Meeting at the base
The postcard is impressive with around twenty IMOCA boats moored in the port of the former submarine base in Lorient. With two months to go before the start of the Vendée Globe, this is the ultimate confrontation for the IMOCA skippers, the last calibrations and performance measurements after the summer refits. And it is also an opportunity to invite on board architects, builders, rigging, appendage and electronics manufacturers, partners and journalists.
In the Courreaux de Groix, the IMOCA boats are timed over a 1.2 mile course. That's long enough to talk about average speed, but not too long to avoid the vagaries of an irregular wind. The course is positioned beam to windward, which is the preferred point of sail for the IMOCA boats, particularly the foilers.
These boats, worthy of F1, can accelerate from 10 knots to more than 25 knots in a few seconds. Thus, the race area is secured by three semi-rigid boats equipped with flashing lights. Competitors can set off on a maximum of 4 attempts to achieve their best time.
Eyes on the foils
Just like last year, when the yacht Charal impressed by making the foam speak as much as it reared, everyone's attention is focused on the foils. There are no less than 15 foilers ready to take off in overspeed. The teams observe each other, measure each other and analyse the flying behaviour and the performance of the latest flying prototypes.
Dream conditions for the runs
In Southern Brittany, the Indian summer has taken hold, as has the high pressure off the Azores... So for the tenth Défi Azimut, the race zone is enjoying a lot of sunshine and a thermal breeze, which is blowing at an average of 15 knots. Aboard L'Occitane en Provence, we are welcomed by the very friendly skipper Armel Tripon. He is taking charge of the most daring IMOCA in the fleet and has just completed his qualification for the Vendée Globe.
The boat is magnificent in its black dress and golden sun painted on the deck and sails, an elegant and racy sailboat. It frankly denotes competition by its very spatulate scow bow, by its relative narrowness and especially by its immense foils which recall the famous moustaches of Salvador Dali.
The IMOCA accelerates and you squint as the speed increases
We're about to start our first run. Tension is rising a notch on board, eyes are focused on speed. Each of the crew members is at his post, Armel Tripon at the helm, the architect Sam Manuard in observation, and the gearboxes on either side of the coffee grinder column.
At a good distance from the line, Armel Tripon releases all the horses of L'Occitane en Provence. The furlers are grumbling like crazy and the foiler rises as they try to tuck in the huge gennaker and mainsail.
Here we are, this is vole?! The hull is supported by the leeward foil. Like the edge of a sword, it splits the surface of the water in half and lets out a steaming vapor from its tip. The strident vibrations of the foil and keel fill the environment. In a few seconds, the apparent wind becomes considerable and one bends one's eyes to continue to see the landscape as it passes by at "foil" speed.
The forces involved are enormous, at 90° to the wind under gennaker, you can physically feel the power of the machine. However L'Occitane en Provence is hardly heeling, Sam Manuard's work seems to have paid off by allowing a stable, relatively low flight with little heeling.
Beware of wheeling, it's a nervous 18 m foiler
Like a GP motorcycle, you have to control the power of acceleration otherwise you turn around. As we approach the line, L'Occitane en Provence is accelerating and seems not to want to stop. And then suddenly, the bow rises, and rises again, it too seems not to want to stop rising. At full speed, a gust of wind makes the engine still rising and at 26 knots we literally take off. We're clinging to anything solid, a candlestick, a balcony or a line, as long as it holds and we stop this zenithal ascent.
Frankly, the feeling of wheeling is very disconcerting, totally unusual. But on flat seas, there should be no major danger of going too high, the foil stalls and the IMOCA rests on its hull... to get off to a good start. The pilot, Armel Tripon is constantly adjusting the keel angle to the wind, which like a load-bearing plane, influences the flying height.
L'Occitane in Provence, the fastest of the foilers
At the end of this flight, L'Occitane en Provence proved to be the fastest of the foilers, almost 10% faster than her dolphin, which is quite enormous. Indeed, our average speed was 23.35 knots compared to 21.60 knots for the second LinkeOut and 21.28 knots for Arkea-Paprec. By way of comparison, the IMOCA which won the last Vendée Globe was timed at 16.49 knots.
The performance gap that has been created over the last few years is considerable and the skippers are becoming true pilots. But pilots of what, half sailors, half voltigeurs?? Aviators vs Aquator, Aircraft vs Hydronef. It is not easy to find the words to describe these new machines and their skippers. But for the time being, the skippers must above all get used to the violence of these highly nervous machines in order to sail around the world at very different speeds.
