{"id":5985,"date":"2020-05-26T12:46:15","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T11:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.guillaumeverdier.com\/?p=5985"},"modified":"2021-10-22T12:54:26","modified_gmt":"2021-10-22T11:54:26","slug":"the-ac75-is-a-very-atypical-boat-guillaumes-verdier-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.guillaumeverdier.com\/en\/the-ac75-is-a-very-atypical-boat-guillaumes-verdier-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Guillaume Verdier’s work- From the AC75 Emirates Team New Zealand to the latest Imocas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guillaume Verdier<\/a>\u2019s work at the moment seems to span everything from the America\u2019s Cup, where he continues to innovate as a key naval architect with\u00a0Emirates Team New Zealand<\/a>, to IMOCA where he has contributed foil design for Sam Davies and others, there are two freshly launched Vend\u00e9e Globe boats for\u00a0Thomas Ruyant<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Charlie Dalin<\/a>\u00a0preparing to take on the upcoming Transat Jacques Vabre, Ultimes where he has just added some updates to Gitana 17. He is designing for\u00a0two Ocean Race teams<\/a>. Verdier\u2019s passion and drive is undiminished. Tip & Shaft spoke to Guillaume just after the first flights of the ETNZ AC 75.<\/em><\/p>\n

Having been instrumental in the concept of these flying monohulls these first flights must have been satisfying for you?<\/strong>
\nTo be honest it is very difficult to talk about the new boat I am very restricted in what I can talk about, I can talk only in big generalities. The idea of this boat which we have just launched comes from\u00a0a pre project that Ray Davies and myself worked on for a client for a 40 footer<\/strong>. That was during the last Cup. We started drawing a boat and I started off like an IMOCA (configuration). Ray told me it was not possible to have two foils and a keel.\u00a0I said we could do two canting foils<\/strong>, so that we go from static stability to dynamic stability. That is the game we are playing, trying to find the fine line between some static stability and transitioning to dynamic stability, knowing we can control the flaps very quickly. So\u00a0these past few days have been a real pleasure for the team<\/strong>. When we saw the Americans taking off it was a buzz for us too, it is such a new concept and\u00a0having been only working on the simulator it was a very big risk<\/strong>. If we did not have the simulator we probably would not have risked it without going to a small test monohull.<\/p>\n

Do you have any regrets that you did not have a scaled test boat?<\/strong>
\nIt is hard to comment. We had no choice, it was a chosen decision. Remember, we were supposed to be going to Cagliari right away. That was the plan originally. So rather than going to Cagliari right away everything has been delayed. We had to be putting our boat on to a ship to go to Europe, it had to be built to that schedule.<\/p>\n

Where does that leave you now in terms of scope to develop boat 2?<\/strong>
\nClearly I cannot comment on that. We all work like crazy and we can\u2019t give anything away. The truth is we don\u2019t know what we don\u2019t know.\u00a0It is such a complex boat to first make things work, and then make sure it works like we think it should work<\/strong>. From there we will carry on. Like in an Open 60 when you finish the first one, someone comes along and asks you to design a second one, you keep on designing without stopping. There are many, many things on the table. You choose your options.<\/p>\n