Eagerly awaited debut flights
Charles Caudrelier and the members of Gitana Team cast off from Lorient at dawn this Monday, bound for the open ocean in search of a light breeze, which would enable the 32-metre, 19-tonne giant to lift up out of the water and get the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild airborne. Indeed, the latest addition to the Gitana lineage received her first foil – the starboard one – last week. Since then, the whole team has been working tirelessly to finalise its installation and get out and test this revolutionary appendage with a total wingspan of over 10 metres as quickly as possible.
Just hours later, Gitana 18 enjoyed her first flight offshore of Belle-Île.
Charles Caudrelier gave us the low-down on these first moments in flight-mode at the helm of the new Maxi Edmond de Rothschild:
“Some three months after her launch, we’re in the discovery and fine-tuning phase of the boat’s life, yet my thoughts are already geared towards performance and competition. Within Gitana Team, we knew Gitana 17 inside out. Here, everything is new. We have witnessed a sea change in the sensations on board from Gitana 17 to Gitana 18. The new boat is very stiff and responsive, which is exactly what we were anticipating. Even though it’s still difficult to accurately gauge the amount of breeze because several factors are in play, we were posting 10 to 13 knots off Belle-Île on Monday. Just minutes later, once we’d got her trimmed properly, the Maxi took off and 20 minutes later the flight was stable!
Our foils are the finishing touch on Gitana 18 and they’re one of the major new features. We’ve really pushed the envelope with the design. These are highly technical parts, which are breaking new ground in terms of the scale and all the related systems. It is no secret that these parts have arrived later than planned but we’ve wasted no time at all since the boat was launched. Everything is so novel and different on board, not simply the appendages which have everyone talking. The time we’ve spent without foils has given us the chance to get to grips with everything one step at a time, without rushing things, be that the spreader rig, the electric steering system or the automatic pilot, which has been specially developed with WDS for this boat.
The Route du Rhum sets sail in 5 months. We know that time is not on our side and every second counts. It took us 2 years to get Gitana 17 to a place where we could win races. Today though, we can also rely on the team’s experience and expertise, along with all the work done to prepare the way forward, plus the virtual sailing we’ve clocked up on the boat’s digital twin via the simulator. The coming months are set to be busy but every day I remember how privileged we are to be where we’re at thanks to the owner of the boat, Ariane de Rothschild.”As such, the director of the five-arrow racing stable, Cyril Dardashti, is keen to make the most of this golden opportunity to once again pay tribute to the work of the team focused on this project:
“We got off to a great start this week! We were finally in a position to take our first flights with the boat, which is another big box ticked for the team, who have done a tremendous amount of work over the past few months. We were looking forward to experiencing this today. More than the flight itself, it is the process of getting to this point that has been so successful and that gives us a huge amount of confidence going forward.
Due to their highly complex design, the foils were a long time coming but time on the water, like we had on Monday, naturally give us a sense of satisfaction. The objective for Gitana 18 has been clear and ambitious from the study phases, namely the quest for perfect flight. Experienced as Gitana Team is after ten years of navigating offshore flight, this remains a bold challenge. On Monday, in the space of thirty minutes, we managed to get into the right mode and nail the trimming to get her flying smoothly. That exercise took a couple of years to pull off with Gitana 17… This boat led the way for a decade and Gitana 18 is now assuming the mantle in style.
Every day, Charles and all the team are fully committed and focused on St Malo and Gitana 18’s first major race: the Route du Rhum. There is still a long way to go until 1 November and we must go through the various processes with humility, but one thing for sure is that Charles has no intention of just making up the numbers on the start line.”Over the next fortnight, the port foil will be attached to Gitana 18’s platform and then there will be a whole series of offshore training sessions for Charles Caudrelier.
