Team Lalou's new Multi 50 trimaran

Phil's 50' trimaran would not fit the Multi50 class rules too much carbon in its construction. A sweet boat though.

 

I had a look at the drawings etc. on the website; despite the carbon/light weight (and bowsprit) which would contravene the rules, it doesn't look like he intends to fly the main hull too much and the more overrigged Frenchies wouldn't have trouble staying ahead in about 10 knots wind and over.

 

A video showing how they plastic wrapped the new sponsor logos and colour scheme onto Rennes - St Malo it looks like a good option and durable.

http://vimeo.com/66886770

 

^^^

The entire job done in 3 days (v. ca. a month w/spraypaint) and weight I think they said 250gr per square meter. The American guy who did the job talked about applying "really high heat" to the foil covering, but I trust "really high" isn't enough to damage the boat's laminate.

Maybe the printing of the covering can feature something beyond color grading, in which case we may see some cool graphics on boats from now on?

 

From VSail.info, the first Multi50 Fenetrea Cardinal (ex Crepes 3) has arrived at the Marina Real Juan Carlos, Valencia, a much more civilized time of the year to visit, than when I was briefly there for AC33!

Pierre at VSail is impressed that the race is owned and organized by the vegetable growers of the Prince de Bretagne brand:

I'm happy that Fenetrea is first to turnip at the venue after fixing their leeks.

 

Well the did well to get FenetreA Cardinal there after the repairs and not spring (onion) any leeks. Great to see Prince de Bretagne sponsoring the event. I often wonder why the French enthusiasm for ocean racing is so much greater than elsewhere? I can never imagine an Australian fresh food company pitching in money on an Ocean Racing campaign and events for example.

I can only guess it's because the French pro sailors have been such great ambassadors for the sport and that there is a genuine public interest in sailing. It also seems that the French Government has pitched in to help provide facilities such as the Lorient Submarine Base (or is it privately owned?) that can act as support locations for Ocean Racing campaigns. If that base was in Australia it would have been sold off and converted into apartments or something.

 

This from Team Lalou enroute to the start of the Route du Princes

Arkema-Region Aquitaine spent the night Gibraltar. All is well on edge. Some nice slide, two or three whales and snow on the mountains of the Spain. Arrival in Valencia, Wednesday evening.

 

From Course au Large:

http://www.courseaularge.com/articles/25392/Un-premier-test-pour-Lalou-Roucayrol.html

Multi50 colours d´Arkema - Aquitaine Region is the latest addition to the fleet of the Route des Princes. Updated l´eau on March 23 at the port of the Verdon, the trimaran has entirely been designed and manufactured in Aquitaine. Aujourd´Hui, he is obviously still in the development phase but is already 17 trips, including four days of conveying particularly instructive to join Valencia, starting point of this tour of l´Europe of the terroirs. Its skipper, Lalou Roucayrol, made the point on first navigations and the first sensations on board.

"What we know is that Romaric Neyhousser and me are not too planted us. We took a lot of risks architecturally. Forms of the floats, in particular, are very particular. Rest that what we have seen during the first outings at sea is rather reassuring. Downwind, we really have the speed. In conveying, we realized the days more than 400 miles, which is rather very well for us. On the other hand, in the little time we can't seem really penalized. "At the close, however, we still lack a little hindsight to really give an opinion."

"This race is for us a step that will allow us to learn the boat. We will try to walk at best, to learn its operation. It turns out that it is extremely sensitive to the weight. Much more, I think, than the other 50 feet here in Valencia. Today we grope and it is normal but as I said, obviously we do we are not planted. This already happened to me in the past, on Banque Populaire. The boat was good but not enough typed for the Grand Prix. We had the redo nine meters of hull. There, it will not be the case. If we manage to snap a handle, this will be top. We are not going to play the pretentious or too ambitious but we thoroughly inside. We can seize our chance."

 

^^^

I've found a neat program here Corley, it's called 'Google translate for Google translate'.

Lettuce take a section of the google translate above and see what it does!

"What we know is that Romaric Neyhousser and I have never much liked vegetables at all, so the design of the boat is such that you could perhaps slip a few asparagus into the center hull, but there is not room for anything like baked potatoes or cabbages. Downwind we are therefor truly quick. On the trip down here we had days when we sailed over 400 nm, which is rather good for us. Also, in light winds we didn't seem to suffer at all. To windward on the other hand, we still need more observations before having an opinion."

 

It seems that Prince de Bretagne had some input on that particular google translation app

 

They're sprouting up all over the place these days, beets me how they do it.



...

PS. Here's today's tweet from Pierre/VSail:

 

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Tracking at Routedesprinces.fr shows that Lalou is in the lead for the first time during this race. He's finally snuck ahead of Actual, in lighter air?

He is no doubt delighted to finally have a competitive boat again.

Also there's threat of a regrouping and restart in the Straights.

Here's a photo I saw on Facebook, regarding the shape of the main hull:

 

Video of Arkema in action approaching Lisbon

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=604125132931804

 

Corley. Thanks for the great Vid.

 

The recent Trophee du Port de Fecamp saw the crew on FenetreA Cardinal pick up a clean sweep of the event easily defeating the rest of the Multi50's with the reinvigorated Maitre Jacques coming in second and Actual in on third. Lalou and Arkema just missed out on the podium this time.

FenetreA Cardinal is an exceptionally competitive boat and well sailed by Erwan Le Roux and crew.

The top Multi50's are preparing for the upcoming Transat Jacques Vabre. The TJV is also allowing the MOD70's to race in two handed format and should be great to watch.

1- FenêtréA-Cardinal – Erwan Le Roux – 9 pts
2- Maitre Jacques – Loïc Féquet – 25 pts
3- Actual – Yves Le Blévec – 27 pts
4- Arkema Région Aquitaine – Lalou Roucayrol – 27 pts
5- Rennes Metropole Saint-Malo Agglo – Gilles Lamiré – 49 pts
6- Rayon Vert – Alain Delhumeau – 59 pts
7- Biscuiterie de Saint-Brieuc – Pascal Quintin – 67 pts
8- Gamin – Pierre Antoine – 67 pts
9- Delirium – Joris de Carlan – 86 pts
10- Notrepharma.com – Jean-François Lilti – 87 pts
11- Nootka – Gilles Buekenhout – 90 pts
12- PiR2 – Etienne Hochedé – 100 pts