Nouveau Géant!

Financial services group Groupama are clearly happy with their Orma skipper, Franck Cammas, confirming a new maxi trimaran and a two-pronged Orma/maxi campaign right through to 2011. We talk to Cammas' designer of choice, Vincent Lauriot Prévost, co-founder of the VPLP design bureau.

Seahorse: What were the main motivations for Franck Cammas and Groupama wishing to develop a Jules Verne type boat?

Vincent Lauriot Prévost: Franck was eager to undertake a circumnavigation. As a child he was fascinated by the accounts of Tabarly going through the 'dreaded' Southern Ocean and felt that one day he too would face this challenge. It is a kind of rite of passage for a sailor to do a round-the-world race, but Franck has always wanted a trimaran with which to do it.

Groupama, on the other hand, have had a very rewarding partnership with Franck and his team and they wanted to expand the relationship in accordance with Franck's own ambitions. They have been sponsoring him since he was 24 years old and have recently committed to continuing that sponsorship until 2011 with both the 60ft and the new maxi trimaran. That's a partnership spanning 14 years. Evidently they have found sponsorship an efficient means of both external and internal communication.

To read the remainder of this and many other topical technical articles, please purchase your copy of the February 2005 edition of Seahorse International Sailing available at selected newsstands or by calling: + 44 (0) 1590 671899 or by email at: info@seahorse.co.uk

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