Les monstres!

The Paris-based design studio of VPLP – Marc van Peteghem and Vincent Lauriot Prévost – launched two very different and very giant trimarans last month. Here we probe the bounds of their client confidentiality...

Seahorse: Two very different boats in Banque Populaire V and BMW Oracle…

VPLP: We can give you specific data regarding Bank Pop, but you will understand that for BMW Oracle there is obviously still an issue of confidentiality!

SH: Surely not…

VPLP: [Laughing] Actually, it's quite hard to compare the two projects, because we are comparing apples and pears – one trimaran designed for circumnavigation, the other to go round the cans at a specific inshore regatta. However, we can try to draw some rough correlations.

With BMW the ratio of sail area to displacement is obviously more extreme than with Bank Populaire. Bank Populaire has a main hull of 39.7m (131ft) with 30m (100ft) floats, and the overall beam is 22.7m (75ft). She'll weigh around 24 tonnes at the start of Transat Jacques Vabre. Mast height above waterline is just over 47m (155ft) and the sail area upwind is about 760m2 (8,280ft2). The righting moment was calculated to be the maximum that we could reliably make it in terms of structure and handling (ie the human capacity) based on previous experience with Geronimo and Groupama 3.

At present all we can say about BMW Oracle is that her dimensions correspond to the stipulated 90ftx90ft criteria in the original challenge, with the float length extended to 100ft above the waterline.

We spent just 12 months on the BMW Oracle project, from the start of studies to the launch date, of which eight months were dedicated to construction. But of course we were working under exceptional circumstances and with extraordinary deadlines. For Banque Populaire we spent double that: two years from the start of studies to the launch date, with about 18 months of construction; let's say it was a more realistic timetable! Obviously, the number of people involved in the two construction processes was also different, and this 'different' application of manpower had a very major impact.

SH: How big a step forward is Banque Pop compared to Groupama 3? Surely it's as much about people as about money?

To read the remainder of this and many other articles, please purchase your copy of the November 2008 edition of Seahorse International Sailing available at selected newsstands or by calling: + 44 (0) 1590 671899 or by email at: subscriptions@seahorse.co.uk

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Below: Within a few days of launch Franck Cammas, Russell Coutts and the BMW Oracle sailing team had their new trimaran flying a main hull with the rig cranked neatly to weather Orma 60-style. The speed with which this light and powerful new boat was able to start being pressed drew praise from even the most ardent critics of Larry Ellison’s America’s Cup strategy