All of you have your points. With meteo, you need luck. But it remains that the smaller, lighter and "easier" (the NA called it the mobylette -the moped-) trimaran has made a very similar mean speed.
And I maintain that the "small" rig with its slightly better efficiency has permitted a more direct route. In a short regatta, or a moderate wind race in Atlantic, such a rig does not pay on a so smaller boat.
But in the hard south seas, the rig payed with a good interest rate. Remark that Idec arrived to Good Hope Cape about 700 miles behind Banque Populaire, but after it began to break the partial records one after another. The meteo conditions do not explain totally such a metronome regularity over so long distances.
The 2 tris have a huge difference in size and sail surface.
BPV is has far more sail and it's lighter in ratio displacement/length while the widths are pretty close with far longer hulls.
IDEC has a far better ratio stability/sail surface and can keep the sail longer with less stresses on the amas as the rig is shorter and lighter. Probably it's more robust and it can be pressed harder.
The ciphers speak by themselves. IDEC is a "small" maxi tri compared to BPV. I leave to you the pleasure of calculating the static ratios. There are other very interesting dynamic ratios, mainly in diagonal stability and damping curves.
Architects for both tris : VPLP team (Van Péteghem-Lauriot Prévost)
IDEC SPORT BPV
Length: 31.50 m 40 m
Beam: 22.50 m 23 m
Displacement: 18,000 kg 23.000 kg
Draught: 5.70 m 5,80 m
Mast height: 33.50 m 47 m
Upwind sail surface: 411 m2 713 m2
Downwind sail surface: 678 m2 1050 m2
