Ocean Racing Magazine - #6 - December 2007 & January 2008 - (Page 32)

IMOCA FONCIA : bearing the signature of the Professor © D. Bourgeois With the sliding hood, the helmsman is protected from sea spray, while still maintaining good visibility outside of the sails. Going on board alongside Michel Desjoyeaux is always an exciting experience, not only because the Breton sailor has a long list of successes, but because there is always something new to learn… The new IMOCA monohull clearly bears the mark of an ingenious sailor. CONCARNEAU AT DAWN: Michel Desjoyeaux and his team of assistants are already making their way out of the channel, while the sun is only just appearing over the horizon… The final session before the delivery to Le Havre for the Transat Jacques Vabre, the first ocean race for this Farr design, which is quite different from her sisterships: PRB, Delta Dore, Gitana 80, PaprecVirbac, Estrella Damm. Even at first glance, Foncia shows she is very different from the usual run of things: with her deck layout, her cockpit fitted with a sliding hood with portholes for the helmsman, and then there is the interior that really surprises and even shocks those, who knew Michel Desjoyeaux’s previous Vendée Globe monohull. Gone the little corner used as a chart table on gimbals: the living quarters are limited to an upholstered, moulded seat on a rotating leg made of carbon in front of a computer screen… Difficult to imagine anything more sober! Michel Desjoyeaux points out that in any case sailing round the world single-handed does not take as long as all that and there is therefore no need for any bunks at sea. There is however one on each side, which can be pushed back downwind and are in fact used more to store equipment than to offer comfort to the tired sailor. In comparison to the usual designs from the American Farr design team, the interior matches the skipper: everything is kept simple. "The goal of our studies with Mer Agitée was to get rid of any useless weight and to lower the mass to gain in trim when under sail, and therefore in power. Thus all the halyards coming from the wing mast are relayed directly on to the sheaves at the back of the hull, then on to the cockpit via funnel tubing: less movement, less friction, less weight… It is true that the cockpit can appear complicated, as we wanted to limit the number of ropes and cleats, while keeping as many adjustments as possible. In the same way, the shrouds are swept back to enable us to gybe without a running backstay, and are fixed in the corner of the cockpit in spite of recommendations to the contrary from Farr… But this too means weight savings!" A veranda with a view Indeed, Michel Desjoyeaux has not only taken advantage of what he learnt from his winning single-handed voyage around the world: his experience aboard the ORMA trimaran can be felt, particularly with the sliding protective hood over the cockpit above the helmsman. "In 2000, my monohull had a ratio of sail to weight of 21 m2/tonne. Four years later, the same boat had gained 3 m2/t simply with the bow ballast. Today, Foncia is at almost 30 m_/t, which is still a long way from the 60 to 70 m2/t of my previous trimaran… " In fact, the monohull gives the strange impression of being very powerful upwind or reaching in the 18-knot breeze. It is astonishingly light under spinnaker, with a very precise reaction at the helm. It is easy to get the speedo to indicate twenty knots, and apart from the fact that stowing the huge spinnaker away requires a lot of preparation, the boat seems remarkably easy to set and sail. However, once again, with Michel Desjoyeaux in charge, any crewman would feel that he has made enormous progress in just a few hours… Dominic Bourgeois Ocean Racing - december 2007

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ocean Racing Magazine - #6 - December 2007 & January 2008

Cover
Edito
Contents
What they said
News
Portfolio - The news in the picture
Transat Jacques Vabre - Monohulls in power
In the words of the skipper - Michel Desjoyaux, A little bit more
Barcelona World Race - A couple sailing around the world
Imoca - Growth crisis in the Imoca class
Transat 6.5 - A whole series of records
Mini Class - Anatomy of a winner
Multihulls - What sort of trimarans tomorrow ?
Volvo Ocean Race - Second generation
Trials - Mach 45 : an unusual IRC
Match Racing - King Richard
Tactics - A good start
Portrait - Jacques Caraës
Lab - Tubular or wing mast ?
Forty years ago - Chichester, the lonely sea and the sky
Equipment - Shop window
New products - From the drawing board to the boatyard
Opinion - The mirage of worshipping technology

Ocean Racing Magazine - #6 - December 2007 & January 2008