Ciela Village: discovery of the first Multi50 with foils

Thierry Bouchard, the Mediterranean skipper, has taken possession of his new Multi50, the first designed to carry foils. It was launched on Wednesday 4th October, in Port-la-Forêt (Finistère) after three months of design and eight months of construction. This 15-metre trimaran is a concentrate of new choices, the work of the architecture firm VPLP Design and the team of Thierry Bouchard, the boat's skipper and owner.

Chloé Torterat Published on October 16, 2017

Starting from a blank page

In 2016, the Multi50 class underwent a major conversion and allowed the use of foils. From then on, Thierry Bouchard, sailor and company manager, saw this as an opportunity to innovate. "I didn't feel like adapting an old Multi50. The project of a new boat, designed with foils, was exciting. It quickly became the obvious choice." An asset, but a longer tune-up time, as a new boat, entirely designed with foils.

In collaboration with Fred Le Peutrec, who oversaw the design and construction, the skipper decided to make a fast boat without sacrificing the "comfort" of the crew, whose deck layout favours performance offshore with a small crew. The ergonomics have also been worked on a lot to go fast while being protected from the air and the sea.

"The cap is an essential point of protection for the skipper, it must allow him to take shelter without being a constraint in the traffic on deck. We have refocused the helm stations to reduce the frontal area of the cap and we have worked on the design of the cap to limit its weight and also to enable the helmsman to retract it in light airs. We opted for a single winch column, sufficient for solo or double-handed sailing and placed four central winches. The foils add more manoeuvres on deck. All of them come back under the cap thanks to a tunnel on the deck of the central hull."

"In the beginning, we didn't forbid anything to each other. We asked ourselves all the questions again and studied, for example, a dozen structural configurations of the linking arms. In the end, they will be X-shaped. The new "foils" parameter has led to new hydrodynamic studies that take into account their thrust. The tonnage does not allow the rudders to carry the load-bearing surfaces, so we have worked on the hull shapes to avoid raising the boat too much and to take maximum advantage of the foils. We are gaining in power. In light winds, the boat will drag less water and when the wind picks up, we rely on the power of the foils. A lot of aerodynamic work has been done at été? with the Incidences sailmaker to define a different sail plan. We're going to widen the conditions of use of each sail." explains Quentin Lucet, architect at VPLP, who designed the boat.

Ciela Village has X-arms, which allowed the best use of all the carbon reinforcements allowed by the tonnage gauge; the central hull is more V-shaped and the water inlets are thinner; it has no central rudder but one rudder on each float, a centreboard and f ils; an aerodynamic cap protects the crew to enhance performance.

The central hull and arms were built at CDK Technologies in Port-la-Forêt; the floats at Gepeto Composites in Lorient; the appendages at Heol Composites and the foils at Lorima. The parts were assembled at CDK.

Very positive first impressions

The first outing, which was to consist of a few manoeuvres in Port-la-Forêt Bay, finally turned into a long tack towards the Glénan, at all points of sail and taking out the boat's complete wardrobe. Visibly well-born, the new Ciela Village keeps the promises of its specifications: powerful, stiff, responsive, équilibré?.

Thierry Bouchard: "We have commencé? by work outputs, to test the structure, the sails. And déjà? we felt a big difference in speed compared to the old Ciela Village. It's a powerful boat, very stiff and that's how I wanted it to be. For the moment we have been sailing on flat seas but déjà? we can see the difference in behaviour. At the helm you can feel it, it's very responsive, it's fast, it's less flexible."

A busy schedule

Launched on October 4, 2017, the Multi50 Ciela Village will follow a very specific program. Thierry Bouchard and Oliver Krauss, the co-skipper, will have just one month to fine-tune the boat during the first few sailings (rigging adjustments, familiarisation with the foils...) and carry out their 1,500 mile qualification course for the Transat Jacques Vabre. They will then head to Port-la-Forêt for the final checks. They will then set off for Le Havre, where they are due to arrive on 27th October.