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After four seasons and several victories, SVR Lazartigue has received a major upgrade to its appendages. The trimaran skippered by Tom Laperche is now looking for greater stability in rough conditions, without losing its speed potential in the medium. The skipper explains the choices made with the architects and technical teams on board.
After several months in the yard, SVR Lazartigue is back in the water with new foils and rudders. Why did you launch this evolution?
We wanted to upgrade the boat after four years of operation. We had accumulated an enormous amount of data and experience on the water. Just over a year ago, we started work on new foils and rudders. These are time-consuming parts to develop. There are studies, simulations, manufacturing and then all the integration on board. This winter, we reached the final phase with complete installation on the boat and adaptation of the systems.
What were the main objectives of this project?
The main idea was to gain stability in certain conditions, particularly in strong winds and heavy seas. The boat was already a top performer in the medium, with a great ability to take off early. But sometimes it became more difficult to exploit when the seas got bigger. So we were looking for a better balance between pure performance and control of the boat over time.
The new rudders seem to be an important evolution of the trimaran. What does it mean in concrete terms?
The big difference is that they're deeper. The deeper the rudders, the more control you have when the boat is flying high. This means you have more steering, are less on the verge of stalling and can better exploit the trimaran in fast phases.
So the goal is to fly higher?
Yes, but above all to get through the waves better. If you can fly at the same height as before, with more control, that's already a major gain. And if you can fly a little higher in certain conditions, it also helps to cushion impacts in the sea. Today, on Ultims, the real brake is often the sea state rather than the wind itself.
You often speak of average speed rather than maximum speed. Why do you say that?
Because in single-handed offshore sailing, average speed becomes essential. On flat seas, these boats are already extremely fast. But as soon as the waves hit and the boat slows down, relaunching is extremely costly. If we can keep a more stable speed and avoid these big slowdowns, we can gain a lot over 24 hours.
That's where the new foils come in?
Exactly. If you have a better, more stable and more controlled flight, you can also hold the sails better and better manage the stresses on the boat. Then we enter a virtuous spiral, with apparent winds further ahead and more downwind performance.
How do you make technical decisions on a project like this?
It's a collective effort with VPLP, the design office teams and the sailing team. We sail and report on our sensations. Then the architects and engineers work on it, using digital tools and simulations. The simulator has become central to comparing different foil and rudder architectures.
The first sea trials are encouraging?
Yes, we're happy with the first sensations. We had the theoretical figures and the architects' analyses, but the most important thing is what we feel on the water. And today, we can feel the gains in our hands, in our trajectories and in the boat's behavior.
There's still a lot of work to be done before the Route du Rhum 2026?
Yes, of course. We're still in the learning phase with these new appendages. There are a lot of settings to understand and optimize. But we're fully committed to this dynamic, with the Route du Rhum 2026 as our main objective. From this summer onwards, all our preparations will be geared towards this race.
What will SVR Lazartigue be doing in the months ahead of the start of the Route du Rhum 2026?
Now we're wrapping up our Mediterranean tour. We're currently in Marseille, then we'll be sailing with suppliers, distributors and SVR brand employees on the Côte d'Azur. After that, we'll head down to Naples for the Italian subsidiary, then Barcelona for Spain. After that, we're off to Cascais, near Lisbon, for Portugal.
The return trip from Cascais to Brittany is going to be important for me because it will be single-handed. It will serve as both training and qualification for the Route du Rhum. There will be around 1,500 miles to cover, so it'll be a real piece of sailing to get to grips with the new appendages in different conditions.
From June onwards, all our preparations will gradually focus on the Route du Rhum 2026. The idea is to continue accumulating miles, adjustments and automatisms with this new configuration of the boat.
