Guillaume Verdier, architect of Gitana 18: “This boat marks a new technological breakthrough”

The assembly phase of the composite platform of Gitana 18, the future Ultim trimaran of Charles Caudrelier, is in full swing, with its launch scheduled for the end of September. With this new trimaran, expectations are high. “Today I’m not afraid to say that the gap between Gitana 17 and Gitana 18 is greater than the gap between Gitana 17 and the previous generation of boats. Everything is 100% optimized for flight,” says Sébastien Sainson, head of the design office.

“Gitana 18 is kind of the culmination of a lot of things we already knew and could have done earlier but perhaps didn’t dare to. Having the opportunity to launch such a project again, after seven years operating Gitana 17, has allowed us to put all our ideas into action on a brand-new project, starting from a blank page,” explains Sainson, one of the key figures behind the construction of the future Maxi Edmond de Rothschild.

50,000 hours of studies

To design this new Maxi Edmond de Rothschild, the Gitana Team also raised its design standards. The in-house design office includes eight full-time professionals—young, highly talented profiles trained in naval architecture or engineering, with deep expertise in areas such as structural calculations. Designing Gitana 18 required nearly 50,000 hours of study, compared to 35,000 hours for Gitana 17, which was already considered a very high number in the field.

“With this boat, we didn’t even ask the question—we knew it had to fly 100% of the time, so we did everything to make it as fast as possible while flying.”

Looking at Gitana 17’s record—sixteen races, fifteen podium finishes, and ten victories, including the Route du Rhum and the Arkéa Ultim Challenge—its successor has big shoes to fill. But according to its designers, the new 32-meter giant won’t lack flair: “Today I’m not afraid to say that the gap between Gitana 17 and Gitana 18 is greater than between Gitana 17 and the previous generation of boats. Everything is 100% optimized for flight. With this boat, we didn’t even ask the question—we knew it had to fly 100% of the time, so we did everything to make it as fast as possible while flying,” emphasizes Sainson.

“We challenged ourselves not to build a boat that was just a small, incremental evolution. I really believe we’ve created a new technological leap with this boat, just as we did with Gitana 17. We’ve once again projected ourselves into the future with this vessel,” concludes Guillaume Verdier.

Source: @Voiles et Voiliers