After his victory in the 2016/2017 Vendée Globe in IMOCA, Armel le Cléac'h has decided to switch to Ultim. With his sponsor Banque Populaire, they have therefore worked on the design of a new 30-metre trimaran, the Maxi Solo Banque Populaire IX, currently under construction at the CDK yard in Lorient. This jewel of technology, which was to be assembled at the end of 2016 and launched in the summer of 2017 for the Transat Jacques Vabre will not finally be launched until the end of 2017, as Banque Populaire explains in a communication.
"The team has put in months of work, research and development to complete its innovation process and plans to launch the Maxi Solo Banque Populaire IX at the beginning of October 2017. Her skipper Armel Le Cléac'h will not be lining up at the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre, preferring to optimise the reliability of his 32-metre trimaran through a series of training sessions at sea" explains the Sailing Bank.
Ronan Lucas, Director of Team Banque Populaire, explains how the new Maxi Solo Banque Populaire IX goes even further in the quest for innovation: " Flying is in the air these days, we used to be familiar with it on the Vendée Globe with the Mono Banque Populaire VIII, but with the new Maxi Solo Banque Populaire IX, there will be phases where the boat will fly in its entirety. This is the result of transposing what happens on America's Cup boats, but on the scale of a trimaran designed for a round the world voyage. It requires a lot of research and development to get a system that is mature enough to be integrated into a large Maxi. Such a construction takes time and takes us even further in terms of technological innovation. Our next objectives are the Route du Rhum in 2018 and then the solo round the world race in 2019. Rather than saying, "we'll do that later at a new boatyard", we'd rather be ambitious and have the "complete kit" as soon as the boat is launched at the beginning of October."
The design office of Team Banque Populaire has been thinking for months about adapting a configuration designed for in-shore races to a boat weighing nearly 15 tonnes, designed for ocean racing: " It is the result of a development that has been enriched over the months, which has taken an enormous amount of time in terms of structural calculations because it is a multitude of parts that have to work together. We prefer to skip the Transat Jacques Vabre in order to make the boat more reliable and, from January 2018, be able to cross the Atlantic" concludes Ronan Lucas.
Calendar of the Maxi Solo Banque Populaire IX :
- Fall 2017: Launch
- Winter 2017/2018: Training and record attempt (Route de la Découverte)
- Autumn 2018: Route du Rhum
- Winter 2019/2020: Around the world single-handed
