IMOCA 60: new foils, a fin not to flop. What do you think?

Do you remember what a disaster at the last Transat Jacques Vabre? Four out of five new generation IMOCA 60s (those with foils) had to retire due to serious structural failures. A resounding and dangerous flop of the flying boats that were supposed to revolutionize the monohull world. There are those who, in the run-up to the Vendée Globe, the nonstop solo round-the-world race, have already let it be known that they will give up foils (like Vincent Riou, skipper of PRB) and those who are betting on appendages. As long as they are optimized and updated in a way that does not repeat the flop of Jacques Vabre.

CHAMPION BETS ON FOILS BUT…
Among them is Jérémie Beyou (three victories at the Solitaire du Figaro), aboard Maitre Coq: his IMOCA 60 is not brand new (it is the one on which Armel Le Cleac’h won silver at the last Vendée, so a penultimate generation hull, equipped with classic appendages), but the navigator decided to invest quite a bit of dough-300,000 euros-for “operation foil,” or their retrofit installation.

… AS LONG AS THEY ARE NEW GENERATION
The pieces were made in New Zealand (conceived by Nick Holroyd, a designer with extensive experience on foils ground up in the America’s Cup)-evidently Beyou no longer trusts the VPLP studio-and are not curved like those seen at Jacques Vabre, but instead have an angled elbow and a tiny vertical fin in the lower portion of the profile, probably to increase their stability in action. Although foils in the ocean, for now, have yet to prove their effectiveness, they are well worth the risk: on the slack, an IMOCA 60 equipped with appendages can travel up to 3 knots faster than a traditional hull.

FIGARO PEOPLE ALSO WANT TO FLY
Meanwhile, the Figaro class is also converting to foils. After Lombard’s Figaro 2, the third generation of the monotype (which will make its debut in the 2019 edition of the Solitaire du Figaro, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the race) will arrive: the class and the shipyard (Beneteau), as usual, have announced a competition for the design of the boat, and this time the proposal of the studio seems to be favored VPLP/Verdier (creator of all the latest IMOCA 60s with foils) than those advanced by the Finot/Manuard pair and Desjoyeaux’s Mer Forte studio. A committee, composed of Beneteau and class leadership, will ratify the decision.

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WHAT CHANGES.
The novelties will not be few: no more “classic” symmetrical spi but a configuration with asymmetrical, a farewell to the round hull for an angled solution, the abandonment of the fixed keel for a canting one, a modern, set-back sail plan, and, above all, the foils, which from the first leaked rendering would appear to be curved in the style of those seen at the last Jacques Vabre. The total cost of the boat shall not exceed 150,000 euros.

VIDEO: HOW FOILS WORK ON IMOCA 60S