The IMOCA Class, an ultra dynamic class in 2019

IMOCA on the Azimuth Challenge © Christophe Favreau - Défi Azimut

Since the advent of foils in 2014, the IMOCA class is booming! Indeed, the projects are succeeding, the skippers are flocking and the class has never been so dynamic! The proof is that they will be 30 starters in the Transat Jacques Vabre 2019, a record!

Chloé Torterat Published on September 30, 2019

Innovation, safety and sustainable development

The IMOCA Class, founded in 1991, brings together Open 60-foot monohulls (18.28 meters). Since 2018, the class has had its own championship of solo and double-handed races over four years, the IMOCA Globe Series, of which the Vendée Globe is the highlight.

Designed to sail in the Southern Ocean single-handed or in pairs, the IMOCA is one of the fastest monohulls in ocean racing. If safety is paramount for the class, it is also the reason for the tightening of the rules of measurement with the adoption of standardized masts and keels. Innovation is also the leitmotiv of IMOCA.

Thus, many developments have been tested on these large monohulls: pivoting keels, asymmetric spinnakers, bowsprit, powerful hulls, foils...

With the arrival of the foilers, the class is attracting many skippers and is one of the most active in the world of ocean racing in 2019. The projects are numerous and the class is dynamic with many developments and a commitment to renewable energy.

Discover the criteria that define an IMOCA .

Foils, the IMOCA must-have

The class validated the authorization of foils in 2014, but it was the 2016 Vendée Globe that highlighted the potential of the boats equipped with them. Of the 29 boats at the start of this 2016 edition of the Vendée Globe, seven will be equipped with foils: six new "foilers" (St-Michel Virbac, Edmond de Rothschild, Safran, Banque Populaire VIII, Hugo Boss, No Way Back) and one old generation, modified (Maître Coq).

In the 2019 Transat Jacques Vabre, there will be 18 new and old generation euro foilers with foils added after construction to race alongside 13 other boats with classic daggerboards. That's more than half of the fleet!

The match will be played between several categories of boats, from the brand new IMOCA foils to the old generation monohulls.

Vincent Lauriot-Prévot answered our questions about the advantage of foils .

A dynamic class

In 2018, the IMOCA class had 20 euro skippers 17 men and 3 women euros of 5 different nationalities, 11 more than in 2014. There are 37 in 2019, including 30 to participate in the 2019 Transat Jacques Vabre, a record!

Since the launch of Charal in August 2018, no less than 5 new foilers that have been launched in 2019 arkea Paprec (Sébastien Simon), Apivia (Charlie Dalin), DMG Mori (Kojiro Shiraishi), Adevens for Cybersecurity (Thomas Ruyant), Hugo Boss (Alex Thomson) and some will be soon, like Armel Tripon's IMOCA or Nicolas Troussel's Corum L'Epargne.

In 2019, many "newbies" are also entering the circuit euros some having launched new projects, others having bought existing boats: Clarisse Crémer who will race on Banque Populaire X (ex-SMA), Charlie Dalin (who had already participated in the 2015 TJV as co-skipper), Sébastien Simon, Benjamin Dutreux (Water Family), Charlie Enright (11th Hour Racing), Kevin Escoffier (PRB), Giancarlo Pedote (Prysmian Group), Maxime Sorel (V and B Mayenne), Nicolas Troussel (Corum) or Clément Giraud (Fortil) or Denis Van Waynbergh.