Rain hammered the dock last Saturday, but the crowd pressing against the barriers for a look at Gitana 18, the newest Ultim launched last spring, stood its ground anyway. The boat draws stares wherever it goes.
The Maxi Edmond de Rothschild will contest its first transatlantic race with Charles Caudrelier at the helm, offering the first real glimpse of where the Ultim class is heading. The VPLP-Verdier design draws the eye immediately, its flowing lines and the technical finesse of visible components blending carbon and titanium. The decoration, commissioned by Ariane de Rothschild and created by artists Florian and Michaël Quistrebert, is striking in its own right. Staged by Jean-Baptiste Epron, thousands of dots across the hulls and sails form an expanding wave of ripples and faces.
"None of it is stuck on, everything was painted using stencils and each circle was then sanded back so it wouldn't create a flaw on the hull surface," says team manager Cyril Dardashti, who invited a closer look aboard.
The numbers are dizzying. Some 200,000 hours of labour went into bringing the new trimaran to life, built entirely in the autoclave at the CDK yard. Add another 50,000 hours of design work, "double what we spent on Gitana 17," Dardashti says, a deep well of knowledge the team drew on before essentially starting from scratch.
Like its predecessor, Gitana 18 is disruptive. Everything was reconsidered four years ago when the first design loops began: a dynamically bending mast, retractable Y-foils, a tilting daggerboard, U-shaped rudders to push back cavitation, a structural cockpit roof extending the hull line. "Six patents have been filed on these technical components," Dardashti notes. The predictive autopilot, developed in partnership with young firm WDS We.Deploy(science), won't be sold to any other Ultim.
Forty-four hydraulic rams power this unusual vessel. The bright yellow cockpit, accessed easily through side doors, extends the central hull between the two floats and forms part of the platform's anti-torsion structure. Yellow outside, carbon black within, it's roomier than expected, with wide glazing offering a good view of what's happening on deck. The manoeuvring zone, dense with screens, and the watch station have swapped positions compared with Gitana 17. Caudrelier will rest at the back, "to cut visual clutter and reduce the number of screens," the skipper explains.
Between the two zones sit small electric wheels for taking control of the boat's course. Further forward, more wheels manage the angle of the daggerboard flaps and other appendages. Mast rake and mainsheet controls remain within reach overhead. A central grinding pedestal drives four winches and also generates power for the boat's 44 hydraulic rams. "We only had 17 on the old boat!" Dardashti says, making no secret of the weight gain. "The platform itself is actually lighter than G17's, but the size of the appendages is in a different league and that inevitably adds weight. We accept that."
Gitana 18 was designed to fly noticeably higher than its rivals. That brings instability, but also high average speeds in rough seas. How quickly will it reach Pointe-à-Pitre? Could it pull off a stunning win after just six months and 7,000 miles of development against a mature fleet, or will it need patience before it starts dictating terms?
"Once the safety requirements are met, you have to dive in," Dardashti concludes. "Being at the start line is already a first success, this Route du Rhum was the appointment to keep. We know these new boats need breaking in before they're reliable. I hope we've broken enough small things already."
Before the scoreboard fills in on Sunday, the decoration has already settled one category: it's an unarguable triumph for Gitana's new flagship.
