Vitalia 2

TECHNICAL CHALLENGES

It took 30,000 hours and a great number of people to achieve this transformation. For Jack Michal, Frank Martin and Yann Penfornis it was an emotional project. Having participated in the original design alongside Gilles Ollier they would now be a part of its new beginning. Also they would be able to utilise the original plans and calculations to prepare the amendments for VITALIA II.

THE TECHNICAL CHALLENGES OF MULTIPLAST - VANNES.

“This is the first time that we have conducted such work.” Yann Penfornis, director of Multiplast, stated. “But we are not venturing into the unknown because this catamaran was born here. The real technical challenge is to maintain efficient performance with a heavier vessel. VITALIA II will be the fastest cruising sailboat in the world.”
Currently, no less than 7 people have been mobilized in engineering department on this ambitious project. It represents 30 000 hours for the shipyard and its subcontractors ("Domicile Fixe" for interior design and "Golfe Agencement" for the furniture production). which is in addition to 90,000 hours had have been required for its initial construction.
The real technical challenge of this project focused mainly on the calculation HDS The original water displacement of Orange 2 was calculated at 33 tonnes where as with VITALIA II it is 51 tonnes. It was important, therefore, not to exceed the original righting movement in order to ensure the safety of the ship and its crew.
To do this it is essential to communicate the skipper rigging efforts with strain gauges located on the axes of the lower rigging and the forestay. A hydraulic cylinder system allows to shock automatically, once the maximum effort reached, listening to mainsail. No question that the boat takes off on a single hull.
It was also discussed to enhance the embedding of link arms in the floats, given the increase in inertia Vessel.

This catamaran will sails under the British flag despite the desire and repeated requests to François Bich to sail under the French flag. This was not possible because of the size of the boat, which requires to apply the regulation of Shipping, which is incompatible with the VITALIA II program. The Multiplast then proposed the solution to sail under foreign flags, the English rules being more flexible, the boat is attached to the port of London.

Pictures of Multiplast Shipyard Carboman Group - Vannes.

Multiplast was created in 1981 by Gilles Ollier. From 2009 to date it is in the capable hands of Dominique Dubois.
In 2013 the company went into partnership with Decision SA Switzerland (Alinghi, Solar Impulse) and founded the Carboman Group.
This amalgamation together with the pooling of skills has made them the European leaders in their field.
The composite high technology specialist Multiplast is vast. It is at the forefront of high technology and innovation. Driven by big names of naval architecture it manufactures the finest machines.
Having constructed most of the large racing multihulls its name is legendary in ocean races around the world, (Jet services, Commodore explore, adventure Team, Geronimo, Orange 2, Groupama 3 and Groupama IV to mention a few).
Great sailors Jean Le Cam and Marc Guillemot had apprenticeships with Multiplast.