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GitAnA
dark line of breeze moves across the
water and when it reaches Gitana 17 the
bows of the 100ft trimaran rear up. It’s an
alarming feeling as you wait for the boat
to level up on its leeward L-foil, whale-tail
daggerboard and rudder T-foils. The transition feels
reluctant yet unstoppable, like a fully loaded 747 getting
off the runway.
And then the giant trimaran is flying, knifing along at
35-36 knots and borne by a mere 4m^2 of carbon fibre.
Beneath the trampoline I can see the elbow of the
leeward foil carving a path through the water as if under
plate glass, while the tip just breaks the surface from time
to time. Astern, the rudder T-foils draw two sharp stripes
along the sea. The wakes are misted with spray and
finished off with a hint of rainbow. It’s thrilling doing 36
knots on a sea without a single whitecap. I want to say this
is crazy, but the apparent wind takes my words and hurls
them overboard.
Gitana 17 is a marvel, a revolutionary 100ft fully foiling
oceangoing trimaran designed to be capable of covering
more than 900 miles in a day and, eventually, to sail at
speeds of 50 knots.A pipe dream
The idea of foiling offshore is not new. Alain Thébault’s
extraordinary 60ft Hydroptère once took the 500m and
one nautical mile speed sailing records and Thébault
hoped that Hydroptère could eventually sail round the
world in 40 days, but it remained a pipe dream. This boat
is a different beast, and could really make that happen.
Gitana’s owner is the banker Baron Benjamin de
Rothschild; this is the latest Gitana in a long line of
Rothschild family boats that began in 1876 – and by far the
most radical. Everything about her is huge. Just getting on
board from the dockside requires a huge set of steps. The
sheets and halyards, the turning blocks, the runningbackstay thimbles, all unremarkable items in proportion,
are huge when close up. The foils too, are enormous – you
can see it in the photo of me overleaf standing beside a
same-size replica in the Gitana Team hangar in Lorient.
The sheer slab-sided mass of the boat at rest makes the
idea of it flying along through the water on foil tips
incredible, like a rugby player sprinting in high heels. But
as soon as the sails are hoisted, Gitana 17 takes wing. Four
of skipper Seb Josse’s crew grind on the pedestal winches
as we leave the bay, a steady ten-minute workout to inch
the huge squaretop mainsail to the top of the mast. Then
it’s sheeted on and the boat surges forward. Finally, the J2
headsail is cracked out and the trimaran chases off with
windward and central hull out of the water. The conditions
are perfect: flat water, 14 knots of wind, 89° TWA, and we’re
ripping towards Belle Ile now... 28...32 ...35 knots.First flight
Gitana 17’s first flight happened soon after her launch
from Vannes-based builders Multiplast in July.
Remarkably, this groundbreaking new yacht was ready to
race in the two-handed Transat Jacques Vabre (TJV) race
from France to Brazil in October, sailed by Seb Josse and
his co-skipper, Thomas Rouxel. They very nearly won it,
finishing 2nd to Thomas Coville’s well-tested 105ft Sodebo
Ultim by under two hours. But Gitana 17 is the
culmination of years of trialling and experience by the
team and its designers, and the input of Josse, one of
France’s most experienced and illustrious ocean racers.
“Technically, the boat is good. That was our biggest
concern, that when the boat went into the water it would
be ready for the TJV. But after a few weeks, we had a good
feeling. The boat was stable and it was fast, and we were
flying more and more, and feeling confident in the boat. It
is safe, and soft,” says Josse.
Flying a large trimaran was something the team
began work on three years ago when it had its MOD 70,Driving the new 100ft Guillaume Verdier-designed trimaran Gitana 17. Most manoeuvres can be carried out in the shelter of this cuddyPhotos; Yann Riou/GitanaS.A