First MOD70 in assembly phase

Beams being shipped from Decision in Switzerland to CDK yard in Lorient

MOD 70 number one's crossbeams have been completed at Decision shipyard in Switzerland. The crossbeams have since been loaded onto a truck and shipped to the CDK Technologies shipyard at their facility in Lorient, where the first of the 12 multihulls will be assembled for a launch planned in March 2011.

Meanwhile the hulls are in the process of being finished at Chantier Multiplast in Vannes. With their completition expected imminently, so the first MOD70 will start to b assembled in a few days' time at CDK. The construction of the mast is being carried out by Lorima, also located in Lorient.
 
The crossbeams of these new MOD70 have been built in the shipyard Decision, based in Ecublens. “The crossbeams are always the parts that take the longest to build, because they are some of the most critical boat elements in terms of engineering. To lay the carbon is particularly tricky,” explains Stève Ravussin, Technical Director of the project and future skipper of the MOD 70 nr.1. “A unique aspect of this project (championship planned over a 10 years period - 2010-2020) is also that we are carrying out a large number of construction controls, much more than what is usually done. We are closer to the level of what is carried out in aviation with experts and controllers who check all of the composites parts."
 
Bertrand Cardis, Director of Decision shipyard, said: “The objective was to deliver the most reliable pieces possible. We have never had as many controls, on all the levels of the construction: the manufacturing, the sticking and the assembly.” He adds: “This first set of crossbeams was made with the view toward producing a series of 12. Thus, all has been done to optimize the manufacturing processes, to make them effective and reliable, in order to reproduce the same parts with the same quality for the entire MOD 70’ series."