New era

In Sydney Thomas Coville discusses progress with his new 105ft tri singlehander and the future of the ORMA tris

The sailing world is going supernova in so many areas at the moment - Open 60s, TP 52s, Moths, etc etc - it is easy to overlook the new era of the unlimited singlehanded multihull. While Francis Joyon and Ellen MacArthur got the ball rolling with this new genre of boat, it is now in the process of being refined with the launch of the new giant Nigel Irens-Benoit Cabaret designed trimarans for Thomas Coville and Francis Joyon due next year. Both are expected to set off in the autumn of 2007 to make attempts on Ellen's non-stop solo round the world record.

With the Route du Rhum done and dusted for his ORMA 60, Thomas Coville has been in Sydney this week to check out the construction of his new 105ft trimaran up at Peter and Sari Ullrich' Boatspeed yard. This yard have recently been responsible for building the movistar VO70, the maxi Bolsas well as Ellen's B&Q trimaran and are gaining a reputation for being the only southern hemisphere builder of maxi-multihulls.

"I was a bit frustrated not seeing the boat for a year," jokes Coville. "We’ve been designing a lot with Nigel and Benoit Cabaret, but it’s been a bit like meeting someone on a website and you are going to discover who it is and what they look like… You get a photo, but you never know...!"





All the major components of the new Sodebo trimaran are now complete with the exception of the curved aft beam for the main sheet track which will be finished in early January. "It has all been very well made," enthuses Coville. "It was pretty hard for us to make the decision to come here to build a new trimaran, but after the job they have done and with Ellen and Nigel and Benoit always saying how pleased they were and how nice it was to build a boat with Peter and Sari, we are happy we made the right choice. Boatspeed were open when it came to choosing the materials, the way of building the boat with different cores, etc. We wanted a special offshore structure which was difficult to decide and we found them great people and they let us make our own choices. When you build a boat there it feels like they are building the boat with you, it their boat as well, which is nice and that makes a huge difference."

Once all the components of the new Sodebo are complete, they will be offered up to ensure they fit properly - a process that will take in the order of 10 days. Once they are satisifed with this, the component part will then be dismantled and then transported into central Sydney where they will be then be bonded together permanently - just as B&Q was. Meanwhile the mast, being constructed by Lorimar, and the sails will also be shipped out to Sydney from France. Coville says he has still to decide who will make the rudders, but this may be McConaghy.

Launched date is expected to be the end of May. Coville and his shore team will then stay in Sydney for a month or so before delivering the boat back to Europe, probably via Singapore, the Indian Ocean and Suez rather than down to the Southern Ocean and up the Atlantic (having competed in the Vendee Globe, the Jules Verne Trophy, the Oryz Quest, etc etc Coville has little need to gain experience of the Southern Ocean).

Since we last wrote about the new Sodebo back in June (click here to read this) a few more details have been finalised about the boat. Like its length - 105ft and beam of 54ft. At present the boat won't be fitted with ORMA 60-style curved foils in her floats - although structurally she is set-up to accept them at some stage in the future. "We prefer to wait to get the balance of the boat and for the first attempt next winter we would prefer to have a very simple boat without foils," says Coville. However she will have a canting mast, whereas Francis Joyon's sistership IDEC is not expected to have this go-faster feature.

The new Sodebo will also have a special doghouse, effectively a cabin on top of the main hull. "I wanted to have something where you could live inside but effectively be outside all the time - even the nav station," explains her skipper. "So you will be at the same level as the cockpit outside - there is just a 250mm step to come down. On the 60 footers at the moment, especially the most recent ones, when you go down below you pretty much feel like you are in a submarine - you don’t see anything." On boats like Geant you disappear vertically downwards which, while light, don't make for the easiest of access.





As reported in our previous feature on this boat, the new Sodebo may be long but it is a very small 100 footer. The best example of this is her beam which at 54ft is slightly less than the 56ft of the 75ft long B&Q. Coville says that they worked on the basis that the sail plan on his 60ft trimaran was pretty much at the limit of what he could move. He is fit, but no BMW Oracle Racing-sized grinder. Saying this the sails are 20-25% larger - the main for example is 255sqm to his ORMA 60's 200.

What particularly interests Coville in the new boat - as it has her designers - is her not being designed to any specific set of rules. Basically it is the fastest boat one person can drive to get around the world non-stop in record time. It could equally have been a large catamaran or even a larger monohull. It would be an exciting idea to hold a singlehanded version of The Race where people could pitch up in whatever style or size of boat they wanted in an attempt to achieve this objective.

"We will see if we can go around faster than Ellen, but we are not sure," says Coville. "Ellen had a very nice boat built for her and she has been using the boat at 110%. We decided we needed a longer boat but we may be wrong. Our boat will be 12 tonnes, Ellen’s was about 10." Coville reminds us that when Ellen's boat was designed the solo non-stop round the world record belonged to Michel Desjoyeaux's 2000-1 Vendee Globe time and should have been relatively straightforward to break. When Francis Joyon suddenly came along and set a time of 72 days 22 hours, lopping 20 days of Desjoyeaux's time, the challenge became a whole lot harder.

According to Coville his new Sodebo should be 3-5% faster than B&Q according to figures from the virtual world of VPP. The boat is expected to reach France by the end of August and will stay in Coville's homeport of La Trinite-sur-Mer until October when the boat will be lifted out of the water for a thorough check-over, before going on stand-by for the solo non-stop round the world attempt from 1 November.

Despite being a near neighbour of Joyon's, Coville says they haven't had much contact over their separate but very similar projects. IDEC will also be making an attempt on Ellen's record next winter, and it would be great if they were to race, but to date nothing has been finalised.

With his 105 footer nearing completion so the Sodebo 60 footer is up for sale or charter, although they may hang on to it for the Transat in 2008 if the ORMA class is still invited to this. Coville is happy with his third place in the recent Route du Rhum as well as the positive outcome generated generally by this event for the ORMA class, of which he remains a staunch advocate. "I was really happy for everyone, for the fleet, for the class. The fun I had on the Route du Rhum was amazing. I needed a race like that to pay the price of all we have done with Sodebo- all the effort, the money. It was such a pleasure, even for the shore crew. The boat arrived like it was brand new. We didn’t break anything. I had such a nice time. We had two options at the beginning to make gains west or south. The first two made a gain south and they caught the wind and from there the race was done for the two first places. But we had such a nice fight against Michel [Desjoyeaux] and Franck [Cammas]."

Following the Route du Rhum and race winner Lionel Lemonchois taking just 7 days 17 hours to complete the passage from St Malo, Coville says his perception of transatlantic races has changed. "Now crossing the Atlantic isn’t offshore racing - it is a sprint. This philosophy I had even when we started the Route du Rhum. I probably made a mistake because I was only thinking about where I wanted to be in 24 or 36 hours. Because it was so fast and it is so short you needed to gybe on every shift, like you are sailing on the bay. If you have a 5 degree shift you take it, you go. That is how it is now if you are racing across the Atlantic on multihulls. So for me offshore sailing is now around the world. The race is now on the Atlantic. Inshore racing is definitely good for one designs like the D35s or the America’s Cup or the Olympics. The Route du Rhum clarified that for me."

With the MultiCup not yet taking shape for 2007 the ORMA 60 class would seem to be at a hiatus and Coville's solution would be to have more offshore races. For example at the end of the Route du Rhum why wasn't there a fully crewed or two handed race back to France? "I think the concept of the Volvo, making some little events when you arrive in a city, just to make the boats a bit more visible is good." Having recently set a solo Round Britain record Coville also reckons this would make a great course for the ORMA tris.

The ORMA tris are at present geared to be raced in grand prix with a crew of 11-12 as well as being sailed offshore singlehanded. Perhaps there should be a compromise where a maximum of 5-7 crew are allows reckons Coville. "That way you are not going to have a specialised crew where you have a bowman, etc. It is nice for anyone to be able to go on to the foredeck. I like sailing with guys like Damian Foxall or Jacques Vincent who can do everything and they don’t care whether they are on foredeck or steering or trimming. They do everything. That is why I would be bored by the America’s Cup [Coville has previously sailed the AC with the French team]. That is why I enjoy sailing by myself, because you get to test yourself. Am I able to do everything on board?"

The solution for the ORMA tris Coville thinks will come from more participation from abroad. This was one idea behind Baron Rothschild's MultiCup circuit, but so far no overseas teams have come forward. "We need some new blood, some new enthusiasts, some new feeling, for these amazing boats. Maybe now we are going to be sailing them a bit less it is the time for guys from overseas to buy one or two and train and learn how to sail them, so they can reduce the gap between us. I have the feeling that they don’t want to come because they feel that if they do they won't be at the same level."

Coville is puzzled about why the ORMA 60s haven't caught on outside of France. Ellen's success on Foncia and to a much greater extent on B&Q he figured might be the catalyst to fire this up, so to date this hasn't come to pass. "The French are all speed junkies and all the other guys [from abroad] maybe feel shy about that. 'We know about that drug. We think it is be very good but we are scared to taste that heroin.'" He wonders if the ORMA 60s aren't ahead of their time, giving the example of canting keel boats; When this was first tried on an Open 60 by Isabelle Autissier in the mid-1990s everyone scoffed, that it was dangerous, etc. Who would expect that ten years later all the boats in the Volvo Ocean Race would be using them?

Like most people involved with the class, Coville doesn't believe the ORMA 60s will disappear despite being at their nadir at present. They are simply the most exciting race boat on the water bar none. He reckons that the tide will turn prior to next year's Transat Jacques Vabre. Meanwhile we wait to hear what will happen to boats like Banque Populaire and Groupama this coming season. "Maybe they should make efforts to make it more public or to have a wild card to take Moose [Mike Sanderson] or Couuts or Cayard or Holmberg on board. Just give them a call to invite them on board. If they don’t come it would be the biggest mistake of their lives..."