Club Med launched

After 5 years thought, design and some 60,000 man-hours of work achieved in one year, Club Med was introduced to her watery element on Monday May 8th 2000. Co-skippered by the New Zealand skipper Grant Dalton, she is the first of 3 maxi-catamarans* specially built by Multiplast for The Race. A great moment of emotion for all the employees of the yard – all 50 of them – and the Gilles Ollier Design Team, who have worked without a break to give birth to this exceptional boat.
Gilles Ollier : Since the press conference organised by Bruno Peyron at the Paris Maritime Museum in 1993, after having won the first Jules Verne Trophy that same year on Commodore

Explorer designed and built by the yard, he launched the idea for THE RACE : a race round the world without limits for the year 2000. I was immediately attracted by this idea and its No Limits concept that renewed with the spirit of the first  Route du Rhum , or the great ocean races, allowing designers to be freed from the usual constraints of rules. Also THE RACE will be the first race in which several multihulls will compete against each other round the world. And the year 2000 was quite symbolic. By entering the 3rd millennium with Club Med, we rather wanted to draw up a balance sheet of knowledge in matters of multihull naval architecture, of high-tech construction techniques and sophisticated composite materials. Club Med is an expression and the result of many years of work, with the best techniques of the moment. And just like her, I am certain that all the great boats imagined for THE RACE will remain in the history of sailing and will cause thousands of people throughout the whole world to dream. Rendezvous in a few weeks for Club Med’s first transats and of course the start of The Race in Barcelona on December 31st 2000 at midday….

* with Team Adventure for American Cam Lewis and Code 1 (skipper still confidential), also built by Multiplast.