Ultra Performance and human fulfilment
Marc Amerigo is of Marseille origin. Since he has been walking, he is on the water: windsurfing, boating, kitesurfing, foil..
"I like everything on the water."
It was through a mutual friend - Olivier Ponrouch, a precursor of windsurfing - that Marc Amerigo met Antoine Albeau. Himself the holder of several speed records, he is now looking to break the speed record on the water. And it is thanks to Antoine that he will be able to realize this project.
"I had already worked on speed projects during my studies at Centrale. At the time, the project was to reach 50 knots and the board was the fastest support to get there at that time. We had designed prototypes of sail and board, Antoine was just starting to compete.
Today, we met for this speed project and the feeling went well. We looked for people we knew on the planet to be good and beautiful people. Today, we brought together 80 people and 50 companies around this project."
For to develop this Zephir project - which will be spread over several years with intermediate stages - Marc started from a philosophy he created: Ultra performance and human fulfilment.
"This is my world. Zephir, this is a demonstrator in which we apply this philosophy to the letter. We're pushing technology to the limit by refocusing on the human being, so that he is central and fulfilled in what he does. There is an extraordinary collective dynamic. There are no limits, everything is possible. The idea is to create a strong bond between people and to lean on each other to put our guts on the table. Each individual is respected and grows with the company's projects and we have everyone's support. The extremely high sensitivity and competence of each individual is used in all areas. We work with beautiful people without big egos to advance a collective vision.
The objective is to set a target that seems completely unreachable. A board can't go faster than a boat, especially because of cavitation. When you're in extreme universes, it's not a question of taking what exists to try to do more with it. You have to take a blank sheet of paper and reinvent a completely different concept. We're going to play on two dimensions, technical and human. We're gonna take all the technological and organizational dimensions and push all the boundaries."
80 experts and 50 companies from a variety of backgrounds
Thus, to bring this project to fruition, Marc and Antoine have surrounded themselves with actors from various fields: motion-caption (animated film), Formula 1, America's Cup, artificial intelligence... In total, 11 sub-projects have been developed with "notions of interdisciplinarity". Each one draws on its own know-how and every week, all the teams have been exchanging ideas with each other for a year now.
"There's a whole bundle of skills that we cross around our vision. Know-how will complement each other to create synergy. Doing it for the board is awesome, because I love it and Antoine's a board colossus."
But in the end, if Zephir's project is about a record in windsurfing, the concept of "Ultra performance and human fulfilment" has a much broader spectrum.
"Anything that glides on and over water at high speed is relevant to our work. We're going to have to be able to have an object that uses the water on the surface and the air with all the instability problems it generates, but also the interface problems between underwater and on water, especially cavitation. We're working with aviation experts to explore these little-known areas."
Thanks to this important phase of research and development, the team hopes to be able to develop an engine capable of moving to more than 70 n?uds?!
"We hope to be able to develop this whole technological universe that doesn't exist. To create sea gears for rapid movement by limiting drag at very high speeds. We're also collaborating with Martin Fischer, who works for the Luna Rossa team on the America's Cup. There's a lot of work to be done on the foil. It has to have lift to get the board out of the water and remain stable once in the water, while having enough body power to keep it in the water. Because the faster you go, the more the foil wants to get out of the water.
Basically, we're working on a human project that has to be faster than a boat. Boats have no power limit. We've got a little guy. We have this kind of limitation that makes us have to get close to nature and birds. We don't have a lot of power and energy, and we have to go really fast. We need to create a man/machine ratio, a kind of augmented man. It's a bit of biomagnetism, it's exciting."
Developing prototypes for the record
To develop the board that will be used for the record, the team is working on prototypes of boards, sails, but also wetsuits.
"The objective is so fine that one is obliged to go through calculations, analyses and understanding of the phenomena. We absolutely need to put Antoine in conditions of comfort and speed. In absolute terms, he must be able to drink his coffee at very high speed. The objective is that he moves at the limit of rupture. We're doing some analysis so he knows what's going to happen at 50 knots, 60 knots, etc."
This phase of scientific study thus makes it possible to determine what speed is attainable so that the athlete can then be accompanied by the athlete on this performance.
"We can't send him into the unknown."
For the wetsuit, the team works with wingsuit and jetman specialists, but also with the development office Jonathan & Fletcher, which develops slalom ski suits, among other things.
To study wind obstruction phenomena and make sure that Antoine contributed to his speed instead of creating drag, the team conducted tests to see where the detachments came from. This will allow them to create a specific combination.
We will then have to study how Antoine will be connected to his machine.
"It's a lot more complex than we imagine. You have to study aerodynamics, safety... It's a sub-project involving 15 people: artificial intelligence, the data acquisition chain..."
The next step will be the development of the wing, which will probably already improve some records.
"Every three or four months, we'll take a new step. We're not going to work in the shadows. In April, we'll go back to the wind tunnel with an on-board inertial system. It's a system that allows us to know the position in space (axis, speed...) with a box at the heart of the acquisition system. It's never been done on a board and it will allow us to see how Antoine flies."
In the meantime, Mark and Anthony are looking for sponsors to provide financial support.
"We come with the whole system, but we need companies and enthusiasts who help us financially. We are looking for an adventure partner for whom our project makes sense, from a human and technological point of view.
We're working on the whole sea world. We are working on the organisation of tomorrow, the future, the way we work, by mixing skills from different fields. Zephir's opportunity is to highlight a demonstrator of tomorrow's world. The way to reconnect with nature by putting humans at the center of the system. Technology is at the service of connecting the individual with the elements. We go through the human, we will need his senses, his balance, the fusion with his element and his material. "
