USHIP ArMen Race – warm-up before The Bridge

The USHIP ArMen Race is the first event in this year’s racing calendar for the MACIF trimaran. Literally one month to the day before the start of The Bridge, the Ultims (Actual, MACIF, Sodebo) will meet up in La Trinité-sur-Mer. It will be an opportunity for François Gabart and his crew of Pascal Bidégorry, Guillaume Combescure, Antoine Gautier, Benoît Marie and Yann Riou, to fine tune the final adjustments and confirm the optimisation carried out this winter. For the MACIF trimaran team, it’s a chance to race against the other Ultim multihulls taking part: Actual and Sodebo. The 240 mile race promises to be a great show. They will set off towards the Ar Men lighthouse – at the tip of south Finistère – and then head in the direction of Ile d’Yeu, before returning to La Trinité-sur-Mer for the finish. The start of the race is on Thursday at 4 pm.

François Gabart, together with the USHIP ArMen Race crew, sailed the MACIF trimaran for the first time last weekend.

“We took advantage of the ideal weather conditions last weekend to sail together as a crew on the MACIF trimaran. Working as a team, manoeuvring was immediately much easier and faster! This helped us reveal the boat’s full potential. We sailed round the Bay of Biscay along the coasts and we even took our bearings a little for the start line of The Bridge in St. Nazaire – a route that would be impossible single-handed. We did a sequence of manoeuvres to ensure that everyone was familiar with the boat and I am delighted, since we complement each other well. In true teamwork, we were well coordinated, and this is the basis of good performance.

The ArMen Race is a follow on from this training and it will help us fine tune our manoeuvres. It is a chance to assess the boat’s potential in relation to the other contenders. The MACIF trimaran has not raced with other Ultims since The Transat Bakerly. With just one month to The Bridge, it will be very interesting to see what our speed and performance is like.”

MACIF trimaran 2017 provisional programme

25 – 28 May: Armen Race

25 June: Start of The Bridge (race with crew between St Nazaire and New York)

Mid-October: Start of the standby period for the single-handed round the world record attempt

MACIF trimaran identity sheet

Official name: MACIF
Architects: VLP
Construction: CDK Technologies (project management), Multiplast (Central hull, mainsheet traveller)
Launch date: 18 August 2015
LOA: 30.00 m
Beam: 21.00 m
Max draught: 4.50 m
Number of daggerboards: 3
Air draught: 35 m
Upwind sail area: 430 m²
Downwind sail area: 650 m²