Multihull One Design-ORMA 70

[Doug Lord]

From the VPLP company:
"The Multi One Design or MOD is the new one design which will replace the ORMA 60 fleet. The performance objectives are to design for international, off shore racing. The aim behind a one design boat is to keep costs down, while maximising exposure in order to appeal to global sponsors.

Key differences between the current 60’ trimaran and the new 70’ MOD are:
- Strongly orientated to off shore racing
- Designed for a reduced crew
- A fast, modern design with foils
- A more condensed sail plan with a shorter mast
- A longer main hull, sitting high on the water line to reduce the risk of digging in
- Over all, the design is fashioned to favour offshore weather conditions."

http://www.vplp.fr/flash/index_vplp-3.html

[marshmat]

Looks like a fascinating boat to me.... quite the mess of foils, I must say, with what looks like a vertical daggerboard in the vaka, and a curved foil and rudder in each ama.

It'll be interesting to see how the sponsors react. Will a 70' one-design be a hit? And how much money will actually be saved?

I wish they'd replace their Web designer, though. That kind of bad Flash work is so 2003.

[Doug Lord]

Heres another 70 footer on the same site-WSL(Cayard & Coutts):
(Interesting that they use the vertical tip on the curved foils on the ORMA and not on the WSL cat.)

[Samnz]

Originally Posted by Doug Lord

From the VPLP company:
"The Multi One Design or MOD is the new one design which will replace the ORMA 60 fleet. The performance objectives are to design for international, off shore racing. The aim behind a one design boat is to keep costs down, while maximising exposure in order to appeal to global sponsors.

Key differences between the current 60’ trimaran and the new 70’ MOD are:
- Strongly orientated to off shore racing
- Designed for a reduced crew
- A fast, modern design with foils
- A more condensed sail plan with a shorter mast
- A longer main hull, sitting high on the water line to reduce the risk of digging in
- Over all, the design is fashioned to favour offshore weather conditions."

http://www.vplp.fr/flash/index_vplp-3.html

y did you red in the bit about foils? of course its foil assisted, but its not a "foiler" why you think that is?

[Doug Lord]

Originally Posted by Samnz

y did you red in the bit about foils? of course its foil assisted, but its not a "foiler" why you think that is?

-----------------
Because I think the use of foils is important in creating a modern multihull.....
If these foils are designed to support the same percentage of displacement as an ORMA tri, a single foil will lift up to 70% of the boats weight in "normal" sailing.

[Doug Lord]

Neat video on this site: http://www.multionedesign.com/en/

[Doug Lord]

From Scuttlebutt Europe:

MOD70: The Birth of a Major Event

Lorient, Frace: Steve Ravussin and Roland Jourdain were today in Lorient, at Keroman Technologies (CDK) shipyard, to unveil the last phase of the construction of their boats. Michel Desjoyeaux, skipper of the third MOD70 "Foncia", has paid a last minute visit too. Steve Ravussin's MOD70 "Race for Water" has entered the completion phase (fittings, electronics,...) and the christening is planned on March 25th: a unique launching event which will leave its mark as the "birth of a major event" with an exceptional show open to the public, at the Cite de la Voile Eric Tabarly in Lorient. As for the MOD 70 nr.2 "Veolia Environnement", she is entering the assembly phase with a scheduled launch on June 2nd.

"This is the result of a long process" says Steve Ravussin, the skipper and one of the initiator of the series. "To respect the strict one-design concept and to guarantee the performance and the reliability, we had to implement a number of quality controls. It was a huge work, but we managed to achieve it. I believe we have a splendid project that is becoming reality. As a matter of interest, thanks to the implementation of the control procedures, we have already built four sets of floats, with a maximum of 4 kg difference between pieces which are more than 22 meters long." He adds: "Creating a whole one-design series makes it difficult to realize that it is also "my" boat that will leave the shipyard! It is really a different feeling than working on a personal project. I am really happy, I do not realize yet, but this will be fantastic."

The first boat of the MOD70 series will be skippered by the Swiss sailor and will be the ambassador of the Multi One Attitude Foundation, a foundation created besides the MOD70 circuit, whose objective is water preservation. Central meeting point of the race village, the foundation pavilion will be part of the circuit in the stopover cities, in order to make the public aware of water issues and ocean preservation.

Michel Desjoyeaux was also at the shipyard today to see the progress of his future competitors boats. "I have not planned to be here today... But at the end I am happy to be able to start earlier with the MOD70 programme. I am so much looking forward to start sailing the boat end of August!"

Race Programme: 2012 / 2014

July 2012 : Ocean Race
September 2012 : European Tour
June 2013 : European Tour
November 2013 - April 2014: Ocean World Tour (6 stopovers, 5 oceans, 12 racing teams)
August 2014 : Ocean Race

www.multionedesign.com/en/

[Doug Lord]

The first 70 is nearing completion:

(click on image)

[Doug Lord]

Excerpt from interview by Lia Ditton with Vincent Prevost on SA frontpage:

MOD 70
LD: The Multi One Design or MOD 70 is the so-called new one design, which will replace the ORMA 60 fleet. You must be very excited to be the designers for this project. What new ideas about multihulls were you able to exercise with this class?

VLP: The new idea is a very pragmatic one: conceive a multihull, which is the synthesis of 20 years of evolution and development. A new generation of hull shapes, more seaworthy platforms, increased safety factors for structure reliability, all that staying in the same type of power as the last ORMA 60 projects.

LD: “A fast, modern design with foils” says your VPLP website. Am I correct in assuming that if these foils are designed to support the same percentage of displacement as an ORMA tri, a single foil could lift up to 70% of the boats weight in "normal" sailing?

VLP: Correct.

LD: At what point would you say a multihull becomes a ‘foiler’ rather than ‘with foils?’

VLP: Good question! No one has ever asked me that! Maybe a foiler would apply to ‘Geant’ whose main rudder was equipped with a T foil with adjustable angle of attack to get rid of hull buoyancy at the stern.

LD: Standardizing and establishing a one design of this size with such a varied design brief (offshore, inshore, full crew, short handed) must have presented a great deal of technical challenges. What sort of design boundaries has the MOD 70 project pushed for you?

VLP: The MOD 70 design brief is clearly for offshore races with 6 people on board. Inshore races will happen but it is not the primary goal of these boats.

LD: Wave piercing bows seem to be the zeitgeist. Can they be seen as one approach to addressing two different problems: reducing pitch for the purpose of stabilizing airflow over the sail plan and moving reserve buoyancy forward in big seas to reduce the chance of pitch poling? If we assumed a fixed LOA then wouldn't the later of these two benefit by adding reserve volume to the extremes thus allowing a more powerful hull and rig for the length?

VLP: These kinds of bows are possible when, as for the MOD 70, hull length is not limited by any box rule. The volume distribution forward of the front beam to counteract pitch poling is distributed more aft and the extra length allows us to have a finer angle of entry, reducing drag when passing through waves.

LD: Isn't the hull length of the MOD 70 limited by the box rule?

VLP: The idea was to design a boat safer than an ORMA, more in terms of structural reliability than in high speed behavior, notably the longitudinal stability, all of that by keeping the load numbers of an ORMA (same range of rig size, same deck gear, same appendages etc…) Increasing the reliability implies adding structure and weight at the same time. To keep the same load values, we have reduced the beam size to end at the same righting moment.

About longitudinal stability, we replaced the bowsprit with a main hull bow extension to reach the same overall length, which corresponds to adding 10 feet. This extra main hull length at the front, combined with the 5 feet increase in the length of the floats adds some important buoyancy forward to delay the time when the boat could capsize. So you are right! I made a shortcut. It is not a box rule, all boats being identical as monotypes.

[Doug Lord]

Here are a couple of shots of the first boat in the water-you can clearly see the curved lifting foils:

(click on image and then again on resulting image)

[Doug Lord]

From Scuttlebutt Europe today:

KRYS Opticians Commit to the MOD70 Circuit

Paris, France: 7 July 2012 will herald the kick-off of the first crewed race in the MOD70 circuit. Six one-design trimarans will set off from New York in the United States, bound for Brest in NW Brittany, where the planned mid-July finish will coincide with the start of the Tonnerres de Brest maritime festival. In this eastbound transatlantic race, the fleet of MOD70s will hoist the colours of a newcomer to the sponsor world: KRYS opticians.

Already involved in the cycling domain through its Vision Plus brand, Krys Group is boosting its activity in sport by selecting sailing and the burgeoning MOD70 circuit in particular. In this way the 2012 and 2014 editions of the KRYS Ocean Race will proudly sport the colours of the French leader of the eyewear market.

The KRYS Ocean Race is the first event of the MOD70 circuit and aims to be a major meeting for the series. Two editions have already been scheduled for 2012 and 2014.

The first six one-design trimarans in the running for this first edition will have to cover 2,950 miles to get from New York City, a cosmopolitan megalopolis, to Brest, where the fleet will be embraced by the Tonnerres de Brest Maritime Festival 2012 in full swing.

Three French teams and three overseas teams comprising six sailors per boat, will do battle over the 2,950 miles that make up the course.

With an enduring partnership firmly in their sights, the association with the KRYS brand begins this year with the KRYS MATCH, the first MOD70 show in real conditions, which will take place from 6 to 8 October 2011. This will be the first time the series will be together as a fleet. Participants will be able to show what they're made of during speed runs, as well as having the chance to challenge each other.

Participating crews and boat owners:
MOD01: Launched on 25 March 2011 - Race For Water, Steve Ravussin (SUI)
MOD02: Launch scheduled for June 2011 - Veolia Environnement, Roland Jourdain (FRA)
MOD03: Launch scheduled for August 2011 - Foncia, Michel Desjoyeaux (FRA)
MOD04: Launch scheduled for October 2011 - Edmond de Rothschild Group, Sebastien Josse (FRA)
MOD05: Launch scheduled for January 2012 - announcement to come
MOD06: Launch scheduled for April 2012 - announcement to come

www.krys-oceanrace.com
www.multionedesign.com

[Corley]

I'm going to leg it up to Sydney to see these amazing beasts even if I have to drag a bored wife and child!! I'll just set her loose with the credit card for a day while I check out boat porn

[Doug Lord]

Sailing pictures of the first boat here: http://www.multionedesign.com/en/

[Doug Lord]

From SA today:

"While out sailing in Lorient last week, Ravussin and team managed to notch up a not-so-shabby 28 knots boatspeed in 15kts wind... "

click on image:

[Doug Lord]

From Scuttlebutt Europe today:

New Mod 70 for Desjoyeaux and Foncia

When the MOD70 was announced, we were slightly sceptical about plans for yet another class of offshore yacht - no matter how many hulls. The world of professional sailing already has calendar clashes and multiple promoters competing for the attention of a relatively small audience. TheMOD70 though, has slowly but surely been sticking to its plan and some of the world's best offshore sailors and teams are signed up to take part.

One of the biggest advantages that the MOD70 has is in the name - it is a one design. One design racing provides lots of reasons for teams, sailors, fans (and sponsors) to be more interested in the event including:

- Cost control
- Closer racing
- Less focus on the platform and more focus on the sailors

Last week, Oman Sail announced that they would add an MOD70 campaign to their program, killing off the more ambitious Arabian 100 trimaran class and touted series.

Perhaps the only thing stopping the MOD70 from consuming the IMOCA 60 class is the Vendee Globe. As well as political instability, the IMOCA 60 is not a one-design which means that costs are rising and the gap between the front and back of the fleet is stretching. Now the winner of the last Vendee Globe, Michel Desjoyeaux, has taken delivery of his MOD70, the new multihull offshore event series is looking more and more interesting.

The rules of the MOD70 limit the number of competitors from any one country to 4. Unsurprisingly, France already has 3 teams flying the flag. Despite the large number of British sailors who competed in the last Vendee Globe, there are no UK teams announced yet for the MOD70 series. -- David Fuller in YachtSponsorship.com.

Full article: www.yachtsponsorship.com