Route du Rhum weapon

After Gitana's victory in the 2006 solo race to Point a Pitre, so skipper Yann Guichard is to field a modified ORMA 60 next year

With the sad demise of the ORMA 60 trimaran circuit, so Pen Duick, organisers of the 2010 singlehanded Route du Rhum, last year announced they were opening up the big multihull class in this race to larger boats. Already Thomas Coville has committed to competing aboard his 32m long trimaran, Sodebo. However Baron Benjamin de Rothschild’s Gitana team was keen not to be left behind. They are after all the defending champions in France’s oldest solo race when their then skipper Lionel Lemonchois demolished the opposition into Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe in the 2006 race.

Since 2006, the Baron’s La Trinite-sur-Mer based team have been chomping through personnel. They parted company with Lemonchois after he had set numerous round the world record aboard the former Innovation Explorer/ Orange 1/ Kingfisher Ollier-designed maxi-cat, post Route du Rhum. Their other ORMA 60 skipper Fred le Peutrec was next out, followed this year by team boss Loick Peyron following his participation in last winter’s Vendee Globe. Man of the moment within the Gitana team is now Yann Guichard, who was fourth in the Tornado at the Sydney Olympics. This year Guichard has been skippering the team’s entry on the iShares Cup, but the team’s principle focus is on retaining the victor’s spot in the next Route du Rhum.



The Baron’s collection of multihulls at present is unparalleled, comprising two ORMA 60s - Gitana 11 (ex- Belgacom) and Gitana 12 (ex- Bonduelle) and their 33m maxi-cat – but none of these was best suited to the Route du Rhum. So over the course of this year, the VPLP-designed Gitana 11 has been undergoing a transformation. She is now longer, 77ft overall - her original centre hull has been lengthened with 3m added to the bow and 1m to the stern, while her floats have been replaced and compared to the originals are 2m longer both on the bow and stern. The main hull now has a reverse sheer ' Dreadnought' bow, as seen on the Banque Populaire maxi tri, that adds waterline length but minimal weight to the forward extremity of the boat and, we understand, also has hydrodynamic benefits - while also increasing the wetness of the ride.

The new floats were designed by VPLP, who have recently been working on BMW Oracle Racing’s America’s Cup trimaran, while Gitana’s in-house team redesigned the main hull, getting VPLP to check their modifications, the balance of the boat, etc.

The canting rotating wingmast rig and sail plan remains the same except for a new Code 5 added to the inventory. “The weight and sail surface was already quite big, so there was no need to change the sail plan. I just added a head sail for downwind in windy conditions - a Code 5 - because in 30-35 knots downwind we don’t have a good sail to go safely with the pilot,” says Guichard.

The only other difference is that the big downwind and reaching gear – the largest genniker is around 260sqm – now tack to the deck of the bow, rather than a bowsprit, albeit in the same relative position. This is a similar configuration to the other new generation large tris such as Banque Populaire, IDEC, Sodebo, etc.

As to the appendages, the rudder and daggerboard on the centre hull, the curved retractible foils in the floats are originals, while Guichard says that the rudders in the floats have been replaced with larger ones.

So the cross beams, the rig, the sails, most of the mainhull and most of the appendages are original and it is for this reason that Guichard says they couldn’t go longer than 77ft ( Sodebo, for example, is 105ft LOA) “On the basis that we keep the core of the boat the same, 77ft was the maximum length that structurally the boat could accept. It was also the perfect compromise to keep the boat light,” says Guichard.

For herein lies the cunning plan. Sodebo is a big boat and compared to Gitana 11, relatively heavy too, weighing in at around 12 tonnes as one would expect for a boat designed to go around the world (still lighter than a VO70!). Gitana 11 Mk2 weighs around 7 tonnes, the modifications adding only around 200-300kg to her overall weigh and she is designed for the Atlantic. Sodebo’s mast is 35m tall compared to Gitana 11’s 30m, her sail area roughly 30% more than a typical ORMA 60, but a big function of trimaran performance is also righting moment, derived from overall beam and despite being shorter Gitana 11 is actually wider than Sodebo at 18.31m, compared to the 16.55m of Coville’s red weapon.

“The ORMA 60s before were very fast in light winds, and now in light wind with the new Gitana 11, it still is fast, perhaps more so because the new shape of the floats is better for hydrodynamics and it is a similar weight. So I think it is better in light winds,” says Guichard of how the new Gitana 11 might compare with Sodebo when they line up next year. “Now the objective for doing the modifications is to keep this advantage, but to improve the boat’s speed in stronger winds and sea conditions. The solution was to have a longer central hull. Before the modifications I think Sodebo was faster than us in 20 knots and up in big waves, because the average speed of the boat is high, but it doesn’t have a good top speed. With my boat I can go to 37-38 knots, not easily, but to keep this average is not possible. I think Sodebo can go 27-28 knots average easily.”

So the longer Sodebo can thunder along with relative ease making high average speeds, while the top speed of the more nimble, modified ORMA 60 is higher, but her average pace more up and down. The smaller boat will also require more attention as without Sodebo’s exceedingly long bows she is still more prone to pitchpole, although one imagines substantially less so than her original 60ft configuration.

“We haven’t tested her yet in big waves and strong conditions - we have only sailed her five times so far, so we will see,” says Guichard. “I think it will remain difficult to steer, but I also think Sodebo is really hard to manoeuvre, because it is a heavy boat with heavy sails, so when you tack, or take a reef or take out a reef it takes a long time. On my boat it is not easy, but it is less difficult. So that is a benefit of the ORMA 60 or a modified ORMA 60 like Gitana 11in the Route du Rhum: if we start in the light winds, it is perfect for us and if we have a lot of transitions before the low pressure or en route to the Trade Winds, it is easier with my boat. But the big problem with this boat is to sleep when the autopilot is driving.”

Guichard acknowledges that with the mods it should be easier to sleep than in the boat’s previous configuration, but, as he points out, “it is still a multihull...”

The deck layout has also been modified with the Route du Rhum in mind. A winch for halyards previously on the mast has been moved back to a revised pit area in the cockpit, while the helming seats have been moved in from the aft beam to either side of the central cockpit.

“The new cockpit doesn’t have as good a view for sailing, but it is safe and you are not wet and you have the sheets and you can trim everything. Now it is easy to do everything in the cockpit and I can sleep in the cockpit with the sheet in my hand,” says Guichard.

As to what the competition might be in the Route du Rhum next year, Guichard is uncertain. He hopes that there might be 10 in the big multihull class. He will have a good race against Sodebo. There are reports of Franck Cammas entering a modified version of Groupama III, but it seems likely that some brave skippers might also enter unconverted ORMA 60s. Guichard reckons that even the original 60s might have their day. “Somebody can take a 60 footer and not modify it and it is a good boat for light conditions. I think what will be interesting in the next Route du Rhum is that every participant will have a boat with different strengths and weaknesses depending upon the weather conditions, so everybody will have a chance to win.”

There is of course a year to go until the Route du Rhum and in this time Guichard has the no small task ahead of him in learning how to race singlehanded, something he has never done before. “During the last 10 years I have sailed on a lot of multihulls, Tornados, ORMA 60s, Orange II, Groupama III but never alone, so it is a big challenge for me, but I like a challenge.” His training will only be on Gitana 11 and he doesn’t plan to train, for example, on a Figaro.

In this year Guichard says he might have a crack at the outright singlehanded 24 hour record, currently 628.5 miles, set last year by Sodebo and her skipper Thomas Coville. But beyond the Route du Rhum, Gitana 11 doesn’t seem to have much of a life ahead of her.

At present Gitana are also competing on the iShares Cup, and whether they continue with this they will decide after the last regatta of the sesaon. “Now there is no other circuit in the world. There is only iShares. There are the D35s, but that is only on Lake Leman. There is the Route du Rhum but that is only one race and you can’t do only that for a big team like Gitana.” The Baron has no interest in competing in anything other than multihulls and according to Guichard is equally disinterested in records, hence a Banque Populaire V-killer Gitana is not on the cards, at the moment at least.

The circuit that does interest Guichard is the proposed ORMA replacement circuit, the MOD 70. We put it to Guichard that with IDEC, Sodebo and now the Oman maxi-tri in existence, surely these boats would make a better circuit than a new class that at present doesn’t exist. However he refutes this. “ IDEC and Sodebo - their concept is the same for a race around the world, but I don’t think it is possible to make a world circuit with these boats because they are not the same. IDEC doesn’t have a canting mast and no foils. I spoke with Thomas [Coville] and he said to me that for him the MOD 70 is perhaps a good thing, because for the records – this year Sodebo has done nothing. He waited three months to leave to cross the Atlantic and then nothing.” This winter Sodebo is not having another crack at Francis Joyon’s solo round the world record, but is instead having new curved foils fitted to her floats with the aim of obliterating Joyon’s record over the winter of 2010-11.

Guichard also reckons that the one design nature of the MOD 70 is also likely to be more attractive to non-French competitors as it will level out the playing field again and new nations and teams wishing to compete won’t find themselves on the same impossibly steep learning curve. “I think it is a good thing for everyone,” says Guichard.

There is a meeting on 2 October in Lausanne to discuss the future of the MOD70.

Back in 2006 we sailed Gitana 11 in her original configuration up to London from Brittany - read parts one and two of this article and parts one , two and three of the on board video.

More photos on the following pages...