A consortium of architects and designers
In 2017, the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild broke new ground as the first giant trimaran designed to fly on the high seas. It will do so again in 2023, with the announcement of the future Gitana 18.
Guillaume Verdier, Benjamin Muyl, naval architect in charge of the design team for France's Orient Express challenge for the America's Cup, and the Gitana stable's design office were all involved in this new 32 m long, 23 m wide boat.
As with Gitana 17, the stable reserves a certain amount of freedom for targeted developments, such as servoing issues.
Although the platform is similar in terms of geometry, the specifications include two major areas of focus. Firstly, the improvement of the sails and everything above deck, as well as the limitation of drag. In terms of aerodynamics, this boat will be the first to be built around a new visibility rule, as well as a new rigging rule, since the Gabart affair.
With regard to hydrodynamics, all the appendages - foils, rudders and daggerboard - will be redesigned to fly earlier, and will benefit from the expertise of the data acquired on Gitana 17.
A boat designed for long crossings and challenges
Like its predecessor, this new boat will be versatile in terms of its program: archimedean and flying, solo and crewed, racing and record-breaking. However, Gitana 18 will be more suited to long crossings and major challenges, in particular to improve high-speed performance in rough seas.
Construction entrusted to CDK Technologies
For the construction of the boat, the Gitana Team has chosen to entrust its new baby to CDK Technologies. The former Edmond de Rothschild was built by a consortium of professionals, including Multiplast for the platform. The first carbon plies will be draped in the coming weeks, in early 2024. Launch is scheduled for 2025.
The architect's words
Guillaume Verdier explains: "With this new boat, we're all keen to take the next step and there's a lot of material and leads. We're still perhaps a third of the way through our knowledge of ocean flight. In the new project, the studies have shown that there is potential. There will be small steps and big technological breakthroughs. And it's the arbitration of these that will create this new Maxi. We're working on a boat that will have the same strengths in terms of performance, but which will make up for what we've identified as weak points. Sustainability is also a key criterion in our approach, and we're looking for as many innovative solutions as possible to minimize impact and the resulting damage. We've also given more thought to integrating the sailor into the platform, as the efforts of these boats are not at all on a human scale, and it's also our responsibility to make this accessible to the sailor."
