"The boats have entered another dimension", according to Thomas Rettant

This moment when ... Thomas Rettant decided to do the “Vendée Globe” 2020 -

• Every Friday,

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   invites a personality to comment on a social phenomenon in his meeting “ 

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  with…”.

• Three days before the start of the Vendée Globe, skipper Thomas Roût talks

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  about the technological progress made around boats in recent decades.

• The next step for boats is stable flight thanks to the foils.

Thomas Rouillard returns to the Vendée Globe with 

, and this time, he fully intends to complete his round the world solo.

Victim of a major breakage after having struck an unidentified floating object (ofni) in the southern seas, the Northerner returns with a brand new and over-equipped boat.

In addition to the 2.0 foils, these appendages placed under the hull capable of making boats take off, he has put the package on the safety of his machine to minimize the risk of a new accident on the high seas. is not about to stop in Imoca.

Far from it… Progress interview with Thomas Rettant.

Four years ago, the arrival of foils changed the situation.

Over the past four years, what have you identified as new technical progress?

We're talking about foils from four years ago but for me the real technical transition around these foils is happening now.

Four years ago, it was something we discovered, which was added to hulls that were designed without it.

We saw that it worked.

They were foiling boats.

Now it's real foilers.

That is to say that the foils we have on our boats have nothing to do with those we had four years ago.

The speed and performance course is much more important between the boats of this generation and the generation of four years ago than between the generation of drift boats and the generation of the first foil boats.

We had to rethink the structure of the boats, strengthen it, add a lot of sensors on board the boat for the safety of the rigging, the optical fiber in the foils and to have a much more careful eye on the structure of the boat because a monohull that carries lead and goes at 30 knots, that is not trivial.

Four years ago you could break one and get out of it anyway.

What about this year?

It is always possible.

We still have large, powerful boats so we will always be able to sail without these foils, but there will be a lot more gaps in terms of performance compared to other boats.

In the last Vendée Globe, we saw Alex Thomson break a foil at the start of the race and finish second.

It won't be possible this time.

What is the difference with these foils?

The efficiency of the use of foils starts earlier.

Before, we had to reach speeds of 14-15 knots, so we had to have very powerful hulls to get these speeds.

There we have foils which from 10-12 knots of wind will push harder because they are bigger.

We have also made a lot of progress on the shapes of these appendages and now they manage to lift the boat from a certain speed and completely free themselves from the hull drag.

We are not in completely stable flight, the boats still touch the water sometimes.

But we have real phases of flight in certain conditions, we can make differences of several knots, 5-6 knots, compared to a boat which is not taking off.

In terms of comfort, aren't the sailing conditions a bit Disneyland?

(Laughs) Yeah we're going much faster, on the other hand all the comfort on board had to be adapted to that because we don't live the same way in a boat going at 30 knots as in a boat going at 20 knots. The impacts are more important and the movements when the boat is in flight, we understand them less well because they are movements that we have not yet fully integrated.

Obviously, a boat that goes faster hits the sea faster, so it's harder.

Life on board is much more complicated: warming up a coffee, putting on a pair of boots, sleeping, all that requires practice.

There are no secrets, it's also the number of miles on board the boats that get you used to it.

I remember the first outings in 2018-19, we were doing runs, we had just launched our boat.

We completely discovered the trick.

It was one nautical mile runs so it lasts a minute or two.

At the end of each run we gasped, we caught our breath, stopped the boat and said to ourselves "what have we created as a monster".

Finally a year later I got used to these speeds and I already have the same apprehension.

You were talking about it just before, is data starting to have its importance in sailing too?

Yes, obviously, there are a lot of sensors and therefore data circulating in the boat.

We already had a little, with sensors at the top of the mast and in the water to get the boat's speeds and the force of the wind, but this is classic information that has been present for a long time.

There, we added a lot, a lot of data.

All this must be able to be processed, and this is where all the research and development department of Advens (partner of the boat) intervened to recreate for me the synthesis of all this information so as to capture this information and well use it to react.

It also appears that you have a watch on your wrist that allows you to steer.

It is true ?

It's just a watch that I have on me at all times, moreover it's more a case that I have on me more than a watch that allows me to have control over the onboard autopilot to control the boat's heading, the steering mode to use, etc.

Knowing that the pilot is our best friend at sea.

You might also think that you can do without, but the ultimate disaster would be if the autopilot let you go ...

Sailing alone today without a pilot is not an option on these machines.

At the time it was other autopilots.

They were speed regulators, there was a lot less electronics and in addition they were boats that went four times slower.

Today with these machines we can't afford to have a pilot problem, that's why we have a lot of back-up on this technical line.

We have back-up solutions in case of problems with sensors related to the pilot.

Do you have a spare?

I have two, even (laughs).

Why is it so essential?

Is everything going too fast on these boats?

You have to sleep, you have to eat, navigate, so even with a pilot who helms 99% of the time you won't get bored, there isn't a lot of downtime.

Another important aspect to complete a round the world trip is safety around the boat.

What means and new means do you have?

There are things that are developing around that because it's a real problem on these boats.

When you go at 30 knots you can't see what's going on ahead.

We have caps, I have a vision forwards but the boat goes so fast… And then even when we sleep or we get used to eating, the boat continues so it's complicated to keep a constant watch.

There is a tool that has been around for a long time but which is still the most effective today, it is the AIS, a positioning system with which the boat is equipped and other offshore boats are equipped with it too.

On board we also have a radar.

It doesn't work all the time, but in somewhat critical corners.

And then we see other systems appearing quite recently.

For example, a thermal camera at the head of the mast and which allows us to see an object, a metal buoy, a fishing boat without AIS.

Afterwards, we have another system, it is a "pinger" that we have in the bulb, therefore 4m50 underwater, developed by Australian fishermen who allow a signal to be sent and which, it is very hard to check if it works, could allow a cetacean to react near the boat.

But that will not avoid all the shocks and all the problems associated with an impact in the water.

These systems don't see everything either.

Now that we have said all that and given that obviously a milestone has been reached in terms of technological advances in the Vendée Globe, can we hope for other advances where we reach a ceiling of glass?

This is what we said 12 years ago, eight years ago, four years ago.

And in fact with each edition the boats progress.

I'm quite a fan of the Imoca class which governs the Vendée Globe.

I already have lots of ideas to make a boat that could go even faster.

So we entered another dimension and it won't stop there.

We must still be able to greatly increase the performance of the boat by seeking stable flight.

The evolution of boats is not over and that's what fascinates me.

We have very technical boats, there are a lot of things that we have discovered and still a lot of things that we could improve in order to have faster machines.

But yes, we have come to have crazy boats.

What are you saying is that the future of the Vendée Globe is gliding?

In fact, today we have small phases of flight that never last.

We can have interesting phases of flight and we have seen lots of images of boats which are fantastic with a sustained wind, a flat sea where the boat remains above the water.

That, offshore is much more complicated to achieve because when there is enough air to make the boat take off there is also the sea that goes with it.

Today, we do not know how to navigate with stable offshore flight and that will be the next step in the evolution in Imoca.

I think the next step will be to have a much more stable flight with our boats under certain conditions.

Do you see them, the famous foils?

- LinkedOut

Were there any innovations that were proposed to you that you thought were superfluous and that you had to put them aside?

The innovations come from us, so no, I don't have crazy innovation in mind.

On the contrary, there are a lot of things that we have left aside due to lack of time and because we want in a Vendée Globe to have a reliable boat.

We must be careful not to disperse.

Because ideas come together with a partner like Advens who is a data specialist, but at some point you have to refocus on the essentials, on what you have in your hands and how to make it work.

For the rest, we have plenty of ideas in mind if this continues after the Vendée Globe, what I wish for myself and what I wish for the team.

Are these ideas top secret or can you leak one?

Oh, we'll talk about it next year (laughs), or in two years or before the next Vendée Globe.

20 seconds of context

Partner of Thomas Rettant during the Transat Jacques-Vabre in October 2019,

 continues to support the northern skipper on the Vendée Globe 2020.

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