Launch of the Maxi trimaran Edmond de Rothschild after 20 months of construction at Multiplast - Groupe Carboman

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It was at 5AM Monday morning (17/07) that Multiplast's assembly hall doors finally opened to allow the launch of the Maxi trimaran Edmond de Rothschild. At 32 metres long and 23 metres wide, the boat, suspended by a crane 10 metres up, didn't go unnoticed...

Concentred innovation

Multiplast teams had the opportunity to build a boat that was highly refined in its design. The Gitana design team and Guillaume Verdier have, in particular, developed the flight capabilities, the optimisation of the composite structure, the control systems and the reduction of the aerodynamic drag of this multihull. This giant is the first ocean trimaran designed specifically to navigate completly on its foils, rudders and center board. Until now, these appendages served only to relieve the platform; today, a new threshold in boat design has been crossed.

In terms of innovation, for the first time, Multiplast had the opportunity to produce the maxi multihull arms in the giant autoclave at the Airbus plant in Nantes. Asked by Guillaume Verdier, the architect, Multiplast's links with the world of aeronautics made possible to propose to Gitana the processes and industrial methods usually reserved for the manufacture of the Airbus A350.

20 months to build

The Maxi trimaran Edmond de Rothschild was born thanks to the close cooperation between the client and the teams at the construction site in Vannes. In total some 170,000 hours of work were required to carry out the build for this 20-month project. For the 70 Multiplast employees, divided into eight teams, this project represented some 96 000 hours of work (excluding the toolings)

 
Maxi Edmond de Rothschild leaving Multiplast's workshop

A human adventure

In october 2015, the Methods department first saw the initial plans of Guillaume Verdier and the Gitana Design Team. These first stages of construction now seem a long time ago to our team leaders, who here speak about the project's highlights :

"At the beginning of the project, wa are faced with plywood pallets, fiberglass rolls, carbon rolls, resin tops and screw boxes. 20 months later the doors open and a beautiful boat comes out. One cannot remain unmoved at such a moment !" Thomas Lempérière - Team Leader, Central hull construction

"Apart from the launch, one of the major construction stage is assembly. When the arms are bonded to the center hull, when the floats are positioned at the end of the arm, then the boat really takes shape and shows its full extent. In this phase, we are all working very hard together to ensure we succeed. There is then a lot of cooperation to make sure every little detail is taken care of and that all of us are working in harmony. Teamwork is essential !" Benjamin Girot - Team Leader, construction arms.

"Making a multihull of this size is physically demanding and requires extreme rigour. The job cannot be done properly if one is not dedicated. I take my hat off to my guys who worked for six months in the floats, an extremely confined space which is hard to access. The result of their work is something of an exceptionally high quality" Gilles Tollance - Team Leader, construction floats.

The launching of the maxi Edmond de Rothschild

A symbol of strength

Launching a boat is never is trivial and, though this trimaran is the eighth 30 metre-plus multihull to be launched at Multiplast, the magic does not wear off, even for the team at the Vannes yard who, over 35 years, have become somewhat accustomed to the show. After the last 2 records for Multiplast's boat (Idec and Sodebo) and a maxi trimaran launching, the Multiplast team, in less than a week, are already starting a new construction for Sodebo's (New Maxi trimaran)

 
Multiplast Team in front of the Maxi trimaran

More information :

Contacts : 

Yann Penfornis : + 33 2 97 40 98 44 / + 33 6 12 05 86 97 

"If your dreams don't scare you, they are not big enough"