Gitana 10 sails!

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After a 10 month build at the Multiplast yard and a launching at the end of June in Vannes, the trimaran Gitana 10 has sailed for the first time in the bay of La Trinité-sur-Mer (Atlantic/France).
Barely out of the Gulf of Morbihan, home of the Multiplast yard, even though night had fallen, the Gitana Team could not resist hoisting sail. In 12/13 knots of wind, with the daggerboard partly raised and no foil, Gitana 10 immediately announced her colours, with a peak at 24.8 knots (46 kph). A speed quite normal for this type of boat with such a low power to weight ratio. But this was certainly not the objective of this inaugural sailing. Nevertheless, when you realise that it takes months to work up these Formula 1s of the seas..

and make them reliable before being able to fully exploit their potential, an air of confidence could be felt all round. Gilles Ollier: "Thanks to all the tests and controls that we carry out during all stages of construction and after launching, we can immediately reach a very good level of development".

Discovery

Following this nocturnal limber up, Sunday afternoon was fully devoted to discovering the boat, with a crew of 13 aboard including 3 of the yacht's architects: Gilles Ollier (F), Yann Penfornis (F) and Duncan MacLane (Usa). Despite lighter winds than the day before (10 knots), the team tested the staysail and the different appendage mechanisms. This second sailing was a validation outing. Lionnel Lemonchois, the boat's skipper: "my first impression is rather good; I've got a good feeling for her, her trim seems to be sound".

In her lines

Gitana 10 gives a real impression of ease, probably because of the design choices with the heavily curved real X-shaped beams and the inclined floats with pronounced rocker, whose bows rise higher than the level of the central hull. Sailing on a flat sea, this configuration appeared to be effective, the boat leaving a very clean wake astern, with the 3 bows well clear. Finally the manoeuvring cockpit won appeared to please the crew. For this first time out they could easily imagine finding their marks. Lionel Lemonchois: "its ergonomics required a lot of thought to properly integrate the three zones: aft with the mainsheet track and runners, central with the hydraulics and the coffee grinders, forwards with the winches and foresail handling".
Gitana 10's other very apparent particularity is the position of her mast well aft, with an impressively rounded roach to the mainsail. An option that will be put to the test during sea trials that will now follow on intensively.

At the end of the week, Gitana 10 will set sail for Zeebrugge (Belgium) where from 11th to 14th July the 2nd Grand Prix of the Orma Multihull World Championship will take place, a class that Gitana 10 belongs to.