a race for futuristic flying machines. Helen Fretter and Andi Robertson take a closer lookThe Manuard-designed, scow bowed L\u2019Occitaine has shown huge potential: the increased bow volume and substantial forefoot means the nose does not … <\/p>\n