In Vannes, the Malbert quay was crowded on Saturday, March 2, 2019, in front of the Multiplast yard. After 18 months of work, it was time to discover Sodebo Ultim 3, in the presence of its skipper Thomas Coville and one of Sodebo's 3 presidents, Patricia Brochard. The latest addition to the Ultim 32/23 class has the area of 4 tennis courts and its mast will be the size of the Arc de Triomphe?!
An innovative cockpit
While it has so far met all the criteria of the giant trimaran class, it stands out for its innovative design. Starting with this cockpit located well in front of the mast, integrated in the front arm. Never before seen before and a design inspired by aeronautics, as Thomas Coville explains:
"Having the cockpit in front of the mast will considerably improve the boat's manoeuvrability. The cockpit is fully integrated and looks like an aircraft cockpit. It's not a small evolution and I'm quite proud."
The cabin, which represents 20% of the boat's weight, has been moved 7 metres forward compared to the previous Sodebo and the boat's centre of gravity by 1.20 metres.
"In all motor sports, weight centering is a basic fact of aerodynamics and hydrodynamics. In terms of vision, perception, balance and landmarks to adjust the sails and mainsail, I will be much closer to the bow and the spray. But when you travel in an aircraft, the closer you are to the centre of gravity, the less heckling and stress you are subjected to. We'll see from the first sailings, but the objective is to make it more comfortable" explains the skipper.
An instruction manual to be written
"It looks like the old one, but it's packed with electronics, hydraulics and fiber optics. With these important foils and all the technology on board, you'll have to write the instructions for use." explains Jean-Luc Nélias, Sodebo's router. The boat perched its foils will take off to exceed 40 knots.
A pooling of skills
To bring this boat into being - decided two days after Thomas Coville's 50-day world tour on December 25, 2017, it took 110?000 working hours and nearly 400 suppliers. But above all, the birth of a design team, with people with varied expertise and new working methods.
"Currently, the boats are too complex for there to be only one person who knows and therefore one architect," explains Thomas Coville. Thus, 11 people from Sodebo worked in collaboration with VPLP for the lively works of the central hull, the floats and the shape of the front arm, Banuls for the general architecture, the platform, the appendages and the VPP (Velocity Prediction Program), Martin Fisher for the design of the foils and many others.
A navigation program around the world
Designed and built for a round the world racing program, the next 4 years will be dedicated to 3 round the world races and 14 crewed and solo transatlantic races. An ambitious sporting program that will alternate solo, duo and much more.
The boat will be launched in 15 days and will begin a phase of static tests, before continuing with the first sailings and the search for performance.
Sodebo Ultim 3 in figures
18 months of construction
50,000 hours of study
110,000 hours of construction work
29,256 coffees
- 32m long by 23m wide and 34m high, the surface of 4 tennis courts...
- 65T of compression in the mast foot ball
- 17T of tension in the mainsail sheet
- nearly 700m² of sail area downwind
- maximum speed envisaged: between 45 and 50 knots
- More than 400 suppliers
- Air draft: 36m
- More than 16,000m2 of carbon
- KM of ends: 2,5Km
- Net surface area: 270m2
- Fiber optic film: 330m
- KM of electrical cables: 4Km
- Foils: 2,5m under hull. Total height of the foils: 4m
- Painting area: 750m2
- Sail surfaces:
GV: 277m2
-Ris1: 220m2
- Ris2: 165m2
- Ris3: 107m2
D0: 420m2
Day 1: 261m2
D-2: 170m2
D3: 92m2
