The biggest trimaran in the world: the boat that beats all the records
The biggest trimaran in the world: the boat that beats all the records
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The biggest trimaran in the world: the boat that beats all the recordsB 
anque Populaire V , the biggest trimaran ever built, is an exceptional boat, designed to beat the most legendary records around the world. An extraordinary challenge, but not quite as mad as it might seem.Its unusual size means that it is already beating records. The biggest trimaran in the world is 40 metres long, weighs 23 tonnes and is about the same height... as the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. It takes the eight-man crew fifteen minutes to raise the mainsail! Building this carbon giant took 179 people over 250,000 hours’ work. Designed by the naval architects Van Peteghem Lauriot Prévost, Banque Populaire V was built by the shipyard CDK Technologies, who called on no fewer than four other firms for help, subcontracting the hulls and assembling it all in Lorient, as its boathouse in Port-la-Forêt was too small. The boat also features some clever technical inventions: a pivoting arm perpendicular to the mast, to support the downwind float, a longitudinal arm to regulate the rake of the mast, adjusting stability and balance at the helm, and curved foils for speed and stability. For the designers, it was all about limiting the impact of speed and the sea, as well as pitching. The cross-arms that connect the hulls to each other are positioned centrally to reduce their frontal surface area. The primary objective of this sophisticated technique was to ensure that the trimaran could go fast very fast. "You wouldn't believe how fast this boat can go!" says skipper Pascal Bidégorry. Taking the helm in the first trials took incredible concentration." The Banque Populaire V was not simply designed to be the biggest, but also the fastest. Its architects designed it to make it capable of beating all existing historical records, starting with crossing the South Atlantic on the Discovery Route from Cadiz to San Salvador. A return trip to Miami with a check-up in Florida and a New York/Lizard Point trip are also scheduled for the record attempt on crossing the North Atlantic. The boat needs to be sailed as much as possible to test its capabilities. Unrivalled as it may be, the mishaps that have befallen some of its predecessors, such as the break-up of the port-side float on the Groupama 3 when it was attempting to win the Jules Verne Trophy, reminded its architects of the need for caution. Improvements have been made not only to increase speed but also to reduce risk – the details designed to ensure optimum safety for the men on board have been carefully studied, and the structural elements of the boat strengthened. The result is that the crew, protected by a connecting arm at the front and a traveller beam at the stern, is almost never exposed to the reputedly dangerous net areas, with the rigging at the mast foot running through to the cockpit. The key to all this, as Kevin Escoffier, the manager of the Banque Populaire design office emphasises, has been management at every level: "Even the budget, at ten million euros, is not excessive compared with other sports. We didn't want to reinvent everything from scratch, but rather make use of the experience we had gained with 60-foot boats and adapt existing designs to accommodate the change of scale." Another way of reducing risk is to have a crew that is up to the task of handling this extraordinary boat, headed up by one of the most gifted and experienced skippers of his generation. Pascal Bidégorry has already broken the 24-hour speed record for multi-hulled 60-foot boats and earned second place on the 2006 Rum Route. He has also won the World Championship for multi-hulled 60-footers and the famous Jacques Vabre double-handed transatlantic race. Still backed by his loyal companion, manager and technical director Ronan Lucas, he has brought together an elite team. The thirteen men involved, helmsmen, apparatus adjustment and IT experts and technicians, were selected on the basis of their complementary skills and their ability to adapt to the unusual dimensions of the boat and its innovative features. Launched with great ceremony in Nantes last October, this giant of the seas will embark on its ultimate aim in November 2009 – the legendary Jules Verne Trophy, which demands very high average speeds over very long distances. "Without being a megalomaniac about it, it seems feasible," believes Kevin Escoffier. "The bigger the boat, the better it withstands the sea..." Even so, "when I think that we will never be at less than 35 knots for 50 days it makes me realise that we must be completely crazy!" However, nothing can dampen Kevin Escoffier's enthusiasm as he gets ready to take part in the crossings with ill-disguised impatience. Although this gigantic trimaran is, of course, a technological feat, it is above all a remarkably thrilling sporting and human adventure! Sylvie Thomas DIRECTION DE LA COMMUNICATION ET DE L’INFORMATION SOUS DIRECTION DE LA COMMUNICATION Directory: IMG IMG -> The Indian Army and the Transition to ‘Conventional’ Warfare in Mesopotamia, 1914-1916 IMG -> Reginald irenee vachon IMG -> Acm word Template for sig site IMG -> Profile of france area 550,000 sq km France is the largest country in Western Europe IMG -> 2007 was a special year for Coach McKnight. Winning the amcc championship, playing in the ncaa regionals and coaching his daughter, Nicolette at the White House South Lawn softball game with President Bush IMG -> Annexes au Bilan Quadriennal 2008 2011 annexes 1-2-3-4-5 IMG -> A. background IMG -> Acm word Template for sig site Download 224.58 Kb. 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