Now, this would be an impressive regatta:
A new race for giant multihulls will be, officially, announced on December 7, at the Paris Boat Show.
The event is being organised by naval architect Yann Penfornis, a member of the Multiplast design team, who was project manager for Orange II and is now fulfilling that role for Franck Cammas’ Groupama 3.
The start and finish, of the 12 day race will be in Vannes and, as Penfornis told BYM News “All the big boys will be there!”
The competitors committed to lining up are Orange II, the original Orange, Cheyenne (formerly Playstation), Doha 2006 (formerly Club Med), Geronimo and Groupama 3, which will be launched next May.
All these boats, except Cheyenne, are built by Multiplast, which – in the last few years – has built more giant multihulls, than any yard in the world.
Groupama 3 is the second maxi-trimaran to be built by the yard; the first was the Van Peteghem /Lauriot-Prévost designed Geronimo, which was in the process of being built when the three Multiplast maxicatamarans, Club Med, Team Adventure and Innovation Explorer, took the first three places in The Race.
Since then, the number of circumnavigations undertaken by maxi-multihulls has multiplied and the Jules Verne Trophy record has been beaten three times; most recently by the Multiplast built Orange II, in the sensational time of 50 days, 16 hours, 20 minutes and 4 seconds.
Interesting, very interesting, if true, though the notable absence of an actual date for the race is telling. These guys always claim every possible boat is committed, and then end up with maybe two boats on the line…and one of them is Tony Bullimore on the old Enza. Still, we’ll stay tuned…
“Saddle up, boys. We’ve got another maxi-multihull party to crash…”
The Earthist Chronicles 