Questioned, Cyril Dardashti, the general manager of Gitana Team explains to us why his team chose to leave the Ultim Collective.
You're announcing that you're leaving the Ultim Collective, why this decision?
We leave this collective without being angry. Mainly, we disagree on the technological evolutions restrained by the Collective. These include the enslavement of foils and other appendages, but also other possible developments. At Gitana, we are building a racing yacht and we want to evolve to go as fast as possible. There's no question of staying on the handbrake.
Since 2014, we believe in the flying boat in ocean racing. And for us, this mastery of flight comes through enslavement. Today the Collective defends the individual interests of each other and forbids us to do so. We want to get out of this pattern."
What's going to change in Gitana 17's programme?
For the time being we have a programme for 2020 with the English Transat and Franck Cammas at the helm. The return transat will take place in record mode (solo or crewed depending on the weather window) or in crewed delivery mode if the right window does not present itself. This record is not a requirement for us and we won't be on standby for long. Then at the end of November, we'll go on stand-by for a Jules Vernes Trophy. We'll do it with a "reduced" crew, probably 6 people. Of course Franck Cammas and Charles Caudrelier (the 2 skippers) will be aboard.
For 2021 and beyond, we don't yet have a very definite programme, even though it seems to have been announced that Charles will be at the helm solo for the 2022 Rhum and the round the world in 2023.
This 2023 round-the-world tour enters the Ultim class?
We're not ruling out running against the other Ultims. We are able to comply with the gauge as we did for the Brest Atlantic this year. We have the ability to dismantle the enslavement.
For us, the servo offers an increased speed potential, but it is also a big plus for safety. This regulates the trim and avoids certain dangerous behaviour of the trimaran. But if we have to comply with the gauge, we will. It's surprising that the rules of the records allow enslavement, but that the collective forbids it... But if Gitana takes part in a race, she respects the rules.
Our departure from the Collective should not change much, on the contrary. We hope that it will open up possibilities to meet up with all the Ultim trimarans. Gitana doesn't want to be restrained and wants to keep her freedom to evolve. That doesn't close anything. We like to participate in races to measure ourselves against others, we enjoy competing and we have the will to do it again.
At the moment the trimaran is under construction, what are the evolutions we'll be able to see?
The launch is scheduled for mid-March 2020 and sailing will resume on 25 March. We have made some small changes that will be visible on the boat. I won't tell you more, but it's on aerodynamics and hydrodynamics that we've been working on. With sailboats going at more than 40 knots, it is impossible to ignore the aero.
We are also working hard on solutions to avoid UFOs. In particular, we work with the Oscar system to help them with development. All ocean racing classes combined should work on this area, as it is unfortunate that ocean racing is becoming random.
A simple scratch on a foil already disturbs the flow. Raising and lowering the foils during a race finished by scratching them, damages them and we can't get the same potential out of the boat at the beginning or at the end of the race. Changing or repairing them while racing is impossible. Collisions should therefore be avoided as much as possible.
