Le Professeur takes to three hulls

James Boyd met up with Vendee Globe winner Michel Desjoyeaux to see his new tri

At present the Offshore Racing Multihull Association's 60ft trimaran class is looking at ways of preventing costs soaring further. "I asked for limiting the number of crew, because it costs a lot," says Desjoyeaux. "If you don't limit the crew you can have three pedestals and you'll be able to use more human power. But one crew member costs a lot for one year".

Another avenue is sails. Geant has a suit of Cuben fibre sails from Incidences, the French sailmakers who have lofts in Brest and La Rochelle and who pretty much have the Open 60 and trimaran classes sewn up. However the class is limiting the number of sails that can be built over a two year period to 15 as of this year and 14 next. Cuben fibre sails and possibly carbon 3DL are also to be outlawed next year, because they are both considerably more expensive than regular sailcloths.

"It is difficult to limit the sails, because they are engines of the boat," says Desjoyeaux. "Even the materials: We know kevlar doesn't like ultra viloet rays, we know that PBO doesn't like the light and carbon doesn like to be flaked, and you want to have sails that have to be as flat as possible for as long as possible. So we try to find a solution that will be as agreeable as possible."

Desjoyeaux is not too concerned about the budgets. "If you see what is happening in Formula 1 - it's the same and the interest is continuing. So I'm not afraid of that [budgets increasing]". He points out that the shelf life of the boats at present is good. The Transat Jacques Vabre last year for example was won by Groupama and Foncia, both older generation boats and it will be interesting to see if the singlehanded Route du Rhum this November is won by a newer potentially faster boat or by an older boat where the skipper is more familiar with the idiosyncracies of their craft and can drive it harder.

Personally Desjoyeaux likes the fact that the 60ft trimaran class now has a fleet of boats that can and are raced competitively round the cans or offshore with a full crew, double or singlehanded without changing everything. He adds that a 60ft trimaran is the only boat he can get into the harbour at Port la Foret where he lives - the Open 60 had too much draft!

Geant is a great sponsor for Desjoyeaux. They are a large supermarket chain within France and historically have limited their sports sponsorship to football - they back the famous St Etienne football team. At present Desjoyeaux's sponsorship will run until 2005, but may be extended to take in the 2006 Route du Rhum.

Geant is to be launched mid-June and her first competition with be the ORMA Grand Prix in Zeebrugge.

Spec:
LOA	18.28m
LWL	18.1m
Beam	18m
Disp	5.4tonnes
Draft	5m
Sail area (upwind)	320sqm
Sail area (downwind)	450sqm