A fine work of art with attention paid to the smallest detail, this ocean racer designed for solo sailing is the first to come out of the Swiss yard, which has already acquired a strong reputation. We met up with Bertrand Cardis, who was in charge of building this new monohull. Nothing has been left to chance during the construction phase of what is after all a prototype…

Seeing this first 60-foot IMOCA boat leave the yard and being handed over must be a very special moment for the Décision yard?

Bertrand Cardis: “It’s always a pleasure to see a boat leave the yard. Starting back in 1984, she is the 58th boat to be born here in Eclubens. Since we began, we have always been lucky and built some exceptional boats. If you’re talking about ocean racers, we gained a lot of experience with boats at the time of the Whitbread, with in particular the ketch La Poste, which went on to be skippered by Eric Tabarly. Then we worked on multihulls, the Class America boat for Team Alinghi, the Décision 35s which relaunched racing on Lake Geneva, and there was also a solar boat, the Solar Impulse… It’s great that now we’ve worked on an IMOCA, which is such a fine class, and in particular on a boat for Bernard Stamm, whom I’ve known practically since he was a small boy, so that adds to the emotional aspect.”

What are the most important aspects involved in the construction of an IMOCA designed for the Vendée Globe?

B.C: When looking at solo ocean racing, you always need to look at the question of reliability and ease of handling. With this goal in mind, we built a full scale model of the cockpit to ensure that Bernard would feel at ease during manoeuvres, that the distance between the winches and the ability to handle her were adapted to his size and his way of sailing. We had to decide too how far to go in certain directions to avoid going too far and to keep her simple. Over the past year, the overall philosophy of the yard has been to end up with a boat, which can be sailed easily.”

Everyone knows that building a prototype for a round the world race is a major challenge in terms of reliability. What work did you do to try to avoid breakages and structural damage?

B.C: “We tried to adopt a systematic approach during the whole of the construction phase. All of the parts were checked using ultrasound devices and X-rays, exactly as is the case for the America’s Cup. To eliminate areas where damage was more likely and to ensure that the boat left the yard without any flaws, we applied quality control procedures. We checked the whole of the surface of the hull, all of the vital structural elements, and every nook and cranny we could, where we may have had any doubts. The composite work is still very much a sort of alchemy and attention has to be paid to how it is carried out and applied. If by chance the joins between the various component parts were not perfect, you can imagine problems resulting in the mechanical behaviour of the materials.”

What was the schedule in terms of building this new boat?

B.C.: “We weren’t starting out with the moulds of a sistership but completely from scratch. A year ago, we began by manufacturing the tooling required to build the boat. Then, we continued with the deck in order to leave as much time as possible to the designer to come up with his hull that we took out of the mould back in August. The first layer of carbon was applied back in September. An IMOCA involves 35,000 man hours during the construction phase: that is huge in comparison to the 22-23,000 man hours needed to build a Class America. That goes to show how complicated this type of boat is...”

Programme for 2011

• 4th April: The boat came out of the Décision SA yard in Eclubens (Suisse) and was transported by road to La Ciotat (South coast of France) where her keel and mast will be fitted and the deck hardware put in place
• 9th May: launch and first sea trials
• 2nd July: start of the Europa Race (Istanbul-Barcelona-Brest-Hamburg-Cowes)
• 30th October: start of the Transat Jacques Vabre