Born to win
Released in 2015 from the CDK yard in Port la Forêt, the former Banque Populaire VIII is one of the six boats from the VPLP-Verdier design office's drawing board designed for the 2016 Vendée Globe. As one of the first 60-foot boats designed with hydrofoils, she benefited from a partnership with Morgan Lagravière's Safran team design office. After a quick preparation, Armel Le Cléac'h was at the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre 2015 in the company of Erwan Tabarly, and finished in second place.
On the strength of the many lessons learnt from this transatlantic race, Banque Pop' VIII is back at work on reinforcing the structure and modifying the foils in order to reduce the weak points (upwind) and accentuate the strong points (reaching). Thanks to these improvements and Armel's talent, Banque Populaire VIII won The transat 2016 (ex Transat Anglaise) but had to abandon the transat New York-Vendée following a collision with a UFO.
One of the favourites, Armel won the 2016 Vendée Globe after an epic duel with Alex Thomson. The former Banque Populaire VIII therefore holds the reference time for the event in 74 days 03 hours 35 minutes. In view of how the foils have evolved over the past four years, this time should be greatly improved.
The ideal machine for the 3rd Louis Burton Vendée Globe
As the IMOCA market operates on a four-year cycle, Louis Burton bought Armel's boat before the start of the 2016 edition. Recovered by the Bureau Vallée team a few months after her victorious arrival in Les Sables d'Olonne, this well-born machine finished 7th in the 2017 Transat Jacques Vabre, co-skippered by Louis and Servane Escoffier.
Louis will have to abandon the Route du Rhum 2018 following a collision with a UFO off Roscoff. But he will take a nice 10th place in the 2019 Jacques Vabre with Davy Beaudart.
Upgraded to the level of the best
The main evolution of the Valley 2 Office is the integration of a system for adjusting the incidence of the foils. This evolution, already imagined by the Banque Pop' team, has required some modifications to the foils wells. The variation of the rake (incidence) of the foils has been made possible by the addition of jacks and shims to vary this adjustment.
As the little interior layout was adapted to Armel Le Cléac'h's morphology, the entire ergonomics of the chart table and bunks had to be rethought. All onboard electronics were replaced, including the exterior camera system. These are used to produce videos for the media or the race HQ, but they also enable Louis to monitor the deck layout whilst remaining inside.
The Vendée Globe is above all an endurance race where reliability remains the key word. With this 60-foot boat, Louis has the right boat to finish in the leading pack.
Valley 2 desk - Louis Burton
- Sail number: 18
- Former names of the boat: Banque Populaire VIII
- Architect : Verdier - VPLP
- Job-site: CDK Technologies
- Launch date: June 09, 2015
- Width: 5.80m
- Displacement (weight): 7.6t
- Presence of foils : Yes
- Sail area upwind : 300m2
- Sail area downwind: 600m2
