The new Hugo Boss is the result of two years of design and construction. 100 people - engineers, architects and technicians - have worked together to bring this state-of-the-art boat to fruition. The IMOCA boat was designed by VPLP in France and by Alex Thomson Racing's technical team, led by Design Manager Pete Hobson. The 60-foot Open was built in Hampshire, England, by Carrington Boats. Construction began in June 2018 and took over 50,000 hours to complete.
In addition to its caquette, which is much talked about, the roof is covered with solar panels, allowing to reduce fossil fuels, during the Vendée Globe.
Vincent-Lauriot Prévot comments for us on the first photos unveiled
"The particularity of Hugo Boss 7 is the architecture of the deck plan and the cockpit. This is due to several reasons stemming from a global approach to the design of the project.
The novelty is to have totally protected the helm station and the maneuvers with a view to the front. Many maneuvers will be done from inside the boat. It's an inspiration that comes from aviation or racing cars. The Macif trimaran had shown the way, but this is the first time in IMOCA.
Hugo Boss 7 was designed for fairly extreme conditions and allowing the skipper to be integrated into his boat. With part of the maneuvers being done from inside, he can have an eye on the routing at the same time. He is permanently in the heart of the boat, but he will not be cut off from the outside.
The cockpit is completely integrated into the hull, which means that the center of gravity is lowered.
Another interest of this design is a plate effect on the back of the boat, with a very low boom at the roof. This is relevant on several levels.
This total protection was possible thanks to the impulse of Alex Thomson and his team. This shows how rich the exchanges were. He has no limits in his questioning, he is a daring person and capable of going far.
Without this audacity, it would not have been the same project. We made proposals to him that he was able to integrate into the design, and vice versa. At VPLP, we can sometimes be the bearers of innovation, but the contractor has to be on the same wavelength. It was a very rich project of exchange.
For us it was a real challenge. He is a skipper with a team and very strong ideas. It was an interesting work of imagination, but it required a lot of our skills: structural calculations, aerodynamics, etc. It required a lot of simulation, and all of our skills to respond
