The world's fastest offshore race boat - part 2

Is the Banque Populaire maxi tri a Groupama 3 killer?

This part follows on from part 1 published yesterday

Down below

Large by racing trimaran standards but probably the smallest accommodation of any 140ft long yacht… We weren’t allowed to photograph below, but coming down the companionway (offset to port) there is the area for the offwatch with hanging space for the foul weather gear on the port side and a seat to starboard with the compartment for the engine and generator beneath. The Banque Populaire maxi is believed to be the first maxi-multihull to be fitted with a prop shaft that lifts inside the boat.

Forward of this the galley area is to port, fitted with a sink and twin burner stoves (with light coming in from an escape hatch) and seating and stowage opposite. The compartment ahead of this has three pipecots in it and beyond this, in the darkness, is the daggerboard case.

Going aft, behind the companionway is a compact nav area offset to port with another escape hatch on the starboard side. There is also a tiny table with a computer on it for the crew to use. Aft are more bunks for the navigator, skipper and watch leaders and there are more bunks further aft still, although it is believed that these will be virtually unusable at sea due to the motion and will probably be used for stacking. Aft of this is the substantial rudder stock and behind that the water ballast. The size of this the crew won’t divulge but we suspect it is in the order of 3 tonnes.

Maintenance has been considered and there is access to both the inside of the cross beams as well as the mast.

Conclusion

The upshot of this is that we personally expect Banque Populaire will be faster pretty much across the performance spectrum than Groupama 3. Upwind they have trim tab on the daggerboard and a length advantage. The result as we saw was a performance of more than 20 knots upwind at 50deg (this compared to 18 knots and tad higher in their ORMA 60). Off the wind they again have a length advantage, plus a canting rig and foil to reduce drag on the leeward float. Antoine Gautier reckons that in winds of more than 20 knots they should be “a lot faster than Groupama and we won’t have to back off as soon as well.” The sweet spot is obviously with the wind just aft of the beam and on this point of sail they should be looking at 37.5 knots in 19 knots of true wind…

While one might imagine a top speed of 50 knots to be possible, but the boat is geared up primarily for long daily runs. The 24 hour record at present held by Groupama 3 is a shade under 800 miles and it is felt that 850 miles might be possible on the new boat (the Groupama team feel they are capable of this too). This represents about 35 knots average speed.

“An ORMA 60 could reach 38-39 knots, but couldn’t keep this speed,” says Gautier. “On this we can hold 35-40 knots pretty easily if the conditions are right. In terms of top speed, the boat accelerates almost as fast as a 60, so I think we will be able to reach 45. We will be surprised if we don’t reach 45 knots.” Gautier observes semi-jokingly that there may be times on a boat like this where an autopilot might drive faster since it doesn’t have the fear factor a human helmsman might have.

In terms of how the Banque Populaire maxi might do on a Jules Verne attempt - her raison d’etre - Gautier believes that in the Southern Ocean boats are limited by the eastbound speed of the depressions: “In the south you don’t need to be really really fast. You could see - Francis Joyon was almost as fast as Orange there.” By G-Class standards this is relatively slow, around 25-30 knots, so there is the constant potential for boats to sail off the front of a depression and into the ridge to the east of it. We suspect it won’t be long before we see these boats overtake the ridge and are able to sail into the system ahead. However at present the view is that the greatest gains are to be made in the Atlantic - hence the team’s focus on ensuring that the new boat performs well in light and upwind conditions.

Obviously there is a fairly high price tag on a boat of this magnitude. On the water the Banque Populaire maxi is reckoned to have cost in the region of 10 million Euros, a little over twice as much as a Volvo Open 70, but still pretty cost effective in terms of price v performance.

So bigger and with more toys - does this mean that Groupama 3 is obsolete? Far from it. Firstly there is the issue of reliability. This has already proved an issue on Franck Cammas’ boat. On a boat even larger it seems likely to be bigger again, regardless of the lessons learned and how it is speced.

Vincent Lauriot Prevost believes Banque Populaire to be the faster boat (how could he say otherwise, it being his latest design?), but points out that is not as clear cut as it might seem. “It will be interesting next winter!” he says - both Groupama 3 and Banque Populaire are scheduled to make Jules Verne attempt over the winter of 2009-2010. “I am pretty sure that Grouapma 3 has some very very good performance in up to 20 knots of wind and after that it is down to the sea state when I think it will be easier for Banque Populaire. From our VPP results the gap between the boats is okay for Groupama 3 I think. When we speak to the Groupama crew they are quite confident with their lighter option.”

The million dollar question is - is the Banque Populaire maxi the ultimate G-Class maxi-multihull? Clearly on paper a bigger boat would be faster, but the 120-125ft size seems to be at the present limit of technology for a boat where humans must grind the winches and where any degree of reliability is to be maintained.

“If we built a new one, bigger might not be faster,” says Gautier. “Smaller and lighter, maybe wider might be faster. We will discover with this one - if the boat is not about to pitchpole all the time, we will be able to say the boat is too long for the sail area, so we might be able to reduce the length [and therefore displacement].”

Vincent Lauriot Prevost is more cautious: “At this stage for sure we don’t have enough feedback to think about a bigger boat. Up until now in early sea trials it looks like the boat is easier to sail than expected. You get used to the size quite quickly. Pascal and the crew I think they have that same feeling about it. The boat is not as monstrous as you could have imagined.”

One avenue Lauriot Prevost thinks might be the next step on would be a boat that works more on its foils. He states that Banque Populaire is ‘foil assisted’ and not a ‘foiler’. So could you for example add another set of curved retracting foils in the floats? “No. There would be too much extra drag and it would affect the balance of the boat too much. If we had two foils I don’t think we would be able to use them independently. If we wanted to push the foiler option we would have a smaller boat to be able to work on the efficiency of the foils. At the moment we are stuck with the compromise between efficiency and structural problems.”

Next summer when both the newly rebuilt Groupama 3 and the Banque Populaire maxi are eating up miles around the Atlantic we should get a better idea, but the one we’ll all be waiting for is the Jules Verne Trophy show-down in a year’s time. The rumour is that both boats will be setting off together in a race...

More photos on the following pages...