trimaran florence arthaud

Florence Arthaud Story, A Pioneer Woman In A Male-Dominated Sport

Florence Arthaud was born into the family behind the Arthaud publishing house, but she preferred adventure to scholarship. In 1974, at the age of 17, Arthaud was seriously injured in a car crash, which left her comatose for some time and required two years of rehabilitation. Undaunted, she participated in her first Route du Rhum in 1978.

In 1986 whilst competing in the Route du Rhum, Florence Arthaud was diverted to provide assistance to  Loïc Caradec . In storm conditions she was the first to locate Caradec’s catamaran Royale II, but with no signs of life onboard. Despite her grief, she resumed sailing and was able to complete the course.

On November 18, 1990,  Florence Arthaud  forever earned her nickname as the “Little Bride of the Atlantic” when, aged 33, she arrived in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, as winner of the fourth edition of the Route du Rhum. Arthaud completed the prestigious transatlantic solo race in 14 days, 10 hours and 10 minutes onboard the trimaran ‘Pierre 1’. 

The journey was far from smooth – the autopilot and radio failed, and she had suffered a hernia during the race. But the victory made her famous across France and earned her accolade of ‘Champion of Champions’ by the French newspaper L’Equipe. That victory, in 1990, was the apex of her career. Aboard the 60-foot trimaran Groupe Pierre, she outdueled the world’s top solo ocean racers in a 3,500-mile sprint that took her from Brittany, France, to the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. No woman has won the event since.

Later that year she went on to set a new transatlantic record on the same trimaran.

Florence herself almost disappeared at sea on October 29, 2011. Sailing alone off Corsica, she fell into the water at night but managed to hold onto her mobile phone and call her mother, who raised the alarm. She was found and rescued around two hours later, conscious but suffering from hypothermia.

In 2015, Arthaud took part in  Dropped , a reality television show in which sportspeople were transported by helicopters into the wilderness. During filming on 9 March 2015, she died in a helicopter collision in Argentina .

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Florence Arthaud, Celebrated Solo Sailor, Dies at 57 in Helicopter Crash

By Chris Museler

• March 10, 2015

Florence Arthaud, the French sailor who died at 57 in a helicopter crash in Argentina on Monday along with nine others, including two French Olympians, was celebrated by the French yachting world as the only woman to have won the Route du Rhum, a grueling solo trans-Atlantic race.

That victory, in 1990, was the apex of her career. Aboard the 60-foot trimaran Groupe Pierre, she outdueled the world’s top solo ocean racers in a 3,500-mile sprint that took her from Brittany, France, to the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe. No woman has won the event since.

In France her photograph graced the cover of national magazines, and her striking looks — typically tanned, with piercing eyes framed by thick, wavy auburn hair — only enhanced the celebrity image.

Officials in La Rioja Province in northwestern Argentina said Ms. Arthaud had been aboard one of two helicopters carrying 10 people to a remote gorge to film a television reality show, “Dropped,” when the aircraft collided. The participants were to be left to find their way back to civilization.

Among the dead were Camille Muffat, 25, who won three swimming medals at the 2012 London Olympics, and Alexis Vastine, 28, who won a bronze medal in boxing at the 2008 Beijing Games.

Arthaud had been a familiar competitor in sailing circles throughout the 1980s and 1990s, famed for her solo exploits. But none was as storied as her victory in the Route du Rhum.

The race is considered second in prestige only to the Vendée Globe, a solo nonstop around-the-world race. And her win helped pave the way for some renowned female solo sailors of today, including the Britons Sam Davies and Dame Ellen MacArthur.

“When she won, she was an inspiration to most girls in France and in Europe,” Isabelle Autissier, the first woman to complete a circumnavigation in competition, said in a phone interview from France on Tuesday. “She demonstrated that it wasn’t just the muscle of man needed to win solo competitions. It was the brain, accuracy in meteorology and working with yacht design.”

She added, “She was the most popular sailor in France for sure.”

Davies, considered the world’s top female solo sailor, recalled Arthaud from an early age. “I remember as a little girl cutting out this amazing picture of Florence and putting it on my bedroom wall,” she said. “It was this amazing picture of her on this silver trimaran Groupe Pierre looking so feminine. It inspired me that you could be a girl and sail these amazing boats.”

Davies is currently leading an all-women’s team in the Volvo Ocean race.

Though Arthaud and Autissier shared the mantle as France’s top female sailors, it was Arthaud who had the fastest start in the sport.

She was born on October 28, 1957, in Boulogne-Billancourt, France . Her parents ran a publishing house in Paris, and she grew up sailing with notable French yachtsmen, including the father of French offshore sailing, Eric Tabarly. At 17 she was in a serious car accident that left her in a coma. It took her two years to recover.

Sailing solo is inherently treacherous, but Arthaud was masterly in avoiding disaster. Her most recent close call came in 2011, when she was washed overboard while sailing solo off the coast of Corsica. She was able to retrieve her cellphone — it was in a waterproof case — and phoned her mother in Paris. She was rescued after several hours alone in the sea.Despite setting several transoceanic records, including one in the 1997 Transpac race with the French yachtsman Bruno Peyron, Arthaud wanted more from her career, but she had trouble finding sponsors in later years.

“It was painful for her,” Autissier said.

Arthaud was divorced. Her survivors include her daughter, Marie.

Yachting World

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Florence Arthaud: the extraordinary career of one of sailing’s most courageous solo racing stars

• Elaine Bunting
• March 11, 2015

Florence Arthaud had an extraordinary career and seemed quite indestructible, says Elaine Bunting

It feels unreal that Florence Arthaud is gone. She always seemed the most indestructible of sailors, less vulnerable than many of the male solo sailors I’ve met: truly strong and with a calm aura of inner strength.

I always thought her wise, too, giving up professional sailing (as did other top French women sailors, such as Isabelle Autissier) at the zenith and leaving it just as confidently behind to do her own thing in her own boat for her own pleasure.

Killed this week in a terrible helicopter crash in Argentina, Florence Arthaud – ‘Flo’, as she was affectionately known – is a huge loss and is much mourned in France. She cut a dash in sailing. One of the most famous photos of Flo (below) by Thierry Martinez , is of her winning the solo Route du Rhum in 1990, aged 33, standing on the windward hull of the golden trimaran Pierre 1er with her wild hair flowing in the night breeze off Guadeloupe.

Florence Arthaud Route du Rhum 1990

Flo pioneered the way for women at the top of offshore sailing. Ellen MacArthur many will consider as the most successful female offshore sailor of all time, but while she was still at school, Arthaud won the Route du Rhum and, the same year, broke the solo transatlantic record by setting a new time of 9 days, 21 hours 42 minutes.

She was highly successful in the Figaro solo class and raced two-handed in the AG2R transatlantic race with Jean Le Cam.

Arthaud was cherished for her indomitability, and for good reason. Before her death this week, she had narrowly escaped losing her life at least twice before. The first was when she was only 17 and involved in a serious car accident. She emerged from a coma to find she was paralysed and disfigured, and spent six months in hospital followed by two years of painful convalescence.

Arthaud was always positive, saying that she was “lucky to live. It got me out of my environment, and showed me what was meant for me. I felt I had the right to do anything. At school I was not very bright intellectually or good at sports, but sailing, that’s what I could do.”

One morning, she left her family a note on the pillow. It said: “I need to take off.” She went to the sailing club at Antibes and launched herself into the small world of offshore racing. At 21 she was the youngest skipper in the 1978 Route du Rhum, and dubbed ‘la petite fiancée de l’Atlantique’. She finished 11th, and vowed to return.

In the Route du Rhum in 1986, she picked up during a storm a Mayday from fellow sailor Loïc Caradec sailing the catamaran Royal II. Arthaud immediately went to help and was the first to reach the position, but there was no sign of Caradec. She never forgot the experience of being unable to give up hope of finding him.

But Arthaud was to have her own closest brush with tragedy at sea in 2011. She was sailing her 10m yacht single-handed between Corsica and the island of Elba in late October when she lost her balance and was knocked into the sea while getting ready to have a pee.

Miraculously, her GPS enabled mobile phone saved her life. She had bought the water resistant phone only days before and was carrying it with her in a pocket. She was able to use it to make a call to her mother in Paris, who alerted the rescue authorities.

The position of the mobile phone was used by rescue services to pinpoint Arthaud in the water. She was rescued at approximately 0200 local time after two hours in the water and was transferred to hospital suffering from hypothermia.

After being discharged the following day, she commented: “I think of all those I’ve competed with, of Tabarly and other friends who were lost at sea. I knew I wasn’t certain to survive. All I can say is that it is a miracle. The devil does not want me,” she told French TV.

Her yacht was found several hours after the rescue and towed into port.

Given her love of the sea, and her great skill at avoiding its perils, it seems especially shocking and tragic that Florence Arthaud died in this crash. She is a great loss.

BoatNews.com

Interview / Route du Rhum: What changes for Florence Arthaud's former trimaran?

On September 9, 2022, the former ORMA trimaran Pierre 1er, renamed "Flo" was put back in the water after a refit by the ocean racing team Mer Agitée, directed by Michel Desjoyeaux. Beyond the return to the original colors, Philippe Poupon explains how he prepared his boat for the transatlantic race and the shooting of the film tribute to Florence Arthaud.

A tribute race and a movie to come

It is aboard Flo, the new name of the ORMA trimaran aboard which Florence Arthaud won the Route du Rhum in 1990, that Philippe Poupon will take the start of the Route du Rhum 2022. If this is a tribute to his long-time friend, Philippe has also found the boat to support his wife Géraldine Danon, who is making a film about the navigator, the first woman to win the Route du Rhum.

A mainly aesthetic refit

Bought by a shipowner and loaned to the skipper for the race and the film , the old trimaran was transported to Brittany for a refit within Michel Desjoyeaux's ocean racing team, Mer Agitée. The work mainly concerned the aesthetics of the boat , which is now covered with a giant adhesive tape in the colors of the original, and fitted with a new antifouling, always in the same perspective.

A healthy hull and some minor work

Other minor work has been done on ORMA 60, as Philippe Poupon explains: "The boat is 32 years old. We refurbished all the electricity and electronics, installing a good NKE driver. The engine has been overhauled, it is an important part for the energy of the boat. We also changed the rudder bearing of the central hull, installed an Oscar vision system and changed the entire standing rigging thanks to the Lancelin company. The boat in its hull structure is fine, there was no reason to change anything else. The same goes for the sails, which are in good condition, and which we kept and sent to be revised and reinforced. They will be sufficient for the Route du Rhum. There are still a few parts from that time on board like the winches."

A high-performance boat, but without competition

When asked how he sees himself in the Rhum Multi class, Philippe modestly replies: "On the face of it, it looks like the best performer, but there are no similar boats in terms of size. Some former comrades have taken over catamarans, like Roland Jourdain, Marc Guillemot or Halvard Mabire."

Indeed, the 18.28 m long VPLP design will be the largest of the Multi class trimarans, among the 9 three-hulled yachts on the starting line. However, it will not be the largest boat in the Multi class, that distinction going to Roland Jourdain and his 18.50 m linen deck Outremer.

A first navigation "without surprise

Launched on Friday, September 9, 2022 in Port La Forêt in Finistère, the "golden" trimaran has reached La Trinité for sea trials. Philippe answered our questions from aboard, always remaining modest about the boat's performance: "We went out to put things back in place, to adjust the boat . This allows us to make the final adjustments. There's not much to say, it's a boat we know well and it's back to its full glory! We're waiting for next week to shoot images with the actress on board, but also with other boats, notably her first boat for the Route du Rhum. Then we'll go on standby to go out to sea in sustained conditions, and make strong images with the sailing understudy."

Florence Arthaud, the little girl of the Atlantic

On Wednesday 1 November 2023, the biopic “Flo” was unveiled in cinemas. Retracing the life of renowned yachtswoman Florence Arthaud, the film is an opportunity to look back at the career of a woman who left an indelible mark on the history of the sport.

The first woman to win the Route du Rhum , Florence Arthaud was immersed in the maritime world from an early age. It was with her family, her father and her brother, that she began sailing. In 1974, at the age of 17, she was involved in a terrible car accident, which left her in hospital for six months following a coma and paralysis. It took her two years to make a full recovery.

But this tragedy did not discourage the young woman . At the age of 18, she embarked on her first Atlantic crossing with navigator Jean-Claude Parisis. Just four years later, in 1978, she took part in the Route du Rhum, the legendary single-handed transatlantic sailing race held every four years. It was the first of many races for this adventurer of the seas. And although she finished 11th in the rankings, her motivation and sailing skills stood out from the outset.

Florence Arthaud, legend of the waves

Four years after embarking on her first Route du Rhum, she tried her luck again but finished 20th in 1982, then 11th in 1986. And it wasn’t until 1990 that her dream came true.

  Voir cette publication sur Instagram   Une publication partagée par Paris Match (@parismatch)

In 14 days, 10 hours and 10 minutes, Florence Arthaud won the Route du Rhum aboard the trimaran Pierre 1er. She was the first woman to achieve this feat. Her nickname of “the little girl of the Atlantic” was born, symbolising her success on the waves.

1990 was a prosperous year for the yachtswoman, who also beat the record for the single-handed North Atlantic crossing, in 9 days, 21 hours and 42 minutes.

In 1997, the skipper won the Transpacific as part of Bruno Peyron’s crew. Several races followed, including the double-handed Transat Lorient-Saint-Barth and the Odyssée Cannes-Istanbul.

  Voir cette publication sur Instagram   Une publication partagée par @living_structures

Uniforms at work, from tradition to trend

But this remarkable career has not been without its pitfalls. In 2011, Florence Arthaud almost died when she fell from her boat between Cape Corsica and the island of Elba. Rescued more than an hour later in a state of hypothermia, she knows she is a miracle worker.

An assertive feminist in a man’s world, the author of her autobiography, a mother… Florence Arthaud’s life had been rich in events. But the yachtswoman died in a helicopter crash while filming the TF1 programme Dropped on 9 March 2015.

“Flo”, a film about Florence Arthaud

Directed by Géraldine Danon, “Flo” traces the incredible destiny of Florence Arthaud , played by Stéphane Caillard. Highlighting her sporting achievements, the film “inspired” by the life of the yachtswoman was released in cinemas yesterday, Wednesday 1 November 2023. It remains to be seen whether it will be a success worthy of the woman to whom it pays tribute…

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Featured photo:  Jean-Yves Ruszniewski  | ©  Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

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Agde : le mythique trimaran de Florence Arthaud est amarré au Cap d'Agde

Rebaptisé “Flo” pour les besoins du film éponyme de Géraldine Banon, l’ancien “Pierre 1er” a accosté lundi au Cap d'Agde. En vente, il y restera jusqu'en avril et le salon du multicoque de La Grande-Motte.

Un tel trimaran ne pouvait passer inaperçu dans le port du Cap d’Agde. Le long de ses flotteurs, sur fond or, trois lettres : Flo. Les voileux les plus avisés n’auront pas manqué de reconnaître le légendaire "Pierre 1er", avec lequel Florence Arthaud remporta la Route du Rhum en 1990, au nez à la barbe de tous les marins engagés sur cette course mythique. Rebaptisé "Flo" pour les besoins du film éponyme, réalisé actuellement par Géraldine Banon, amie de la navigatrice disparue en 2015 et dont l’équipe était venue tourner des scènes au Cap d’Agde en octobre dernier, le navire rentre tout juste de la Guadeloupe, après avoir pris part… à la Route du Rhum justement, avec un illustre marin à sa barre : Philippe Poupon, par ailleurs compagnon dans la vie de Géraldine Banon.

Le trimaran a été attaqué par des pirates en Asie !

Lionel Girard Deveney est le skipper attitré du trimaran, qui appartient à l’ancien maire du Chesnay-Rocquencourt, dans les Yvelines, Philippe Brillault, depuis près de deux ans. "J’étais à la barre lorsque nous l’avons ramené des Philippines", explique le marin, ce qui n’a rien d’un détail. En effet, durant le convoyage, qui a duré près de quatre mois dont deux en mer, l’équipage de "Lakota", le véritable nom actuel du voilier, a été attaqué par des pirates ! Sans trop de dommages, si ce n’est une belle frayeur

Des scènes en mer tournée la semaine prochaine

Rien de tel n’attend Lionel Girard Deveney dans le port du Cap d’Agde, où il va rester amarré jusqu’au printemps. D’abord pour des raisons cinématographiques. Des scènes en mer pour le film "Flo" doivent être tournées la semaine prochaine. "On doit réaliser des prises sous brise", explique-t-il, fier de pouvoir manœuvrer "ce magnifique bateau, qui est une légende." Ça tombe bien, une belle Tramontane est annoncée pour les jours à venir, qui promet une belle lumière et du vent dans les voiles. Plus prosaïquement, le trimaran est également chez nous dans l’attente du salon du multicoque de la Grande-Motte, en avril prochain. " Il sera mis en vente", annonce Lionel, le propriétaire possédant également un autre bateau d’une vingtaine de mètres. Et si l’on ne connaît pas le prix de la légende, une chose est certaine, l’acquéreur aura entre les mains un magnifique représentant du patrimoine maritime français.

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Extraordinary boats: Flo an iconic trimaran

Flo, formerly Pierre 1er, is the iconic 60ft trimaran which Florence Arthaud sailed to win the 1990 Route du Rhum, now returned to its golden glory and racing again

There are many iconic raceboats, but few capture the feeling of an era as much as the 60ft trimaran in which Florence Arthaud won the 1990 Route du Rhum. She beat Philippe Poupon, winner of the previous edition, by eight hours to become the first woman to win a major offshore race, inspiring a new generation of young women to follow in her footsteps.

Arthaud had already broken the west to east transatlantic record earlier that year, taking a whopping 20% off Bruno Peyron’s existing time. She also became the first sailor to be awarded the title ‘Champion des Champions français de L’Équipe’. It was a remarkable turnaround for someone who, only four years before her first Route du Rhum, had been gravely injured in a car accident that left her in coma and hospitalised for six months.

The pace of change in yacht design in the 1980s was as breathtakingly fast as it is today. Although they’re separated by only 12 years, this boat could hardly be more different to Mike Birch’s 39ft plywood Walter Green trimaran Olympus Photo in which he won the inaugural Route du Rhum in 1978. Birch’s boat, for example, had little more than half the beam of Arthaud’s.

The ORMA 60 trimarans that quickly came to dominate the scene from the mid-1980s were huge vessels by comparison, built of the most hi-tech materials available, while their creators pressed hard against the boundaries of design and engineering knowledge. Pierre 1er , as the boat was originally named, was built to a VPLP design of fibreglass and Kevlar by Jeanneau’s former JTA (Jeanneau Techniques Avancées) division.

iconic image of Arthaud at the finish of the 1990 Route du Rhum in Martinique. Photo: Thierry Martinez/ Sea&Co

These boats had an unprecedented power to weight ratio that, despite their enormous inherent stability, led to a number of capsizes. This came to a head in the stormy 2002 Route du Rhum in which five boats capsized and only three of the 18-strong fleet finished. As a result sponsors rapidly quit the class, which collapsed within three seasons.

Nevertheless, Pierre 1er went on to have an illustrious 20-year history of racing and record breaking. American billionaire and adventurer Steve Fossett, who renamed the boat Lakota , became her second owner in 1993.

He picked up 5th place in the 1994 Route du Rhum, despite a lack of experience at the time, before taking line honours in the Transpac the following year. In a seven-year period he broke 12 world records with the boat, including Round Britain and Ireland and around the Isle of Wight.

Poupon reduced the size of the staysail for heavy weather work and added a furler. Huge asymmetrics are flown from the bowsprit. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Her next owner was Atlant Ocean Racing in Sweden, with the boat again breaking records under several different names. Andrew Pindar chartered her in 2001, when she was renamed Pindar Systems for Emma Richards to race in the Transat Jacques Vabre. She finished 9th, with Miki von Koskull, who had sailed with Richards on Tracy Edwards’ 1998 Royal Sun Alliance Jules Verne attempt, as co-skipper.

The boat picked up line honours in the 2003 Cape to Rio race, before heading east under the ownership of an experienced French multihull sailor from 2011-2021 who was based in Hong Kong and kept the boat in Subic Bay in the Philippines, using her primarily for fast cruising and ocean voyages.

Flo – Golden girl

Despite all the different owners and skippers, when I visited Flo in Saint Malo, just before the start of the 2022 Route du Rhum, it was striking just how original the boat remains. There’s a huge curved mainsheet traveller on the aft beam, while the giant winches in the small cockpit are physically much larger than today’s equivalents. And, despite the boat’s awesome power, there are no pedestal grinders.

Both amas have helm seats in a similar way to MOD70s, but without the foot pedal to dump the mainsheet in a hurry. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Equally, Flo still has both a central tiller in the cockpit and helm seats perched precariously at the aft end of each ama.

Below decks the boat is surprisingly small, with a vestigial galley, just one berth, plus a navstation tucked in the corner between the daggerboard case and the main bulkhead.

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The original striking gold colour scheme on the hulls and spars was reinstated earlier this year, when she was renamed Flo by Poupon, who skippered her in the 2022 race, 36 years after his 1986 victory.

Surprisingly, he told me very few changes were needed to prepare Flo for her latest transatlantic: “Almost nothing has changed, the electrical system and electronics are new, but the deck gear and layout are almost all original.”

Relatively minor alterations included lowering the head of the staysail and adding roller furling for it. “I prefer a smaller sail that’s easier to handle and has better shape for this purpose,” says Poupon. He also added a fourth reef to the mainsail, “which has a lot of surface area.”

Philippe Poupon, runner up to Florence Arthaud in the 1990 Route du Rhum, now skippers Flo. Photo: Jean-Louis Carli

Dramatic new role for Flo

What led to Poupon’s current involvement with Flo ? “Me and my wife [film maker Géraldine Danon] were very close to Florence Arthaud,” he told me. Indeed, in French media interviews he has even described her as “part of the family.” Poupon and Arthaud competed together as co-skippers on a later Fleury Michon in the 2000 Transat, and Arthaud also took part in a Figaro ll and Transat Jacques Vabre campaign with Poupon’s brother Luc in the mid-2000s.

“Géraldine started working on a script for a film about Florence two years ago,” continued Poupon. “We started to talk about what boat to use for the film and of course it had to be this one.”

The trimaran turned out to be easy to find, as Vendée Globe veteran-turned yacht broker Bernard Gallay was listing the boat for sale at the time. However, Poupon and Danon lacked both the €250,000 purchase price and the time to sail her back to France. Poupon says those problems were “… solved in a bar,” and the deal was completed in December 2021.

Controls for the wing mast. Daggerboard needs to be fully lowered to clear the boom in tacks and gybes. Photo: Rupert Holmes

The new owner, Philippe Brillault, took a crew that included Bernard Stamm as skipper out to deliver the boat back to France, via the Red Sea. The four-month trip was not without incident. New batteries were needed in Thailand, engine problems forced a stop in Sri Lanka, and having strayed too close to the coast of Yemen after departing Djibouti, the delivery crew was attacked by pirates.

“There were bullet tracks on the mast!” Fortunately they were able to escape and return to Djibouti, before proceeding with a military escort.

Poupon took over the boat in Cannes in July last year, where shooting for the film started. Flo took pride of place in the Vieux Port and anchored overnight off Île Sainte Marguerite, where Arthaud’s ashes were scattered after her 2015 death in a helicopter accident while filming a reality TV programme in Argentina.

Return to Rhum

The final leg took the boat to Michel Desjoyeaux’s Mer Agitée yard at Port La Forêt, where Flo had a short refit ahead of an opportunity for Poupon to complete the 1,200-mile solo qualifier needed for the 2022 Route du Rhum.

I visited him on board just before it was announced the race would be postponed by three days to avoid a dangerous sea state in 7.5m waves with a brutal 12 second period. How concerned was he at the prospect of sailing an old boat in such conditions?

“I have sailed a lot before on this type of boat and I am sailing more than six months a year on my own boat [a 66ft high latitude expedition yacht] so I will know what to do – maybe it will be to wait in Finisterre. I don’t have sponsors and I am not out to win overall, so I can decide for myself. I am here just to pay homage to Florence and for the movie.”

Poupon was also quick to point out that when he did the first race back in 1978 medium range weather forecasting didn’t exist and all that could be expected was a rough idea of what to expect the day after the start.

Flo’s small cockpit has most of the original winches and no grinder, despite the boat’s enormous power. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Poupon finished the race in 7th place in the 17-strong Rhum Multi class, crossing the line in 18 days and 19 hours, more than three and a half days slower than Arthaud’s 1990 time. Her Route du Rhum victory was just months after Tracy Edwards’ all-woman team on Maiden finished the Whitbread Round the World race 2nd in class, having won two legs, including the gruelling 7,260 mile Southern Ocean section. Back then there was real hope that professional sailing was changing from its entrenched position of male dominance. Yet three decades later only seven of the 138 Route du Rhum skippers were women.

It’s a concern Volvo Ocean Race winner and ex-race organiser Knut Frostad (now CEO of marine electronics and equipment conglomerate Navico Group) highlighted in his keynote speech at the most recent Yacht Racing Forum – not just for the sake of fairness, but also for the threat it represents to the sport in the longer term. Frostad warned: “Our industry will die in a generation if carry on as we are…”

Flo specifications

Design: VPLP Launch: 1989 LOA: 18.28m / 60ft 0in Beam: 15.10m / 49ft 6in Draught: 1.54m-2.88m / 5ft 1in-9ft 5in Displacement: 6,000kg / 13,230lb Upwind sail area: 230m2 / 2,475ft2

If you enjoyed this….

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The post Extraordinary boats: Flo an iconic trimaran appeared first on Yachting World.

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"Pierre 1er", le trimaran de Florence Arthaud, fait escale à Cannes après un long périple de 4 mois

C’est un long voyage qui s’achève, au vieux port de Cannes, ce premier week-end de juillet. Au pied de la capitainerie, "Pierre 1er" est venu s’amarrer à quelques encablures du lieu où son ancienne propriétaire, Florence Arthaud, repose désormais.

Le trimaran autrefois couvert d'une peinture couleur or en aura parcouru des milles avant d'arriver à Cannes, ce dimanche 3 juillet. S’il fait escale dans la cité des festivals jusqu'à demain mardi, ce n’est pas pour entamer une retraite dorée, mais pour saluer la mémoire de Florence Arthaud, celle qui a remporté la "Route du Rhum" en 1990 à son bord.

Philippe Brillault est celui qui rendu ce retour possible . Il est le nouveau propriétaire du bateau et a traversé mers et océan pour ramener dans les eaux françaises cette pièce d’histoire de la navigation tricolore. Les skippers Bernard Stamm et Philippe Poupon contribuent aussi à cette aventure . Le premier a tenu la barre entre Djibouti et Cannes, le second le ramènera à Lorient.

Parti des Philippines il y a 4 mois, Philippe Brillault s’est livré à un véritable périple. Escales techniques et actes de piraterie ont émaillé le voyage du trimaran qui porte désormais le nom de "Lakota".

Un voyage que le septuagénaire, ancien maire d'une commune dans les Yvelines, a entamé il y a déjà longtemps : "L'histoire a commencé dans une brasserie parisienne. J'ai rencontré par hasard Philippe Poupon, en train de déjeuner seul, avec son café. Je cherchais un parrain pour la Medica Cup que l'on souhaite organiser à Cannes, voilà le parrain idéal. J'ai été le saluer. Il m'a raconté sa vie, son projet, Florence Arthaud, et le bateau. J'ai racheté par un coup de passion car j'avais envie de contribuer à ramener ce bateau mythique en France."

On a fait à peu près huit mille nautiques, ce qui représente plus de 15.000 kilomètres, en traversant la mer de Chine, l'Océan indien, la mer Rouge et la Méditerranée. Philippe Brillault, propriétaire de "Pierre 1er"

"Pierre 1er" a jeté l'ancre dans la nuit de samedi à dimanche à proximité du lieu où les cendres de la navigatrice ont été déposées après sa mort dans un accident d'hélicoptère en 2015 .

"Je voulais faire un hommage à Florence Arthaud qui est une femme d'exception" commente Philippe Brillault. "J'ai porté le bateau, je l'ai surtout transporté, je n'avais jamais imaginé une telle aventure dans ma vie" ajoute-t-il.

Pirates en vue

Philippe Brillault est passionné par la navigation, il a déboursé quelque 250.000 euros pour racheter le navire, mais ce voyage aurait pu lui coûter la vie.

Au large des côtes africaines, le trimaran subit à plusieurs reprises des tentatives d'abordage de pirates, et des attaques. Le mât garde même la trace d'un impact de balle tiré par une Kalachnikov.

Menacés à trois reprises, Philippe Brillault et l'équipage ont dû ruser. Le pistolet à air comprimé à servi à dissuader les pirates, ils ont feint à l'intervention de moyens militaires en leur faveur ou encore su mettre la poudre d'escampette pour éviter des intrusions sur le navire.

Au large du Yémen notamment, un matin, au départ de Djibouti. "Trois bateaux de pêche, avec entre 4 et 7 personnes à bord de chaque embarcation, armés jusqu'aux dents, avec Kalachnikov et lance tubes. J'ai tout de suite sorti mon flingue, je me suis levé en slip de bain avec ma Go Pro, et un téléphoné, je leur ai dit 'je vous tire dessus si vous m'emmerdez'"  se remémore Philippe dont le bateau finira par bénéficier d'une escorte militaire après cet incident. "Ils ont flingué le mât" témoigne t-il, montrant un vaste impact de balles sur ce tube longiligne qui a du être réparé après cet accrochage.

Une première pour la Route

En 1990, Florence Arthaud signe la première victoire féminine de l’histoire de la "Route du Rhum" à la barre de "Pierre 1er". Le trimaran, livré un an avant la course, mesure un peu plus de 18 mètres en longueur, contre 15 en largeur.

Cette année-là, elle devance un certain Philippe Poupon, qui a remporté l’édition précédente en 1986. Il se souvient de la victoire de cette "amie" mais aussi "concurrente" :  "Je connais bien le bateau, même si je n'ai jamais navigué dessus. Florence est arrivé devant moi, proprement, pas de quelques minutes, mais de quelques heures. Bien sûr que je suivais Florence et ce bateau".

Philippe Poupon se souvient avec émotion de celle qui faisait partie de "sa famille" :  "C'était un très bon marin, elle avait déjà fait du multicoque avec Biotherm, avec un autre catamaran sur la "Route du Rhum", elle a eu un autre 'Pierre 1er' avant celui-là."

Cap sur Lorient

Arrivé par voie terrestre samedi 2 juillet, Philippe Poupon prend le relais dès ce mardi pour ramener le bateau à Lorient. Là, il doit rejoindre les ateliers de Michel Desjoyaux, le fameux "professeur", victorieux sur la Route du Rhum, la Transat Jacques Vabre, le Vendée Globe, notamment.

C'est un check-up complet qui attend le trimaran, et pour cause, Philippe Poupon l'assure, il sera bien inscrit à la prochaine Route du Rhum, en novembre prochain, avec "Pierre 1er" . Une nouvelle odyssée pour ce bateau livré en 1989, et qui a subi les assauts du temps, nécessitant réparations et nouveaux équipements.

Ce navire qui a eu plusieurs vie, a navigué par exemple avec le milliardaire Steve Fossett qui l'a racheté ou pour les besoins d'une super production hollywoodienne : "Waterworld" . Dans cette oeuvre de fiction, Kevin Costner parcourt un monde submergé par les océans. Au pied du Palais des festivals, le départ de mardi vers la façade atlantique ne sera peut-être qu'un au revoir, et pas un adieu.

Pour aller plus loin :

Notre sélection d’articles à explorer sur le même thème.

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After Florence Arthaud’s victory in the 1994 Route du Rhum on the trimaran Pierre 1er , VPLP was commissioned by Universal to design and build the boat used by the main character played by Kevin Costner in the film Waterworld . 

In fact there were two versions of the boat. One was fully operational and used for the sailing sequences at sea. It had a maximum speed of about 15 knots. The other version was used for filming above and below deck, in particular for shots requiring special effects, and it was fitted with numerous gadgets including a telescopic mast for taking 360° views.

Both versions were 60 feet long and laid up in the moulds of Pierre 1er at the Jeanneau Techniques Avancées yar under the direction of Bruno Belmont who would go on to be Lagoon marketing director. The boats were shipped to Hawaii by cargo plane. The working trimaran was subsequently sold to American sailor H. L. Enloe who would later skipper her in numerous races and regattas. Waterworld was evidently a unique experience for the firm, adding Hollywood movie star Kevin Costner to the long line of famous mariners who have skippered boats designed by VPLP.

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Extraordinary boats: Flo – Florence Arthaud’s iconic 60ft trimaran

18 february 2023.

Flo, formerly Pierre 1er, is the iconic 60ft trimaran which Florence Arthaud sailed to win the 1990 Route du Rhum, now returned to its golden glory and racing again

There are many iconic raceboats, but few capture the feeling of an era as much as the 60ft trimaran in which Florence Arthaud won the 1990 Route du Rhum . She beat Philippe Poupon, winner of the previous edition, by eight hours to become the first woman to win a major offshore race, inspiring a new generation of young women to follow in her footsteps.

Arthaud had already broken the west to east transatlantic record earlier that year, taking a whopping 20% off Bruno Peyron’s existing time. She also became the first sailor to be awarded the title ‘Champion des Champions français de L’Équipe’. It was a remarkable turnaround for someone who, only four years before her first Route du Rhum, had been gravely injured in a car accident that left her in coma and hospitalised for six months.

The pace of change in yacht design in the 1980s was as breathtakingly fast as it is today. Although they’re separated by only 12 years, this boat could hardly be more different to Mike Birch ’s 39ft plywood Walter Green trimaran Olympus Photo in which he won the inaugural Route du Rhum in 1978. Birch’s boat, for example, had little more than half the beam of Arthaud’s.

The ORMA 60 trimarans that quickly came to dominate the scene from the mid-1980s were huge vessels by comparison, built of the most hi-tech materials available, while their creators pressed hard against the boundaries of design and engineering knowledge. Pierre 1er , as the boat was originally named, was built to a VPLP design of fibreglass and Kevlar by Jeanneau’s former JTA (Jeanneau Techniques Avancées) division.

iconic image of Arthaud at the finish of the 1990 Route du Rhum in Martinique. Photo: Thierry Martinez/ Sea&Co

These boats had an unprecedented power to weight ratio that, despite their enormous inherent stability, led to a number of capsizes. This came to a head in the stormy 2002 Route du Rhum in which five boats capsized and only three of the 18-strong fleet finished. As a result sponsors rapidly quit the class, which collapsed within three seasons.

Nevertheless, Pierre 1er went on to have an illustrious 20-year history of racing and record breaking. American billionaire and adventurer Steve Fossett, who renamed the boat Lakota , became her second owner in 1993.

He picked up 5th place in the 1994 Route du Rhum, despite a lack of experience at the time, before taking line honours in the Transpac the following year. In a seven-year period he broke 12 world records with the boat, including Round Britain and Ireland and around the Isle of Wight.

Poupon reduced the size of the staysail for heavy weather work and added a furler. Huge asymmetrics are flown from the bowsprit. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Her next owner was Atlant Ocean Racing in Sweden, with the boat again breaking records under several different names. Andrew Pindar chartered her in 2001, when she was renamed Pindar Systems for Emma Richards to race in the Transat Jacques Vabre . She finished 9th, with Miki von Koskull, who had sailed with Richards on Tracy Edwards’ 1998 Royal Sun Alliance Jules Verne attempt, as co-skipper.

The boat picked up line honours in the 2003 Cape to Rio race, before heading east under the ownership of an experienced French multihull sailor from 2011-2021 who was based in Hong Kong and kept the boat in Subic Bay in the Philippines, using her primarily for fast cruising and ocean voyages.

Flo – Golden girl

Despite all the different owners and skippers, when I visited Flo in Saint Malo, just before the start of the 2022 Route du Rhum , it was striking just how original the boat remains. There’s a huge curved mainsheet traveller on the aft beam, while the giant winches in the small cockpit are physically much larger than today’s equivalents. And, despite the boat’s awesome power, there are no pedestal grinders.

Both amas have helm seats in a similar way to MOD70s, but without the foot pedal to dump the mainsheet in a hurry. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Equally, Flo still has both a central tiller in the cockpit and helm seats perched precariously at the aft end of each ama.

Below decks the boat is surprisingly small, with a vestigial galley, just one berth, plus a navstation tucked in the corner between the daggerboard case and the main bulkhead.

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The original striking gold colour scheme on the hulls and spars was reinstated earlier this year, when she was renamed Flo by Poupon, who skippered her in the 2022 race, 36 years after his 1986 victory.

Surprisingly, he told me very few changes were needed to prepare Flo for her latest transatlantic : “Almost nothing has changed, the electrical system and electronics are new, but the deck gear and layout are almost all original.”

Relatively minor alterations included lowering the head of the staysail and adding roller furling for it. “I prefer a smaller sail that’s easier to handle and has better shape for this purpose,” says Poupon. He also added a fourth reef to the mainsail, “which has a lot of surface area.”

Philippe Poupon, runner up to Florence Arthaud in the 1990 Route du Rhum, now skippers Flo. Photo: Jean-Louis Carli

Dramatic new role for Flo

What led to Poupon’s current involvement with Flo ? “Me and my wife [film maker Géraldine Danon] were very close to Florence Arthaud,” he told me. Indeed, in French media interviews he has even described her as “part of the family.” Poupon and Arthaud competed together as co-skippers on a later Fleury Michon in the 2000 Transat, and Arthaud also took part in a Figaro ll and Transat Jacques Vabre campaign with Poupon’s brother Luc in the mid-2000s.

“Géraldine started working on a script for a film about Florence two years ago,” continued Poupon. “We started to talk about what boat to use for the film and of course it had to be this one.”

The trimaran turned out to be easy to find, as Vendée Globe veteran-turned yacht broker Bernard Gallay was listing the boat for sale at the time. However, Poupon and Danon lacked both the €250,000 purchase price and the time to sail her back to France. Poupon says those problems were “… solved in a bar,” and the deal was completed in December 2021.

Controls for the wing mast. Daggerboard needs to be fully lowered to clear the boom in tacks and gybes. Photo: Rupert Holmes

The new owner, Philippe Brillault, took a crew that included Bernard Stamm as skipper out to deliver the boat back to France, via the Red Sea. The four-month trip was not without incident. New batteries were needed in Thailand, engine problems forced a stop in Sri Lanka, and having strayed too close to the coast of Yemen after departing Djibouti, the delivery crew was attacked by pirates.

“There were bullet tracks on the mast!” Fortunately they were able to escape and return to Djibouti, before proceeding with a military escort.

Poupon took over the boat in Cannes in July last year, where shooting for the film started. Flo took pride of place in the Vieux Port and anchored overnight off Île Sainte Marguerite, where Arthaud’s ashes were scattered after her 2015 death in a helicopter accident while filming a reality TV programme in Argentina.

Return to Rhum

The final leg took the boat to Michel Desjoyeaux’s Mer Agitée yard at Port La Forêt, where Flo had a short refit ahead of an opportunity for Poupon to complete the 1,200-mile solo qualifier needed for the 2022 Route du Rhum.

I visited him on board just before it was announced the race would be postponed by three days to avoid a dangerous sea state in 7.5m waves with a brutal 12 second period. How concerned was he at the prospect of sailing an old boat in such conditions?

“I have sailed a lot before on this type of boat and I am sailing more than six months a year on my own boat [a 66ft high latitude expedition yacht] so I will know what to do – maybe it will be to wait in Finisterre. I don’t have sponsors and I am not out to win overall, so I can decide for myself. I am here just to pay homage to Florence and for the movie.”

Poupon was also quick to point out that when he did the first race back in 1978 medium range weather forecasting didn’t exist and all that could be expected was a rough idea of what to expect the day after the start.

Flo’s small cockpit has most of the original winches and no grinder, despite the boat’s enormous power. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Poupon finished the race in 7th place in the 17-strong Rhum Multi class, crossing the line in 18 days and 19 hours, more than three and a half days slower than Arthaud’s 1990 time. Her Route du Rhum victory was just months after Tracy Edwards ’ all-woman team on Maiden finished the Whitbread Round the World race 2nd in class, having won two legs, including the gruelling 7,260 mile Southern Ocean section. Back then there was real hope that professional sailing was changing from its entrenched position of male dominance. Yet three decades later only seven of the 138 Route du Rhum skippers were women.

It’s a concern Volvo Ocean Race winner and ex-race organiser Knut Frostad (now CEO of marine electronics and equipment conglomerate Navico Group) highlighted in his keynote speech at the most recent Yacht Racing Forum – not just for the sake of fairness, but also for the threat it represents to the sport in the longer term. Frostad warned: “Our industry will die in a generation if carry on as we are…”

Flo specifications

Design: VPLP Launch: 1989 LOA: 18.28m / 60ft 0in Beam: 15.10m / 49ft 6in Draught: 1.54m-2.88m / 5ft 1in-9ft 5in Displacement: 6,000kg / 13,230lb Upwind sail area: 230m2 / 2,475ft2

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The post Extraordinary boats: Flo – Florence Arthaud’s iconic 60ft trimaran appeared first on Yachting World .

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Florence Arthaud

Article publié le 10/03/2015

Par Jean-Christophe Guillaumin

n°170 avr. / mai

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Sinking Of Florence Arthaud Trimaran 'Groupe Pierre 1Er' During The Race Quebec - St Malo

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Extraordinary boats: Flo an iconic trimaran

Flo, formerly Pierre 1er, is the iconic 60ft trimaran which Florence Arthaud sailed to win the 1990 Route du Rhum, now returned to its golden glory and racing again

There are many iconic raceboats, but few capture the feeling of an era as much as the 60ft trimaran in which Florence Arthaud won the 1990 Route du Rhum . She beat Philippe Poupon, winner of the previous edition, by eight hours to become the first woman to win a major offshore race, inspiring a new generation of young women to follow in her footsteps.

Arthaud had already broken the west to east transatlantic record earlier that year, taking a whopping 20% off Bruno Peyron’s existing time. She also became the first sailor to be awarded the title ‘Champion des Champions français de L’Équipe’. It was a remarkable turnaround for someone who, only four years before her first Route du Rhum, had been gravely injured in a car accident that left her in coma and hospitalised for six months.

The pace of change in yacht design in the 1980s was as breathtakingly fast as it is today. Although they’re separated by only 12 years, this boat could hardly be more different to Mike Birch ’s 39ft plywood Walter Green trimaran Olympus Photo in which he won the inaugural Route du Rhum in 1978. Birch’s boat, for example, had little more than half the beam of Arthaud’s.

The ORMA 60 trimarans that quickly came to dominate the scene from the mid-1980s were huge vessels by comparison, built of the most hi-tech materials available, while their creators pressed hard against the boundaries of design and engineering knowledge. Pierre 1er , as the boat was originally named, was built to a VPLP design of fibreglass and Kevlar by Jeanneau’s former JTA (Jeanneau Techniques Avancées) division.

iconic image of Arthaud at the finish of the 1990 Route du Rhum in Martinique. Photo: Thierry Martinez/ Sea&Co

These boats had an unprecedented power to weight ratio that, despite their enormous inherent stability, led to a number of capsizes. This came to a head in the stormy 2002 Route du Rhum in which five boats capsized and only three of the 18-strong fleet finished. As a result sponsors rapidly quit the class, which collapsed within three seasons.

Nevertheless, Pierre 1er went on to have an illustrious 20-year history of racing and record breaking. American billionaire and adventurer Steve Fossett, who renamed the boat Lakota , became her second owner in 1993.

He picked up 5th place in the 1994 Route du Rhum, despite a lack of experience at the time, before taking line honours in the Transpac the following year. In a seven-year period he broke 12 world records with the boat, including Round Britain and Ireland and around the Isle of Wight.

Poupon reduced the size of the staysail for heavy weather work and added a furler. Huge asymmetrics are flown from the bowsprit. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Her next owner was Atlant Ocean Racing in Sweden, with the boat again breaking records under several different names. Andrew Pindar chartered her in 2001, when she was renamed Pindar Systems for Emma Richards to race in the Transat Jacques Vabre . She finished 9th, with Miki von Koskull, who had sailed with Richards on Tracy Edwards’ 1998 Royal Sun Alliance Jules Verne attempt, as co-skipper.

The boat picked up line honours in the 2003 Cape to Rio race, before heading east under the ownership of an experienced French multihull sailor from 2011-2021 who was based in Hong Kong and kept the boat in Subic Bay in the Philippines, using her primarily for fast cruising and ocean voyages.

Flo – Golden girl

Despite all the different owners and skippers, when I visited Flo in Saint Malo, just before the start of the 2022 Route du Rhum , it was striking just how original the boat remains. There’s a huge curved mainsheet traveller on the aft beam, while the giant winches in the small cockpit are physically much larger than today’s equivalents. And, despite the boat’s awesome power, there are no pedestal grinders.

Both amas have helm seats in a similar way to MOD70s, but without the foot pedal to dump the mainsheet in a hurry. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Equally, Flo still has both a central tiller in the cockpit and helm seats perched precariously at the aft end of each ama.

Below decks the boat is surprisingly small, with a vestigial galley, just one berth, plus a navstation tucked in the corner between the daggerboard case and the main bulkhead.

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The original striking gold colour scheme on the hulls and spars was reinstated earlier this year, when she was renamed Flo by Poupon, who skippered her in the 2022 race, 36 years after his 1986 victory.

Surprisingly, he told me very few changes were needed to prepare Flo for her latest transatlantic : “Almost nothing has changed, the electrical system and electronics are new, but the deck gear and layout are almost all original.”

Relatively minor alterations included lowering the head of the staysail and adding roller furling for it. “I prefer a smaller sail that’s easier to handle and has better shape for this purpose,” says Poupon. He also added a fourth reef to the mainsail, “which has a lot of surface area.”

Philippe Poupon, runner up to Florence Arthaud in the 1990 Route du Rhum, now skippers Flo. Photo: Jean-Louis Carli

Dramatic new role for Flo

What led to Poupon’s current involvement with Flo ? “Me and my wife [film maker Géraldine Danon] were very close to Florence Arthaud,” he told me. Indeed, in French media interviews he has even described her as “part of the family.” Poupon and Arthaud competed together as co-skippers on a later Fleury Michon in the 2000 Transat, and Arthaud also took part in a Figaro ll and Transat Jacques Vabre campaign with Poupon’s brother Luc in the mid-2000s.

“Géraldine started working on a script for a film about Florence two years ago,” continued Poupon. “We started to talk about what boat to use for the film and of course it had to be this one.”

The trimaran turned out to be easy to find, as Vendée Globe veteran-turned yacht broker Bernard Gallay was listing the boat for sale at the time. However, Poupon and Danon lacked both the €250,000 purchase price and the time to sail her back to France. Poupon says those problems were “… solved in a bar,” and the deal was completed in December 2021.

Controls for the wing mast. Daggerboard needs to be fully lowered to clear the boom in tacks and gybes. Photo: Rupert Holmes

The new owner, Philippe Brillault, took a crew that included Bernard Stamm as skipper out to deliver the boat back to France, via the Red Sea. The four-month trip was not without incident. New batteries were needed in Thailand, engine problems forced a stop in Sri Lanka, and having strayed too close to the coast of Yemen after departing Djibouti, the delivery crew was attacked by pirates.

“There were bullet tracks on the mast!” Fortunately they were able to escape and return to Djibouti, before proceeding with a military escort.

Poupon took over the boat in Cannes in July last year, where shooting for the film started. Flo took pride of place in the Vieux Port and anchored overnight off Île Sainte Marguerite, where Arthaud’s ashes were scattered after her 2015 death in a helicopter accident while filming a reality TV programme in Argentina.

Return to Rhum

The final leg took the boat to Michel Desjoyeaux’s Mer Agitée yard at Port La Forêt, where Flo had a short refit ahead of an opportunity for Poupon to complete the 1,200-mile solo qualifier needed for the 2022 Route du Rhum.

I visited him on board just before it was announced the race would be postponed by three days to avoid a dangerous sea state in 7.5m waves with a brutal 12 second period. How concerned was he at the prospect of sailing an old boat in such conditions?

“I have sailed a lot before on this type of boat and I am sailing more than six months a year on my own boat [a 66ft high latitude expedition yacht] so I will know what to do – maybe it will be to wait in Finisterre. I don’t have sponsors and I am not out to win overall, so I can decide for myself. I am here just to pay homage to Florence and for the movie.”

Poupon was also quick to point out that when he did the first race back in 1978 medium range weather forecasting didn’t exist and all that could be expected was a rough idea of what to expect the day after the start.

Flo’s small cockpit has most of the original winches and no grinder, despite the boat’s enormous power. Photo: Jean-Marie Liot

Poupon finished the race in 7th place in the 17-strong Rhum Multi class, crossing the line in 18 days and 19 hours, more than three and a half days slower than Arthaud’s 1990 time. Her Route du Rhum victory was just months after Tracy Edwards ’ all-woman team on Maiden finished the Whitbread Round the World race 2nd in class, having won two legs, including the gruelling 7,260 mile Southern Ocean section. Back then there was real hope that professional sailing was changing from its entrenched position of male dominance. Yet three decades later only seven of the 138 Route du Rhum skippers were women.

It’s a concern Volvo Ocean Race winner and ex-race organiser Knut Frostad (now CEO of marine electronics and equipment conglomerate Navico Group) highlighted in his keynote speech at the most recent Yacht Racing Forum – not just for the sake of fairness, but also for the threat it represents to the sport in the longer term. Frostad warned: “Our industry will die in a generation if carry on as we are…”

Flo specifications

Design: VPLP Launch: 1989 LOA: 18.28m / 60ft 0in Beam: 15.10m / 49ft 6in Draught: 1.54m-2.88m / 5ft 1in-9ft 5in Displacement: 6,000kg / 13,230lb Upwind sail area: 230m2 / 2,475ft2

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