Three hulled monster

madforsailing talks to French sailing legend Olivier de Kersauson about his new globe trotting tri

The new beast
For the new giant trimaran, sponsored by Cap Gemini Ernst & Young and Schneider Electric, de Kersauson returned to van Peteghem and Lauriot Prevost. Today this duo are the most profilic on the 60ft trimaran circuit (most recently they designed Bonduelle and Fila) and the new boat will ultimately combine features from these boats with evolutionary steps made on and the lessons learned from de Kersauson's last trimaran.

De Kersauson maintains that having such experience has allowed him to make a significant contribution to the design of K2000. In addition he says he has his last two Jules Verne voyages fully data logged - valuable information with which to optimise the boat for conditions the team will experience on the round the world course.

He also feels that the structure of a trimaran, where the mast sits on the hull rather than a cross beam, is safer than that of a cat. In addition there is the safety of having just one cockpit. On a cat there is a cockpit in each hull and the crew must regualrly venture between the trampolines while negotiating the torrent of water that passes through them when the boat is travelling at speed.