Historical multihulls

Yes silver, it was sold in cairns around '95. My father flew to Sydney before it was sold by the broker in a quick sale. Turns out it was a rudy choy design. It was widened with his permission by 1 foot and built by dwain off choy's plans around '70 according to my father. Last we heard it went to Darwin after that who knows?

 

Michel Desjoyeaux on his long career and the multihulls and events therein.

http://www.mod70-europeantour.com/en/news/magazine/461/the-good-old-days.html

The Good Old Days

At 20 years of age the youthful Michel Desjoyeaux gave up his studies to devote himself entirely to competitive sailing. With his friend Roland Jourdain he set sail on Crédit Agricole for the first edition of the Course de l'Europe. Indirectly this was the very start of his great career and also the consequent transformation of a small port in Southern Brittany, Port-la-Forêt, which over time would become the center for French offshore racing a decade later.

"When I participated in the first edition of the Course de l’Europe in August 1985, an event which was created by Jacques Delors with Gerard Petipas doing the technical side of things I joined Philippe Jeantot’s Crédit Agricole project thanks in particular to my friend Bilou (Roland Jourdain). He was already sailing on this 22.80 metre catamaran with Vianney Ancelin and I had also just helped Bilou on the 1000 miles delivery from Deauville on his small catamaran Caisse d'Epargne another Gilles Ollier 40 feet design, so a kind of mini version of Crédit Agricole.

So I joined Philippe Jeantot in Kiel On board were Jean-Yves Bernot as navigator, Alain Collet, Fred Leclère, Vianney Ancelin and Roland Jourdain. We did some training in Brest before the boat was delivered to Kiel. It was increased again to 22.80 meters after the 1984 Ostar, after it had been cut down to 18.24m in order to meet the rules of the English race.

It was an incredible time because there were lots of new big multihulls after the Transat Quebec-Saint Malo which then had a “no limit” philosophy such as Fleury Michon, Charente Maritime, Formule Tag, Stalaven, Roger & Gallet, Ker Cadelac and then the 60 footers like Apricot, the trimaran designed by Nigel Irens and Paragon, the superb multihull designed by Adrian Thompson and Rob Humphreys.”

“ The first leg starting in Kiel (Germany) took us to Scheveningen, the harbor port in The Hague (Netherlands): I remember that we had arrived at night just in front of a kind of huge dam full of streetlights ... And Alain Gabbay’s huge foiling multihull, Charles Heidsieck nearly pitchpoled on a wave because it had a huge enclosed cockpit that had filled with water!

We raced to Zeebrugge (Belgium) on the second leg and when we finished, the monohull Cote d’Or was coming from the Fastnet and which Tabarly was set to use for the next Whitbread 1985-86), also coming in to the harbor. A few months before that I had applied to Tabarly to sail with him and when he saw me on the dock he asked me if I was still interested!

“It all rolled on from there… after warning Philippe Jeantot on the Torquay stopover, when we were leading overall I stepped down at the Lorient stopover and with Roland Jourdain, Alain Collet, Ancelin Vianney we all joined Eric Tabarly for the round the world race and I suppose we have not looked back since then.

This Europe Race was really my first big offshore sailing test as all I had done up to then was the ‘1000 miles of Deauville’. And in the whole process, I end up setting off on a round the world race! I had to stop my studies in Applied Physics at the IUT Saint-Nazaire to my parents despair.

Thankfully they have never been angry about that. In fact, that was the beginning of my professional sailing career because after that I just have never stopped sailing.

Jean-Yves Bernot probably struggled the most on the Europe Race; he had no GPS, Sat-Nav, weather files or even a computer. It was pre-historic with the Loran and the Decca…It was not easy for him with Philippe Jeantot and he threw in the towel at Lorient.

Crédit Agricole was not all that big even for those times. I had been out on the Multihull Trophy in La Trinité sur Mer on Alain Glicksman’s Lessive Saint-Marc proa (to become Tahiti Douche), a really complex boat.

In addition, my brother Hubert and Jean Le Cam had participated in the construction of the Ollier design and this catamaran performed pretty well. You had to just put a crew member sitting with his back to the wind on the coach roof to protect the helmsman from getting completely drenched.

At that time we had Dorléans sails, the first reinforced webbing: they wore out with the race but worked, except that the strats needed constant stratifying and the battens would break on each gybe… The genoa had a sheathed 10 mm cable because Spectra had yet to come about. You really had to prepare your tacks to avoid making knots! We would use symmetric spinnakers with the pole out beyond the outer hull…Memories…those were the days!

 

Corley, I met all those guys with Lionel Peon ( l'esprit d'equipe) and later with Eric Tabarly (Cote d'Or) when they arrived in Auckland. We took them out diving at Whatipu and got crayfish and mussels and had big party at Jacques' place in Ponsonby. Also invited Bilou, Michel, Francois Carpente, Fredo and others on Sundreamer; they were impressed and coming from their experiences on Credit Agricole, was an accolade for David Barker.
Here's a shot from that period of maxi 85 foot Royale. Check out the steam arising.

 

At Okahu Bay, Auckland, the VPLP Formula 40 Biscuits Cantreau 111.

 

Looks grunty, I imagine it will give Vodafone a scare under some conditions.

 

Gooday Gary & Thanks for posting. Any idea when they are going to splash ??? Such a 'horny' looking 'toy' in the pic ! ! How's it look up close in the flesh ???
As I remember - they've been working on it for several months now - did they get all the carbon mods to the deck & cabin areas finished & what do they look like ??? Get us some more info. & pics. eh ! ! ! Please ! ! !

Sure looks hot - wish I was over there to go sailing - they'd be a blast. ciao, james

 

Arthur Piver on sailing the Stiletto design

From the Trimaran Association Newsletter November 1966.

 

Fascinating read ! Gotta watch those throat slashing Cubans !

But more questions, Paul Elvstrom designed a trimaran ? curiouser and curiouser !
Thanks Corley !

 

Phil's article on Sodebo is available in the .pdf archives on multihull.com.au it's a good read.

http://www.multihull.com.au/site/www/pdf/pdfs/sodebo.pdf

 

Formula 40

You might have already seen this but it's very intriguing:

http://bestformula40.com/

 

Thanks Doug. Jean Le Cam's BC2 had unusual, but very attractive rudder fittings, like curved "hands and fingers" off the transoms - so I'm fairly certain the Auckland boat is not BC2. That is unless the transoms have been altered since Le Cam had the boat. I think the Auckland boat is BC3. It is definitely not BC4 which had very squared off (almost planing shaped) main hull bilge after sections.
The original Biscuits Cantreau was the X beam one, a narrower boat, now with the Golden Oldies.
The Aucklander has extremely long float daggers and no main hull board (although you can see where it used to be, not filled and faired that well at this stage). Also an outboard well has been recently placed in the main hull under and close to the rear beam. There has been a rumour that a cabin is to be placed on main hull too. Hope they don't do it.

 

An Interview with Marc Van Peteghem which delves back into some of the history of the VPLP design group.

http://www.multihulls-world.com/us/catamarans/news/marc-van-peteghem-naval-architect-amongst-other-things-,685.html

 

An archived article from Plymouth on the OSTAR 2009 edition can anyone identify the trimarans in the pictures?

http://www.challengeandadventure.com/archives/4558

 

Light for the World - Crowther 40 and Croisieres Anne Caseneuve -Open 50.

 

I thought the first tri looked familiar.