This week, Francis Joyon’s maxi-trimaran, IDEC SPORT completed an extremely beneficial hibernation in Vannes on the hard standing area at the Multiplast yard. Today, she was put back in the water and her mast stepped. She is now equipped with her new foils, aimed at rejuvenating this record-breaking boat that was initially launched back in 2006.
The thorough update that Francis Joyon and his sponsor wanted after their triumphant Jules Verne Trophy now only needs to be tested and the boat fine-tuned. Francis and his crew will be taking advantage of a few weeks of sailing out of their home port of La Trinité-sur-Mer, before heading off to the Mediterranean, to Nice to be precise for the big new event for maxi multihulls, the Nice Ultimed, which will take place from 25th April to 6th May.
Francis Joyon and his associates, including Sébastien Picault, Corentin Joyon, Antoine Blouet, Ludovic Agloar, Gwénolé Gahinet, Quentin Ponroy and David Leven for the electronics, have been hard at work since the boat was taken into the yard on 22nd November. “This relaunch brings to an end three months of hard work, which occasionally was very tricky because of the weather conditions,” explained Francis. “The new foils with spoilers and the rudders with foils required some delicate work to be done on the boat, in order to match the various strains and stresses generated by this new generation of appendages. Many areas around the boat were carefully inspected and updated. This is the first time that the boat, which has twice won the Route du Rhum in the hands of two different teams and skippers, has been through such thorough structural work. We replaced a certain number of parts and systems.”
With the new features added this winter, IDEC SPORT, well known for her exceptional sailing qualities and the fact that she is a good all-rounder, has taken a giant leap forward in terms of performance. Will that be enough to compete with the more recent boats? That is the question for which Francis Joyon and his men, Sébastien Picault, Gwénolé Gahinet, Quentin Ponroy and Bernard Stamm hope to come up with some positive answers when they do battle alongside the others at the Nice Ultimed.
