Two new tris

James Boyd looks at the latest van Peteghem/Lauriot Prevost 60 footers - Sodebo and Geant

With the days and weeks ticking away before November's Route du Rhum, so the last of the new generation 60ft trimarans have been hitting the water over the last week. These are Benjamin de Rothschild's new Gitana X for Lionel Lemonchois, the first 60ft trimaran to have come from Gilles Ollier's yard and design team in almost 15 years (see tomorrow's feature) and the two new Marc van Peteghem/Vincent Lauriot Prevost designs - the Geant of Michel Desjoyeaux, and the latest of the three, the new Sodebo for Thomas Coville.

Sodebo

At the weekend Thomas Coville's new Sodebotook the plunge. Coville is one of the most well-rounded racing sailors in France having taken part in events as diverse as the Mini-Transat and the Figaro to the America's Cup via a few seasons on skiffs in Sydney Harbour. He was also part of Olivier de Kersauson's team that broke the Jules Verne Trophy record and most recently he has sailed parts of the Volvo Ocean Race on Knut Frostad's djuice. He also took part in the last Vendee Globe on an Open 60 sponsored by the Vendee-based frozen pizza manufacturer, Sodebo.

The new Sodebo is another design from leading duo Marc van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot Prevost, who were responsible for other tris such as Alain Gautier's Foncia I and II, Franck Cammas' Groupama and Jean-Luc Nelias' Belgacom.

But unlike most of the other boats in this class which have been cobbled together using female moulds from other trimarans, most of the new Sodebo is indeed new. The exception are her floats which come from Belgacom's moulds and her mast which is the same as Groupama's, but her main hull and X-formation crossbeams are new and unique to her. "It's a question of platform geometry," says Lauriot Prevost. "The main hull on Sodebo is more like Foncia's shape with less freeboard aft."

The other significant improvement, adds the designer is in how they're built. "All the new generation of boats are stiffer longitudinally and in transverse. That means the boats will be more 'nervous' than the old ones." Slightly wider than she is long, Sodebo is the widest of the 60ft tris along with Jean-Luc Nelias' Belgacom .

While all 60ft trimaran wingmasts rotating and cant from side to side, the latest trend in the class is to be able to cant your rig fore and aft. The most extreme example of this is Alain Gautier's new Foncia II, where the bottom of the forestay is mounted on a track to allow more rake into the rig. It will be less extreme on Sodebo, where mast rake can be altered by around 4 degrees as it can on Geant. "The idea is for Thomas not to go too far in innovation for the first year," says Lauriot Prevost.

Meanwhile for sideways mast canting the giant hydraulic rams that crank in the shrouds are hidden below inside the floats as they are on Belgacom (both Geant and Loick Peyron's Fujifilm have the hydraulic cylinders mounted on the aft side of the aft beam).

The foils on the new Sodebo are the same as the new ones fitted this season to Groupama. "The new foil arrangement on Groupama increased her speed by three knots when sailing at an average speed of 25 knots," says Lauriot Prevost.

Working with Coville has been old hand Olivier Despaigne (Le Chinois) who has been involved with multihull ocean racing for two decades. Denis Pelmonth worked with Coville on the America's Cup and on the 60ft tri Primagaz and has been involved developing Sodebo's appendages. Martal Salvan is looking after the sails and rigging while project managing the construction has been Philippe Godefroy.

Her mast is being finished this week and she is expected to go through first sea trials next week.

Dimensions:

LOA: 18.20m
Beam 18.30m
Racing weight 5 400kg
Draft: 5,00m
Main Hull: Waterline length 18.10m
beam at waterline 1.05m
beam at deck 2.20m
freeboard 1.55m
volume floater 15m3
Sail Area :
Main190m²
Genoa 112m²
Gennaker 250m²
Righting Moment 46.7t/m
Up wind power 55.9m²/ t
Down Wind Power 81.5m²/t



This shows the X-beam structure with the separate aft beam for the curved mainsheet track. Note the secondary beam branching off the forward crossbeam for the headsail sheet leads. In comparison see the pic of Bonduelle here .