sail-world.com -- Vendee Globe: Victory for Francois Gabart, North Sails, and 3Di techno
Vendee Globe: Victory for Francois Gabart, North Sails, and 3Di techno
Tue, 5 Feb 2013
Over the past three years, North Sails 3Di technology has won the Barcelona World Race, the Volvo Ocean Race, and now the Vendee Globe. The first two finishers for this spectacular race carried full North Sails inventories around the world, with the third placed boat a partial inventory.
Francois Gabart on Macif took the grand title, winning the Vendee Globe in only 78 days; beating the previous solo round the world record by 6 days, and also becoming the youngest ever winner of this prestigious race at 29 years old. His average speed was 15.3 knots.
Armel Le Cleac’h on Banque Populaire crossed just three hours afterwards. Both competitors were using North Sails 3Di, and Cuben fiber sails. Still following behind are other 3Di boats Virbac-Paprec, Synerciel, Gamesa, and Akena.
Since the 2007 America’s Cup, 3Di technology had evolved into the best product for both inshore and offshore sailing. All of the North Sails group have been striving to make 3Di the most reliable and stable product. According to both respective teams on Macif and Banque Populaire, the sails were still in amazing shape after 78 days of hard sailing around the world.
Along with the Vendee Globe success, North Sails has featured highly in Miami for the Key West Race Week, winning 13 out of 16 classes, and also the recent Bay of Islands Race Week on a local note.
3Di is a product which is rapidly becoming popular for yachts on all levels, and this is evident in such regattas.
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