Les Sables-d'Olonne (France) (AFP)

Crazy looks on the water, cockpits that have become pilot cabins: the "foilers", these latest generation "flying boats", take the Vendée Globe into another era.

Never has an edition presented so many technological innovations around the star monohull boat of the Vendée Globe, the Imoca (60 feet / 18.28 m).

These are eight boats of the latest generation, that is to say designed to "fly", thanks to foils, side appendages raising the hull above the water, which allow to reach speed peaks of 38 knots, or 70 km / h.

But it is a new challenge for this generation of boats: no "foiler" has yet been around the world ...

“When we're on board, we really have the impression of flying, in fact we only see the sky. You say to yourself: I'm still 3 meters above the water! These boats are completely crazy. the boat which lifts and maintains itself a bit like weightless. And there is this cushioning on the foil when there is no wave. And you have the sound of water on the keel, which goes in, coming out, "Armel Tripon (L'Occitane en Provence) told AFP.

His sailboat was designed by architect Samuel Manuard, who wanted a boat "relatively easy to use".

"These boats are quite tough physically, they are capable of breathtaking performances, but the flip side is that the boat is quite demanding. You have to make it as human as possible", he concedes.

- 70 days -

Previously, there was one, even two architects who thought the Imoca.

For the 9th edition of the most legendary single-handed, non-stop round the world races, four architects joined in the dance.

Besides Manuard, Guillaume Verdier has worked for two boats (Apivia, LinkedOut), two also for the Argentinian Juan Kouyoumdjian (Corum L'Epargne, Arkéa Paprec) and three for the cabinet of Vincent Lauriot-Prévost (Charal, Hugo Boss, DMG Mori).

"Four years ago, it was the beginnings of the + foil +, they were added after conception. They weighed a hundred kilos, today it is three times more for a wingspan two and a half times larger. are therefore capable of making the boat fly, whereas before it was a small additional turbo effect ", explains Vincent Lauriot-Prévost, designer of 12 of the 33 boats which will start on Sunday in Les Sables d'Olonne.

According to the architect, the victory will surely be played under the 70 days, i.e. 5% more performance compared to the last edition, won in 74 days.

And this will only be possible in "flying" mode.

Even if "flying" is a misnomer.

"They are + semi-flying +. They say that the Imoca are flying because they have large foils and have a very aerial behavior, but it is a little uncontrolled flight, they still keep contact with the water. ", explains Samuel Manuard as the back of the boat is still touching the water.

- Autopilots -

"To have a stable flight, you need wings but also a load-bearing plane at the rear. It will happen, these are class decisions (Imoca) to be taken. And there, we will have really crossed a level of performance, it will be brutal ", warns the architect.

In addition to the flights of the boats, the new boats impress with their cockpits, some of which are closed like spaceships.

Charlie Dalin (Apivia) and Alex Thomson (Hugo Boss) have this setup.

“Thomson went even further than us, it is a concept that I had proposed, the assumption being that we pass the Vendée inside the boat for the most part, so why not bring the maneuvers completely to the We started with a compromise, less extreme than Thomson, "says Dalin.

And inside, there are also technological developments that we do not see.

"There is enormous progress which has been made with regard to the autopilots. They are used much more on these boats with significant speed variations with brutal attitudes. The autopilot is the ideal teammate from the when it is reliable with a sufficiently short response time. This is an important key ", notes Lauriot-Prévost.

And it looks like Welshman Alex Thomson has made it his secret boot.

© 2020 AFP