All three skippers share the identical view that though they are all excited with the big jump in performance potential of their ‘new’ machines. It is essential to work them up gradually to build in reliability and learn how to best operate them.
After fitting new foils (coloured red and green to complement the white hull and reflect the Italian tricolour) through the winter Giancarlo Pedote, seventh on the last Vendée Globe, relaunched his 2015 VPLP/Verdier design in mid May.
Pedote explains that he has the same foils as V and B – Monbana -Mayenne and Guyot Environnment – Water Family and the operating system is the same too. He has phased his updates over two years, last year fitting a new rounded bow and adding more strength and structure.
Now he is excited about the speed gains that he anticipates, « The improvement in speed is around 15% all round. I will fly sooner and in the lighter conditions it will make a difference. Though the boat is now a little heavier. »
His immediate programme, like that of Pip and Kojiro, is about ramping things up steadily. This season is less focused on finding speed as it is on running the boat effectively and safely : « These first sails will be all about checking and learning the mechanical parts. It is so important to check and learn the reliability of these systems, once that is done we will focus on the performance. Right now it is all about the best conditions between the foil and the bearing, to have one system which is very good. And always you are remembering that to finish well in the race you have to finish. »
Giancarlo is happy to work himself with his own small team, being very ‘hands on’, for good reason. « I enjoy the whole technical side of it is really compulsory to enjoy all of the technical side, making advances. You really have to be 100% present for all the technical choices because when you are alone sailing, you need a good knowledge of the boat so you can be confident to push to the optimum and know better how to repair it if, or when, the time comes. »
After six months in Carrington Boats where the bow of Medallia was cut off and replaced to integrate a more rounded, spatulated entry – not quite as radical as Pedote’s – and fitting new, big Guillaume Verdier studio designed foils, Pip Hare admits she shed a tear when her new look Medallia emerged out the hangar.
« I cried when I saw the new look boat. I feel so unbelievably privileged to be doing this with this boat. I am so proud of our team and what we have all achieved. It is almost still an all-British team but we now have a lovely French guy now….he had a shock immersion into the English way and how lunch is not one whole hour but quite a bit less! He has helped immensely having a native French speaker for communication with the designers and suppliers. »
This past week she and a small delivery crew sailed the boat from Hythe, by Southampton, back to Poole where Medallia is based.
« The sailing was unbelievably incredible. » Grinned Hare on her arrival back ‘home’ « I knew the boat was going to be different but I don’t think I had even started to imagine how different it was going to be. We had perfect conditions, very flat water and 15-18kts of breeze and I said we would do a gentle test sail, but the boat hooked into the breeze, the bow lifted and we all drew a collective breath…and then we shot off like a robber’s dog. We were straight up to 29kts and then backed off. » She recalled, adding, « It felt fast but like it should be. The noises are different, the boat felt superlight. I guess we just need to readjust and think about everything now in a different way. The potential I can see is absolutely enormous, it is so exciting, so brilliant, I am so, so happy. What we need learn is monumental and so I want to learn with now is very important and so I am thinking about that very closely. And for now the mission is to get the boat strong, reliable and stable so we can do the Fastnet and hopefully learn by hanging on to some good guys. »
She explains, « At the moment we don’t have new polars (computer generated speed predictions). When we were originally talking to Guillaume Verdier and he is still confident on the numbers, he said we should be within 95% of a new boat, we can achieve that. Maybe we would like to have gone as extreme on the bow as Giancarlo did, his modification is something like six metres, we did as much as we could afford to do on our budget, so our bow mod is small and perfectly formed! And at the end of the day it is about consistency, being able to achieve these high averages speeds. »
She has her ambitions but knows who she will be matched closest with, « We have to be benchmarking against Damien (Seguin), Giancarlo (Pedote), Romain (Attanasio), Benjamin (Dutreux) as we are all the same generation of boat with big foils now. And I would like to be with those guys. I think Damien and Benjamin should be the hottest of this generation, but my aspiration is to be trying to nip at the heels of the 2020 generation boats. But in the Vendée Globe itself we all know it is so different. I believe that on over two months of racing then it is about maintaining averages, dealing with your problems, the Vendée Globe is such a very different race and it is going to be so, so exciting this time because there is such a diverse range of boats in there and skippers, who can predict what is going to happen. »
Mentally as well as practically it is has been a long road back to being race ready for Japan’s Kojiro Shiraishi, who – many will remember – had to retire within hours of the start of last Autumn’s Route du Rhum Destination Guadeloupe after a collision with Oliver Heer Ocean Racing.
Kojiro recalls, « I quickly had to bounce back and be in a more positive spirit. Of course it was was heart breaking to end a race like that as it was the first time I had been involved in a collision like this.And it was my duty to help Oli get back in the race and I was glad he was able to finish the Route du Rhum in time. Then, we as a team had to regroup and refocuson what was ahead. The objectives I have for the next Vendée Globe is to get into the top 10 and so we needed to upgrade a few things on the boat. Meantime once the refit started I was able to go back to Japan to my family and to apologise to my sponsors for having such a terrible race. All our team members that are based in France also all went to Japan to visit our sponsors. It is very important to be able to communicate well with them and it is very important for all the crew members to learn about the Japanese culture. »
Kojiro and his team sailed the boat this weekend for the first time. He knows the pressure they are under now, not having finished the first qualified race : « To make the qualification for the Vendée Globe, we need to participate and finish all races ahead of us, so there is no room for errors. We are going step by step, listening to the boat like it is a brand new boat and have it ready to go for the start of the Vendée Globe. » The main changes to DMG MORI are the foils and the bow, both overseen by VPLP. « We worked with the architects to get foils that are better in downwind VMG conditions and to not lose our abilities in reaching conditions. There were a few steps in the conception of these foils, with our own design team working closely with VPLP. The first step was to find the right shape, to see the pros and cons of each shape. We then worked on simulators to see beforehand the way the boat might react in different types of conditions. This will help us to learn faster how to race our boat and the appendage settings. Also, in term of design, we were not looking to have a fast speed boat but a good average speed boat. A boat that is a little more stable in all types of conditions. » Kojiro says, echoing his rivals.
They cut about 5 meters of the hull to graft a new one which is flatter with a bigger rocker. The Japanese skipper explains, « The boat will be flying on the foils in a lighter wind than before. And the foils will be able to regulate the foil lift than before which will enable us to control the boat better. The foils are not to the limit of the class and putting into perspective, they are almost the same size as my previous ones but more optimised to our wants. »
Meantime the DMG MORI team has evolved and grown, « We have Thierry Duprey du Vorsent a talented sailor, was previously a skipper of the trimaran Gitana and crew member of the Jules Verne with Banque Populaire. He joined the team last year to become our boat captain. Thierry will be my co-skipper this year on the Rolex Fastnet Race and the Transat Jacques Vabre. And Benoit Mariette who is a successful Figaro racer has also joined our team last year as the technical director will be sailing with me on the Défi Azimut. »
Kojiro concludes, « The main objectives for us is to understand the boat better to finish all the races ahead of us and to gather as much data as possible from the boat so that we understand her better We will be training as much as possible to get automatism and be ready for the races ahead. »
