Launching of Olivier de Kersauson's trimaran
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With the new 34 m maxi trimaran for French skipper Olivier de Kersauson, this will be the fourth composite racing yacht of more than 33 metres that Multiplast has launched in some 27 months (after the catamarans for The Race).
This new 34 m trimaran needed 12 months to build between July 2000 and July 2001 by the 50 employees of Multiplast, or more than 100,000 man hours when you include the equipment suppliers..Today, the trimaran is completely assembled. The final tasks before leaving the building hall at the end of July are the fitting of the deck gear, putting the finishing touches to the accommodations, finalising the bonding of the forward structures, finishing the mast and painting.

This final job is a sizeable one, because it represents more than 1000 m² to cover for each coat of lacquer.

Atlantic Record: 11 years!

On celebrating at the Yacht Club de Monaco last June the 10th anniversary of the Atlantic record held by Jet Services V, her skipper Serge Madec, her owner the ex-president of Jet Services Roger Caille, her designer Gilles Ollier and her builder Multiplast really thought that they were living the final hours of their fabulous adventure, with the arrival of the maxis for The Race.
Indeed, hardly had these new machines been launched that they were already proving their speed potential, enough to allow them to challenge this record. But not very encouraging weather conditions, some early technical problems and the impending start of The Race put paid to any hopes of success for the pretenders.
In fact, ever since June 9th 1991, the number of attempts to beat Jet Services V have not been so great. Bruno Peyron has had three goes on Explorer (92, 95 and 99), Laurent Bourgnon once on Primagaz (94), Tracy Edwards once on Royal & Sun Alliance (97), Yvan Bourgnon and Cam Lewis once on Foncia (99), Steve Fossett twice on PlayStation (2000) and Grant Dalton once on Club Med (2000). So some 9 attempts, the closest being Yvan Bourgnon's who with his brother Laurent and Cam Lewis failed by just 4 short hours on approaching the line.
But on the other hand it looks as though 2001 should be more propitious for the setting of a new reference time. Indeed, if the right weather windows open up between now and the end of the year, several big multihulls will be leaving New York heading for the Lizard. The first to go on standby are Steve Fossett's PlayStation and Cam Lewis's Team Adventure, which are already tied up in the Big Apple. Innovation Explorer and the ex-Club Med could quite well be joining them; as could Olivier de Kersauson's new trimaran which will be launched from the Multiplast yard at the end of the month.
With three of its designs on the starting line and 4 yachts built in its yard, Multiplast could succeed itself with the constructor's cup and the record cup, as the initiator Roger Caille has decided to prolong the existence of the challenge. Indeed, the ex-president of Jet Services is still very much attached to this record and is continuing to offer a prize of FF 200,000 to the first crew to depose Serge Madec.

Magic life

Launched in 1996, the 25 m fast cruising catamaran Magic Cat built by Multiplast has just ended 5 years successful charter in the Caribbean before starting a circumnavigation this coming autumn after a summer season in the Mediterranean.
In the Caribbean, she chartered for 40 weeks per year and was considered as being the fastest up-market charter yacht in the region. It's true that Magic Cat has fine high freeboard hulls and a wing mast, extrapolations stemming from the experience of the Gilles Ollier Design Team in racing and efficiently adapted for cruising. So the preliminary programme for the next 3 years will be taking Magic Cat back again to the Caribbean Sea, then to Panama, the Galapagos, the Marquesas, Tahiti and New Zealand where she will be on station during the America's Cup, then Bali, the Red Sea and Suez before returning to the Mediterranean. After already 4 transats and almost 40,000 miles under her twin daggerboards, the yacht's captain Patrick Sassier declares that he will be setting off in complete confidence, because the yacht is so reliable and useable in true charter conditions.