Vendee Globe, a 3D View of Armel Le Cléac'h's Boat

Would you like to get a clearer idea about the boat on which Armel Le Cléac’h will be one of the favourites in the next Vendée Globe? And at the same time take a look at the ocean racing sector in general? If so, have a look at the latest 3D model of Banque Populaire VIII.
Banque Populaire VIII, as if you were on board. That is what you can find with this instructive 3D visit that Eurolarge has just launched on their website. Thanks to photos of Banque Populaire VIII supplied by Armel Le Cléac’h’s team, you can walk around three major areas of the boat: out on the deck, in the cockpit, inside the living quarters and in the sail locker, right up in the bow section.

It is an opportunity to see how the 60-foot IMOCAs look very bare (due to the obsession of saving weight) and… you can see for yourself how complicated they are. That is particularly the case with the cockpit where all the lines are fed back to be within reach of the solo sailor. We can see the protective cover stretching back from the coach roof on Armel’s boat, under which there are four big winches controlled by a single “coffee grinder”, just in front of the twin tillers and the mainsail track, which stretches out over the wide beam of the boat.

It is true that the boat is moored up in the harbour in this 3D model. But is not that hard to imagine how you could soon be overwhelmed by all these different controls and settings. Consequently, we can quickly understand that this type of boat is reserved for an ocean racing elite. You won’t find any hint of comfort on board. There is none, with the tiny exception of the heating ring on a gimbal. Everything here is dedicated to performance and the man aboard has to make do the space left to him by the structure of the boat and the position of the ballast tanks. When you visit this boat, you can also understand that the Vendée Globe is far from being a delightful cruise around the islands.

The other added value of this model is that it offers a real directory of the whole of the economic sector of Western France linked to ocean racing. It is thanks to the skills found here that the most efficient monohulls in the world can be built, fine-tuned and sailed. With around twenty themes, as you wander around the boat, you can thus discover, through their specialities, firms in Brittany and Western France, who offer their know-how in boat design, building, fittings, equipment and running top class ocean racing projects.

From electronics to upholstery, research units to boat yards, composites to accessories and from chandlery to computing etc, details about the leading experts are presented, which can be viewed in just one click. No fewer than 110 firms in this precise sector can be seen, which confirms another important development: the Vendée Globe is also an expression of a rich, innovative economic sector providing many skilled jobs. If by chance, you visit this model and see that your firm is not yet present, they has been thought of. When you visit the boat, there is a tab “add my firm,” which may be very useful.

To carry out the visit: http://www.eurolarge.fr/maquette-eurolarge/

Posted by Raymond Knobbe

We blog all Sailing News

Newsflash2016
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This release was published on openPR.