Xavier Guilbaud's view on the ULTIM fleet ahead of the Arkea Ultm Challenge - Brest
by Andi Robertson 5 Jan 23:20 PST
7 January 2024
Parade of the arrival of the Ultim Maxi Trimarans - Arkea Ultim Challenge © Alexis Courcoux
Xavier Guilbaud has been with French design cabinet VPLP for more than 20 years and so knows the ULTIM fleet much better than most, having been with the company through all of their ULTIM projects. That means of the six giant multihulls which will line up to race round the world on Sunday 7th January he has been involved with the design of Ultim Actual, which was launched as François Gabart's Macif - the current round the world record holder - of SVR Lazartigue and Banque Populaire XI.
VPLP contributed to the design of Thomas Coville's Sodebo Ultim 3, which was designed by a collaborative group, designing the floats and the forward beam. They also did the re-design(s) of the 2014 launched Sodebo Ultim which became Yves Le Blevec's Actual Leader and is now Adagio.
First of, Guilbaud runs the rule over the newest pair in the fleet, SVR Lazartigue and Banque Populaire VI:
"Banque Populaire and SVR Lazartigue are our latest designs which were launched in 2021. Banque Populaire XI is an evolution of Banque Populaire iX which capsized and sunk in the 2018 Route du Rhum. The platform is relatively classic and an evolution of what Banque Populaire IX was. It has the same float shapes and the same beams with a new central hull. But it is more optimised for high speeds than Banque Populaire IX was. It has a whole new appendage package (compared with Banque Populaire IX) which has continually evolved ever since the first launch, particularly the central board. We have now done five boards altogether. We had some structural issues but have been working all the time to reduce cavitation. It is always the same work to optimise the hydro, increase the aspect ratio of the elevator to reduce the drag but at the same time work on the speed at which the cavitation starts to appear."
Explaining the most recent evolutions he says,
"So we have worked a lot on cavitation and the T rudders on the central hull T rudder especially which a second version came in last year, which is deeper to make the boat more controllable when flying We have more surface in the water and the elevator deeper below the water. And then on the appendages it is pretty much it on this boat. The foils are the original design, they have not been changed yet. They are original. They deliver to the original brief, they work correctly. But these pieces are so long to build and they cost a lot and so it is not like an IMOCA, you cannot add in a set of foils every year because the build time is so lengthy."
And of the recent improvements he details,
"In terms of numbers the appendages there are gains of course, but the way the sailors sail the boat and tune the boat, we saw it in the Transat Jacques the sail tuning is a big one, and steering the boat is a big thing. The autopilots are so much more performing than they used to be, but even at that the human is still better. We saw that on the TJV Banque Populaire they were steering the boat a lot and the difference was quite important.
Sail handling is still important, there is more work to be done in terms of sail design. But these boats just don't spend enough time on the water.
The boat is quite reliable now, they have sailed a lot now and Armel knows the boat well having won the TJV is a big mental gain for him. He needed that win in multihulls, that was very important for him. He was happy and confident in his win in Martinique and is confident in his ability to use it. He been in the south and knows his strengths and is strong in his mind. The boat is reliable everything which might have been issues have been solved. And now it is down to how Armel will manage the boat, but it is the same for each skipper, how they will manage the 40 days and also, of course the outside input, the routing and support from the team. But everyone's fear is the same, the things we cannot control and that always will be a lottery.
SVR Lazartigue also showed notable performance gains during the recent Transat Jacques Vabre. It's design started with a blank sheet of paper, and was being designed at VPLP at the same time by two different design teams with no collaboration or exchange of information:
"SVR Lazartigue launched at the same time and started from a blank page, unlike Banque Populaire XI which was an evolution. Francois Gabart and his team learned a lot from their previous boat but they knew they could start (the design) of this boat knowing it would be fully flying so the brief was really to start from scratch. There has been a lot of work on the aerodynamics of the cockpit which is fully inserted into the central hull as we could then lower the boom as low as possible and have a real endplate effect on the deck and also having the straight beams instead of angled beams, in terms of aero that is neater as well. If you look at the beams from the front they are more horizontal, straight and flat and so the net is between the beams is hidden. That was a big step. So, too, the appendage package. The board and rudders are quite similar to Banque Populaire, not the same but the same trend, the same philosophy. The foils look similar in terms of global size. They are more L shaped than V shaped, the angle is more open. On a flat sea that will give more performance but it is less stable. It is good to be able to go fast on flat water but it you don't then have a stable flight and have a good average speed it is difficult. The results were interesting on the TJV with SVR being faster upwind and not as stable downwind. That is mainly due to the foils but the weight is also significant, SVR is a broadly speaking about a tonne lighter. It makes a difference before flying so typically as we saw between the equator and Ascension Island. In 12-14kts of wind if you fly you are five or six knots faster. We saw that on the TJV last edition (2021) when the last downwind leg was quite light and SVR caught up a lot. Will these conditions be relevant on this round the world? That is a question...
Actual - formerly Macif and holder of the course record. "Actual is the oldest of the flying boats and was launched in 2015 and this boat holds the record round the world but not in this configuration. We made a V2 of the boat in 2017 after Francois' round the world. It has a V2 package with foils, a T rudder and a new centreboard with an elevator. It is the lightest boat, the smallest boat and with the least righting moment, but it is easier to sail at 100% than the others. It has less power, lower loads and so it is easier to sail at 100%. But we are at the maximum for the way this platform was engineered. In terms of righting moment, the beams shall we say are the weak point."
"The boat is reliable it has done many miles and we saw in the TJV that in tricky conditions, in transition zones, that the boat is good. It is quite a light boat and so she goes well in light winds. We designed and built new foils last year for this year and compared to the other ones these are slightly longer and we have managed to delay the cavitation by three knots more. So, they say they are flying earlier than before in two or three knots of true wind sped less. And in the upper range of flying mode cavitation is delayed. These are the two zones we have gained. It is a reliable platform, on paper it probably number 5 compared to the newer boats but anything can happen and she was not so far away from Sodebo."
And Guilbaud comments on Gitana which is the only Verdier design in the fleet and among the favourites, "Gitana has been the boat to beat but we have seen Banque Populaire XI now winning races and both SVR and Banque Populaire XI are now being sailed well. But Gitana is quick when flying upwind they have an edge essentially due her being heavier, the heaviest with more righting moment. As soon as you can use or exploit the righting moment you are faster as we saw at the start of the TJV and then generally speaking strong winds she is quite fast, particularly in strong winds and waves."
Moving on to Sodebo - on which they have not been so involved with recent developments - he says "I think it should be quite close between these three boats, the question mark is Sodebo which we have not really seen a lot. They have done a lot of good stuff but the boat has never really performed that well compared with the three others. So it will be interesting."
But he does consider the human performance aspect will be play a big part of the equation,
"The rhythm round the world will be so different to what we have seen the last two years on the sprints, the TJV and the Route du Rhum and for sure in that sense Thomas is the skipper with the most experience of sailing round the world on these boats. He will know where to push and when to push and he knows the course. He should be good."
"The boat has evolved quite a lot, we don't know a lot about all the evolution. The big change was last year when they cut two metres (we think) off the back of the floats and installed some big, lifting T rudders. They have changed foils and the T board a few times and have extended the mast about two metres this year about 2 - 2,5 m and have gone to the maximum authorised by the rule which I find a bit of a surprise for the programme of this year with a round the world you maybe don't expect that. We will see."
And looking to the race itself and how it will play out he believes, "I think everyone's hope and our hope is that there is a real race on the water with no stops. I am not sure if that is feasible or not, but I think everyone is hoping it won't be a race with pitstops everywhere and the one which does the fewest pitstops wins, that would not be good. So I really hope there will a battle which resembles what we have seen on the Route du Rhum and the Transat Jacques Vabre. So we are hoping for a nice race as well. The boats are ready, the skippers are, for sure, ready to hold that rhythm for that duration of the race, 40 days, or so."
How will the race look, how will it shape up?
Honestly it is quite hard to say how it will play out. On the one hand we have seen that these boats are so fast they can gain a lot back after being behind and they can lose a lot, correspondingly, depending on the conditions. But if one boat enters the south with a (weather) system of an advantage it would be quite comfortable and that skipper can be better able to manage their advance.
And can the 42 days record be broken?"I would say so. But they all know they are gone for 40-45 days and so will they stick the throttle in the corner from the start, I would think so because after all they are all competitors, their boats are ready, they are ready in their minds and so if the conditions are good they will push at 100 per cent from the start if they can, maybe to try and get the maximum lead before the southern ocean and then manage the lead in the Southern Ocean, maybe. That would be my strategy. I am surprised though. It is interesting because the skippers are talking of this being an adventure but these guys are competitors and will want to win.
Is a record possible?
I think they can come close to the record but I don't think the record will be broken. François Gabart really had such nice weather all the way, he had perfect conditions all the way. If you look at his track there are not so many spots where you can gain. I think it will be tricky to get the record, I think they can get close if they do not stop and is in relatively good conditions at the finish. A time of 44 days or 45 days should be achievable.
The rules allow a skipper to stop and repair with his technical team...
And there might be a question about whether a skipper stops to get their boat back to 100 per cent and a boat which will keep on going but not be at 100 per cent that can be interesting too. But look at Gitana in the Transat Jacques Vabre, they were damaged, but they still could hold averages of 30kts so that is more than enough to go round the world. Sailing around the world, and if they hit something and lose one of the elevators on the rudders, depending where it happens, I would not expect them to stop for that, unless it is near the start. And in that respect maybe Brazil is the best place to stop that is probably best if they don't want to lose too much time. I don't think we will see boats stopping in Australia or New Zealand unless it is a major structural issue. I think if it is an appendage issue I would expect the boats to keep on going. A pit stop is time consuming and you will probably see boats going on in degraded mode. We might see some stops in Brazil on the way down and the way back, but that is a strategic choice. And it will also depend on how they communicate the damage. We saw on the TJV how teams don't want to communicate damage if it can be seen on the tracker, you can spot where boats have issues. But the teams communicate that less and less is part of their strategy.
And how will it be in the VPLP offices these coming weeks?
It is fantastic, it is a bit scary and stressful. We will be on the App 24/7 and at the same time hoping the phone will not ring too much but apart from that it is super exciting. This is the event we have wanted for years now. And these boats are made to do this. I just hope all the boat will be there at the finish.