macif trimaran

Professional BoatBuilder Magazine

The massive macif 100′ trimaran.

By Dan Spurr , Sep 27, 2019

Macif is one of several 100′ (30m) trimarans belonging to the unique Ultime class of yachts designed solely to smash ocean racing records.

In a 1956 movie, Phileas Fogg (played by the quintessential Brit David Niven) won a bet that he could travel “Around the World in 80 Days.” The “most punctual man alive” traveled by all modes of transportation, including trains, steamers, and even elephants. The challenge so intoxicated the sail-loving French that the Jules Verne Trophy was created, named for the author of the 1873 novel upon which the movie is based. Bruno Peyron first and narrowly accomplished the feat in 1993, aboard the catamaran Explorer , in a time of 79 days, 6 hours.

At least nine times this amazing record has been shortened, most recently in 2017 by Francis Joyon, who nearly reduced by half the elapsed time; he and his crew claimed the Jules Verne Trophy by finishing in 40 days, 23 hours. But as offshore sailors never shy from adding pages to the Guiness Book of World Records , that same year 34-year-old François Gabart ticked off 27,859 miles in 42 days, 16 hours—solo! This slashed 6 days and 10 hours off the solo record set by Thomas Coville a year earlier.

Macif employs hi tech for high speeds

Gabart’s ride is a member of the newly emerged Ultime class of 100 ‘ (30m) multihulls, whose sole purpose is to break more records (it grows tedious with times measured between hours of the clock, between the three great capes, and so on). Macif , named for the insurance company that paid the $25 million tab, was designed by VPLP (see “Flying Machines, Part II,” PBB No. 91) and built by CDK Technologies in France, in 2015. The boat, with wave-piercing bows, is carbon, cooked in a 35m (225 ‘ ) autoclave. The rotating wing mast can be canted to weather.

Check these stunning numbers, first of the yacht: LOA 30m/98 ‘ 5 “ , beam 21m/68 ‘ 11 “ , draft 4.5m/14 ‘ 9 “ , mast height 35m/114 ‘ 9 “ , displacement 14 tons, sail area upwind 430m²/4,628 sq ft and downwind 650m²/6,996 sq ft.

And now for her solo nonstop circumnavigation from November 4 to December 17, 2017: 42 days, 40 minutes, 35 seconds, max speed 47 knots, average speed 27.2 knots, max distance in a day 851 nm.

Of course, records are meant to be broken, and if the holder doesn’t improve, someone else will take over. Not wasting a moment, Macif underwent a six to seven months refit by CDK and its subsidiary in Lorient, Keroman Technologies . According to reports, and with the assistance of MerConcept , the company Gabart created to manage his and other campaigns, optimization included new foil casings, new rudders, new horizontal foils on all three rudders, L-shaped retractable foils on the floats, or amas, a modified centerboard, and a lighter-weight sandwich boom. Gabart, speaking to sail-world.com: “We realized that it is very interesting to sail the boat a little more ‘on its nose’ or flat when foiling. To achieve this, we moved the boat’s centre of gravity, by moving considerably heavy items, such as the engine for example…I think that it is going to improve our airborne performance.”

Back to the shop for upgrades

She was relaunched last July to compete in the Route du Rhum from France to Guadeloupe, in the Caribbean, losing to another Ultime trimaran, IDEC Sport , skippered by Francis Joyon, by 10 hours. So, after returning to France last January on a cargo ship, she went back into the yard for attention to some systems that had failed. Performance is a moving target.

Keroman’s facility has added a 40m x 10m x 7m (131 ‘ x 33 ‘ x 23 ‘ ) autoclave capable of heating to 120°C (248°F). The crossbeams were strengthened, an aerodynamic canvas added to the bow, and the appendage controls improved.

Next up: the double-handed Brest Atlantiques that begins November 3, 2019, and covers some 14,000 nm from Brest to Brest, rounding two islands in the South Atlantic, one off Rio de Janeiro and the other off Cape Town, South Africa.

CDK Technologies, Port la Forêt, 29940 La Forêt Fouesnant, France, tel. +33 (0)2 98 51 41 00, fax +33 (0)2 98 51 41 09. Keroman Technologies, 2 rue Ingénieur Verrière, 56100 Lorient, France, tel. +33 (0)2 97 87 87 37, fax +33 (0)2 97 37 51 57. MerConcept, Rue du Skoen, Port la Foret, 29940 La Forêt Fouesnant, France, tel. +33 (0)2 98 98 90 29.

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Round the world solo: François Gabart and the MACIF trimaran are off!

On standby since 22 October, François Gabart cast off today, Saturday 4 November, at 10.05 (French time, UTC+1) to take on the challenge of the single-handed round the world record.

The MACIF trimaran skipper left his home port of Port-la-Forêt, on Friday evening, to make his way to the round the world starting line located between the Créac’h lighthouse, in Ouessant (Ushant), and the Lizard Point lighthouse in Cornwall, England, before setting sail in an 18-knot north-westerly.

To beat the record, held since 25 December 2016, by Thomas Coville in 49 days, 3 hours, 4 minutes and 28 seconds, François Gabart will need to cross the finishing line before 13.09 on 23 December (French time, UTC+1). In addition to working relentlessly to push his 30-metre trimaran as hard as he can, he will also need a sequence of favourable weather conditions, starting with the weather he will meet on the first run to the equator, which Thomas Coville crossed last year in 5 days, 17 hours, 11 minutes and 52 seconds.

“We hope that this weather window will be the right one to pick up the trade wind and quickly head towards the South Atlantic. It’s a small window. I may not be the best window in the world, but there comes a time when you have to leave! We have a fair idea of what weather we will have until the equator, but not after that. This is also part of the record attempt. This is why we have chosen to leave now. We have to try and we’ll see near Brazil if the weather follows on as we would hope. The timing is really important, since this is a record that’s almost impossible to beat. Thomas [Coville] sailed wonderfully and the weather windows followed on from each other perfectly. So I will do my very best to get close to what he did. You really need to have a guiding star and a little success to have weather windows that follow on from each other well right until the end. I’m really impatient to sail around the world on this beautiful boat. It has taken nearly 2 years of work to get to this stage… now, it’s time to go!”

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François Gabart and his giant trimaran MACIF conquer The Transat bakerly

• Elaine Bunting
• May 13, 2016

François Gabart wins line honours in The Transat bakerly with a scorching time minutes short of the course record

French sailor François Gabart crossed the finish line of The Transat bakerly this week in his 100ft trimaran MACIF to take line honours. Gabart finished in 8d 8h 54m, just missing the course record set by his mentor Michel Desjoyeaux in 2004 by 25 minutes.

Gabart sailed a phenomenally fast race. The official course of 3,050 miles between Plymouth and New York is 3,050 miles; in fact Gabart sailed over 1,600 miles further by taking a southerly route leaving the Azores to starboard, therefore making an average of just over 23 knots.

Gabart finished ahead of his nearest rival, Thomas Coville in Sodebo. There were only three entrants in the class of giant trimarans that have been named the ‘Ultimes’, but what is remarkable is that that the 33-year-old Gabart has mastered this huge multihull in his first season of racing, while Coville has been sailing Sodebo since her refit and relaunch in 2014 (she was Olivier de Kersauson’s Géronimo).

François Gabart

Coville, however, also got close to a record when he logged a blistering 623 miles in 24 hours during the race, only missing the outright solo record by ten miles.

This is one of the first times since the very early OSTAR races that elite sailors have followed a southerly route rather than a northerly one along the shortest rhumb line distance. This was partially dictated by the winds leaving Plymouth, which would have had the leading boats crossing a ridge of high pressure south of Ireland and nudged them south, though the three skipper of the ‘Ultimes’ had considered an ‘Azores to starboard’ course anyway to avoid the risk of ice and fierce headwinds.

In contrast, the smaller classes, the IMOCA 60s and Class 40s, took a northerly route and some have got quite a pasting in a strong depression mid-Atlantic.

François Gabart came to fame in France when he won the 2012/3 Vendée Globe race, and this victory gives him a sweep of famous ocean race wins that no sailor before him has held before: the Vendée, the Route du Rhum and the two-handed Transat Jacques Vabre.

His trimaran MACIF has been designed for him to race solo, and has many interesting new ideas which you can read about and see in our on board video here .

Gabart’s aim is to sail solo round the world next year to try to beat the record still held by fellow French sailor Francis Joyon.

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