Maxi Edmond de Rothschild

Launched on 14 February, the new Maxi Edmond de Rothschild reached a decisive milestone in its development phase this week. Fitted with its first foil – a Y-shaped pendulum appendage of unprecedented dimensions inspired by America’s Cup monohulls – the 32-metre giant completed its first runs in full flight.

The performance is all the more remarkable given that on Monday conditions were particularly light, with winds of between 10 and 13 knots off the coast of Belle-Île. With five months to go until Gitana 18’s first major sporting event, the Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe, preparations are intensifying for the defending race champion Charles Caudrelier.

Highly anticipated first flights 

On Monday in Lorient, Charles Caudrelier and the members of the Gitana Team cast off at dawn, heading out to sea in search of the breeze that would allow the 32-metre, 19-tonne giant to take to the air and make its first flights as the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild.

The latest addition to the Gitana fleet had received its first hydrofoil – the starboard one – last week. Since then the whole team had been hard at work finalising its installation and testing this revolutionary appendage, with a total wingspan of over 10 metres, as quickly as possible.

A few hours later, it was off the coast of Belle-Île that Gitana 18 took to the air.

Charles Caudrelier reflected on those first moments at the helm of the new Maxi Edmond de Rothschild: “In the life of a boat, three months after its launch, we’re really in the phase of discovery and fine-tuning, but in my mind I’m already focused on performance and competition. 

We knew Gitana 17 inside out. Here, everything is new. From Gitana 17 to Gitana 18, the feel is completely different. The boat is very stiff and responsive, which is exactly what we expected. On Monday, although it’s always difficult to measure the wind precisely as several factors come into play, readings off Belle-Île showed between 10 and 13 knots… after a few minutes finding the right settings, the Maxi took off and 20 minutes later our flight was stable!

Our foils are truly the finishing touch to Gitana 18, one of the major innovations. We’ve pushed the design to the limit. These are highly technical components, unprecedented at this scale and with all the systems that it entails. These parts are arriving later than expected – we won’t hide that – but we haven’t wasted any time since the launch. 

Everything on board is so new and different – beyond the appendages that everyone’s talking about – that this period without foils has allowed us to take things step by step, without rushing things, whether it’s getting to grips with the spreader mast or the electric steering system, or even the autopilot specially developed with WDS for this boat.

The Route du Rhum starts in five months. The deadlines are tight; we know that, and every moment counts. To be in a position to win races, Gitana 17 required two years of fine-tuning. But today we can also draw on the team’s experience and expertise, and all the planning and virtual sailing carried out using the digital twin on the simulator.

“The coming months look set to be busy, but every day I realise what a privilege it is, thanks to our owner, Ariane de Rothschild, to be where we are.”