News Around the World

France

Alain Gautier

After his victory in the Figaro Race and then in the second Vendée Globe, Alain Gautier, native of Brittany and father of four, decided to switch to offshore multihulls in the mid-90s. Four years ago he brought his first trimaran, the Van Pétéghem / Lauriot-Prévost designed Brocéliande, into second place in the Route du Rhum. After his capsize two years ago in the doublehanded Transat Jacques Vabre, with Michel Desjoyeaux, this boat was repaired and took on a new sponsor, Foncia. Alain now has a new boat in construction, due to be launched at the end of this year.

PC: Who designed the new Foncia ?

AG: The main designer is Vincent Lauriot-Prévost, who focuses more on raceboats than his associate Marc Van Pétéghem. I had intended to create a design group of my own, as we did with Kingfisher, and I also had discussions with Nigel Irens, Marc Lombard and Gilles Ollier. But the relationship I have built up with Lauriot-Prévost while campaigning my present trimaran finally tipped the balance.  

PC: What are the key differences on the new boats?  

AG: Stiffness, plus gains in weight and better ergonomics for the growing amount of inshore competition. Of existing boats the lightest, such as Foncia and Groupama, weigh about 5.3 tons; but the new generation will be 5 tons. There is also a lot of appendage development. In my team we have Halvard Mabire, my old friend Mick Kermarec (aerodynamics), Kristian Karcher, from Le Défi and Hervé Devaux for the structure.

PC: And the competition is only going to get tougher with all the new boats? 

AG: Certainly. Also ORMA tightened their rules during the winter. Now the number of sails is limited for two years - which is right if you want to avoid budgets growing radically.

PC: What is the present budget for a 60ft multihull campaign?

For the full version of this feature please go to the July 2001 edition of Seahorse International Sailing....

© 2001 Seahorse Magazine. All rights reserved.