New Foncia launched

madforsailing talks to Alain Gautier about his new 60ft tri which Ellen MacArthur will again be racing on

But Gautier says the biggest development is with the rig. The mast is a rotating carbon fibre wingmast made from the same moulds as Groupama's. Yes, it can cant from side to side in order to move the centre of effort to weather thereby depressing the leeward float less. Yes, the rig can be canted fore and aft. All this has been tried before.

What is novel about the new Foncia is by how much her rig can be moved fore and aft. Whereas boats such as Belcacom and Banque Populaire have have a hydraulic ram on their forestay that is able to move the rig by around 3-3.5 degrees on the Foncia it can be moved by 10 degrees.

This might not sound like much but the effect on the handling of the boat is expected to be marked. In particular when sailing downwind in strong conditions, cranking the rig aft should help stop the bows burying - an added safety feature as it should help reduce the chances of pitchpoling.

"It is important for the balance of the boat when you change the sails", explains Gautier. "Under staysail and full main the boat can be very hard to steer. But with 1 degree incidence it is better. Under staysail and two reefs in the main it is good to have 5 degs."

The mechanics of achieving this are far from simple. The bottom of the forestay attaches to a custom-built titanium track on the deck and Gautier says it has been complicated getting the clew of the mainsail in the right position with a rig that not only moves sideways but fore and aft and there is a similar problem for the genoa.

To save construction time various parts of the boat were built in different yards - JMV in Cherbourg built the main hull, while the floats were made at the Tresco yard in the Vendee, the beams at SAM C3 in Barcelona and Espace Composites built the mast in the south of France. Gautier got his own team together to assemble the boat at Gil Carmagnani's yard in Lorient.

Although weight has been saved in the pre-preg carbon fibre construction of the boat, Gautier says that the weight of the new Foncia II - around 5.4 tonnes - will not be much different to Foncia I, simply because it is a more complex machine. For example all of the rudders are transom-hung in order that they can be replaced in the event of a collision at sea, while the central rudder blade can be retracted to reduce drag in light conditions.

The boat is due to take part in the first ORMA trimaran grand prix of the season in Lorient on 25 April and Ellen will be on board for this, her first race of the year, and the subsequent Courses des Phares offshore race starting from Calais on 19 May. Of course there is never a dull moment in her program, so she will be shoehorning the first leg of the Regate de Rubicon on board Kingfisher in between...