Gitana 17-100' Trimaran Foiler-Launch 7/17/17

The fact is the course error made by Team Gitana cost them 60 miles which would have put them much closer at the finish. I haven't found an accurate distance that Gitana was behind at the finish.
UPDATE: I'm wrong to say it cost them 60 miles-more like around 124 miles since they started out 64 miles in front and wound up 60 miles behind......


From Dolfiman in the Transat thread:
If Gitana speed potential is not technically affected, they still have a chance, they already show at the beginning of the race that they are able to go faster than Sodebo in reaching conditions. Their delay in time is only 30 mn. On the other hand Sodebo is a very sharp machine and currently easier to lead at 100% than new Gitana still in the learning curve as confessed Seb Josse on their site. He also confessed their wrong route option 2 days ago (it was not a tactical move as I presumed optimistically), in french on their site :
"Thomas and Jean-Luc played a nice weather option that explains today that they are leading the race. After the passage of the Azores we had the choice between jibing several times or going under J0 (big gennaker). Given our position at that time, we opted for gybing and navigation under J1 (genoa) which was to allow us to gain in longitudinal. Sodebo made the opposite choice by shifting in the West to slip. Our choice did not pay, far from it. Not only the state of the sea in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday did not allow us to exploit as expected our choice of sail and our meeting with a grain without wind pushed the nail. In the end, it was Thomas and Jean-Luc who pulled the right edge and in view of the weather conditions that presented themselves in front of our bows we had last night to jibe at 90 ° of the road to get away from the African coast and areas of light winds in our south. On the way out of this resetting, the addition was salty: from a 64-mile credit at 21h, Gitana 17 conceded 60 miles at sunrise. "t's always hard as a decision but the evening files were very clear. Sometimes you have to know how to lose a little to not completely mortgage the next events" .

 

Based on Dolfimans* estimate of 30NM behind for Gitana at the finish it is clear that had they not made the course error they could still have won despite foil and engine problems.
* Transat thread

 

From the Gitana site,11/16/17 :
Thomas Rouxel: “Ah! It was my first Transat Jacques Vabre and I wouldn't have said no to a little victory! But here we are with this second place and that's no small feat. We made a strategic error at the Azores, which cost dearly and I think it was one of the key points in the race. Added to that, we had foil issues, which no longer enabled us to make a difference in terms of speed. Furthermore, we were up against two mighty candidates.”

 

Yapping fan boy full of excuses. You lost.

 

Sure, he lost but if Gitana had not had failures, human and foils, and the opponent would have had more failures (I'm sure they also had), Gitana would have won easily.
Now they know that with another navigator and with other foils they can have an option. That is the harsh reality, they must recognize it and learn from it.

 

While that is a reasonable supposition, you don't know it for fact. In any case, it's not posted here so you can't rely on it to support specific theoretic benefits. What you have posted in your MPX Foil/Trimaran thread* is just more theorising with neither detailed analysis nor empirical evidence of efficacy.

Your theories may be entirely correct, I was simply pointing out that there is neither published detailed analysis nor empirical evidence to support them.

* The thread covers 3 different models, one of which isn't a trimaran and doesn't have the "Fire Arrow Foil System". Only one model has been in the water and has amassed 1hr 50min of testing over 3 years ago. Of that, perhaps 30 min was in foiling conditions with no more than about 15 seconds of continuous foiling. An encouraging start in need of followup.

 

From Team Gitana:

 

Gitana is home--- GitanaTeam (@GitanaTeam) | Twitter https://twitter.com/GitanaTeam

 

One we may have missed:

 

Gitana 17-- Anybody heard anything she got back?

 

Gitana 17 is in refit since 13 dec. in Lorient base, and I have no more information that this 2018 programme posted on their site :
Program - Gitana : Offshore racing stable created by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild http://www.gitana-team.com/en/le-programme.php

So, that seems a definitive confirmation that they could not be ready for the Nice Ultimed, neither Macif also in refit :
Nice UltiMed - Accueil http://www.niceultimed.com/fr

 

Thanks!

 

Updated info: Gitana : Offshore racing stable created by Baron Benjamin de Rothschild http://www.gitana-team.com/en/

 

Gitana 17--elements of the boat discussed in the following video by Guillaume Verdier at the launch of Gitana 17:
1) to allow the foil system to work properly:
a--the platform is a little heavier than usual,
b-- the platform is stiffer in torsion.
--
2) Elevator on daggerboard lifting foil helps the mainhull to fly earlier than it would with windpressure alone and is a big help in roll control.
a-- In an e-mail to me regarding Maserati, Guillaume said: "We can produce downforce. It is quite dangerous for the boat if we exaggerate." *
Masserati's mainfoil system -at that time-was experimental and the whole foil(daggerboard + lifting foil) was moved. On Gitana 17 the lift(downforce) on the main foil is adjusted by moving a flap.
* there is a video of Maserati showing exactly what the mainfoil lift capability is with the boat pitched way up!
--
3) Ama foils work a bit like an AC 72 foil did and are auto-stable as a result of leeway coupling. They are the largest ama foils of any 100' trimaran.

Video with Verdiers comments at the launch:
Yachting World https://www.facebook.com/yachtingworldmagazine/videos/vb.111913865558561/1425355727547695/?type=2&theater
==========================================
For more on the advantages of this foil system check out post 2682(scroll down to near bottom of the page) here:
High Performance MPX Foil/Self-righting Trimaran-The Test Model https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/high-performance-mpx-foil-self-righting-trimaran-the-test-model.36058/page-179

 

Gitana 17- The boat will be relaunched at the end of April, beginning of May. Josse will do two transatlantics before the Route du Rhum in November.

".....With our aim being to prepare for the Route du Rhum, a race spanning over 3,000 miles, we've scheduled in two transatlantic crossings between May and July. An outward journey between Cadiz and San Salvador, which provides us with very similar sailing conditions to that of the Route du Rhum and an inward journey setting sail from New York to test the boat in the slightly more aggressive conditions of the North Atlantic. The idea is to set off in the wake of some well-known routes, which already have some timing references, but without necessarily being in record mode. To go for records, you need perfect weather conditions and for that you need time to devote to a stand-by, which isn't our case this year.
With this in mind, the crew configuration during these test runs will be organised according to the weather so Sébastien Josse can reserve himself the decision of whether to set sail singlehanded or accompanied.