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.

Multiplast delivers the AC50 at Groupama Team France to compete for the America's Cup 35th edition

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These last weeks have been quiet intense in the Multiplast yard, with the transformation of the AC45 Turbo, delivered last July to Groupama team into an AC50. This catamaran will compete in the French colours in Bermuda at the end of May, led by Franck Cammas.

Groupama Team  France were training until the 20th December in Lanveoc using the AC 45 Turbo, before sending it back to Multiplast yard at Christmas. The transformation consisted of taking off the 45 feet floats and replace them by two new 50 feet ones. These parts were built in the Decision S.A. workshop in Switzerland, ahead of time and sent by truck to Multiplast.

It was then necessary to proceed to the assembly of the two new floats and repaint them. The assembly is a delicate operation that needed more than 2,500 hours of work from Multiplast and the same amount of time for the Groupama Team, who were at the yard while the transformation took place.

Performance quest ...

Ben Wright, Franck Cammas's  Technical team Manager explains : " The modification is very demanding in terms of precision because our quest for performance is constant; we have to control the weight of the boat and make sure that all the systems are reliable. Futhermore, we must respect the rules defining the characteristics of the America's Cup boats. In parallel with the work conducted on the composite parts, which Jack Michal monitored for Multiplast, our task was to integrate the electronics, the hydraulics, but also all the new ideas collected through five months of sailing on the test boat, the AC45 Turbo".