Launch of the Maxi trimaran Edmond de Rothschild after 20 months of construction at Multiplast - Groupe Carboman

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It was at 5AM Monday morning (17/07) that Multiplast's assembly hall doors finally opened to allow the launch of the Maxi trimaran Edmond de Rothschild. At 32 metres long and 23 metres wide, the boat, suspended by a crane 10 metres up, didn't go unnoticed...

Concentred innovation

Multiplast teams had the opportunity to build a boat that was highly refined in its design. The Gitana design team and Guillaume Verdier have, in particular, developed the flight capabilities, the optimisation of the composite structure, the control systems and the reduction of the aerodynamic drag of this multihull. This giant is the first ocean trimaran designed specifically to navigate completly on its foils, rudders and center board. Until now, these appendages served only to relieve the platform; today, a new threshold in boat design has been crossed.

In terms of innovation, for the first time, Multiplast had the opportunity to produce the maxi multihull arms in the giant autoclave at the Airbus plant in Nantes. Asked by Guillaume Verdier, the architect, Multiplast's links with the world of aeronautics made possible to propose to Gitana the processes and industrial methods usually reserved for the manufacture of the Airbus A350.

20 months to build

The Maxi trimaran Edmond de Rothschild was born thanks to the close cooperation between the client and the teams at the construction site in Vannes. In total some 170,000 hours of work were required to carry out the build for this 20-month project. For the 70 Multiplast employees, divided into eight teams, this project represented some 96 000 hours of work (excluding the toolings)

Multiplast boats on all fronts

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After the recent records achieved by Thomas Coville (Sodebo Ultim) and Francis Joyon (Idec Sport) , Multiplast multihulls are once again under the spotlight.

Bermuda, Saint-Nazaire, and New-York : so many playing fields for our multihulls to race at the highest level and to the great joy of their teams. 

26th of May : America's Cup racing start for Groupama Team France

Flash Back : In January, Franck Cammas's AC50 , just out of the Groupe Carboman facility (Décision in Switzerland and Multiplast in France) was sent to Bermuda where the Groupama Team France technicians worked hard to integrate all of the hydraulic and electrical systems necessary to accommodate the control systems for the wing, foils, and rudders.

Yann Penfornis, Managing Director of Multiplast declared : "It is an immense task when confronted with teams whose budgets are from two to eight times size of the French team's budget, some of whom have been involved in the America's Cup for more than 20 years. Rather than being discouraged, this situation provides an additional source of motivation for the Groupe Carboman technicians! As much for Décision S.A. where elements were built, as for Multiplast where they were assembled, our teams have worked closely with Franck Cammas's team to launch an AC50 which our technicians can be proud of".

Up until the end of April, whilst the team trained on board, our technicians in Vannes built increasingly optimised and lightweight aerodynamic elements to contribute to increasing the lift of the plateform at speeds frequenty superior to 40 knots, using plans generated by Groupama Team France engineers over Bermuda.

Now it is time for racing, with a first head to head with Oracle Team USA, the title holder, on Friday th 26th of May.

Francis Joyon and his crew win the Trophée Jules Verne, a sixth record for Multiplast boats on this course

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By crossing the finish line of the Trophée Jules Verne (crewed round-the-world record), Francis Joyon and his five teammates cemented an incredible accomplishment, having traversed the globe in just 40 days, 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds.

40 days 23 hours, 30 minutes and 30 seconds!

40 days is almost half the time of that achieved by Bruno Peyron in 1993 on Commodore Explorer during his victory in the first Jules Verne Trophy. Such was the Joyon team's pace that on one day they averaged a speed of 37.3 knots, hit speeds of up to 48 knots in the Indian Ocean, and finished 2546 miles ahead at the finish line compared to the previous record. These few figures illustrate just how impressive a feat this was, writing the team's name into the history books and highlighting the fabulous performance of the IDEC Sport trimaran.