What the designers had to say about the new PRB 5 after her launch on Thursday 11th March:

Vincent Lauriot Prévost : "We’re used to launching boats, but at the same time there’s always that little emotion. We’re moving on to the next phase. We’re leaving the yard and the boat is going into the water. Then, there will be the trials and we need to check through everything. This is an enjoyable stage. PRB and Safran? Boats are never the same. She may have the same hull as Safran, but she doesn’t have the same appendages or the same rig. You’ll see she is very different."

Guillaume Verdier : "Our work doesn’t finish today. The boat is built now, but we’re moving on to fine-tuning her. This is where we look at her performance, which is the most interesting phase. As for her structure, PRB is very similar to Safran, but in terms of the balance of sails to appendages, she is very different. We came up with a completely different ."

 Just over a year after the end of the last Vendée Globe, Vincent Riou is getting ready to launch the first new generation monohull to be built for the next Vendée Globe. Following a construction lasting several months, the winner of the 2004 race will be revealing his new racing machine on Thursday in the presence of the designers, VPLP – Verdier, Jean-Jacques Laurent, the CEO of the Vendée based company that sponsors him and his technical team. The 60-foot IMOCA monohull, the fifth to be decked out in the colours of PRB, will be lowered into the water in Port La Foret before undergoing her righting test immediately afterwards. The mast will then be stepped in the middle of the afternoon. Her first sail is planned for next week.

 After arriving in New Zealand in early February, Jean-Yves Gau, who has been working on the deck hardware and electronics on Virbac-Paprec gave us his first impressions on the construction of the boat: "Virbac-Paprec 3 is a fine boat, which has been well designed and is certainly the most complete of Jean Pierre's IMOCA 60s, as she is very different from the others. Now that Virbac-Paprec 3 has been taken out of the mould, I am in charge of fitting the deck hardware, the electronics and the power system aboard her. I'm currently working on the new nav console. A container will shortly be arriving in New Zealand containing the sails, deck hardware and the electronic box of tricks designed in Lorient, the computer equipment, the safety gear, the batteries and the clothing."

 The deck of Jean-Pierre Dick’s new Virbac-Paprec 3 has just been adjusted to the nearest millimetre in Auckland, New Zealand. Following the advice given by Mick Cookson (the owner of the yard of the same name), Jean-Pierre Dick and Nicolas Abiven have decided to start fitting out the boat (ballast tanks, hydraulic system) before sealing up the “box” three weeks from now. This should enable workers to be more efficient offering a higher quality finish.

Meanwhile, work is continuing on the appendages, the daggerboards and rudders, while the manufacture of the keel began on 17th January. Jean-Pierre Dick : “We are just about to begin the final stage of the assembly process. The next stages will involve fitting the deck hardware and electronics, and fitting out the inside of the boat (chart table, computer system, hydraulic system), while the mast is baking in the oven. There is therefore still a lot of work to do, but I’m quite happy for the moment as we are keeping to schedule. The boat is due to be launched as planned in early spring.”

Jean-Pierre Dick took advantage of his visit to the Paris Boat Show to reveal the name of his new IMOCA 60 monohull, which is due to be launched in Auckland (New Zealand) in May 2010. Jean-Pierre Dick: “The boat will be called Virbac-Paprec 3. Yes, we’ve changed the order around! Since 2004, these two companies have got on well together and this is to ensure we’re being fair and equal. The first boat was called Virbac-Paprec, the second Paprec-Virbac 2, so for the third, it was only natural to change the names around. I’m very pleased about the confidence shown by both CEOs, Eric Marée and Jean-Luc Petithuguenin. The project has been based around this joint partnership, which makes it rather special and it works very well. Over the past five years, we have been through some great moments together. Now it’s time for some new challenges and for Virbac-Paprec 3.”

Three IMOCA 60 monohulls carried out a joint training session this week off the southern coast of Brittany. Artemis with Sam Davies on board set sail from Port-le-Forêt alongside BT for a speed trial to Quiberon, where they met up with Marc Guillemot's Safran. The three monohulls took advantage of the strengthening north-easterly wind to sail further away from the the coast under spinnaker. With a wind reaching thirty knots, they furled the spinnaker to head up towards Ushant.
These were perfect conditions to test the various configurations and to get used to such sailing conditions. At dawn, the three boats headed back towards Penmarc'h in SW Brittany. Sam freely admits that the speed of Artemis tends to drop off when reaching and Jonny Malbon's former monohull is certainly much more demanding than her old Roxy.