In the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Nantes, the major actors of the IMOCA class met to take part in the General Assembly. On the agenda, the class calendar for the coming years, the partnership with OSM and the rewriting of the rules of measurement. Evolving for 23 years, they needed to be synthesized and more readable, more adapted to the needs of current projects.
A new measurement for the IMOCA Class
This general assembly first of all confirmed the introduction of a new measurement for the IMOCA Class. Any boat built will have to have a standardized keel and mast. This decision was taken for two reasons, firstly to control the budgets of new productions and secondly to reinforce the safety coefficients concerning keels. Thanks to this new measure, it is estimated that budgets for these two items will be reduced by 10 to 15% compared to prototype parts.
With six boats under construction, it was important that the rules set out last year be confirmed, and this until the 2016 Vendée Globe. This will mark the beginning of a new cycle in ocean racing. There was also some discussion about moving to a one-design class, but in the end the IMOCA class will remain open with restrictions on mast and keel construction.
The addition of foils to the IMOCA class
We then came to the work of the architects to make the class evolve and in particular the possibility of using foils at certain speeds. Even if nothing is definitive yet, given the complexity of the parameters involved in an ocean race, the majority of the Assembly decided to let the designers work on their research. These appendages could be fitted to new boats as well as existing ones.
Six new projects underway
The IMOCA Class is showing its dynamism by integrating six new boats, which should hit the water in spring 2015. The future participants in the Vendée Globe will be able to participate in three races to test their boats: the 2015 Transat Jacques Vabre double-handed race, the Transat B to B (return of the Transat Jacques Vabre single-handed race) and the British Transat in June 2016.
Here are the current projects:
- Safran (Morgan Lagravière), plan verdier - VPLP, launch planned for January-February 2015;
- Banque Populaire (Armel Le Cléac'h), plan verdier - VPLP, launch planned for March 2015;
- Edmond de Rothschild (Sébastien Josse), Verdier - VPLP plan, launch planned for May 2015
- Hugo Boss (Alex Thomson), Verdier - VPLP plan, launch planned for June 2015
- Saint-Michel Virbac (Jean-Pierre Dick), Verdier - VPLP plan, launch planned for July 2015
- The Italian Andrea Mura has announced the construction of a new boat for the next Vendée Globe (Verdier-VPLP plan).
The IMOCA Class is always looking to innovate by relying on the performance of the boat and the technical prowess of the man. It is currently the most dynamic class in ocean racing: new projects, internationalization, creation of an IMOCA Ocean Masters World Championship...
