From the weather float

Michel Desjoyeaux discusses his 60ft trimaran, problems with ORMA and his next Vendee Globe project

Michel Desjoyeaux, 60ft ORMA trimaran winner of the 2002 Route du Rhum and last year's The Transat is currently lying second in the Transat Jacques Vabre. Before the start of the TJV and the latest round of carnage in the ORMA fleet we spoke to Desjoyeaux about his multihull program sponsored by the French food chain, Géant, the ORMA class and his plan to compete in the next Vendee Globe.

thedailysail: What changes have you made to Géant in the last year?

Michel Desjoyeaux: Last winter we changed a lot of things. We changed the mast to save weight, by removing a lot of reinforcements which weren’t useful but also making a new forestay chainplate at the top of the mast - a lot of details, but 70kg saved. It [the old mast] was the second mast - it was very strong, we didn’t understand why the first one broke so we made it very fast and we wanted to make it strong enough not to have any problems any more.

We made new foils with winglets at the end and we changed the bottom of the main hull to have a wider boat with less draft and more rounded at the back to make it more turnable, more easy to manoeuvrable, because before it was very difficult to tack in grand prix and it took a long time to start again. So we improved that a lot. We also removed all the paint and filler on the outside and maybe in that saved 100kg. So we saved weight everywhere we were able to, to lower the weight of the boat as much as possible.

TDS: So is Géant the lightest of the ORMA 60s?

MD: I am sure we are not the lightest, because the boat is very wide and is very stiff. I think we have reached under 6 tonnes. I think Banque Populaire or Groupama are the lightest. Banque Populaire is very narrow, so she is very light. [ Banque Populaire, the current leader in the TJV is the Irens/Cabaret designed former Bayer CropScience, whereas Géant is a van Peteghem/Prevost design].

TDS: What other changes did you make?

MD: We moved the mainsheet winch forwards to be able to connect it straight to the pedestals and this summer we added a hydraulic cylinder on the inner forestay to be able to trim the rake of the mast while sailing without changing the course of the boat. Even with full power in the trinquette we are able to adjust the forestay now.

TDS: Where else do you use hydraulics?

MD: On the shrouds, main forestay, inner forestay and main outhaul. And we had a new set of sails since the Lorient Grand Prix. We have the biggest square top mainsail ever made now, so the sailmaker said. I am not sure we will continue to increase the size of this because soon you will get more drag at the top of the main. No one knows to be honest. We just add and add, because we have to add somewhere. It is just a feeling, but no one knows.



TDS: To an outsider it appears that Groupama II is winning everything. Is she really as dominant as the results suggest?

MD: He didn’t win the first race [the IB Group Challenge] because he broke. But in Grand Prix the boat is very fast in light airs and they use it very well for sure. At the moment there is no boat faster in less than 15 knots. But doublehanded maybe it won’t be the same and in stronger winds. I am not sure he is really confident in his boat in strong winds, whereas it is not a problem for us.

TDS: You're still more optimised for offshore?

MD: We decreased the weight of the boat, but we didn’t decrease the strength of it.

TDS: What is your perception of the ORMA class at the moment? For the last Route du Rhum there were 18 boats racing, now there are only 10?

MD: That is life. In fact just one new boat arrived last year since the last Route du Rhum [Groupama II]. The next Route du Rhum is in one year, but right now there are no new boats starting to build. What you have to consider is that five or six years ago there were not enough boats so we had to build some new ones. Right now there are already 15 boats [slightly fewer than this now, post-TJV] ready to sail - some have to be refitted like Bonduelle or Groupama 1 but all the boats are already there, so if there are more skippers with sponsors ready to sail, the boats are there and refitting a boat is obviously less expensive and faster than starting from scratch.

TDS: Is part of the reason for the decline the increase in budgets?

MD: The budgets have increased because the sponsors want to win as we want also, so they give us more money to build new boats and more money to be more efficient in fact, nothing else. The technology was already available, 15 years ago, but there was not enough money to use it. So it is not the boats that increase the budget, but the budgets which increase the cost of the boat.

TDS: How much have budgets gone up since say the Bonduelle/TIM [1997] generation compared to now?

MD: Géant cost 2.2 million Euros and Groupama II did a lot of tank testing and new moulds and a lot of new calculations and they say it cost 2.8 million Euros. But the more money you have, the more money you use. That is normal. We like the technology and we have to use it because it is a mechanical sport. A few times I have said to the sponsors "okay, you say it is too expensive, you are the people who give the money, so you and all the sponsors have to decide together to say this is enough. And then we will do our best with that. But they say - no, we can’t decide together. If it is a problem of money you have to find a financial solution. If it is a technical or a safety problem, you can find a technical solution. But if you want to resolve a money problem with a technical solution you will never solve the money problem. You can say you can't change so many sails, but if you have more money you’ll have nicer hotels and you will use the money you have…and for sure you will be more efficient. So if it is a problem of money the sponsor has to find a solution to it, not us.

If you look at the 50ft multihull class, they decided it was not allowed to build a boat with carbon. But if you don’t use carbon for the hulls, you have to use three times as much glass. So, for sure, the material is less expensive but you spent three times as much on it, so it costs the same and you have got a boat which is 200-300kg heavier.

TDS: So what is the solution?

MD: We need to find a solution to increase not decrease media return with the cost we have and then we will be able to have more money to make the same thing.

TDS: It would help if ORMA had a sponsor and were able to get more extensive TV coverage in France?

Yes, but there are also some things we can do which don’t cost anything - to race closer to the shore so spectators can see, like the Oops Cup does. In France we are starting to have a drifting issue, and when you know what it means on a boat to drift, you don’t go in the right way. The problem in France is that no one wants to take the lead. It is political, but I am not sure that politics will be able to give us a good solution to this.

TDS: I understand that the Route du Rhum will be your last race in your present trimaran and that you plan to race the next Vendee [Desjoyeaux won the 2000 Vendee Globe]?

MD: It will be the end of the contract with Géant. They asked me what I wanted to do next and I told them that I was ready to do the Vendee again. They are not obliged to follow with me, but the decision hasn’t been made. It is not against the ORMA multihulls that I want to do the Vendee, because after the Vendee I want to come back to multihulls.

TDS: It is still the most exciting class of sail boat in the world...

MD: This summer I was on the Figaro race and I discussed with the young guys on those boats and they told me that after the Figaro they want to make a monohull [an Open 60], not only for the Vendee Globe and then when they have improved their experience enough they want to have a trimaran. It is the same size, but it is the top. It is the Formula 1 class.

More rip roaring photos of Géant on the following pages...